Stockholm Syndrome: Trapped in a City for 4 Days, Ended Up in Love!

Oh, baby look what you’ve done to me. Oh, baby look what you’ve done now. Oh, baby I’ll never leave if you keep holding me this way OoooOOooOoooo

Yes, that is me hypothetically singing One Direction’s hit banger: Stockholm Syndrome. While I embarrassingly only recently learned that Stockholm Syndrome is a very real thing, I thought it would serve as a good intro to this blog post. I will also not lie, the song may or may not have been what inspired my trip to Stockholm. So, Tourism Stockholm, if you’re reading this: you owe it to my main men in One Direction for this customer.

Three weeks ago Curtis and I made a trip out to Stockholm, Sweden. At the time, I said it was my favourite city yet (but that has changed, stay tuned for the REAL truth). Curtis planned the Berlin and Munich trip so it was my turn to trip plan. Often times I will say in interviews that I am an extremely organized person, so recruiter, if you’re reading this, here is my proof:

Yes, that is a complete three-day itinerary with separate sheets for budgeting and a packing list curated specifically towards the weather during our stay. Admire it. Soak it in, go ahead. I’ll give you a minute. Now let’s get to the recap:

Thursday, September 27^th:

Curt and I arrived at nearly the same time this time which was a nice difference from our Berlin trip. Being the organized person I am, I made us a dinner reservation for Meat Balls for The People at 5:00 PM for the day we arrived, giving us 2 hours to get ourselves there after landing. Yet still, we scrambled. I knew it was accessible by public transit but Curtis and I panicked and ended up taking the Arlanda Express to the city because it was easier and faster. The Arlanda Express is a environmentally friendly high-speed train – it hit almost 200 km/hr while we were in it! It was pretty cool since M. Benoit, my Environmental Planning teacher in high school, had hyped those up pretty hard back in the day. However, the Arlanda Express is pricey. I highly recommend taking transit if you have time and don’t particularly enjoy burning your wallet.

We scrambled, but arrived at our reservation with five minutes to spare. We both got their Classic Swedish meal which came with 6 meatballs, a hearty serving of potatoes, as well as lingden berries and pickled cucumber. The food was so delicious. I wish I was a more descriptive writer when it came to food because “so delicious” doesn’t seem to do it justice. The potatoes were whipped and buttery and melted in your mouth. It was especially yummy when you ate your meatballs with some of the berries and cucumber together. I copied the Swedish guy beside me doing it, and the flavours blended together so well. It was over all a very satisfying meal and if you’re in Stockholm a perfect place to get a taste of Swedish food. It also was moderately priced which is surprising for Sweden at approximately $25 per meal.

We then stopped by Lidl to get some groceries for the next couple days. Being the full, grown-up adults we are, we picked up Cocoa Shells Cereal for breakfast. No regrets. We also picked up some food for sandwiches the following day. This time we splurged and even bought mayonnaise for our sandwiches. I am living large my friends. With that we headed to our Air BnB. Transit in Stockholm is so well connected, we didn’t even get lost. Just as the schedule above says, we studied. I know, surprising! It’s almost like we’re in Europe for school or something.

Friday, September 28^th

With Cocoa Flakes filling our tummies, we were ready to start our first day. First stop: The Vasa Museum. As per normal, here is the down low on the Vasa taken from a google search:

“The Vasa ship capsized and sank in Stockholm 1628. After 333 years on the sea bed the mighty warship was salvaged … [in one piece]. Today Vasa is the world’s only preserved 17th century ship and is made of 98% of the original wood.” – Source

The whole thing was mind blowing, given that it lasted over 3 centuries on the bottom floor and still is in perfect condition. The carvings and faces shown on the boat are still in pristine shape. The museum is full of history from that period of time in Sweden. We took a guided tour which explained that many knew the Vasa would sink due to its extremely narrow but tall build, yet many stayed quiet in fear of disrespecting the king. The Vasa did not sail more than 10 minutes before it sank. While many wanted to blame the designer of the boat, he had died before the ship ever sailed and his wife bared the blame. One of my favourite exhibits was the exhibits of those found dead in the boats. While some may find this morbid, I found it extremely interesting that science today can tell us so much about these beings. From just the skeletons there was information about their diets, their social class, and even images of what the people likely looked like. One skeleton was even found with finger nails and its brain still intact!

We then ate our hand packed sandwiches and crossed into town and picked up some candy from a grocery store, mainly because I am a child with a sweet tooth at heart. It was getting chilly but I had brought only my Rains rain coat and a blanket scarf because fashion is definitely more important that functionality. Until it started getting very windy. Curtis, being the best boyfriend ever, offered to wear my rain coat and blanket scarf in exchange for his Spyder Down Jacket for the rest of the trip. He is the best. He was also the most stylish guy on the block!

Next up: “Study in a Park”. The torrential down pour that started 5 minutes after we ate our lunch said elsewise. We decided we could do another activity on the island. The choices were:

• Groten Lund: An old-style amusement park
  • Pros: Rollercoasters
  • Cons: Not the best rain activity and a pricey activity to say the least
• The ABBA museum
  • Pros: ABBA.
  • Cons: $40/person. (wave goodbye to ABBA Museum friends)
• Skansen
  • Pros: It had a high review on trip advisor
  • Cons: Outdoor Museum (but had indoor stops!)

Skansen was cute, and a good way to spend some time walking around. We got to see what old Denmark looked like, got to see a beautiful view point, chilled with some reindeers, and had a freshly baked cinnamon roll. Over all, a power move.

We still had time so we thought we’d go to a cute café, but remembered that we are on a budget. Instead, we stopped off in the city center, grabbed two coffees from McDonald’s and window shopped. It was fun! Style is Scandinavia is so different from home. It is so posh, minimal, and effortlessly stylish. I want to buy everything. We saw a real Swedish Candy store and vowed to come back the next day.

Finally, we decided to head to Hellasgarden. I had read about this on my search for the perfect itinerary, while it wasn’t touristy the suggestion was to “Sauna like the Swedes”. I chose a time for “mixed hours” at their Sauna, meaning that women could enter the Men’s Sauna so that it didn’t have to be a completely alienating experience. I ended up being the only woman in the room though, so I’m not sure my solution was much better. Let me get something straight though, the Swedes don’t Sauna like we do at home. This is no Sungod experience.

Here is the down low on Hellasgarden:

Located just 15 minutes from Slussen in the Nacka nature reserve, Hellasgården attracts locals with its pristine lake, endless expanses of forest, inexpensive sauna and extensive walking, running, cycling and skiing tracks (source).

I had planned a hike but forgot that the sun sets earlier than intended, therefor we decided to do more a small walk and watch the sunset over the lake. The moment was beautiful and serene. Then, we decided to start the Sauna experience. What is different about a Swedish Sauna Mira? They don’t wear clothes. In fact, you’re straight up not allowed to wear a bathing suit. However, during mixed hours you are encouraged to cover yourself with a towel (thank god). How else is it different? About 100 meters from the sauna is a lake. A very cold lake. What do you do with that cold lake you ask? Well, like all completely rational human beings, you jump in naked. Then, you book it back into the Sauna. Wash, rinse, and repeat my friends. That is how the Swedes sauna.

It was a nice end to the day. I’m sure the four old men who got to see me in my full glory plunge into the lake would probably say the same. We picked up some groceries on the way home and made pesto and mozzarella naan pizza.

Saturday, September 29^th

Curt thought we needed more than just chocolate flakes for breakfast, so we started our day with chocolate flakes AND scrambled eggs and headed to Fotografiska. Fotografiska had some serious hype behind it. Here’s the down low:

Fotografiska is a vital centre for contemporary photography in the heart of Stockholm. The museum is a popular meeting point not only because of its exhibitions featuring the work of world renown photographers, but also for the museum’s fantastic view and great food.

It was very much “what is art”. If you’re getting what I’m putting down, then you understand that it consisted of Curtis and I looking at photos of moldy oranges for far too long then saying:

“I think it’s describing the destruction of planet earth. Orange doesn’t have anything that rhymes with it. It’s a metaphor for the uniqueness of human kind. The mold represents the damage we’re doing to earth. This photo just has so much meaning to process, can you give me a moment?”

That was not an actual conversation we had, but I can guarantee that that conversation has happened and probably took place between two hipsters. No hard feeling to people who really appreciate this type of art, but it is not my personal favourite and we finished quicker than intended in Fotografiska.

Next we headed into old town, or Gamla Stan, for those using the proper name. We walked the streets lined with “duty free” and “souvenir shops” in beautifully quant buildings and made our way to the main square for some hot chocolate. We ordered one white hot chocolate and one milk hot chocolate. Even though I ordered the white hot chocolate, I didn’t like it and Curtis gave me his order. Have I ever mentioned what a good boyfriend this man is? Then we people watched and took in the square. It was one of those crisp autumn days that’s sunny but also refreshingly cold. We took it all in: the tourists walking by, the cafes filled with people, the cute colourful buildings lined up beside each other. It was so lovely. Except taking a solid 30-45 minutes to get our bill. With an Archipalego trip to catch, we needed to get a move on and were starting to get pretty antsy.

Next up we made our way to our Archipalego Tour. This tour was absolutely breathtaking, but reminded me quite a bit of a boat tour that my mom’s friend Patty took us on when we were in Seschelt, British Columbia. It was also three hours in length, but I truly think it could’ve been cut to an hour and a half. Most people ended up inside, cold, and ready to leave at the end. That being said it was still informational and beautiful for the first hour and a half. Back in the day only the rich built summer homes on the Archipalego. Today you can see many of these houses standing still. These are for the wealthy of course.

We had planned to do a small hike to a view point and have picnic dinner there, however it started to rain and it was pretty windy and grey. Therefore, we decided it best to head back to the AirBnB. We only had half a pesto pizza from the night before so we decided to pick up something to accompany it. What better than $3 frozen lasagna to do the job?

In my Supply Chain Risk Management class, we talk about true costs. While your $5 headphones may be a steal, the true costs can come in the form of precious metals depleting, children in the Congo who work to burn all our electronics, the pollution going into the air from the big shipping containers it took to get the headphones into your hands, and so on. Okay Mira, where are you going with this? The true cost of that $3 Lasagna included two very upset tummies, cancelled clubbing plans, and inability to sleep for hours. Be frugal when traveling kids, but not too frugal.

At 8:30 PM we decided to go to the grocery store to pick up some ginger ale for our tummies. We ended up walking by a candy store that was half the price of other Swedish Candy stores, perhaps because it was in the middle of the suburbs, but half the price of other Swedish Candy Stores. Despite having severely upset stomachs, we bought a whole bag of candy and a kinder egg surprise for less than $5 CAD. We were disappointed by the toy in the Kinder Egg Surprise. Either toys have gotten worse, or we have started preparing kids for the disappointments of later life. We ate all the candy on the way home. We make poor decisions folks.

Sunday, September 30^th

While we had the day packed tight with Royal Palace Museums and changing of the guards, we decided to scrap those plans. Why? We were really sick of tourist-y stuff. Our favourite part of the trip so far had been Hellasgarden, and it’s no coincidence that it’s because that was a pretty cool, authentic place to be. While it’s nice to have your trips planned to the minute on an excel sheet, it’s not always practical. Instead, we opted to visit a hipster part of town that our Air BnB hostess recommended to us. She told us it was her favourite part of town, and that it would be mostly locals as there was really no reason to go there otherwise. We also found it was close to a view point overlooking the city AND we were in town for the last flea market of the season. That’s a double W. Maybe it’s the “lowkey hippie” in me, but I live for flea markets.

With that we packed up our gigantic backpacks and headed to the view point. It was beautiful and pretty quiet spot that overlooking the city completely. The stairs up were pretty minimal, but Swedish candy and Danish pastries are doing a toll on my body. Check out the photo’s below. Next stop: The flea market: Hornstulls Marknad.

The flea market was absolutely adorable. It was a sole street along the water with vendors selling clothes and then food trucks. The swedes are a stylish bunch, it’s a shame I used all my Swedish krona on meatballs and candy. Curt and I sat and people watched for a while, playing a made up game called “Tourist or Swede”. Not to our surprise, it was majority Swede! Or at least by our judgement. We usually only said tourist when people had large backpacks, like ours. Curt and I got this chicken meal from a food truck called “Crazy Chicken”. So yummy. Check out Happy Mira with her food below. It felt a lot like home. It felt like a day at Granville island. Some may argue that that’s a bad thing. Why go on exchange to feel like you’re at home? But I think the moments of familiarity are refreshing, homely, and warm.

We walked around the hipster area, by coffee shops and vintage stores and then made our way to the airport. This time, we made it by transit. Take that Arlanda Express!

Over all it was a great weekend spent with great company.