The Great Freeze - Part 1+

So the way that I am thinking about this is that I will break our trip down into parts which will coincide with the cities that we visit. So that would make this post a continuation of part 1, as we are as far as you are concerned, is still in Stockholm.

Our first real day in Stockholm, we woke up a bit late and then Igor made a great breakfast for all of us. Simple but yummy, eggs, bread (toasted) and some veggies. Then we were off. Avinash was staying home to plan his next trip to I think it was Columbia and Igor and I set out to do as we do and walk the earth. We had only made it to the bus station when we noticed that the Stockholmians seemed to have even more Christmas spirit than Americans, as we watched several Santa Claus' board the metro. One is strange, two a coincidence, three makes you start to question, four...ok what's going on. Next stop on the train, 15+ little kids, adults, teens...ok seriously what the heck is happening? We get off at the central station and they are everywhere, and when I say everywhere I mean, every where!!! So now we are very suspicious. We get to the central park just outside of the central metro station and there are hundreds. We were right in the middle of the warm up routine for the Santa Run. Yes, it is a thing, apparently an international thing. We decided to watch the Santa extravaganza for a little while and then we were off.

Santa's in the metro?

That's a lot of Santa's

wow.

We headed back to the crown bridge where we were the night before and then kept going on to the island of museums where we were insight of a very closed amusement park. From there we could see the ferries and so we decided that they didn't seem that far so we should walk to where they were and check the prices, see if we could get a better deal than what we could find online. Plus, we would have to walk through old town to get there, so it was a pretty perfect route.

Stockholm is a city of a bunch of islands. In order to get to old town we needed to walk back over the crown bridge to the center city, then cross another bridge to get to old town. As we were walking over the crown bridge we saw that the Santa's were on the water as well, in boats and jet skies and canoes, it was craziness. This was all part of the Saint Lucia Festivals that prior to the switching of Calendars used to be a celebration that coincided with the winter solstice.

Santa's on the sea!

Anyhow, as we got to the other side of the bridge we noticed that there was quite a commotion going on near the doc. We stood and watched for a minute then we walked over the bridge to old town through a crowd of Santa's and into the tiny streets.


The wind was howling and the snow drifts that were hitting us in the face were a bit unpleasant, not to mention that I couldn't feel the space between my knees (where my boots stopped) and the upper part of my thighs (where my dress started). Let's just say that a dress in the wind not such a great fashion choice or idea if you don't want to get frostbite...oh well. Anyway we stopped into a coffee shop to warm up a bit; had a really good cup of coffee while looking through our pictures, enjoyed the coziness of the cafe. Once we finished our coffee and we a bit warmer, we were off roaming the streets again. We ran into a bunch of different Christmas markets in old town, tried the local bratwurst and gloggi (like spiced wine but different had almonds and raisins in it).

Cafe stop in Old

Kris look at those Toblerone bars!!!

We walked and walked and Igor directed us this way and that with his smart phone and google maps. We eventually made it to the ferry station where Igor started to chat with the guy at the window. We joked with the guy for awhile and then he told us about this card that would give us a discount on the over night ferry we were about to book to Helsinki for the next afternoon. So we signed up got a super great price for our tickets (40 euro less than what we would have otherwise paid!!) and then we were back off to walk through the city some more, happy, warmer, and a little richer than we would have been!

Sky bridge

View from Sky Bridge

We found when we first got off the plane that the travel adapter that I had given Igor to bring (his old one from 6+ years ago) didn't work, of course because I gave it to him it didn't work. I guess I should have checked it, but, oh well. Anyway, we walked back to the city center, stopping off at this cool bridge that we had seen earlier in the day, more like a sky bridge where you could see the whole city and then went down into the main shopping area in search of 3 things. 1. a travel adapter, 2. thicker tights for me, 3. a small straightening iron for my hair.

Believe it or not we found all three!! Now let's not linger on the fact that Igor forgot the travel adapter the two days later when we left the ferry or that the straightening iron was soo crap that I actually left it in the airbnb, on purpose, a few nights later. I love the tights though. I have worn them every day since. So really it was a win. :)

We got back to Avinash's place around 6 and then he made us a traditional Indian dinner. We even ate it in the Indian style (hands only). Igor loved it so much he decided that we should dedicate at least one night a week to eating with our hands lol. So Kris bring Elijah and Lucas over sometime to have some animal style dinners with aunty Katie and uncle Igor. We stayed up way too late talking with Avinash considering that we had to get up at 7 am the next morning so that Avinash could go to work, but it was fun all the same.

In the morning Igor made Avinash Igor's famous omelet and I had some eggs and left overs from the night before (because the stuff I had bought was super yummy). We had to run out of the house because we spent too much time chatting and enjoying our breakfast and Avinash ended up running late getting to work.

The rest of the day Igor and I spent travelling around to the different metro stations in Stockholm each of which has a different theme and artwork. On one of the metro trains we found Igor doppelgänger. Igor has a picture. I will ask him to share it. Then we finally walked off in the direction of the Ferry and boarded up, found our cabin (remember it was an overnight ferry), located the on board sauna that we would visit later in the evening, made it to the back deck and watch as the boat pushed off into the bay to weave its way through the Sweden archipelago towards Helsinki.

P.S. in Sweden the store set up free gift wrapping areas for you to wrap your Christmas gifts (free paper and ribbons and all!).

Last morning in Stockholm

Stockholm Old town

Our sister ship on our way out of the harbor

Bye Stockholm!!