Saturday, 20 August 2011

Why are holidays so short?, and a trip to the North.

I came back some weeks ago from Stockholm and Tallin. And my daily rutine keeps feeling boring and  simple.
The truth, is we (me and two friends), had a great time, and the most important, we laughed a lot. They didn´t want to appear in the blog, so there´ll mostly be pictures of me (sorry!).

Getting all ready

My God, I took a lot of lugagge, and thanks that Ryanair was so benigne with me...To sum up we had 3 small suitcases, a big rucksack and small backpacks/purses to move around Sweden and the Baltic sea...
And as it´s usual with Isa, she was kinda late. And I´m a big neurotic when I travel, so that was a problem.
Ryanair counters were crowded, and the queues were impposible. But finally checked the suitcase, bought lunch for the plane and took off.


Lugagge


My photo equipment


August in Barajas Airport



Stockholm finally!

Once there, we got to the Hostel (in Vasastan) and wondered around a little round the Center and Gamla Stan. And finished the night in an outdoor bar called Debaser, full of people, impressive for a Tuesday, really. Stockholm is a bit expensive (23 euros for 3 beers), but I think is fine for a week and our credit cards survived it.





Visiting Gamla Stan and its shops. What´s great about the city it is formed by different islands, so everywhere yo look, you get you get to see the lake, and some great views.





In the afternoon we took the ferry for Tallin. Of course, I forgot about my fear of travelling by sea. It was the first time I travelled by boat, so I was a little scared. And we got to see the sunrise in the Baltic Sea (al 4.00 o´clock in the morning), incredible.




 Tallin!
I must say people are really kind and helpfull, but I must also say , that people are that way only in the touristic part..., cos´ when you live the "tourists friendly" zone, people turn cold, bossy and they look at you as if you were from Mars. I don´t even know how we got to our hostel (15 minute-walking fron downtown).
But the city!, it´s like being in a fairytale!, and the shops!, I bought little funny dolls, brooches, postcards, sugared pecan nuts, etc.Everything beautiful! And there´s a medieval-mode restaurant where we ate the greatest  herb bread ever, with melted cheese, and dark honey-flavoured beer. And we found in a mall, a kind of buffet place where we got to eat some tasty fries with onion sauce, and chicken meatballs, and potato cakes...(I think you could gain weight just for seeing so much food!), just delicious!
I´m really afraid of narrow stairs, but when it comes to interfiere with some great view I don´t really care. I climbeb them! I´m talking of Saint Olaf Church, from its dome you can see the entire city.



















Tourists would appreciate some directions..., we almost missed the ferry cos´, someone told us to take off the tram much further than we needed to. But we got there, we were the last passengers to arrive.

Stockholm again!!!, Now in Sodermalm, we stayed at a great hostel, clean, free pasta (I cooked some tasty funghi pasta there) and free internet!!!
We were lucky with weather, because in Stockholm it usually rains a little almost everyday. But we got quite a flood some day, we decided to go to the Vasa museum, as hundreds of tourists decided too, and waited down the rain for almost and hour to get in. We were soaked and cold. But that ship!, wow!, I recommend this museum, just a great ship sunk for almost 400 years that they refloated and restored. Incredible.











Stockholm is beautiful, with great views everywhere you walk, "aesthetically correct" Swedishs that look like as they came out from The Sartorialist. The City Hall (Stadshuset) is such a stylish  building. And the only fact that Stockholm citizens get to marry there makes you wish to marry a Stokholmer. It´s the place where the Nobel price ceremony is held every year. And I liked that every part of the building has a different style.



We rented bikes one day and there are some great spots and trails for biking, we had fun!
Once we had the classic Swedish meatballs, and I have to say, the ones from Ikea had nothing to do with the real ones. And we also ate a lot of chocolate chips and cramberry cookies.
Last day we went to the Vintage stores in the Sofo, Lisa Larsson, Beyond Retro, Stockholm Stadsmission Coctail, etc. I bought brooches again, but there were some really fancy dreeses and jackets, I wouldn´t have bother to buy if Ryanair lugagge policy were a little friendlier.





Going out in Stockholm: What´s great about this city is that everyday is  suitable for going out, even if it´s a school night. It offers you totally different options If you´re looking for a place to go out, with some brutal house music, the Stureplan is your place. We went to Solidaritet, apparently one of the nightclubs that closes at 5.00, instead of 3.00.It´s not my thing, really,  that music. Swedish that looked like perfect models, and altogether like a mass of aesthetically correct people moving at same time. Because they didn´t seem to be dancing, they were more like showing up themselves or boosting up their egos. We had sweet cider (a very popular drink in Sweden), and dance, and discovered that Danza Kuduro sounded all around the world...

Well, someone told us before the trip: you can come back really mad at each other and never talk again , or come back being much better friends, luckily, and,  in spite of my neurosis, we can say we´re much better friends now!

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