Stockholm in 48 Hours

At the end of my trip to Sweden I spent a world-wind 48 hours in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. We stayed at Hostel Dalagatan which was far from the major attractions of the capital city but was in a safe neighborhood and conveniently located next to a pizza place, across the street from ICA ( a supermarket), and near a nice park. The hostel was incredibly clean and the people very friendly. Rachel, Julie and I had our own private room with our own bathroom and shower! This is not your typical hostel ladies and gents! The room was small but it worked perfectly for us since we were almost never in the room except to sleep! The only issue we found was that since our room had no windows, it was pitch black. This didn't help us get our early start adventuring as we hoped for. We slept until 10am on our first day there!

After some planning we decided to purchase the Stockholm Card. Basically the Stockholm Card is a necessity for tourists. You buy your card based on the amount of time you want  (24hr, 48hr, etc). For that time period you're able to use all public transportation free of charge, and you have free admission to the majority of the museums. It's a great deal. For our 48hr the card cost us 675SEK, which roughly equated to $90. Which although it was pretty steep for us, compared to what we would have spent on all the travel, museums, and other expenses, this was an incredible deal!

Our gateway to the city!

We ended up hitting 9 museums in during our 48 hours. We saw the Royal Palace, the Tre Kroner, Medieval Museum,The National Art Museum, Nobel Museum, History Museum, Vasa Museum, Dance Museum, and I went to the Abba Museum on my own. The Abba museum was the only museum not covered by the Stockholm Card, but I'm a huge Abba fan so I couldn't resit checking it out! I highly recommend all of theses museums, but if I had to pick the top 3 out of the ones I saw I would say check out the Vasa, History Museum, adn the Royal Palace/Tre Kroner. 

The Vasa Museum is entirely built around the salvaged wreck of the Vasa ship which sank off the cost of the Stockholm harbor in 1628. When I first entered the museum, I was speechless. This massive ship, almost perfectly reconstructed takes up the whole of the museum. I felt so tiny compared to the Vasa. In the Museum you can explore the different levels of the ship and peer into some of the portholes. It's a great museum and as one of the managers in our hostel said to us over breakfast," nothing like you've ever seen before."

I wished I had had more time at the History Museum. The one thing about Stockholm in the summer is that the museums open late (10am) and close early (5pm). We made it to the History Museum pretty late so we had to scurry through all the exhibits. I'm sure we missed some parts but overall the museum is very interactive and gives a in depth review of the history of Sweden. If   When I make it back to Stockholm, I will put the History Museum on my list to return to!

Stockholm Culture Festival

The Royal Palace and the Tre Kroner are housed on the same complex. The palace is the typical palace but believe me it's worth the visit, it's huge! The Tre Kroner is a museum underneath the current palace. The Tre Kroner was the first royal residence in Stockholm until it burned down in 1697. The remains of the old castle are still visible in the museum as well as artifacts from the castle that were salvaged.

Rachel with some finds from the World's Largest Book Stall

Besides the museums we hit Stockholm on the best possible weekend. We stumbled upon the Stockholm Culture Festival and the We Are Sthlm Festival. Walking around in Gamla Stan on Saturday Morning after the Royal Palace, Julie, Rachel and I noticed a lot of goings on across the river from the palace. Naturally we went to go check it out while trying to find a bite to eat. We came across the Royal Opera warming up and practicing and saw signs in both Swedish and English announcing the festival. There were stacks of programs so I grabbed one and examined what events were going on that day. There were free concerts in the evening and lots of extra events going on like the largest outdoor book sale!

Outdoor Opera and Dancing!

Saturday night, using our "free" subway pass, we headed back down toward Kungstradgarden and listened to a DJ for awhile before getting the feeling that this show was a little young for us. A lot of the people around us were 13-16 years old. Being the mature 20 year olds we are, we ventured off to Gustav Adolfs Torg and found the Swedish Royal Opera performing. There we found a crowd much more to our liking and the music was exquisite. We headed into Gamla Stan to grab a drink and returned to GAT to see what was next on the program. In the square, there was a roped off area that had food and drinks and people mingling and dancing. We popped in here and it seemed to be an impromptu club. Now let me tell you, you've never clubbed unless you have clubbed in Stockholm in 48 degree weather. What a incredible experience.
Stockholm is a big city with a small city vibe. Its culture, incredible. For the 48 hours wandering the streets of the city I'd never felt more at ease. I can't wait to return to this gorgeous city one day!

Home Sweet Stockholm