This time of year, Stockholm's streets are filled with Christmas markets stocked with candy, hot chocolate, and many more items to give as Christmas presents. It's freezing cold this time of year (literally- it was 1 degree C when I landed- o degrees C is the same as 32 degrees F). Chad's flight didn't get in until 7 PM, but he didn't arrive in Stockholm until 9 PM because of the long bus ride to the city. The people of Stockholm were very pleasant and welcoming. It was nice to get away from the crazy drivers of Rome, as well- I could cross the street safely in Stockholm without fear of being run over. Some Swedish drivers even stopped to motion me to cross the street when they saw I was on the corner waiting to cross.
On Saturday morning, we were ready to explore the city together. For breakfast, we decided to stop at a muffin place that I had tried out the night before. I had a strawberry cheesecake muffin that had real cheesecake and strawberries inside. It was delicious with a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice! Now, we had more energy to see the city of Stockholm. We walked down to the Old Town, where the streets are narrow and the buildings are picturesque of northern Europe. There were souvenir shops to browse and we finally made it down to the water, where there were many boats and even a Christmas tree by the harbor. We walked to the Royal Palace, where the Swedish king and royal family lives. We explored a little more, just wandering through the streets, taking random pictures- it was a very laid back trip with no itinerary whatsoever. We went back to the Christmas markets and I bought a candy apple with sprinkles on top. We also bought some sugar roasted almonds, which were delicious. We both had a hot dog for lunch as well.
Then, we saw my friends from AUR, Stacy and Kayla. I have my most interesting class this semester, Consumer Behavior, with Stacy. I had planned on meeting up with them anyway, as her and Kayla were on my flight to Rome on Sunday morning at 6:50 AM. They told us about free ice skating just around the corner. We would meet up with them later. I was a little rusty on the ice skates, and fell a couple times, but it was totally worth the memory of ice skating for free in Sweden while it was snowing right before Christmas!!! It snowed and the snow even started sticking to the ground that night! Lucky for us, there were firepits with fires burning to warm our hands. Because I had worn a sweater, North Face jacket, pea coat, gloves, hat, and wool scarf, I was not all that cold, though the weather had officially hit 0 degrees Celsius!
We browsed through the Christmas markets one more time, then wandered through the streets admiring the twinkling Christmas lights and the snow falling down in huge flakes. We finally decided to eat dinner at a taco place, since we were both craving Mexican food. I had completely forgotten about trying Swedish meatballs until I boarded the plane back to Rome. Oh well, it gives me a reason to go back to Sweden and visit again! I need to go back and get a relaxing Swedish massage too! We went back to the hostel to freshen up and nap, since we had been on our feet almost the entire day. We went out to a bar and then met up with Kayla and Stacy to go to several more bars and clubs. We ended the night at McDonald's right before we had to board the bus to the airport at 3:40 AM...We made it to the airport to check-in and go through security in plenty of time to board our plane. We landed safely in Rome, and I spent most of Sunday catching up on sleep and starting to study for finals. This will be my last week in Rome- it seems like I just landed in Copenhagen to visit Maria. I'm going to make the most of this week while studying for my finals- eating lots of gelato, pizza, pasta, and going to all the major landmarks are at the top of my list! Until next time, ciao!
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