TRAVEL ADVICE for Sweden

Going to Sweden? Here are some useful travel tips for you to know!

1] Avoid sit down restaurants if you're budget travelling. Really expensive. A source tells me that one meal here does not cost less than USD 20. Try going to stalls that often have sausages, Thai food and ice cream. You can buy some stuff with half (or more than half) the price. 

2] Do sample some of its local cuisine. Try dammsugare (literally translated as a vacuum cleaner), kanelbulle, traditional meatballs or any of those cheap supermarket pastries. 

Sidenote: Read one of my many "Pastries from Hemkop" blog posts here. Tack!

3] Join a fika! A fika is a very traditional Swedish act where you and your friends sit down, have a coffee, maybe some dammsugare on the side and chat. Very, very Swedish indeed, ja? 

4] Go to the Vasa Museum and Skansen. The Vasa Ship sank in 1628, on its maiden or first voyage. Go to Skansen if you want to take a look at the Old Fashioned Nordic Lifestyle. Click here for my blog post about the Vasa Museum or here for our Skansen trip. 

5] If you will be staying in Sweden for a long time, you will eat something out of a tube. I think there's some cheese in a tube, caviar and other crazy stuff. Trust me. Not that appetizing, but you will do that if you will be staying for more than a month. 

6] Keep it "lagom". Loosely translated, "lagom" means not too much, not too little, but just right or in moderation. Clothes? Keep it "lagom". Food in a buffet? Keep it "lagom". Budget? Keep it "lagom". 

7] Enjoy their natural offerings. By that, I mean nature. Just enjoy what should be enjoyed in Sweden's natural world. Just don't cut trees, pollute or any kind of bad stuff that destroy the environment. I think it's illegal (if not, it should be). 

So I leave you with this funny but meaningful Swedish proverb: 
"Smaken ar som baken - delad"

My interpretation of this quote is that people can't always agree with each other on one topic. It is okay to disagree, as long as it can be resolved in an orderly manner. 
If you want the English translation of the proverb, here it is: 

"Taste is like a butt -- divided".

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Our Trip To Skansen

We arrived at Stockholm about three weeks before school actually started. In those weeks, we decided to savor a taste of Stockholm and enjoy its sights. One of the stops of a green Hop on Hop off bus that we went to was Skansen.

Skansen is an open air museum where you take a peek at the old-fashioned Nordic lifestyle and environment.

Skansen Ticket Prices: Adults -- SEK 100-150   Children (2-15 yrs) SEK 60 {varies on the season}

So the first thing we did was to take a picture of these ladies with a herd of cattle. We then walked to this guy wearing suspenders dancing along to a vinyl record like he was in a club. We then went to this old-school post office. I liked it because of its stunning detail in refurbishment and design. There also was a postman inside wearing an old-school outfit.

We then had a thirty minute walk before we were surprised by an awesome view of Stockholm Center and the Tivoli Grona Lund. We then savored the view before savoring some food from Skanen's own cafeteria/restaurant.

I had a lunch of chicken and a mount of cubed potatoes (carbs!). We then explored Skansen more. We came across a village of stuff that the people from Scandinavia did in the old days. We explored inside a fishing hub, a guy making pottery (shown below), a bakery selling freshly baked breads, a goldsmith's workshop and a gross smelling tobacco factory.

After this we then explored Skansen more by exploring the animals of Sweden and other Nordic countries, a portrayal of a former town-hall, a former chapel and to finish things off, a rose garden.

Stay tuned because tomorrow, I shall post some travel tips!

READ MORE: Pizzeria La Grande in Stockholm

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