i awoke about two hours before we arrived in Stockholm this morning.
it was a cloudy, rainy day. the first truly rainy day i've had on this trip, actually. and it even cleared up at the end, but this is all really unimportant...
upon docking in Stockholm, i walked all the way into town to the information center. i took a number and felt all relaxed (as if the world was perfect) while watching a young boy play with the Brios the office kindly provides for those children who are stuck with their parents who are inevitably waiting. after about 45 minutes, i finally got to talk to an agent, in the hopes that she could help me arrange a room or a place to stay. but she referred me to the information station in the central railway station where they could help me...
so the waiting was all for naught. and i walked to central station. i killed two birds with one stone and fairly quickly at that. i found a room, which was surprising because stockholm is PACKED to the brim right now, in a hostel which i had investigated online but which was "full" online... anyway, i also bought a ticket to copenhagen tomorrow. i've given myself a very limited window for seeing Stockholm. which is a shame, but i'm tiring out and i'll be happy to progress quickly.
after buying the ticket and walking to my hostel and checking in and putting my stuff in my room, i went and grabbed some lunch at a cafe (named "mojo") and followed that by running an errand. you see, something happened on the cruise that wasn't to my liking: i lost one of the nose guards for my glasses. in fear of gouging my eyeball out, i started an hour long hunt for a glasses shop that could repair the damage. after that, i high-tailed it to the Vasa museum.
the Vasa museum is spectacular and i'm glad i followed the many recommendations i've had about it. the Vasa museum contains the only full-sized, genuine 17th century ship. commissioned by King Gustavus Adolphus in the mid-1600's, the ship sunk less than an hour out of its dock because it was a really absurd design. with two levels of gun decks but a thin (in width, not thickness of the material) hull, there was not enough room for proportional ballast - in other words, it was very top heavy and the nearness of the bottom gun deck to the water meant that, well, all it took was a light wind and the gun windows were pushed below water level. it took on water and sunk.
the salinity of the Baltic Sea is so low, it allows many things to be preserved that would otherwise be eaten by nefarious sea worms in water with a higher salt content.
anyway, the entire boat is now housed in a custom built museum, which is more or less a sheltered dry dock. it is absolutely one of the most spectacular museums i have ever been to. if you are ever in Stockholm, do not pass this museum up.
anyway, after that museum i did the walking thing and took a plethora of pictures. i walked, in particular, all around "Gamla stan" which in English means... wait for it... wait... "Old Town". it's a beautiful town and is dwarfed by the surrounding areas.
that was more or less it for my day. tomorrow, i'm torn, but i'll either do a walking tour of the city (which is sponsored by my excellent hostel) or i will take a guided tour of the City Hall, which is where they award the Nobel Prizes. probably latter...
on a different note, like most of these northerly countries, bikes are in abundance in Stockholm. and the talents of people who ride them (or walk them) seem to be quite diverse. whereas i saw one woman collapse while simultaneously walking her bike and trying to open her umbrella, i saw another happily munching on an apple while unhurriedly biking across a busy bridge. very funny, indeed.
Posted by iain at August 25, 2005 10:04 PM