Off to the land of the Dancing Queen where the Winner Takes It All with Money, Money, Money

So, I am going to try to be better at keeping up with this blog. Sorry for leaving you all hanging! Let me try to catch you all up on what I have been up to for the past few weeks.

So, October 9-12 two girls and I took a trip to Stockholm, Sweden. We got into the airport pretty late in the evening only to find that we were still a little over an hour away from the city itself, so we had to take a bus from the airport to the city. After getting into the city we had to take a taxi to get to our hostel for the night, which didn’t take too long, but with these sudden, unexpected expenses, we weren’t too thrilled that night. Not to mention, by the time we reached our hostel, it was around 1:00 am. Yawn!

So, we make it to our hostel, which was actually a boat, which sounds cooler in theory than it was in actuality. We were in a small room with 12 other people in bunk beds. The room had steep stairs to get in and out of it and the bathroom and shower room were located at the top of these stairs as well. It was pretty crammed. Luckily we were only in this hostel for one night.

The next day, we woke up early, went to a coffee house for breakfast, and then made our plans for the day. We decided to go to a music museum that had student discounts on tickets and it proved to be a great decision. They had many musical instruments from countries around the world, many of which you could actually play! They had information on these instruments and also sound clips and recordings of people professionally playing these instruments. It was such a fun place to visit! They had some musical exhibitions also and one of them was for ABBA! In case you didn’t know, ABBA is from Sweden, but they don’t really have much stuff about them there. The ABBA museum is yet to open (2009).

After the museum it was late lunch time, so what better way is there to get to know Sweden than to go to T.G.I. Fridays?! Haha. I know, it was pretty ridiculous of us to eat at an American restaurant, but we were hungry, it was there, and it wasn’t too pricey considering the other restaurants. We all ordered our meals- chicken fingers, a quesadilla, and a sandwich- and the best thing we all got…..free refills! This is something that is non-existent in Eastern Europe, so you bet we took advantage of it. In the end, our meal came to a total of about 80 U.S. Dollars, just for lunch! Let me just tell you now, things in Sweden are not that cheap.

Well, after getting some energy back we walked around the city, talked to a strange man who claimed to be from the states (but he obviously wasn’t for reasons I won’t explain), and checked into our other hostel, which was so nice, it was more like a hotel! This time just the three of us had a room to ourselves. After checking in, we headed back out to take pictures of the city by night, bought some snacks at one of the million 7-Eleven’s in Stockholm (seriously, they are on every corner!), and then watched TV in our hostel. Don’t worry, we realized how ridiculous it was for us to just hangout in our hostel at night while we were in Stockholm, but let me just tell you how nice it was to watch TV in English again. It was like a breath of fresh air, even though we were watching South Park, still, it was refreshing.

The next day we got up early, walked to a special store to pick up something special for someone, and then had lunch at a fast food place called MAX. It was pretty similar to a Mc Donald’s but better and cheaper! It was much cheaper than our meal at Friday’s, so that was nice. After a recharge to our batteries, we headed off to see Old Town. There we just looked at the pretty buildings, went in a few shops, and passed some time people gazing before having to catch our bus to take us back to the airport.

Overall, the weather was on the cooler side, low to mid 50s with some cool winds. Like I said earlier, things were pretty pricey there, not only because it was Western Europe, but also because it was in the Scandinavian region. I had a nice time traveling with just a small group as opposed to our large group excursions. I also enjoyed seeing all of the waterways and beautiful people. People in Sweden dress so nicely and many of them speak English!! It was great to get out of Hungary for a few days, even if it was expensive. It was worth it and a great trip overall.