Stockholm

This is the capitol of the beautiful country that I am living in for a year. I travelled via X2000 fast train very early Thursday morning with Emilie, Mel, Kara and Emma (pictured left to right below) on November 17th. The five of us stayed at Emilie's house in Barkarby, a suburb of Stockholm, where we all saw our first snow since arriving in Sweden! Our first excursion into the city included a visit to Skansen, Scandinavia's largest open air museum, where we saw Nordic animals such as reindeer and elk. The one in the picture with me is a female elk and I will remember it as the first elk I saw in Sweden :-) Heading out for our second day, I took the picture of my travel companions in Emilie's neighborhood on our way to the train station. After a fun filled day of walking around Gamla Stan and the islands of Stockholm we payed a visit to the Stockholm Ice Bar in the Nordic Sea Hotel. The experience was incredible! They gave us very thickly insulated coats as it was -7 C inside and served the beverages in glasses made entirely of ice. I had what was called an Absolute Swede and it was good but quite expensive...but well worth the experience! It's just not an opportunity you have every day. There is so much more to tell about my visit in Stockholm including a visit to the Vasa Museum, the Nobel Prize banquet hall, the excellent cafes and so much more, but I guess if you want to hear more about it you'll just have to ask :-)