Hey Hey! That’s the Swedish way of saying ‘hi’ or 
‘hello’. It seems a bit weird for a stranger to greet us with a ‘hey’. Maybe that’s what makes the Swedes seem very friendly – they do. Everyone we’ve encountered seems very friendly. I realize they are all service industry people, but that’s who we always encounter.
The cruise came to an end today in Stockholm. This is certainly the coolest day we have had thus far in the vacation - about 21 lovely degrees.
We had to get off of the ship early
today so they can get ready for the next set of cruisers. This means we get to our Stockholm hotel before 10:00. The lobby was PACKED with people. Apparently this is a hotel our ship and 2 others are using for post cruise land packages and all 3 groups showed up at once. We aren’t doing any package through the cruise company (which I will add… seem to be exorbitantly priced), but are using the same hotel. After finally checking in, leaving our bags, as of course the room, wasn’t ready we hit the town.
Stockholm on first glance is very nice. It has calmness to it that I like. As the day goes on, more and more people fill the streets, but it doesn’t get any more frantic. We spend some time strolling many of the pedestrian streets in the old town. We decide to go wild and have a pizza for lunch. The restaurant we eat at fee
ls a bit more North American than other places we’ve eaten. Typically we have to flag a waiter for everything we need – to order, more wine, to pay…anything. This is just the European way and has always been a bit hard to get our heads around. Anyway…we don’t have to flag anyone down and we hear a ton of English – even when the bartender answered the phone he spoke English.
After lunch I got a piece of Swedish licorice. As you can see from the pic it is about 2 feet of black salty goodness – well I thought it was goodness when I was scarfing down
the entire 2 feet. Not long after inhaling the candy did I suffer from a woozy belly. The stall selling the stuff has about 6 different flavours – I asked for the most typically Swedish. They also had black unsalted, pink, green, orange and other colors covered in sugar. I can only imagine what all that would have done to my insides!
Next we visit a grocery store that is part of a department store in the basement. We stock up on water, snacks etc and notice the beer here has no more than 3.5% alcohol.
Our room is finally ready with its wonderful view of the water surrounding Stockholm. We are paying for this view, but only about 10.00 a night more – a bargain we think.
Dinner is NOT PIZZA! It is reindeer!!!! I can’t believe I’m eating reindeer, but I do. It is very good, tastes a whole lot like beef actually with a slightly different texture. Chris has Swedish meatballs of game, which are also very good. The meatballs come with The meal is very ‘meat-and-potatoes’ with gravy they call ‘cheese gravy’, but doesn’t have anything to do with cheese as far as I can see.
‘hello’. It seems a bit weird for a stranger to greet us with a ‘hey’. Maybe that’s what makes the Swedes seem very friendly – they do. Everyone we’ve encountered seems very friendly. I realize they are all service industry people, but that’s who we always encounter.The cruise came to an end today in Stockholm. This is certainly the coolest day we have had thus far in the vacation - about 21 lovely degrees.
We had to get off of the ship early
today so they can get ready for the next set of cruisers. This means we get to our Stockholm hotel before 10:00. The lobby was PACKED with people. Apparently this is a hotel our ship and 2 others are using for post cruise land packages and all 3 groups showed up at once. We aren’t doing any package through the cruise company (which I will add… seem to be exorbitantly priced), but are using the same hotel. After finally checking in, leaving our bags, as of course the room, wasn’t ready we hit the town.Stockholm on first glance is very nice. It has calmness to it that I like. As the day goes on, more and more people fill the streets, but it doesn’t get any more frantic. We spend some time strolling many of the pedestrian streets in the old town. We decide to go wild and have a pizza for lunch. The restaurant we eat at fee
ls a bit more North American than other places we’ve eaten. Typically we have to flag a waiter for everything we need – to order, more wine, to pay…anything. This is just the European way and has always been a bit hard to get our heads around. Anyway…we don’t have to flag anyone down and we hear a ton of English – even when the bartender answered the phone he spoke English.After lunch I got a piece of Swedish licorice. As you can see from the pic it is about 2 feet of black salty goodness – well I thought it was goodness when I was scarfing down
the entire 2 feet. Not long after inhaling the candy did I suffer from a woozy belly. The stall selling the stuff has about 6 different flavours – I asked for the most typically Swedish. They also had black unsalted, pink, green, orange and other colors covered in sugar. I can only imagine what all that would have done to my insides!Next we visit a grocery store that is part of a department store in the basement. We stock up on water, snacks etc and notice the beer here has no more than 3.5% alcohol.
Our room is finally ready with its wonderful view of the water surrounding Stockholm. We are paying for this view, but only about 10.00 a night more – a bargain we think.
Dinner is NOT PIZZA! It is reindeer!!!! I can’t believe I’m eating reindeer, but I do. It is very good, tastes a whole lot like beef actually with a slightly different texture. Chris has Swedish meatballs of game, which are also very good. The meatballs come with The meal is very ‘meat-and-potatoes’ with gravy they call ‘cheese gravy’, but doesn’t have anything to do with cheese as far as I can see.
Thanks again to all of you who are reading and posting!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment