EAT.DRINK.STOCKHOLM

Be warned if you're feeling hungry now, because this is going to be a long post on all the places where we've been stuffing our faces in Stockholm. You're going to be seeing a lot of meatballs and beer (yum!)

One of the dinners we had at Fridhemsplan. Can't remember the name of the grill restaurant, but this was where we were first introduced to Swedish beer by the friendly waitress. The "S" on the beer glass is for local brand Spendrups. Top photo is the view from the restaurant.

Skansen again. This is the charming Flickorna Helin Voltaire found just outside the gates of the museum. This is also where we stretched our legs for some hot chocolate and coffee after the walking around all day. The building housing the cafe looks like a small castle doesn't it?

Pickwick's Restaurant and Pub near Kungsträdgården station. I wanted local food but didn't want meatballs, so the waitress recommended Swedish hotchpotch. It's full of yummy bits like bacon, potatoes, ham and egg.

The cutest cafe, Muffin Bakery at Fridhemsplan. HC had a blueberry cheesecake muffin, perfect if you're struggling between a cheesecake or a muffin.

 

1>> Östermalm area, where many rich Swedes live.

2>> Sandwiches and hot chocolate at Café Tidemans, beside my favourite Musik Museet.

OFF TO FARO

We set off early for Fårö from Visby on the third day. Getting to Fårö was quite a tricky business. First came an hour and half bus ride to the northernmost tip of Gotland. The photos above were taken while waiting for the bus.

From the northernmost tip, we had to walk to the only bicycle rental shop in the area to get bikes so that we can move around when we go across the water. There are no public buses in Fårö. And while I'm still on this topic, it should be interesting to mention that the little island also has no police, no banks, no clinics, no post offices, and in fact, not even many roads either. So don't dream of finding anything near a hotel or 7-eleven there.

What they do have, is a unique dialect that some claim to be the oldest in Sweden, lots of flat beautiful windswept land, lots of black sheep (I mean real sheep, which the Swedes call lamm), interesting limestone formations they call rauk and some of the warmest people we've ever met in our travels.

Anyway, continuing with the business of getting to Fårö. After getting our bikes, we wheeled them onto one of the only 2 ferries that brings people (cars and bikes in toil) to the island. The ferry surprisingly, did not need tickets, and a nice local even gave us a number and told us to just give the ferry people a call should we miss the last one out later in the day. Apparently they'll actually come back to get you just so you don't get stranded on the island.

Reaching Fårö is where our gungho story starts. We wanted to see the nature reserve and the limestone stacks, and so with a map in hand we pedaled off towards Langhammer. The only thing is, getting to and from Langhammer was a full 30km bike ride, making it more than five and a half hours of almost non-stop pedaling for that day. I remembered having no feeling in my legs at the end.

But we really enjoyed it. And I loved how remote the place was. You feel like you're far far away from all the annoying technologies in modern life that are constantly fighting for your attention. I never saw a single advert there.

Halfway through we asked 2 islanders for directions and ended up laughing and chatting easily with them for a while. They were so nice.

Below are photos of the rock formations or rauk. My pictures are not doing them justice, they're really a lot more majestic looking than that.

VISBY 101

I'm feeling lazy, so here's my list of 10 things about Visby, oh and 1 trivia.

>> Visby is arguably the best preserved medieval city in Sweden, and some say Scandinavia.

>> Visby is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

>> Visby has a really old 12th century ring wall that wraps around the city.

>> Visby's houses are what lonely planet calls, "scandalously cute".

>> Visby is a real popular summer holiday destination for Swedes (our ferry was packed!)

>> Visby was lost to Denmark and for a really little while, Russia.

>> Visby had a lot of enemies, which explains the many burnt church ruins in the city.

>> Visby's ring wall has a maiden tower which supposedly has a girl walled up inside.

>> Visby people are really really friendly.

>> Visby was the reason we were in Gotland.

Okay for the trivia. We were spending a lazy Sunday afternoon watching Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service. That was weeks after we're back in Singapore, and somehow we kept finding the look of the town in the anime naggingly familiar. Only after some googling we realized Mr. Miyazaki, the creator visited Visby on a holiday and became inspired to base the backdrop of the anime on the city. You can literally see the same tall medieval walls in the movie. Isn't life really coincidental sometimes?

More photos coming up.

SIDETRACK

Sidetrack from Stockholm for a while. These were taken on a ferry to Gotland. It's Sweden's biggest island and a beautiful beautiful place. And further up north of Gotland is Fårö, a small baltic island with lots of interesting sea stack formations and home to enigmatic late Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. It's also going be the backdrop of another one of our gungho feats again. Tell you more in a little bit (like after I sort out the mess of photos in my laptop). Stay tuned.

MARIEFRED + ANNA PA TORGET CAFE

The little town of Mariefred, we were walking around, finding something to eat.

One round about town, and this cafe caught our eye.

We went in, and couldn't understand the menu. But the nice lady at the counter told us they had hamburgers, so we ordered that.

There was a photo exhibition going on in the cafe. Lots of interesting images.

Looking at them made us forget our hunger for a while.

We chose a table out in the sun, where we can see the town church. The hamburger did turn out yummy! Fueled us for the long walk back to the train station.

I WANTED THE REAL THING

It all started actually, because I wanted to see a "castle" castle. I'm sure you've no idea what I'm talking about, but somehow in my warped little brain (too much Walt Disney when I was young),  I had a fixed idea of what a castle should look like, i.e. complete with a moat, a drawbridge, scary dungeons (you need a place to keep the dragons, or maybe for evil witches to lurk around plotting to kill princesses) and lots of romantic looking turrets.

So imagine my surprise when I flipped through my Sweden lonely planet to find lots of their castles looking nothing like what I imagined. To be fair, the architecture looks very beautiful but they looked a lot more like a french chateau or an english manor rather than a castle. I was actually quite aghast. So I searched very hard for a "proper" castle and Gripsholm Slott was the closest I could find in a pretty little town called Mariefred not far from Stockholm.

The original plan was to take a train out and then catch a bus but it turned out that buses are so infrequent that we decided to walk. I think to and fro we walked almost 6km, haha yes we're very good walkers.

The castle was apparently used as a prison for quite a long period of time, before it was renovated and used by King Gustav III. We paid to go inside and everything was really interesting even though they didn't allow photos. One thing we noticed though, it's cold inside even though it was summer. I can't imagine what it'll be like in winter. 

View of the castle from the front.

You can see lake Mälaren and the little town of Mariefred from the back of the castle.

WANDERING AROUND THE OLD QUARTER

Gamla Stan, or the old quarter dating back to the 13th century, was what originally made up the whole of Stockholm. Now it's little more than a district, but is apparently one of the must-sees of the city. You can't really tell from the photos, but our Gamla Stan outing was met with strong winds and pelting rain, so it wasn't exactly fun, and we didn't spend much time there either.

IF THIS IS LIFE

You might think, looking at the photos I've just posted, what a lovely scene of a lazy Sunday afternoon in beautiful Stockholm. And then cold reality will hit you when I tell you that I shot both photos on a Tuesday, sometime around 2 or 3pm in the afternoon and you're going to think as I did, "Aaaah, how come the Swedes don't have to work?!".

I've no answer to that too. These were taken at Nytorget Square, the bohemian part of Sodermalm (I'm going to have to rave about it for at least a few more posts so bear with me). I was sitting for a good bit at a bench, the only Asian among the blue-eyed, golden haired crowd. Some people did look at me with interest, but the Swedes were just too nice and politically correct to stare.

A little girl with golden ringlets came skipping along a while later and sat down beside me. Her father had bought her an ice cream cone. She spoke no English. I spoke no Swedish. But the instant she sat down she turned to me with a big smile and pointed to her ice cream, and I didn't leave until she had waved and skipped away again.