Stockholm

I decided to visit Stockholm and Oslo during the Easter holidays in 2015. We took a ferry from the Finnish city of Turku after arriving there by train from Tampere. The ferry trip took around 10 hours or so, making a quick stop at the Åland Islands’ capital, Mariehamn. We arrived in Stockholm a little before the sun set and headed to the hostel we were staying at. After we left our stuff there we decided to go wander a little around Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town center.

The next day we went for the museums, visiting the famous Vaasa ship museum and Skansen, the open air museum. Skansen has a beautiful collection of Swedish history, with characteristic elements of different parts and times of the country.

After that we stopped at the King’s Garden, where spring was showing its first signs and the trees were beginning to flower.

The next day we visited the amazing Fotografiska museum. We left and decided to walk around the Södermalm island, and checked the Katarina Elevator for some views of the city.

We headed back to Gamla Stan to get the free walking tour that was starting soon, so we could walk around and get to know some more of the history of this beautiful city. Stockholm is a very, very old city with a lot to see and get to know.

This was my first time traveling only with my new 35mm prime lens, and I was still getting used to focusing with a 1.8 aperture. Even when the camera focused precisely I would get soft images. I like that look. I think it results in a calmer, more pleasant image. I am not a really big fan of the over sharpening that we see on Instagram and the like. It’s common for travel photography to have a very strong image, with lots of saturation, contrast and sharpening. I feel like I usually try to avoid that “postcard” look.

After the walking tour we went back to Södermalm to see the sunset. We found a little walk at the top of one hill called Monteliusvägen where we could see most of the city, and the old buildings and boats that are on the shore. Unfortunately the weather was very cloudy, and the sunset was not that amazing. Still the view was very beautiful. Be aware though that if you’re going during high season there should be a lot of people here at sunset.

Stockholm was one of my favorite cities in Europe. The architecture and feel of the city are unique. That night we took a bus to Oslo. A terrible trip, to be honest.