Stockholm — Day 1

Schadenfreude 😄

My day started very early as I couldn’t fall asleep beyond 4am! It is the jet lag. The hostel bed was very comfortable and the temp just warm enough. It was a cozy environment. I spent an incredible three hours growing the internet, twisting and turning, and figuring out my day plan. Smitten with the idea of walking outside I decided to go out for breakfast instead of having some at the hostel itself! I finally mustered the courage to get out of the bed at 7AM following a fellow roommate doing the same. I brushed, assessed my hygiene and decided to bath later as I dressed up. On the agenda for breakfast was obviously food, but also catching up on writing about the trip and finalizing the day trip plan by writing it down in my diary. Running down the stairs and getting out of the building I was greeted with chilled air and drizzle on my face, it was almost raining. I kept pacing towards the restaurant, Luzette, that I picked after hours of hunting and sizing up others to my tight standards of a haven with internet and cheap great food. I made it to the restaurant but met with a little disappointment as Luzette was located inside the train station and their menu was very mainstream. However, the place turned out to be great as I fell in love with my breakfast order and the nice servers. Also, watching people pace around the station while I chill on vacation was incredibly satisfying, almost in a Schadenfreude fashion, which is a word I discovered while looking up another common english one that I happened to forget!

My cup of Americano spelled with a strong italian accent.

My breakfast plate.

Having devoured the delicious breakfast, made the day plan and half way through the journal writing I’m already charting my escape from the restaurant which has paltry wifi. Although wifi’s everywhere here, the quality varies and connecting to some and staying connected is incredibly challenging, even for a tech savvy person like me! As of now, I’m watching people, learning Swede fashion and just simmering in the self imposed duty of journal writing.

People pacing across the Stokholm Central Station.

Nordiska Museet

After finishing the breakfast I headed back to the hostel. I changed into a fashionable or should I say a very Swede attire to head out for the day.

Me dressed like an average 26yr old Swede.

Satisfied with the walk, to and from the breakfast place, as my day’s workout I decided to get an Uber. I was too lazy to figure out the public transport anyways. My Uber ride was a phenomenal Mercedes!

Uber ride to Nordiska Museet

The ride took me directly to the museum. The museum was amazing and a little too broad for my taste and time! After the first floor, the rest were mostly a blur, may be that’s because the exhibits were historical. Here are some photos of the exhibits and the museum:

The main hall of Nordiska Museet

The exhibits started with a historical look back on Lights and the various lightings through the decades in Nordic culture.

Home decor section of the exhibits.

The shapes of light exhibit.

The “form follows function” embodiment in the designs of 90s lamp design.

Soon my brand new Portugese leather shoe started biting into my feet. And even sooner I’d realize that my tours would be cut short because of the hurting feet.

My poor feet. Even the thick wool REI socks couldn’t help the foot burn!

I managed to drag my feet across three more floors and successfully covered all of the exhibits. They were incredibly beautiful and illustrated the Nordic history at breadth.

A section of exhibit talked about the history of cultivating Hops and the art of beer making.

Apparently beer had a modest place in the Nordic diet as during a certain part of the year fresh produce weren’t available. So, beer brewed with grains and hops made up for a “nutritious” food.

Exhibit about how clothing were influenced by style and time. That’s a guy in Goth.

Another section of the museum depicted the various styles of dining and the diet of various people.

Lunch at the Museum was incredibly delicious. I still haven’t figured out what the yellow thing was, it was sinfully tasty.

Soon after the lunch I decided to go back to the hostel to swap my shoe for a more comfortable one. I decided to get an Uber again. To my horror the wait time for the Uber was beyond 10mins! I’d end up cancelling my
Uber and reordering another for 1.8x surge…Needless to say I ended up paying a fortune for this ride as it was raining, the only car available was an Uber Black (another Mercedes E class), and there was tons of traffic on the way. I paid 352SEK! Fuck!

After getting to my room, I was feeling exhausted and I decided to take a nap. It later turned out that I ended up sleeping till 7pm. As soon as I woke up I dragged my ass of the bed and out to an Indian place for a simple homely dinner. I loved the Indian meal I had, it consisted of rice, aloo gobi and lassi. Continuing my style of walking after dinner, I went for a mile walk across the neighborhood.

My walk through the neighborhood took me to the shopping district.

Stores have began preparing for Christmas it seems.

After returning I was hanging out in my room and was going to fall asleep, yes again, but Sam, my roommate in the hostel pitched the idea of grabbing a beer. And so we did, it ended becoming a hike to a Tiki Bar which was also called Tiki bar. We then headed back to the bar below our hostel which was the hippest place in Stockholm and had some weird theme going on in the bar with handcuffs lying here and there.

Loved the logo of the bar, but hated the checks, overpriced everywhere!

Beautiful lights and furnitures are littered everywhere in the Swedish capital.

That’s a handcuff hanging at the bar!

We ended the night by heading out again in search of some food. And nobody can guess where we went! We went to Burger King :D and called it a day.