Stockholm layover
My award flight booking had two layovers — one in Stockholm and one in Helsinki. I decided to make Stockholm a longer layover to make the trip more valuable and perhaps potentially more painful.
I was supposed to have roughly 7 hours in Stockholm, including the time needed to get back and through security. Arriving early in the morning, I planned to walk around before any tourism crowd hit the city and grab breakfast — even though breakfast is only recently becoming a bigger thing here.
Small problem — my flight was delayed by more than an hour, and I was restless during the whole flight despite having packed plenty of dramamine. Once I landed, I had walked to the end of the right-most passport processing immigration line. Turns out that was a big mistake, because everyone who had a connecting flight used that lane to cut to the front — holding their boarding passes and frantic faces as the fastpass. And then dozens of crewmembers also used this line to cut to the front — resulting in having to wait for at least 50 people to pass before my passport was stamped and I was able to proceed.
The most basic-est of all Swedish phrases (just how to pronounce):
- Hi: Hey
- Thank you (v much): tahk soh (mykett)
I took the Arlanda Express — a super easy train that is a bit expensive (~$50 roundtrip in May 2022) that leads right to the central station in Stockholm. Here is what I did to spend the few hours:
- Tunnelbana art: The subway stations in Sweden form the longest art museum in the world with 90 of its stations decorated. The station at which the Arlanda express drops you off is the Centralen station, which features a blue and white mural all over the station. To see this, pay for a train ticket fare (39 Krona as of May 2022) and head down to the blue line.Another great station nearby is the Kungsträdgården station. The ticket lets you ride all forms of public transportation in Stockholm — including ferries — for 75 minutes.
- Gamla Stan, meaning Old Town, is just one station south of Centralen station and is the medieval centre of Stockholm. Most of the buildings are from the 16th and 17th centuries and are legally protected from renovation, which makes it one of the largest and best preserved cities in Europe. Head over to marvel at the buildings, take pictures, and do some antique shopping.
- Fotografiska museum is a world renowned photography museum. I’m not a huge photography person. And they had Andy Warhol works as one of their main exhibits. I understand modern/pop art even less, so it was a confusing experience. But apparently it’s the world’s most “open” museum (not fact checked).
- I didn’t go, but a friend recommended Skansen — it is effectively an immersive open air disneyland for history lovers.
- I love going to grocery stores in different countries to buy snacks and peruse the offerings. I found many pickled things, many gluten free and dairy free options, large varieties of mustard, and SWEDISH FISH. There are dozens of candy containers in the shop where you can mix and match your snacks and one of them was the swedish fish (pastellfiskar).
- I’ve been told that this candy is not necessarily popular in Sweden, which I wasn’t too surprised to learn. There is a lingonberry (popular fruit for jams and candies here) and salty licorice (also popular.. but im not sure why). I got the latter. I spat it out. People may love it but it ain’t for me.
