Europe India Trip: Day 26 : Stockholm sight seeing [ May 8, 2023 ]
The day I fell in love with Stockholm architecture & figured its architecture richness is 2nd best among all the places I visited. 1st would be London :).
This is part of my Europe India solo motorbike trip . Please read the post for more context.
As mentioned in my previous post , I had decided to go for the Viking Walking Tour at Stockholm. Alex, the tour guide does two tours during the day - the one in morning is in Spanish & the one in English is in afternoon.
I woke up leisurely as I knew I had morning free. Plus I had been writing blog post consistently so decided to have my cheat day :). Crafoord hostel (the place I was staying) had a very nice view of the city as it is on the 8th floor of the building. I got up & decided to get myself coffee from their vending machine. It was for 15 SEK but it was worth it & I ended up taking it twice :)
I was also being told the previous night that the hostel could not charge my card for the booking. I mostly book from Hostelworld & I figured that in most west European cities’ hostels, the price on Hostelworld is actually cheaper than their own website. Hostelworld keeps a small commission & the rest would need to be paid at the hostel. I keep the card I use for these online transactions as frozen most of the time & that was the reason they could not charge.
In the morning, I went to the reception desk, which opens from 9 AM - 3 PM & met Clement. Clement is French & he immediately asked me if I am an Indian to which I said yes, to which Clement said something like - there is something good about the English accent of Indians :) .. I guess most French people like Indian people. I paid for the day, extended my stay for another day (I was planing to stay close to Kapellskar but the camping place there turned my request down, so I decided to stay at the hostel & leave early morning next day to catch ferry to Finland). I figured the price at Hostelworld was cheaper so I booked from there for the next day as well.
I left hostel at around 11:45. I decided to grab a sandwich on the way & I found Subway. That did bring smile on my face & as expected, my meal got sorted. After the meal, I walked to the walking tour start point.
I remember that I took a detour as I was trying to find whey protein for myself. Considering I have been eating cheap in Scandinavia, I was concerned that I might not be getting enough protein so decided to buy whey protein powder. I could locate a sports shop but all the packs were 1 kg & I could not find anything smaller. I also realized only 10 min are left for my walking tour & I decided to rush ( I actually ended up running good 500m as well). I happen to reach the start point just in time. Alex, the walking tour guide was blowing a horn (I am guessing that is from viking era).
The tour overall was ok. Alex main focus was to bust the myth about viking being vicious & cruel creatures as depicted by mostly Christian media. They sailed because there was not enough land for agriculture ( entire Norway is mountainous), they ate vegetarian food - porridge & rye bread, they bathe every Sat (which was frequent as per the then European standards) & they never wore any helmets with horns (apparently thats the work of fiction).
The rest of the tour was visiting places & Alex telling us plausible theories behind the monuments & places. One of the things vikings dint do well, was good documentation. Apparently there were some documents, but those got burnt in some monument fire where they were housed ( fire in Europe was a very frequent thing it seems ). So people usually have plausible theories.
The tour mostly covered the old town, also called Gamla Stan. The name did sound funny to me as ‘gamla’ in Hindi means a pot & I never knew that ‘stan’ is a word for a place also Central Asia :).
It was time for another coffee & I remember Lene’s suggestion about picking one from Coop (mentioned about this hack in previous post). I found one nearby & picked a coffee & crossiant (each for 10 SEK) & it actually turned out to be a pretty good deal for 10 SEKs (2 Euros).
The coffee size was small but considering it is less than a Euro, who am I to crib. Even in Portugal & Spain, it is hard to find a coffee for less than a Euro. I liked it so much that I went again for the same thing :).
I had to go back to hostel & then to Tomasz place to collect my motorbike & then parking it close to the hostel, so that I can leave early to the ferry point. I had chosen a cheap ferry from Kappelskar which is 100 km away from Stockholm to Finland & the ferry departs at 7:15 AM in the morning. So I decided to walk back to the hostel.
I came across a pub & it was written ‘Stor Stark - 49’ .. I was like - hmm, so somebody selling beer for 49 SEK which is around 4 Euros. I knew that for that price, you wont get beer even in Europe. I was not sure if it is actually beer or something else. So I went in & asked and I was right. It was beer. So I was like - well how can I say no to cheap beer :). I figured, that most places run happy hours till 8 PM on weekdays & beer is actually cheap at that time. But not all beers apparently.
There was nice water view from the pub & I could see a lot of cyclists passing by, mostly going back to home after work. I think I would rate Stockholm 3rd after Amsterdam & Copenhagen in terms of number of cyclists on the road. If it is about percent of cycles compared to other vehicles, I would say some of the German cities like Muenster would probably come on the top.
I was reasonably drunk in 2 beers & I started to walk back to the hostel, to pick my riding gear before I could go to Tomasz place to pick my bike. I took a bit of a different route to explore the city parts I have not seen & I am glad I did. Stockholm consist of lot of islands & one of the island, all the important building of national importance is housed. I am not sure the name of the island but I could see the parliament house.
There was a river flowing next to the statue & folks were practicing kayaking in rough water
I then continued to walk towards the hostel & passed bustling market area. I saw a hotdog shop & decided to have a chicken hotdog. The guy selling (forgot his name) asked me if I am from India & then we talked about my motorbike trip. The guy was pretty impressed so I took a picture with him as well. We could have talked more but then he was getting customers so I decided to say goodbye to him & moved on.
I then continued walking & got a call from Venkatesh on my whatsapp. Venkatesh was also passing by Aaborg in his Oslo to Stockholm car drive & had stopped at Aaborg & spoken to Linus (refer to my previous post). Linus happen to tell Venkatesh about me & Venkatesh had messaged me on Instagram. I had passed my whatsapp number & Venkatesh called for a quick catchup. So I told him if he can come to the hostel & he agreed. I continued to walk.
Back in hostel, I met a few folks. One of them was Vincent. Vincent is French & had been cycling from France to Turkey, he worked there for a few months so that he can make a bit of more money to sponsor his travel back, he then went north to Scandinavia via Poland & then intend to go back south from Norway. He was on the road for 9 months at that time.
Soon Venkatesh called & I told him about I needing to go to pick the motorbike & Venkatesh agreed to accompany me.
We were rushing to catch the train & Venkatesh graciously paid for my travel as well. I think any of the card tapping would have worked (like how it is in London) but well, I dint interrupt due to lack of time. Also, the train stations are guarded in Stockholm unlike stations in Germany & Norway, so you have to buy ticket before entering :).
Venkatesh was curious as to how I decided to do the trip & how I have planned it. I told him about the blog & how I decided to do it in a bit impromptu way. But I did tell him that I have been reading up about it since 2020 when I wanted to do India to UK motorbike trip.
I was also pretty impressed with Stockholm public transport. The stations were pretty modern, clean & well equipped.
It took us an hour to be at Tomasz place & Tomasz was actually waiting for us (I had messaged him on the way). Venkatesh left us from there & I brought the motorbike home after thanking Tomasz for the help.
I filled petrol on the way as next day I would be hurrying. I also parked the bike at street parking next to houses where other cars were parked. The place was much closer to the hostel compared to the MC parking I saw. Plus I realized, nobody is going to check in the night & I would be away early in the morning.
I came back to the hostel, cooked myself noodles that I had bought at Coop (the cheap coffee hack place ) & by the time I went to sleep, it was 12. I was looking forward to be in Finland the next day but guess fate had other plans. More on it, in next blog :).