Jais and I went to Stockholm for the weekend together! We didn’t have class on Friday so we thought that we better take advantage of all the free time we can get! Unfortunately for us the airline we had booked with was having a strike that started one day after we bought our tickets, and we never received a notification about the strike.
City Hall
So Jais and I arrived at the airport nice and early for our 7am flight and the people looked at us like we were so silly for not knowing our flight was canceled and that our Airline was on a strike. Luckily enough for us there was another flight leaving later that day that was going to Stockholm so we decided to take that flight.
Jais and I on top of the lookout bridge
Once we arrived in Stockholm we took a bus and found our accommodation in the busy streets of Sweden. We stayed at a Youth Hostel that was fairly close to the city center, which made walking around a lot easier. After we settled in the hostel we decided to go take a walk around the City.
Our favorite cafe 'Espresso House'
We started to walk around and found a main street that was packed with people. It was weird for me being in a big city since, I am use to small town Kristiansand, Norway at the moment. We immersed ourselves in the culture and headed down the busy street. The City had so much rich history in it that you could see just from walking. The architecture on buildings had so much detail it gave the whole city so much character.
Found some stairs that light up!
Jais and I did not plan much for this trip, we just had some ideas of what we wanted to see. It was fun having no expectations on the trip and just letting the days play their part. One thing we wanted to see was the Vasa ship Museum. The Vasa Museum had on display a ship that wrecked in 1628, and was restored years later. It was amazing to see the differences in the Vasa ship and the ships we use these days. Again the architecture was very elaborate with over 20 lions sculpted around the exterior of the boat.
side view of the VASA ship
Fika is a break that the Swedish people have everyday in the afternoon, where they just relax and go get a cup of coffee. Jais and I were pretty excited about the Fika breaks in the afternoon, even before we arrived in Sweden! So naturally everyday Jais and I would take a break in the afternoon and fill ourselves up with some coffee. By day two we were taking multiple Fika breaks a day, just because we really wanted the cultural experience of course 🙂 It was really easy since there was at least 2 coffee shops on every street! 
One of the exciting tours we went on was the Royal Palace tour. This was a fun tour because it had so much rich history. When we were walking through the palace it was crazy to think how long the building had been there for, but also the amount of history that happened in that very building. I loved how big all of the entrances, staircases, windows, and ceilings were in the palace.NMS_0271
Changing of the guards at the Royal Palace
I really enjoyed my time with Jais while in Stockholm, we made a good team! The last night we were there we wanted to go to an Ice bar. The ice bar was linked to a hotel, which was pretty fancy. Upon arriving into the bar they have us a big coat to put over our clothes. The coat had gloves linked to it and a furry hood, which made it quite warm. The bar and cool ice designs sketched into the ice walls. Needless to say it was definitely a neat experience.
Tippy Cup at the Ice Bar
The way home was a bit rough as we realized we needed to leave for the airport the night before because no buses were leaving the city early enough for us to make our flight. So we took a night train to try and get to the airport but for whatever reason the train stopped before the airport at a train stop and we were told to get off the train as it was turning around and going back to the city center. Jais and I were very confused, just like all of the other passengers that were told to get off the train. So we waited about 40min for two more trains but both of them turned around and went back to the city center. Luckily the train station arranged a bus to take us to where we wanted to go. They said that they were having electrical problem on the train. Finally after two more bus rides we made it to the airport by 2am and then spent the night there so we could catch our 6am flight!NMS_0206