Första dagen

Right! My first real day in Sweden! I was planning on doing a bit of a blog at Doha and then another update when I got to the hostel but you know how it is. You never feel like doing anything fresh off a plane.

So yesterday I just caught the Arlanda express to Stockholm, the train was so cool. Free fast Wi-Fi, looks like it was decorated by IKEA and most of all, a toilet where a heads up display in the mirror telling you how fast you are serving up (like in tennis)...or it could be how fast the train is going...? :-P

Once in Stockholm I just caught a Taxi straight to the Hostel, I just wanted to sleep and it was raining like hell. Driving through Stockholm was nice, it's so cool how all these little islands are just connected up into one big city. There are 14 islands connected by I think 59 bridges. The effect is just amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I mean Perth has quite a beautiful view from Kings Park but this is something else.

(Pictures above in Sodermalm)

Once at the hostel and before sleeping I had a little walk around Sodermalm and everything seemed complicated. Today, rested, Stockholm is the easiest place to get around! It's amazing how big of a task things seem when you are tired. You can either walk between all the islands (in decent time too) or you can take the T-Bana (Metro), you can take ferries and trams too but I will keep it cheap and simple for now :-) Once you know how to get around on the Metro you are never waiting more than 5 minutes for a train.

So walking around I accidentally ended up in Gamla Stan (Old Town) to the Kings Palace where a military march was about to begin. It was a little bit funny actually since some of the horses took a nice dump right in the centre of where many of the soldiers had to march...or maybe it's meant to be like that for the King's entertainment. He must get bored like the rest of us do?

From there wound up in the city centre of Stockholm. I have to say this city is really beautiful. Everything is so clean and well kept. People are quite friendly too and all speak English. I do want to learn Swedish eventually but right now I'm so grateful everyone can speak to me in my language. However I do think I underestimated how difficult Swedish is going to be to learn. I'll just take it easy and learn it when I'm getting those introductory courses in Gothenburg.

Tonight there is some festival going on so I'll check it out to see what is happening. Other than that, dunno what I'm gonna do tomorrow. Might get on TripAdvisor and see what else there is to do other than the regular tourist traps. Getting pretty excited for Monday to go over to Gothenburg and get settled in.