Stockholm, Sweden – Copenhagen, Denmark – 2019 – Day 10-12

092019 

Stockholm, Sweden

Started the morning with the Stockholm Free walking tour of Galma Stan with Priyanka as my guide. She is originally from India but moved to Stockholm 2 years ago to study Environmental Development & Urban studies and is now studying Swedish and Architecture. It was 13°C and sunny out.

 

Facts about Sweden & more specifically Stockholm from the tour:

-Sigtuna – 1st settlement. Estonians were the first to attack. Galma Stan – created a fort city to stop the plundering.

-Stock means log; Holm means home – They installed logs into the water so the boats would hit it and go down from invasion.

-Stockholm is the most populated Scandinavian city.

-It is the Venice of the north with 14 islands comprising the main city.

-The knights took their own island beside the main island

-Vasterlanggatan – longest street – Separated the 2 body of water to transporting goods

-Swedish is a straightforward language – especially if you are English speaking – vegetables – green things

-Little mirrors are all over the window facades to pull in natural light into people’s homes and also able to see what was happening in your neighbour’s house – gossip mirrors

-Golden Phoenix emblem over the door. Sweden had the oldest insurance and bank – the houses with this emblem would be the first to be saved in case of a fire.

-Sweden is all about gender equality

-Almost 50% of priests are female

-Sweden is all for Same sex marriage

-The church space is open for many uses besides a place of worship such as Concert venues and orchestra performances.

-Everyone brings in their own faith

-Majority of people are Agnostic or Atheist but still pay to the church for all the stuff above

-You can opt out of paying church tax

-There is German part of Town in Galma because they did so much trading of wood and iron

-The narrowest street (Mårten Trotzigs Gränd} was created by a merchant who wanted his own alley. The Government said this merchant can make it but it has to be discreet and now it’s one of the most famous Photo spots in the city.

-Iron ties on buildings – iron pieces outside of a house to hold the wooden beams

-Swedes pay high taxes but get good benefits such as mat leave, 160 days paid leave for taking care of sick children, free education, free healthcare

-Social benefits – If you work full-time, you get 25-35 days paid vacation and holiday pay is higher than normal pay. They know holidays are more expensive so they raise the rate during that travel period.

-Swedes goto Berlin for the weekend to party because it’s so much cheaper to fly there and purchase alcohol than to party in Sweden.

-Starting 3000 euro month with 22% tax

-They try to keep the low income and high-income brackets closer together. The higher tax bracket end up paying more tax, which can be up to 75% higher.

-Sweden, Denmark & Finland had a trade union but the Danish King was in power so the Swedes kept fighting and so, the St George and the dragon defeating the dragon tells the story of their relationship. The royal Swedish knight is from Denmark and the dragon is Finland and the man that is squished beneath is Norway

-For the most part, Swedes have a friendly rivalry with Danish.

The Ikea owner was dyslexic so he couldn’t remember numbers. He named products after regions and for named products such as carpets and doormats after Danish regions – stepping on Denmark passive aggressively.

-The red blood square – red house left with 93 white rocks to represent the lost lives that day by the Nobel prize museum

-Swedes do a lot of eco friendly progressive things such as many second hand spots and even have a mall specifically for that.

-Cash is NOT key here. In fact, there are very limited places to use it as card and tap are implemented everywhere including public toilets. I asked Isabelle to get me some Swedish krone so I could tip but I had a hard time getting rid of the rest of the krone I had.

 

Ok, back to my day. After the tour, I was on my way to head underground to explore some of the wonderful metro stations until a group of girls passed by with Skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for the climate) signs to only realize it was Friday and every Friday especially in Stockholm where Greta Thunberg is from, they have Fridays for future protests (also other places around the world have these gatherings now). I made my way to Mynttorget and was surrounded. Youth came in from all nearby streets chanting and holding handmade signs. There were an array of characters from small children to highschoolers to adults. The actual protest was well-organized and oh so many people.

As the protest march had commenced, I continued on underground and visited a bunch of metro stations that are all differently themed and use the space well. The metro stations in Stockholm are works of art. Roughly 90 out of 100 stations are decorated or painted by different artists going back to 1950. The Stockholm Metro stations have been referred to as the “Longest Art Gallery in the World”. There are definitely many blogs you can read that can help you plan your own adventure underground. There are also tours. This is when getting a day pass for the metro truly comes in handy. There are a few of the blog posts I used to help me identify a few stations I wanted to visit in my limited time.

https://www.theglobetrottingteacher.com/stockholm-subway-art/

https://happiestoutdoors.ca/stockholm-subway-art/

https://www.dangerous-business.com/2017/08/best-stockholm-subway-stations/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kungstradgarden-metro-station

https://www.savoredjourneys.com/self-guided-stockholm-subway-art-tour/

I had planned my route underground with some fun stops along the way. Coming out of one of the stations, I went to the Stockholm Public Library that features a round room – definitely need to be super quiet in there. And while in Sweden, you have to fika (making time in your day to either catch up with friends or just taking time in your day to have a coffee/tea with a pastry such as a cinnamon bun). I had fika at Cafe Pascual with a nice tea and cardamom bun thanks to my friend Katherine’s recommendation. Isabelle had told me the use of cash to pay for things here is seldom as you can tap for everything including public toilets. Café Pascual follows that formula as no cash transaction is allowed and must be tap.

Around 3-330PM, the stations had gotten busy with people coming off of work, so I made my way over to Fotografiska. It was such a treat especially since the lead exhibit was from a photographer named Jimmy Nelson. He has dedicated the past few decades photographing the last tribes of the world before they to become extinct. There was a certain point in time that I had also applied to become a photographer to join his community and also contribute to this wonderful photographic endeavor but unfortunately I came close but not enough to join his team. Fotografiska has multiple floors with multiple artists on display at all times.

This day in particular was chilly at times and wet at times. I met up with Isabelle after work and we grabbed dinner at Kvarnen. I ordered the Isterband (sausage with potato and beets). It is one of those classic Swedish comfort dishes. Since the night was young, we went a bit of bar hopping from Lilla Hotellbaren to Omnipollos hatt (which also serves amazing stone oven pizza) to Södra Teatern (4 floors in the hotel with different music – when we were leaving, the first floor had a live band including a saxophone). Considering the thickest layers I had was a long sleeve, a hoodie and a rainjacket, the night was a little chilly but still good vibes.

09/21/19

Stockholm, Sweden

Started our morning in Polhemsgatan neighbourhood having brunch at Newt. Banana pancakes, cinnamon roll, eggs and avocado on toast, turkey sandwich & juices. We checked out City Hall (you can’t miss it – look in the sky for the 3 gold crowns) and hopefully climb up (SEK60) the tower for a view of the city. We were going to climb up but the next scheduled time was 45 minutes from the time we were there and we didn’t want to wait. We decided to walk over to Monteliusvägen and see the opposite view. It is such a cute and quiet spot to hang out.

We walked through Soldermalm which was booming with people as the weather hit 21°C today as oppose to the rain and cold the day prior.

They had this farmers market where people were also doing a garage sale/secondhand thrifting. It’s crazy that there still is no physical money exchanged and they use e-transfers via Swish to purchase fresh produce to a child selling their old toys.

Isabelle’s boyfriend Love joined us and our first stop was for ice cream at A.H. Glassbar – I got the mango passion fruit and it was delicious! We ended up eating and sitting in the sun at the park on the corner in Nytorget where loads of people were also soaking up the sun. This was one of the rare places that still accept cash but you can also pay via Swish (Kindof like Venmo or EMT).

We continued to walk through Soldermalm and made our way over to the ferry terminal to go across to Djurgården. They have their own amusement part called Gröna Lund Tivoli but it was closed for a private event. We went to Skansen (an open air museum, zoo and event venue). We thought the autumn fair was happening that weekend but unfortunately it was the following week. We did see a lot of animals and the old ways of living in Sweden. It kindof reminded me of Centre Island & Black Creek Pioneer Village back in Toronto.

We made it to Kungsträdgården (true city centre) where we took in the last good bit of sun and heat by the water fountain. I also grabbed a Daim (Swedish chocolate bar made from crunchy almond caramel covered in milk chocolate) ice cream.

Love left us and we went on our way to Jakobsberg, the neighbourhood where Isabelle grew up.

We went over to her childhood friend Malin’s place. We were also joined by her sister Anna for taco night. The sisters are super sweet who have the most memorable adventures travelling with one another. Malin also made this chocolate cake which was supposed to be a mud cake but nonetheless delicious all around. We spent a good amount of time on the couch just chatting away. A good way to end the night and my final full day in Stockholm.

09/22/19

Stockholm, Sweden – Copenhagen, Denmark

After a light breakfast, Isabelle brought me to the bus stop where I was catching my bus to the airport and we said our goodbyes. Sad to leave Stockholm but the 2 full days there felt much longer.

Back on a plane I went and this time to Copenhagen. Met back up with Winnie after her short stint in Barcelona and London.

We purchased our Copenhagen cards and off we went. 2 stops from the airport, we stopped at Kastrup Søbad – a public sea bath. The weather was a warm 18°C and sunny when we arrived. We hopped back onto the metro system and made our way to our Airbnb out in Skovlunde. Skovlunde is about 20-30 minutes outside of the city centre but our location was a 5 minute walk from the train station.

We settled in then ran to catch the train into the city. We decided to head over to Freetown Christiania and took a look around. We spotted the spiral tower of Church of our Saviour however we arrived just after 7PM so we were unable to go up.

Christiania is a small part of town that has a grey area in terms of laws. intentional community and commune of about 850 to 1,000 residents. Copenhagen has had issues in the past with the drugs that were being distributed however in Christiania, they are able to sell kush and marijuana to an extent. At least this way, the drugs are being regulated a bit better. You are not allowed to take photos in certain parts of this town and you will definitely be called out or yelled at if you do so in the non-designated area.

We were famished and quickly past through the skatepark of the main area of Christiania. We found one of Thomas Dambo’s recycled wooden sculptures called Green George.

We then found ourselves on the main street where no photos are allowed. There you can find a street filled with merchants selling their fine selections of kush and cannabis freely. They have it all displayed nicely for you to walk up to.

We continued through to find a really cool vegetarian restaurant called Morgenstedet. We shared the baked dish with 3 salads for 110DKK ($21.65CAD).

Winnie had mentioned this restaurant that is suppose to be one of the best in the world called Noma. We walked to it but of course it was dark and closed by the time we made it there. We walked along the waters and it was super calm and quiet but the homes surrounding were definitely stunning. Big windows and you can definitely see into the homes which held beautifully designed and furbished interiors. (sign me up for a home here geeez). We continued walking over to Kobenhavn K through a system of bridges and saw the famous Nyhavn buildings at night and surrounding area. I thought Copenhagen would be similar to Stockholm but they both have such different vibes.

Originally, we had Tivoli – the oldest Amusement part in the world on our itinerary however, we didn’t realize that Tivoli’s summer season official closed that night. We just missed out. They close after the summer season and reopen for Halloween.

Itinerary – Europe – 2019

#urowiz

The original plan was to go to Australia & New Zealand for Sept/Oct 2019 with my friend Winnie. We were hoping for a flight deal to come along. Unfortunately no deal came by the deadline we gave ourselves so we decided to go to Europe together instead. Our itinerary is all over the place zig –zagging all over Europe. We narrowed down our top 10 countries we wanted to visit in the time period we had and researched where we could fly to for a bargain. From there, we chose to go to the warmer destinations first to extend our summer. The last leg of the trip was originally going to be staying in London/UK but we decided during the trip to go somewhere warm because let’s be fair, the heat makes things happier especially being in chilly and wet weather for awhile.

Now, before you get to the itinerary (all the way at the bottom), I am posting some (hopefully) helpful tips and information that came up during our trip.

Money – STACK (Pre-paid Mastercard)
36 days of travelling to multiple countries with different currencies takes a lot of organizing. When I travel, I usually carry a good amount of cash on me and pay that way so I don’t incur high conversion fees using my credit card. I made sure I knew what countries I was going to and calculated roughly how much I would be spending per day and got cash for certain countries I knew I would be in for a longer duration.

I tried to average about $60CAD/day. Prior to setting off on this trip, we tried to book our Airbnb’s, car rentals and flights in advance so at least those costs were covered.

My brother told me about this card called STACK, which is a conversion fee pre-paid Mastercard. With this card, you Interac transfer money from your bank account to the card account via the app using the special custom question and answer the app provides you with. Say you decide to transfer $200 to the card, if the card gets stolen, the card is not linked to your actual bank account and if say only $200 is on the card that is the limit that can be used. This card comes as a physical card but is also a virtual card via the app.

What I liked about using this card is that it was a very fast and secure way of paying for things abroad and the app also notifies you when a transaction has been made and will convert it automatically to your main currency so you don’t have to calculate the conversion yourself. And it is conversion fee free!

I used this card more so in the Scandinavian countries because they have started to adopt the cash-less transactions method but I still used cash in many of the other countries we travelled to.

Use my referral link and you’ll get $5 in your account when you activate your card.
Download STACK now: https://getstackco.app.link/fuqEmfMNH1 (this link only works on your phone via the app once its downloaded)

Ryanair
Yes Ryanair has super cheap flights BUT many hidden costs or steps. We decided to go to many countries because of how cheap the flights were (12£ one-way to go from London (Stansted) to Copenhagen (CPH) is a real good price). We also booked early. These cheap tickets have many drawbacks. First off, many of the airports you fly out of or into are not usually the main airports and are usually smaller airports outside of the city centre which adds more travel time.

More recently, Ryanair changed their luggage requirements from what use to be a free carry-on (still smaller than regulation size on other airlines) and now the only free luggage you can have must be 40x20x25CM. Depending on the airport and the staff, they don’t really check the size of your bag. I got the size compliant bag (Swissgear – https://www.shopbentley.com/en/escape-collection-travel-tote-swiss-gear-1016684.html) and it sits under the seat no problem with room to spare. The staff didn’t really check so you could get away with a slightly larger bag or a bag that can squish.

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS CHECK IN ONLINE. You can do this up to 48 hours. For non-EU passengers, you must print your documents, as they will not issue you a boarding pass. I found that with flights not connected to the UK, the boarding pass will be issued to your Ryanair App however, if you are flying out of or into UK, you must print your boarding pass to get a Visa check and stamp. I have heard that if you don’t print it and ask at the check-in desk, there is an expensive fee for them to print for you.

Easyjet, Air Europa, Norwegian and Vueling are also other cheap airline operators and their restrictions are not severe as Ryanair for luggage or protocol. I usually use Momondo or Skyscanner to help me check for better deals on flights.

Car rentals – International Driver’s License
As a Canadian, you are required to have your International Driver’s License to rent a car in Spain.

Sim Card
Travelling throughout many countries in Europe for over a month, trying to find a SIM card plan that works in all the countries and for that period of time was a challenge but there are definitely options out there beside “roaming” with your phone plan back home as that can be costly.

For my 36 day Eurotrip, I purchased this 30 day SIM card that works throughout 71 European countries with 12GB + 3000 minutes + 3000 texts. You are also able to top up this plan when in the UK by purchasing in-store.

Photo & Video Storage – SSD & USB – I brought an external to back up my photos from my DSLR and my phone every night. I also bring a USB for back-up to the back-up of the external for peace of mind since my phone internal storage is not large enough to store all the photos from the trip for the entirety of 36 days. I would suggest bringing another USB (64GB should suffice) to be the back up to the back up for the phone photos so you can clear space.

You can also use cloud storage but I am not a fan of that so these are my alternatives.

Hikes

Alltrails is amazing for finding hikes around the world. People review or comment on each hike and also you can see the difficulty and lengths. You can also download the app.

Groceries
To be honest, we ate out a lot this trip. When we could, we tried to make some meals with friends. We also stocked up on snacks like fruit and breakfast (skyr, yogurt, granola etc). You will find that there are many grocery stores but some are superior to others in terms of quality for the price. Budget friendly grocery stores you should be on the lookout for are Aldi & LIDL.

Overview

Spain – Euro
-Tipping is not common but you can tip if you want (5-10%)

Eating times
Different times for eating. They take siesta very seriously and will take hour long lunches where the kids will go home as well to eat with family. Dinner usually starts around 8PM.
Desayuno – breakfast – 7-9AM
-a Spanish classic is a toasted baguette with olive oil and crushed tomatoes
-other breakfast foods consist of churros and chocolate or pastries like croissants.
Almuerzo – Mid-morning snack – 1030-11AM – Coffee with a muffin or a croissant with ham and cheese
La Comida – Lunch – 2-330PM – Most important meal of the day.
Merienda – Mid-after snack – 530-730PM – More about socializing – more drinks than food. Churros are popular at this time of day or a small meat and cheese sandwich.
La hora del aperitivo – Tapas Hour – 830-10PM
La Cena – Dinner time – 9-11PM – Dinner is usually much lighter than a standard dinner meal. Traditional Spanish dinners are shared plates.

-Try Clara – beer with lemonade or lemon Fanta
-Try Tinto de verano – Red wine with Sprite or Fanta (very popular in Spain) – very similar to sangria

Common Phrases
-Hola – Ola – Hello
-Adios – bye
-Si – Yes
-No – No

-Pardon or Disculpa – Excuse me
-Por Favor – Please
-Gracias – Thank you
-De nada – You’re Welcome
-Lo SIento – Sorry
-Factura – Bill
-Salud – Cheers
-Camamos – Let’s eat

Portugal – Euro
-Tipping is not common but you can tip if you want (5-10%)
-You need to try some pastel de nata (Portugese Egg Tarts)
-Ola – Hello
-Oi – Hi
-Tchau – Bye
-Sim – Yes
-Nao – No
-Por Vaor – Please
-Obrigado – Thank you
-De nada – You’re Welcome
-Desculpe – I’m Sorry
-Perdao – Pardon me
-Saúde – Cheers
-vamos comer – Let’s eat!

Sweden – Stockholm – SEK – Swedish Krone
-Open drinking on the streets is not allowed.
-Physical cash transaction is not common here.
-Tap and Swish (E-Transfer) is the common transaction types
-Stockholm is made up of many little islands connected by bridges
-Tipping is not common however, it is common to round up the total to the nearest big number as a tip.
-Access is their tap transport card – I got the 72-hour card. You can take all the forms of transportation ranging from bus, train, tram and ferry.
-Fika – an important part of Swedish culture. Fika – coffee break

-Hej – Hello
-adjö – bye
-Ja – Yes
-Nej – No
-Ursäkta – Excuse me
-snälla du – Please
-Tack or Tack tack – Thank you
-Varsågod – You’re welcome
-Förlåt – Sorry
-räkningen – Bill
-Skål – Cheers
-låt oss äta – Let’s eat

Denmark – Copenhagen – DKK – Krone
-Open drinking on the streets is not allowed.
-Tipping is not common however, it is common to round up the total to the nearest big number as a tip
-Biking is taken very seriously and has its own road rules just like driving a car.
-Copenhagen Card – You can use the calculator on their website to see if it is worth it to purchase this card. We purchased it but mainly for the unlimited travel. We purchased the 72 hours card. It’s sort of an honour system in a sense as you have to write in your start date and time on the card. You don’t tap it when boarding trains/buses etc but there may be a fare/ticket checker on some of your rides and must show your card. I wish we used the erasable pen we had instead so we could adjust it as we were in Copenhagen for a little bit more than 72 hours and it would have been nice to not have to purchase a day pass for the last few hours. The card gets you into many attractions and discounts on many other things.

-Make sure you check if certain attractiions are open on specific days
-Expensive country

-Hej – Hello
-adjö – bye
-Ja – Yes
-Ingen – No
-undskyld mig- Excuse me
-Vær venlig (vair-vin-lee)– Please
-Tack or Tack tack – Thank you
-Selv tak (sell tack) – You’re welcome
-Beklager (bi-clay-er) – Sorry
-regning – Bill
-Skål (skuul) – Cheers
-Lad os spise- Let’s eat

Germany – Euro
-Tipping is not common but you can tip if you want (10%)
-Drinking is allowed in public
-Many flea markets on Sundays!
-Many stores are closed
-Grocery stores are closed Sundays however the ones in bus/train stations are exceptions

-Hallo – Hello
-Tschüss – (choose) bye
-Ja – Yes
-Nein – No
-Entschuldigen Sie – Excuse me
-bitte – Please
-Dankeschön– Thank you
-Bitte – You’re welcome
-Es tut uns leid (astudentslight) – Sorry
-Rechnung – Bill
-Prost- Cheers
-Lass uns essen- Let’s eat

London – Pound – £
-Oyster Card – train/subway/bus system is very intricate but can get you everywhere.
-Tip is around 10%

Scotland – Pound- £
-Similar to Quebec to the rest of Canada, Scotland is the United Kingdom’s counterpart whereby at a certain point, they wanted to separate to become a country of their own.
Edinburgh
-It doesn’t really snow here but the temperature remains an average low of maybe 5C
-Edinburgh seems to be a popular for international students to study

Congratulations, you have made it to the piece de resistance – My Itinerary for 36 days in Europe. We did move around things we did on certain days in certain cities but for the most part, this is what we did and they are grouped by areas in each city to maximize your days.

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3 & 4
Week 5 & 6
All the places we went