So, The Perpetual Roommate and I took an overnight bus from Oslo to Stockholm. When we were nearing the city of Stockholm, circa 6:00 a.m., the possibly homeless-looking woman sitting in the seat in front of me began screaming. Yes, screaming. She was yelling something in either Swedish or Norwegian, and appeared very upset. I swear to god she was yelling at someone in the seat next to her. There was no one sitting in the seat next to her. She threw her coat down and started pacing angrily up and down the aisle a bit, while everyone just sat and tried to pretend it wasn't happening. At some point she went and yelled at the bus driver. He responded to her, but of course, I have no idea what they were saying. Luckily, she did not resort to violence, and no crazy(er) shit went down before we arrived at our stop. The PR and I were pondering later whether or not it was scarier that we had no fucking clue what she was saying. Once arriving in Stockholm, I was yelled at by a napkin Nazi and we then had to entertain ourselves until the tourist information station opened.
Some Swedish highlights:
1. We took ourselves on a Rick Steves-guided walking tour of Gamla Stan (Old Town) and had to dodge Spanish and Russian tour groups as we checked out Parliament, the Palace, the old main square, the Cathedral, and lots of cool old medieval streets.
2. We happened to be there the same weekend as the
Stockholm Kultur Festival. We saw some crazy shit, like some dancers suspended from the side of a building,
Steve Hughes (an Australian heavy metal comedian), a Swedish American Idol-y thing, and some random
African movie.
3. Because of the Festival, we couldn't find a hostel in town, so we were booked in a hotel. The hotel got some water leakage in our room, and they put us up in a four-star hotel for the same price. Yeah. It was pretty fucking sweet. Four-star Swedish accommodations, motherfuckers!
4. We went to the wine & spirits museum (after trying for about 20 minutes to figure out how to get in the building; we probably shouldn't have been so drunk when we showed up) and learned about vodka distillery and why Sweden's liquor laws are so strict and shitty.
5. Had a
V Energy Drink.
The tower.
So many twists and turns.
Gamla Stan from the top.
6. Waited in line for an hour and a half to go up in the City Hall tower. We saw a bunch of weddings in the meantime, and that was pretty entertaining. We were some of the last people they let inside before they closed for the day. It took forever to get to the top, but it was totally worth it and I took about 952 pictures.
7. Apparently the liquor store closes at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, so we ended up buying some 3.5% beer (
Norrlands Guld) at the 7-11 and doing our very best to make a night of it in our 4-star hotel room while watching the Olympics on the flat screen TV. I think we were pretty successful.
I would have liked to spend some more time in Stockholm, but we had to catch an early-ish train and get back to Copenhagen to catch our flights home the next day. Though I did by a Sweden soccer-ish jersey and a man on my flight started talking to me about in in Swedish until I had to interrupt him to say I only spoke English and that I was just a tourist who was wearing my new shirt because it was the only clean thing I had.
So, The Perpetual Roommate and I took an overnight bus from Oslo to Stockholm. When we were nearing the city of Stockholm, circa 6:00 a.m., the possibly homeless-looking woman sitting in the seat in front of me began screaming. Yes, screaming. She was yelling something in either Swedish or Norwegian, and appeared very upset. I swear to god she was yelling at someone in the seat next to her. There was no one sitting in the seat next to her. She threw her coat down and started pacing angrily up and down the aisle a bit, while everyone just sat and tried to pretend it wasn't happening. At some point she went and yelled at the bus driver. He responded to her, but of course, I have no idea what they were saying. Luckily, she did not resort to violence, and no crazy(er) shit went down before we arrived at our stop. The PR and I were pondering later whether or not it was scarier that we had no fucking clue what she was saying. Once arriving in Stockholm, I was yelled at by a napkin Nazi and we then had to entertain ourselves until the tourist information station opened.
Some Swedish highlights:
1. We took ourselves on a Rick Steves-guided walking tour of Gamla Stan (Old Town) and had to dodge Spanish and Russian tour groups as we checked out Parliament, the Palace, the old main square, the Cathedral, and lots of cool old medieval streets.
2. We happened to be there the same weekend as the Stockholm Kultur Festival. We saw some crazy shit, like some dancers suspended from the side of a building, Steve Hughes (an Australian heavy metal comedian), a Swedish American Idol-y thing, and some random African movie.
3. Because of the Festival, we couldn't find a hostel in town, so we were booked in a hotel. The hotel got some water leakage in our room, and they put us up in a four-star hotel for the same price. Yeah. It was pretty fucking sweet. Four-star Swedish accommodations, motherfuckers!
4. We went to the wine & spirits museum (after trying for about 20 minutes to figure out how to get in the building; we probably shouldn't have been so drunk when we showed up) and learned about vodka distillery and why Sweden's liquor laws are so strict and shitty.
5. Had a V Energy Drink.
The tower.
So many twists and turns.
Gamla Stan from the top.
7. Apparently the liquor store closes at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, so we ended up buying some 3.5% beer (Norrlands Guld) at the 7-11 and doing our very best to make a night of it in our 4-star hotel room while watching the Olympics on the flat screen TV. I think we were pretty successful.
I would have liked to spend some more time in Stockholm, but we had to catch an early-ish train and get back to Copenhagen to catch our flights home the next day. Though I did by a Sweden soccer-ish jersey and a man on my flight started talking to me about in in Swedish until I had to interrupt him to say I only spoke English and that I was just a tourist who was wearing my new shirt because it was the only clean thing I had.
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