Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm, where to begin. What a beautiful and amazing city. As usual, I just happened to be on Ryanair.com (and no I am not getting paid to do advertising for them) and saw they were having 10 euro flights to Stockholm – yes please. I immediately called my dear friend Jesse in Belgium, told him the details, and he was sold.

So as I found the plane tickets, his job was to find lodging. We decided that staying in a hostel would be way to expensive so we agreed on another alternative…Couchsurfing. I’m guessing most of you reading this have no idea what Couchsurfing is. Well, it’s this really amazing website where thousands, maybe millions, of people register themselves online as having an extra room, bed, couch, floor, or are just willing to meet new people and welcome travelers into their homes. So three days before we were leaving I asked Jesse if he had found a place for us yet- his response was a big, fat NO. So he sent out over 100 requests to stay with people from Stockholm on the website, and only two people responded. Luckily for us, this really cool kid named Jack welcomed us into his home.

I can honestly say I have never met someone so genuine, welcoming, and interesting. He met both of us in downtown Stockholm and took us to his apartment. His apartment was so clean and Swedish (modern, awesome, and IKEA-esque). Jack took us on a little walking tour around the city that afternoon, and then brought us back to his place where he cooked us a delicious dinner and then we got ready to go out.

We went to meet up with his friends at their place, do a little pre-drinking and socializing, and off we all went to this club. The theme of the club was 60’s and it was honestly a great time, dancing to Motown, oldies, and some good soul music.
We stayed there till I don’t know when, and then I begged them to go home in a taxi.

After some sleep the next day, we all got up, ate some lunch at a pizzeria, and then Jack took us on a walking tour of his city, and when I say walking tour, I mean like 5 or 6 hours of walking, all over the city. It was really amazing and tiring at the same time. He took us to where the Parliament meets, we saw where the Nobel Prize honoring takes place, and even got to see some Christmas markets which were awesome.

The next day, while Jack went to work, Jesse and I did some shopping (my idea) and walked around the city some more. We explored the “newer” part of Stockholm. We went on a boat ride and it was really nice to get to see all the nature the city embodies and just the overall atmosphere. That night Jack’s mom had invited us over to her home for dinner, which was totally awesome! What an interesting, cultivated, and loving person Petra was. She is a jazz musician, playing percussion, and so the whole evening we all talked about music, she played us some of hers, and then revealed to us that she was also an artist, so we began to look at her works of art. It was a really special evening for me, in the senses that these total strangers welcomed Jesse and I into their homes and made us feel so welcome.

I think Jesse and I were both very sad to leave Stockholm and both look forward to going back when the weather is nicer and the sun stays out a bit longer.