Last day in Sweden

Today is my last day in Sweden, I head back to the US tomorrow morning. I decided to head back into Stockholm to check it out before I left. Definitely a good decision, Stockholm is pretty awesome. I'm not sure where it ranks in terms of big European cities, but it is for sure one of the coolest cities that I have ever been to, maybe the coolest one of all.

As for the sun situation, I checked out intently last night. This place was dark, dark, dark by 11:30, then I went to sleep. I woke up at 3:30am and noticed that it was a bit lighter outside. It was still dark, but getting lighter. I fell back asleep then woke up again at 4:30am and the sun was rising then. That was a bit odd, I fell back asleep but it was probably full daytime by 5 or 5:30 in the morning. I wonder if it is dark that long in the winter here.

I got some good sleep and woke a bit later than normal, but that was ok because I had no where to be. I got ready and jumped on the train to Stockholm. I sent all day humping around Stockholm, checking out quite a bit. I checked out the standard city stuff, then walked by the Parlamaint building and the Royal Palace, then strolled around Old Town which was the coolest part of everything. Then I grabbed the train back here to Uppsala and had some dinner. Now I just need to pack and head out in the morning.

My latest observations on Sweden:
1) Probably the thing that I have found the funniest is that the Swedish word for Hi is Hej, which is pronounced as hey. But the "y" is annunciated a bit, so everyone sounds like Fonzie when you walk into someplace, everyone goes hey!.
2) Going out to breakfast is not really part of the Swedish culture. There are no Denny's or Ihop's (maybe I could make a fortune opening some). That is why my hotel was packed on Sunday, people go the breakfast's and brunches at hotels, because there really is no restaurant breakfast industry.
3) Sweden has an odd way of making me feel ordinary (height wise). It's not that I am gigantically tall, but I am a little taller than average. Especially in a place like Manuas, Brazil, where I was a certified giant. But, I am probably average or maybe even a little below average height here. Swedish genes are amazing, blond hair and tall.

Here is a photo of the Parliament building. They were giving tours, but I decided to skip it and just keep checking things out.


Here is the Royal Palace, I think the royal family still lives in here. There were tours throughout it, but I decided to save some money and only pay to see the Treasury. The treasury was a collection of the crown jewels, swords, and scepters going back to the 1500's. They had one of the Queen's dresses on display as well. It was pretty cool, I didn't take any pictures inside the treasury because they were pretty serious about the whole no pictures thing in there. I think one of the coolest things was the chest that was used to hold the crown jewels in the 1600's. The security and locking mechanism in the lid was just crazy, that was some serious security.

This is inside the palace. There was a small museum, that was barely noticeable on one side of the palace, so I strolled inside. It was pretty cool, they had a few paintings that were made of the palace almost 200 years ago, along with tons of old marble scupltures. There were signs that I am pretty sure were indicating to not take pictures, but no one was around so I snapped this one. What was cool about this part of it was that there was an old painting of this hall exactly as it still sits today. The painting was at the end of the hall in the photo looking towards me.


Here is a good random photo looking into Stockholm from the Royal Palace.


This is Old Town, Stockholm. It is really cool, almost no cars, just all walking and it was just packed full of people, mostly tourists. It was all a bunch of small shops, cafes, and restaurants. Really nice, there is nothing like this in the States.