10/24 - Stockholm

Decided to sleep in a little bit today because of the really long and tiring previous day.

The biggest tourist attraction in Stockholm is Skansen. It's the world's biggest and oldest open air museum. It opened in the 1800s and the point of it is to keep parts of Swedish history in tact. Most of the museum consist of old homes, shops, and villages that had been either recreated or moved. I saw traditional glass blowing, an old blacksmith, a village from the 1300s and a traditional 18th century farmhouse. It was really interesting but unfortunately this is one of the touristy sites that I wish had more people.

I actually really enjoyed the zoo it had, mostly because I didn't know there was one. The animals were pretty active and I got to take some cool picture of them.

Walked around a bit more and decided to once again explore Sodermalm. I went to a place called the Black Hole Cafe. It must be the world's only black metal cafe. They only play black metal, have upside down crosses hanging on the wall and sell CDs from only underground extreme metal bands. Oh yeah, and they serve coffee. Really a cool environment and definitely unique. But for the first time in my life I felt like an outsider in a heavy metal environment. Every other person in there had really long hear and was wearing leather. And after reading a black metal fanzine I got kind of creeped out and decided an hour is more than enough time to spend there alone.

Again, went to Gamla Stan. Wanted to see it one last time and pick up some souvenirs. I bought some postcards and checked out Handfaste, the Viking shop. Bought myself a mjollnir pendant, I really couldn't resist.

Went with my host to a local couchsurfers meeting. It was really fun and I met a lot of people from all over the place. A couple locals, a few Americans, a girl from Austria. After hanging out at a coffee shop for a few hours two of the locals wanted to walk around with me and another American girl. They showed us some things we hadn't seen and we ended up in Sodermalm. It was really cool meeting and hanging out with such friendly people.

So ends my last full day in Stockholm. It's a really vibrant city, much more than any in Scandinavia and the people are incredibly nice.