One thing I’ve gotten hooked on is the free expressos, latte, cappuccino’s they have at work. Just bring a cup, poke a button and instant wakeup buzz! At first I just watched the guys drink up during the breaks then one day I thought I’d give it whirl. That’s all she wrote! Like clockwork now, have it in the morning, noon, mid-afternoon sometimes more. The photo below is the exact model I use (see what happens when your stuck in the hotel, doing research on expresso machines!)
The summer season is coming to an end here in Sweden. I woke up this morning to see the fog rolling in. It started about 5am by the time I left an hour later the fog got really thick. One good thing, I don’t have to drive in this weather. I’m still taking the Tube and Trains to get to work. It will get interesting as the foggy season arrives and I’m still walking through the forest to get to work.
Another shot a few days earlier…
I’m still trying adjust to the time zone change, find myself waking up early in the mornings. I can already see the difference between sunrise and sunset. The last time I was here it the sun was already coming up around 3:30am and setting down close to 10:30pm which made super long daylight hours. It has definitely shortened as I took this photo around 6am and notice it starts to get dark around 7pm. The shot below is a rare shot with not the usual hustle and bustling crowds below. I plan on having an early breakfast and go birthday gift shopping for Bugs today.
I just had breakfast downstairs not too many in the hotel. I think the tourist season just about ending. It was still early so I took a stroll to Central Station to pickup a couple magazines to read later on tonight. As I was walking out of the station it dawned on me that i paid over $28.00 for two freakin’ magazines when it would have cost me $13.00 in the states!!! I seem to be learning more lessons this time around, don’t take for granted pricing even when its the exact same items.
Went for a walk around Kings Garden. It turns out they had a rally for a great cause, it felt good being part of this super event where thousands gathered in support of… didn’t have a clue! All the literature was in Swedish, their speeches were in Swedish, songs, buttons, freebees all in Swedish. I do know ECCO sponsored the event 🙂
This weekend happens to be election time. I’ve seen different candidates giving speeches on TV. One of them happened to be in the “Square” next to the Pedestrian Shopping Walkway. This is an abnormal election as a splinter group is trying to create a recognized party. The elections happen this coming Sunday, I’ll hear more when I go to work Monday…
After spending so much time here I sort of consider myself a seasoned subway (tuber) and train commuter :0 Well, this morning I was munching on my traditional buttered bread pastries and swiggin’ down a can of redbull when I looked out of the boxcar window and noticed this huge rolling pasture with the sun just starting to edge above the grass. Hold on! sh_t! I’ve never seen this before. It turns out I must have daydreamed right past my train station towards Voxholm and the Baltic Sea.
I ended up hopping off the next station and waited for the next train heading back towards Stockholm. One funny note, I started getting ready as I heard the train coming, got in primo calculated position where the train doors would open, roller laptop bag poised and ready for action, knowbody else budged. I didn’t give it too much thought until I see this train coming towards us so fast I thought no way in hell was that thing going to stop in time! It didn’t, blew right pass me flapping my jacket and shifting the cool shades on my head. No wonder they did’t budge. It turns out not all trains stop at all stations. Doh! That’s cool, I knew that people. It didn’t matter that I now had to stand since someone snagged my place on the single wooden bench.
The whole event added an hour to the commute if you look at it that way, I thought of it as another adventure as I got to see wide open pastures as well as heavily densed forest areas all in one trip and I learned another lesson in traveling…
Flew over to Sweden again, barely made my flights due to delays. They actually held the plane for me while I ran across the international terminal to make the flight (actually, I got a ride through most of it. That’s another story) It all started off with a hour delay leaving Sacramento and a 45 minute “hovering” pattern over Chicago until we got the clearance to land safely. At least I didn’t get stuck in the tarmac like I did the last time trying to leave Chicago for an hour. Oh well, safe at the Sheraton, can’t sleep yet, still trying to adjust…
I’m traveling down South again, same old Shhhh..stuff. The trip to Southern Cal had to be one of the worse yet. Due to the heightend security precautions it took me about 2 hours to get through airport security.
 Nothing new here, same ol’, same old. I have noticed that most if not all of the staff here is new. I wonder if they let all the former Wooley’s Petite employees go (it’s now La Quinta Inn). Nothing on television, time to update the blog!
Flew down to Southern California again. This shot is the all too familiar view outside of my hotel room. I’ve stayed in this place so much I can’t really can’t count the times. That many. My usual room wasn’t available but at least the one I’m in has great internet access so I can do my blog 
This city is full of history, wherever you look you will find a museum or church. These are not ordinary buildings either they have been around for many, many years. only passed through the royal churches and visited one museum. You would probably have to be here a month just to cover the local offerings. I’m sure there are many others across Sweden.
If you happen to be around a church at 12:00 PM you will be able to hear the bells ringing. It’s especially nice if your within earshot of several churches which is easily done in Old Town. The combination of bells and chimes rings travel throughout the alleys, bouncing and creating echos. Nice.
One of the many things that makes this city unique are the surrounding waterways. Stockholm has it’s islands one way to get to them is by use of bridges. I noticed a lot tours were based on “going under” the bridge. Once again not having a clue I just picked a boat and hopped on. One thing worth mentioning the first boat I picked was a ferry and not a tour boat. It would have taken me to a distant island. I wanted a tour around Stockholm itself so I hopped off the ferry and jumped on another.
The particular boat I picked was a 24 hour ride, meaning I could hop off at any stop and get back on using the same ticket within 24 hours. That’s a really good way of getting around the major areas in Stockholm within one day. If I had known that before hand I would have done that instead of taking a taxi to different areas of town the day before.
If you look on the internet regarding this Vasa Museum, you will find that it is one of the highlight tourist attractions of all Stockholm, Sweden. It was that fact alone that I made a special taxi ride to this part of town to check it out.
When I first saw the ship I was impressed but not too excited about it. It wasn’t until I spent a half hour watching a non-english documentary film showing the recovery efforts that I began to appreciate the level of work it took to get the Vasa out of the water after being sunken for over 300 years.
One other nice feature about the museum is that its multiple levels, three floors to be exact. You can view the ship at water line level, mid-level and up above looking down into the ships deck. All in all its a good place to visit, plus if someone ask you “did you check out that big ship that sank?” you can say “sure did”.
If you want to get around Old Town to specific areas, you learn to use the alleys real fast. There are hundreds of alley’s. Some are lined with small shops others are like the one shown above, just another way to get somewhere quickly.
One cool thing about walking the alleys is taking a look up once in awhile. Sometimes you get a stunning view depending on where you happen to be standing at the time.
With all alleys, they lead somewhere. Most of the time I didn’t have a clue where I was walking too. If I got tired of being around the crowds I just picked a path and walked until it opened up somewhere. In this case, the classic open cafe setting. I would say every block had at least a half dozen cafe’s. The only other vendor that rivaled the coffee makers were the places selling ice cream on a waffle cone. Ice cream must be huge here, people either sat along the brick paths chomping on ice cream or drinking an expresso.
Once I got off the subway I just followed everyone out noting the surroundings for my return. Gamla Stan is the “Old Town” section of Stockholm. I understand it’s the tourist section where hundreds of shops are located for souvenir hunters. It’s also a main stop for cruise ships.
On this particular weekend, this particular day I didn’t have a clue that it was the annual runners marathon. This is a huge event that attracts 17,000+ runners! Luckily I was there early enough to do my sight seeing before the event actually started and was long gone when it did.
As luck would have it I happened to be walking around Sweden’s Royal Palace when the changing of the guards occured. I heard about this and thought it would be something I would try to catch, as it turns out I was at the right place at the right time. I also went to the Vaja Ship Exhibit, Parliament, Royale Theater, Old Town, New Town. I spent the whole day just walking around soaking up the sites.
I happened to be walking at the right place at the right time to see the royal guards marching with their horses. This happens once a day around 2:00PM. They protect the royal buildings.
I was under the impression these guards were like England’s guards where they are famous for not moving or flinching regardless of what goes on. As I walked towards him I was thinking of what I was going to do to make this guy move or get some reaction. I didn’t have to do anything! When I got a few feet from him he just turned his head and looked at me. I said “uuh, hi”. What a let down!
I guess these guys don’t have the same standards as the others do or maybe I just found a rookie who thought it be better to look and see this big old bald dark bearded man with an evil grin walking his way. Poor kid.
You would think something like this would attract a lot of tourist but surprisingly enough not too many people were around. As I think of it now, maybe the crowd gathers where they actually do the guard exchange. Shoot, I should have followed behind them in full march.
I arrived in Sweden during the best time of year, early summer. The weather was perfect for the typical sight seeing tourist (me).
I’m commuting long distance again, this month I headed away from Asia and towards Europe, destination Stockholm, Sweden. Since I don’t have a car rental I’m using the public transit system. So far I’ve ridden taxi’s, train’s and the underground subway system. You can go anywhere using the train and subways, it’s a matter of learning the system to get around. I use the taxi when I’m too tired to walk to the train station from the hotel which is about a half mile away.
I got into Stockholm, Sweden Wednesday around lunchtime. Due to the time difference and the ability to sleep on the plane I was super tired.
I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel in Taby, this is a small town where my work facility is located but some distance from the city of Stockholm.
Getting around is an adventure itself, you use trains and subways for the most part. Transportation by taxi can get real expensive, I used the public metro during my sight seeing opportunities and taxi’s to get to and from work.
The trains come and go every half-hour or so, you just need to make sure you get on one that’s going the right direction, otherwise you can get be going for miles the opposite direction. I learned real quick to just ask for directions since most of the locals speak english very well.
I found that most of the public directions were in the Swedish language. You get around by learning how to read maps by names and subway locations. Total one way train ride is 20 Krona, under $3 bucks USD and totally not crowded, I’ve yet had to stand.
