Stockholm with Sister
18 Jun 2014 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneI was gone from home for a week, for 5 days with my little sister in Stockholm! waxjism has been feeling under the weather, which meant switching anti-depressants, and has been in the midst of tapering off one and onto another simultaneously for a month or so, and therefore feeling even MORE under the weather. So she didn't come along.
Table of Contents:
1. Wed: The Shoe Affair, The Mall that Cthulhu Built, and a Digression: Don't Try to Eat Vegan in Downtown Stockholm's Central Tourist Destinations
2. Thurs: Medieval Museum and Museum Tre Kronor
3. Fri: Drottninggatan and the Historical Museum
4. Sat: Kungsholmen
5. Sun: Gamla Stan and Gustav III's Antiquities Museum
6. Mon: National Gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts and St Clara's Church
1. Wednesday: The Shoe Affair & The Mall that Cthulhu Built & Don't Try to Eat Vegan in Downtown Stockholm's Central Tourist Destinations
After my trip to Copenhagen, I knew that my Converse didn't provide enough cushioning and insole support for a full day of hiking around doing tourist activities. (Dr Martens might, but it's a little warm for that.) I didn't want to buy new athletic shoes, though, because in day-to-day life I pretty much never wear them. However, when I tried on the pair I hadn't worn in a few years, I found they would not stay on my foot! The heel slid off, then back on with every step, and adjusting the laces didn't do anything about it. I did go shopping a couple of times, but like I said, I hate shopping for athletic shoes - they're more expensive than other shoes, and you have to interact with the salespeople more, and you kinda have to go to a sporting goods store, which I hate even more. So I decided, in the end, to attach some padding made of sticky bandage gauze to the inner heel collar of the running shoes I already had. I took them out on a brief test run and they worked. However, the test run was too brief.
I got into downtown Stockholm's bus station at 7 am or so, ate breakfast and had to kill time until my sister's flight arrived at 11.30... and just in walking around the vicinity of the station in that time, the padding came unfixed repeatedly and managed to actually blister my right heel.
L's bus finally arrived after 13.00. We got some brunch, then checked into our hostel - we walked, which took a long time. We didn't figure out the right underground station stop to use until two days later. - and sallied forth again to look for some other shoes. The Galleria behind the Culture House at Sergels Torg was our destination. On the map, it appeared to just be a mall, a building the size of a city block. But we quickly got lost when we were in it. I eventually figured out this is because it continued underground, popping back up on opposite sides of at least one street and radiating (still underground) in a circle around the centerpiece of Sergels Torg, but also extending several blocks, connected to both Åhléns and to T-Centralen itself. There was not a map anywhere in it, and it contained side hallways that randomly led to more up/down escalators/ramps to other parts of it... all over. There were also multiple unconnected branches of some shops, like Nilsson Shoes and Kapp Ahl, and other shops like H&M and Stadium that appeared to have two separate, unconnected branches, but they were actually connected in some twisty manner, and just had several different doors.
I bought some shoes and we trudged all over looking for a place where we could get something warm to eat for dinner without meat or milk-products in it for under about ten euros. This wasn't possible: the food is drastically overpriced and even more drastically undersupplied with vegetarian options, all of which contain cheese. Also true of any sandwich you can find anywhere from cafés to 7-11. Swedes, even more than Finns - which I wouldn't have imagined possible - seem to consider cheese a vitally important staple of EVERY meal, but even more so when there's no meat in it. It's a good thing my allergy to milk products just gives me annoying and painful zits, and not like, projectile vomiting or something.
Finally we gave up and bought cup noodles, crackers, and fruit at the supermarket under T-centralen before taking the tube back to the hostel. We got off at the wrong stop because our free map didn't have numbers on the blocks. It was raining, cold, and windy, and we walked most of the length of Kungsholmen, from Fridhemsplan to Rådhuset, in abject misery. We ate at the hostel, which was better than some hostels I've been to, but the mattresses were awful and there weren't enough outlets for everyone in the room to charge their phones.
2. Thursday: Medeltidsmuseet and Museum Tre Kronor, the medieval portion of the royal palace on Gamla Stan
We walked the long way back towards downtown, thinking we would pass a cafe where we could buy breakfast on the way. We didn't, so the walk was unnecessarily long. We bought breakfast at T-Centralen, then crossed the bridge to the tiny island off Gamla Stan that contains the Swedish Parliament building and, on the other half, buried literally under the elaborate park in front of the Parliament, the medieval museum. (We loved the medieval museum.) Then it was raining, so we dashed in the nearest open door, which turned out to lead to Tre Kronor, which is part of the royal palace museums but not physically connected to them. It shows artifacts from the middle ages and excavations of the medieval parts of the palace, which are underneath the parts that are currently above ground. It had some cool stuff in it, but it wasn't as great as the medieval museum.
When it had stopped raining, we got a wee bit lost thanks to construction at the palace attempting to find our way out into the rest of Gamla Stan, but eventually made it to Kladdkakan, a café that I really love, but thanks to tiredness and low blood sugar I made a poor choice of lunch. And then we were too full to eat cake. :/ But we did, thus refreshed, find our way to Indiska and the science fiction bookstore. L bought presents for people in them.
3. Friday - Drottninggatan and Historiska Museet
L wanted to buy some Swedish metal for her boyfriend, so we went to a record shop I remembered on Drottninggatan. Their selection wasn't great, so we walked up and down the street, shopping a bit, and looking for more record stores. We didn't find them though, and instead bought the most delicious spaghetti I've ever tasted at a little authentic Italian pizzeria. (L got pictures in which I'm getting teary-eyed. I kept pausing every bite and going "Oh my GOD, why is this spaghetti SO GOOD????")
Then we took the underground out to the Historical Museum, which was our favorite museum by far. We stayed until they closed at 18.00, then went back to the hostel. L had more cup noodles and I had more bread and hummus.
4. Saturday - Kungsholmen
Saturday we walked around the island the hostel was on and crossed briefly over the bridge at the other end in pursuit of record stores. L finally found and bought a CD of Sabaton at @mece66's suggestion. Then we metwaxjism's cousin for lunch and she took us to a French bakery that was super adorable, and then on a walk around the island. It was chilly and windy, but the long, brisk walk warmed us up nicely and we enjoyed talking to her and hanging out with her baby until close to dinnertime. The baby was really relaxed and calm, but extremely fascinated by my fingerless gloves. I made him two origami cranes and he completely ate the wing off one of them. Then we walked back, stopping at an even MORE gigantic supermarket to buy more sandwich stuff for dinner (fruit, chips, olives, cream cheese and bread).
5. Sunday - Gamla Stan, Gustav III's Antiquities Museum
We went back to Gamla Stan and saw another part of the royal palace museum, a wing devoted to antiquities purchased by Gustav III. It's one of the oldest museums in Europe, having been opened to the public in the 1700s. It's also tiny (two long galleries full of sculptures) and really cute. After that we walked around Gamla Stan taking pictures and had lunch at a Thai restaurant. Then we went back to the hostel a bit early so L could pack and get ready to leave at 3 am to catch her flight. We both napped only a little bit before then.
6. Monday - National Gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts and St Clara's
I slept late-ish after L left because staying up until 2 am fucks up my brain and upsets my stomach. I packed up my shit and left by 10 am though, put my luggage in a locker at the bus station and walked off in search of the nearest museum. That was the Academy of Fine Arts, which is hosting a temporary exhibit from the National Gallery while the National Gallery's building is being renovated. It was windy and freezing so I tried to take a shortcut, but the map had misled me, so it ended up taking 3x as long to find the Gallery as I wanted. On the way I had to duck into St Clara's Church, which was well-placed right when it suddenly started violently raining. I was glad I went in, though, because it's got some really lovely frescoes painted in the ceiling vaults! I kinda hurt my neck from craning to look at them. It was a nice place to read for half an hour. I also had to stop and buy lunch on the way to the academy (which was just as well because it was like the 1 museum in town without an internal cafe.)
The National Gallery brought me there, but actually I was even more fascinated by the collection of plasters of classical sculptures owned by the Academy itself. They were collected starting in the 1600s by the king, to be used in instruction for aspiring artists, who had to draw them. When people realized that drawing Greek and Roman statues was NOT the best way you could learn art, eventually, the collection was relegated to the role of decoration. There's a great gallery, lit by skylight, centered with a lifesize cast of Nike of Samothrace, and the gallery is wonderful. There are other plasters throughout the building though.
I was so tired after that that I cut my plans to walk around downtown short. Also it was still windy and cold and occasionally rainy. I went back to the bus station early and claimed one of the very few wall outlets to charge my phone and read for a couple of hours.
My photo posts from my photoblog at Tumblr: Walking in Gamla Stan - On the Street & in the Church - The Medieval Museum - The Historical Museum - Plaster statues at the Academy of Fine Arts
waxjism has been feeling under the weather, which meant switching anti-depressants, and has been in the midst of tapering off one and onto another simultaneously for a month or so, and therefore feeling even MORE under the weather. So she didn't come along.Table of Contents:
1. Wed: The Shoe Affair, The Mall that Cthulhu Built, and a Digression: Don't Try to Eat Vegan in Downtown Stockholm's Central Tourist Destinations
2. Thurs: Medieval Museum and Museum Tre Kronor
3. Fri: Drottninggatan and the Historical Museum
4. Sat: Kungsholmen
5. Sun: Gamla Stan and Gustav III's Antiquities Museum
6. Mon: National Gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts and St Clara's Church
1. Wednesday: The Shoe Affair & The Mall that Cthulhu Built & Don't Try to Eat Vegan in Downtown Stockholm's Central Tourist Destinations
After my trip to Copenhagen, I knew that my Converse didn't provide enough cushioning and insole support for a full day of hiking around doing tourist activities. (Dr Martens might, but it's a little warm for that.) I didn't want to buy new athletic shoes, though, because in day-to-day life I pretty much never wear them. However, when I tried on the pair I hadn't worn in a few years, I found they would not stay on my foot! The heel slid off, then back on with every step, and adjusting the laces didn't do anything about it. I did go shopping a couple of times, but like I said, I hate shopping for athletic shoes - they're more expensive than other shoes, and you have to interact with the salespeople more, and you kinda have to go to a sporting goods store, which I hate even more. So I decided, in the end, to attach some padding made of sticky bandage gauze to the inner heel collar of the running shoes I already had. I took them out on a brief test run and they worked. However, the test run was too brief.
I got into downtown Stockholm's bus station at 7 am or so, ate breakfast and had to kill time until my sister's flight arrived at 11.30... and just in walking around the vicinity of the station in that time, the padding came unfixed repeatedly and managed to actually blister my right heel.
L's bus finally arrived after 13.00. We got some brunch, then checked into our hostel - we walked, which took a long time. We didn't figure out the right underground station stop to use until two days later. - and sallied forth again to look for some other shoes. The Galleria behind the Culture House at Sergels Torg was our destination. On the map, it appeared to just be a mall, a building the size of a city block. But we quickly got lost when we were in it. I eventually figured out this is because it continued underground, popping back up on opposite sides of at least one street and radiating (still underground) in a circle around the centerpiece of Sergels Torg, but also extending several blocks, connected to both Åhléns and to T-Centralen itself. There was not a map anywhere in it, and it contained side hallways that randomly led to more up/down escalators/ramps to other parts of it... all over. There were also multiple unconnected branches of some shops, like Nilsson Shoes and Kapp Ahl, and other shops like H&M and Stadium that appeared to have two separate, unconnected branches, but they were actually connected in some twisty manner, and just had several different doors.
I bought some shoes and we trudged all over looking for a place where we could get something warm to eat for dinner without meat or milk-products in it for under about ten euros. This wasn't possible: the food is drastically overpriced and even more drastically undersupplied with vegetarian options, all of which contain cheese. Also true of any sandwich you can find anywhere from cafés to 7-11. Swedes, even more than Finns - which I wouldn't have imagined possible - seem to consider cheese a vitally important staple of EVERY meal, but even more so when there's no meat in it. It's a good thing my allergy to milk products just gives me annoying and painful zits, and not like, projectile vomiting or something.
Finally we gave up and bought cup noodles, crackers, and fruit at the supermarket under T-centralen before taking the tube back to the hostel. We got off at the wrong stop because our free map didn't have numbers on the blocks. It was raining, cold, and windy, and we walked most of the length of Kungsholmen, from Fridhemsplan to Rådhuset, in abject misery. We ate at the hostel, which was better than some hostels I've been to, but the mattresses were awful and there weren't enough outlets for everyone in the room to charge their phones.
2. Thursday: Medeltidsmuseet and Museum Tre Kronor, the medieval portion of the royal palace on Gamla Stan
We walked the long way back towards downtown, thinking we would pass a cafe where we could buy breakfast on the way. We didn't, so the walk was unnecessarily long. We bought breakfast at T-Centralen, then crossed the bridge to the tiny island off Gamla Stan that contains the Swedish Parliament building and, on the other half, buried literally under the elaborate park in front of the Parliament, the medieval museum. (We loved the medieval museum.) Then it was raining, so we dashed in the nearest open door, which turned out to lead to Tre Kronor, which is part of the royal palace museums but not physically connected to them. It shows artifacts from the middle ages and excavations of the medieval parts of the palace, which are underneath the parts that are currently above ground. It had some cool stuff in it, but it wasn't as great as the medieval museum.
When it had stopped raining, we got a wee bit lost thanks to construction at the palace attempting to find our way out into the rest of Gamla Stan, but eventually made it to Kladdkakan, a café that I really love, but thanks to tiredness and low blood sugar I made a poor choice of lunch. And then we were too full to eat cake. :/ But we did, thus refreshed, find our way to Indiska and the science fiction bookstore. L bought presents for people in them.
3. Friday - Drottninggatan and Historiska Museet
L wanted to buy some Swedish metal for her boyfriend, so we went to a record shop I remembered on Drottninggatan. Their selection wasn't great, so we walked up and down the street, shopping a bit, and looking for more record stores. We didn't find them though, and instead bought the most delicious spaghetti I've ever tasted at a little authentic Italian pizzeria. (L got pictures in which I'm getting teary-eyed. I kept pausing every bite and going "Oh my GOD, why is this spaghetti SO GOOD????")
Then we took the underground out to the Historical Museum, which was our favorite museum by far. We stayed until they closed at 18.00, then went back to the hostel. L had more cup noodles and I had more bread and hummus.
4. Saturday - Kungsholmen
Saturday we walked around the island the hostel was on and crossed briefly over the bridge at the other end in pursuit of record stores. L finally found and bought a CD of Sabaton at @mece66's suggestion. Then we met
waxjism's cousin for lunch and she took us to a French bakery that was super adorable, and then on a walk around the island. It was chilly and windy, but the long, brisk walk warmed us up nicely and we enjoyed talking to her and hanging out with her baby until close to dinnertime. The baby was really relaxed and calm, but extremely fascinated by my fingerless gloves. I made him two origami cranes and he completely ate the wing off one of them. Then we walked back, stopping at an even MORE gigantic supermarket to buy more sandwich stuff for dinner (fruit, chips, olives, cream cheese and bread). 5. Sunday - Gamla Stan, Gustav III's Antiquities Museum
We went back to Gamla Stan and saw another part of the royal palace museum, a wing devoted to antiquities purchased by Gustav III. It's one of the oldest museums in Europe, having been opened to the public in the 1700s. It's also tiny (two long galleries full of sculptures) and really cute. After that we walked around Gamla Stan taking pictures and had lunch at a Thai restaurant. Then we went back to the hostel a bit early so L could pack and get ready to leave at 3 am to catch her flight. We both napped only a little bit before then.
6. Monday - National Gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts and St Clara's
I slept late-ish after L left because staying up until 2 am fucks up my brain and upsets my stomach. I packed up my shit and left by 10 am though, put my luggage in a locker at the bus station and walked off in search of the nearest museum. That was the Academy of Fine Arts, which is hosting a temporary exhibit from the National Gallery while the National Gallery's building is being renovated. It was windy and freezing so I tried to take a shortcut, but the map had misled me, so it ended up taking 3x as long to find the Gallery as I wanted. On the way I had to duck into St Clara's Church, which was well-placed right when it suddenly started violently raining. I was glad I went in, though, because it's got some really lovely frescoes painted in the ceiling vaults! I kinda hurt my neck from craning to look at them. It was a nice place to read for half an hour. I also had to stop and buy lunch on the way to the academy (which was just as well because it was like the 1 museum in town without an internal cafe.)
The National Gallery brought me there, but actually I was even more fascinated by the collection of plasters of classical sculptures owned by the Academy itself. They were collected starting in the 1600s by the king, to be used in instruction for aspiring artists, who had to draw them. When people realized that drawing Greek and Roman statues was NOT the best way you could learn art, eventually, the collection was relegated to the role of decoration. There's a great gallery, lit by skylight, centered with a lifesize cast of Nike of Samothrace, and the gallery is wonderful. There are other plasters throughout the building though.
I was so tired after that that I cut my plans to walk around downtown short. Also it was still windy and cold and occasionally rainy. I went back to the bus station early and claimed one of the very few wall outlets to charge my phone and read for a couple of hours.
My photo posts from my photoblog at Tumblr: Walking in Gamla Stan - On the Street & in the Church - The Medieval Museum - The Historical Museum - Plaster statues at the Academy of Fine Arts
