Stockholm, Sweden

We continued our romantic European adventure to Stockholm, Sweden for the last few days of our anniversary trip! After feasting on our gourmet breakfast before leaving our Santorini hotel, we checked out and headed to the airport. We had to check Marshall’s bag because it weighed too much but I made sure mine was under the weight limit by putting all my makeup and hair supplies in a plastic bag that I just carried on the plane. There’s no way in heck I’m risking paying another astronomical baggage fee! We boarded the plane to Athens where we had just a long enough layover to scarf down some pasta and salad then got back on a plane for three more hours to Stockholm.

When we arrived, we made our way down to baggage claim to get Marshall’s bag. After waiting around for nearly 30 minutes, the baggage carousel stopped spinning and Marshall’s bag was nowhere to be found. You’ve got to be kidding! We wandered over to customer service and spent an hour trying to figure out if the bag was coming but realized that was not going to happen. We submitted a lost bag claim and just hoped it would show up when we returned back to the airport in a few days. In all our travels, this is the first time we’ve ever lost a bag…and hopefully the last! We generally just bring carry-on bags but European airlines all have different baggage size and weight restrictions that are usually far less than US based airlines. Lesson learned…we’re never checking a bag again!

All Marshall had with him was the shorts and sweaty T-shirt he had on from the nice and sunny Santorini weather we just left. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be warm weather while we were in Stockholm. Such a bummer! So, guess what we did that afternoon? You guessed it! We shopped for new clothes and toiletries for the two days we’d be here. Yay, just how we wanted to spend our time in Stockholm. All I can say is I’m glad it wasn’t my bag that got lost because we’d have to spend a whole lot more time shopping for new makeup and hair supplies. Haha!

That evening we strolled through the old town and made our way to an authentic Viking themed restaurant called Aifur. When we walked inside, we noticed two grungy guys playing hurdie gurdies to entertain the guests. Such a cool sounding instrument! As we’re about to be seated, the host announced to everyone in the restaurant to welcome Marshall and Shelly from Seattle. Everyone stomped their feet and cheered for us as we walked to our table. So welcoming! We were sat at a picnic style table squeezed between two other couples. A little cozier than I’d prefer but we made it work. The only type of drink they served was mead which is wine made from honey. Super tasty! Marshall had an appetizer of an assortment of meats he’d never had. Can’t remember all the types, but there was definitely a slice of reindeer butt and probably some elf ear or something. Awesome time!

We continued walking through town after dinner and made our way to the main town square.  I noticed a trendy cocktail bar I had researched called Pharmarium and grabbed a patio table to people watch for a while. Their cocktails are really interesting and super tasty! As we were gazing out at the fountain in the middle of the square, we noticed some local kids, maybe 3 or 4 years old playing around the fountain. They were cupping their hands and drinking water from a puddle on the ground where pigeons were also playing in (and probably pooped in). Seriously, where are these kid’s parents? Slightly disturbing but not the craziest thing we’ve seen. On our way out of the bar we asked our server where we should hit up next and she recommended a place called Corner Club a few blocks away.

We made our way over there and the first thing I notice is the funky Swedish hip hop music playing inside. Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! We ordered a couple drinks from the bartender who happened to be an American guy from California that recently moved to Stockholm to be with a Swedish girl he met in college. He made super unique drinks for us. Mine had purple foam on top and little lavender candy hearts. Heavenly!

As we walked back to our hotel, I could smell freshly made waffles filling the streets. We had no choice but to stop for dessert! I ordered a waffle smothered with Nutella and Marshall ordered a caramel fudge brownie. Mmm mmm good!

The following morning we had absolutely no agenda…for the first time ever. After our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we started walking along the water toward a town called Södermalm which is known for its antique shops and eclectic cafes. It was still a little early and none of the shops had opened yet so we found a nearby coffee shop and hung out there until the city woke up. As we strolled around, we saw electric scooters everywhere. We thought that would be a great way to explore town so we grabbed two and rode throughout the city. It was a nice change not walking everywhere as we generally average about 8-10 miles a day while traveling. These scooters ended up being one of our favorite experiences in Stockholm and look forward to finding more of them in our future travels. Makes things so easy and fun!
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We stopped for lunch at a local pub in the main shopping district and had delicious chicken schnitzel. My favorite! We strolled through the shops a bit afterwards but quickly realized we weren’t interested in shopping. We stopped inside of a little coffee shop and researched nearby things to do on our phone. Nothing sounded better than just relaxing in our room, so we scootered back to our hotel and watched a good ol’ Swedish movie. It was nice to unwind for a few hours after being on the go for a week straight.

One of the bartenders at Corner Club the night before had recommended that we check out a bar called Erik’s Gondolen while we’re here. It’s a beautiful outdoor rooftop bar suspended high above the harbor with sweeping views over the city. We had to check it out and we were glad did because the drinks were great and the view was even better! We then walked over to the main town square and had dinner on a cute little restaurant patio. This time there was a local band playing music in the square to serenade us during dinner. How lovely!

It was the last night of our trip and we wanted to enjoy a late night on the town. It’s been awesome staying out past 7pm while we don’t have kids with us. Haha! We really enjoyed the vibe at Corner Club the night before, so we went back to try a different cocktail on the menu. It was just as yummy and unique as the first. Our server recommended that we check out a bar called Tweed afterwards which we realized was actually inside of our hotel. Perfect! This bar had a speakeasy vibe with dim lighting and brown leather couches everywhere. Just our style!

We didn’t have a reservation and all the couches were taken so we sat at the bar. Fine by us! We actually find the bar more fun because we get to watch the bartender concoct really interesting drinks. My drink came in a parrot shaped glass and Marshall’s came in a glass that had a picture of Winston Churchill clipped to it (no explanation why). We saw a table of girls sitting behind us that ordered a shared cocktail that came in a huge pink flamingo pitcher with smoke coming out of the flamingo’s butt. Very creative!

The following morning, we did some shopping in the old town to pick up some gifts to bring home for the boys. We still had about an hour to kill until we needed to head to the airport so stopped at a café for a cappuccino and reminisced about all the great experiences we had on this trip. It was wonderful spending nine days together reconnecting and just enjoying each other’s company.

Our Uber driver picked us up and gave us great insight into living in Sweden on the way to the airport. He was telling us how colleges are free, citizens get amazing health insurance, and homeless people always have a place to live at shelters. Sounds like an awesome place to live! Great to talk to a local for a while and realize there are so many amazing places to live around the world.

When we arrived at the airport, we went straight to the information counter to see if Marshall’s bag had arrived. Low and behold, his bag miraculously showed up. Yay! Again, no explanation, but all that mattered was that it was back in our possession. We boarded our three-hour flight to Iceland where we had to change planes.

During our two-hour layover Marshall and I both randomly got selected to be interrogated by TSA. What the heck? Who knows, maybe we looked suspicious. The guy asked us bizarre questions like what our house looks like (color of our roof, etc), what jobs we have and who our favorite co-workers are and why. I have no idea how he could have known if we answered correctly but we must have passed the test since he let us through. Getting interrogated at the airport is definitely a first for us! It was an eight-hour flight from Iceland back to Seattle and yes, we got stuck with two middle seats behind each other AGAIN! At least this was a daytime flight, so we weren’t trying to get any sleep. After a quadruple back-to-back movie binge, we were finally landing on our home turf.

Overall, we had the most amazing time exploring London, Santorini and Stockholm and highly recommend these cities for anyone planning a trip to Europe. We’re looking forward to our next adventure, wherever and whenever that may be. Until next time!