Stockholm on the 4th of July

Our ship sailed into Stockholm on the 4th of July. Happy Birthday USA. It's weird to be in a foreign country on Independence Day. No BBQ's or fireworks here. Kyle said goodbye to his new Estonian friends from the disco. He spent a good portion of the early morning hours learning the fine art of cross cultural and language communication. The Estonians (a cute girl, her family, and some guys his age) spoke broken English but Kyle listened intently as they described life under Russian rule (they hated it) and Estonian defiance. In particular, thousands of Estonians gathered for a song festival between 1986 and 1991 where they defiantly sang revolutionary songs. This non violent demonstration ultimately led to the country's independence. There is even a movie, The Singing Revolution, which was made about this event. It was a lovely, sunny day and we walked along a beautiful park along the ocean, dragging our luggage behind us. All the locals were enjoying the sunshine, picnicking, playing lawn games, skate boarding. Our hotel was right by this park. We checked in and asked the concierge what we should do during our stay here. He suggested Skansen, an outdoor folk museum. Because the weather was so nice, I wanted to wear Capri pants and cute shoes instead of the same jeans and running shoes I had been slogging around in. My blisters were pretty much healed so I put on my cute, strappy leather sandals. Big mistake, but more on that later. We took a ferry boat over to Skansen which is lovely and full of history and interesting things to see.

All the houses, churches and buildings are as they were hundreds of years ago. There was also an area for the local animals in their natural habitat. We saw reindeer, a wolverine, eagle owls and a gray seal. Red squirrels ran rampant and seemed almost tame, coming right up to us as if they expected handouts. I was mildly surprised when one stared at me with soulful eyes and in a high, squeaky voice said, "Bread please". (OK not really. Just checking to see if you were paying attention. They speak Swedish there, remember?) We walked all over the place and my feet were starting to smart. Damn. We sought out a nice Italian restaurant in the old town area and by this time I was limping again. I glanced down and was appalled to see blood seeping through the leather straps and running down my big toe. Well, that's attractive. The straps had sliced into my toe. No wonder my feet hurt. I was forced to break out the band aids again and forget about wearing cute shoes for a while. Again. The next day we found another park in the center of town with fountains and statues. Numerous cafes surrounded an area with water where children laughed and played. It seemed all of Stockholm was there to enjoy a lunchtime break. We took a boat cruise which went through a couple of locks and under bridges. The locks were so interesting - stone walls closed in front and in back of our boat and the water level rose to empty us from the Baltic into Malmo Lake and on the way back to the Baltic, the lock's water level dropped to spill us back out onto the sea. A recorded narrator explained the sights along the way. I was sad to see and hear about the asylum where the lepers and insane were sent in the 17 and 1800s. There was also a spot memorialized with a giant wooden keg where Absolut vodka had its distillery. After the cruise, we took the subway to Sodermalm, an area Kyle had read about in one of Stieg Larsson's books. We found a music store called Hellstone which was old and funky and fun. The owner said he had opened the store fifty years ago when he was 5 (teehee). Kyle plucked on a guitar for a while and got a t shirt that says Go to Hell Stone. Kyle loved Stockholm. He thought the people were friendly, enjoyed its beauty with its many islands and waterways, and is contemplating going to school here sometime in the future. We climbed an impossibly steep stairway in the side of a hill which led to a restaurant high above the city with sweeping views. It was sadly too expensive for our budget, but we got some good photos and enjoyed our last Swedish meal at an outdoor restaurant in the center of town. Back at our hotel, we were amused by an interesting show on TV. It was sort of sci fi, something about human looking robots (with perfect bodies) used as servants who were trying to take control. The thing is, the show was in Danish with Swedish subtitles. Because Kyle had learned a few words here and there, we were able to get the gist of what was going on. It was so intriguing and had some humorous parts too. We were bummed we would never find out what happens to those good looking robots. Goodbye Stockholm. Sure was fun. This also was the end of our Scandinavia tour. Next stop - Germany.