Weekend in Stockholm!!!

The VIS (Växjö International Students) organized a trip to Stockholm this past weekend. It was awesome! I live in the southern region of Sweden near Copenhagen so Stockholm is about a 5 hour drive north. Once we arrived in Sweden we checked into our hostel (my first time ever in a hostel!!!) and took a walking tour of the city. Many of the buildings are hundreds of years old so it was quite beautiful.

We had a tour of the Stockholm City Hall including the Blue Hall where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held. In the banquet hall is contained Scandinavia's largest pipe organ consisting of 10,000 pipes and 138 stops. Adjacent to the Blue Hall is the Golden Hall where over 18,000,000 pieces of gold were used to construct the ceiling and walls depicting Swedish history.

We also had free time on our own and I was able to take in a lot of the sights and sounds of Stockholm. After the tour of City Hall I was fortunate enough to catch the Changing of the Guards at the Royal Castle. It was pretty exciting and the Swedish guards yelling at us in Swedish to move back was even more thrilling...lol! I also caught a free organ concert at Storkyrkan featuring music from Bach, Vivaldi, and others.

Even though it looks as if I may not have a chance to make it to the Ice Hotel in Kiruna (too expensive and too far) I did get a chance to visit the Ice Bar in Stockholm. It's located inside the Nordic Sea Hotel and costs about $25 for the entrance fee and a drink but if you're smart like me you don't buy a drink and therefore dont' have to pay the entrance fee. Its a room completely made out of ice, including the ceiling. They give you a special overcoat and gloves to wear because even the glasses are made out of ice.

We rounded out our journey to Stockholm with a trip to Skansen, an open-air, living-history theme park. We were able to listen to and participate in culture which reflected Sweden in the 18th & 19th centuries. Stockholm was wonderful and I can't wait to visit again!