11 February 2008

Surprise! On me.

On Thursday night, Hubbo surprises me with my Valentines Day gift. Early.

Two tickets to Stockholm, Sweden for the weekend. Cheeky bugger. I have been wanting to go here for a while, but Sweden has always been out of the way on my flight itinerary, so to speak. Now with living in Europe everything is two-hours or less away.

Now you must be wondering (I know some of my friends back home are), why would one be hankering to go to Sweden instead of say, Spain, or someplace warmer? Well, I have been fascinated for some time by Scandinavian knitting patterns (friends back home now even more confused). It's just interesting, people!

First things first, we head to a yarn shop for the usual yarn-as-souvenir purchase. We head over to the old town, or Gamla Stan, which is essentially an island in Stockholm. While I am inside doing my lion-pacing-in-a-cage-oh-what-will-I-buy deal, Hubbo inspects town looking for a lunch place. The yarn shop I went to was Marias Garn and was heaven. Full of local yarn that had been handspun, some fibers that I had never seen before. So much Shetland I about died (oh my gosh all the mittens I could make!) but Hubbo was, of course!, doing currency conversions in his head. Sweden is expensive people! This is what I did get, which was kismet as I was kicking myself over not buying some of this when I was in Boston in November!I swear I was not in the yarn shop that long--I arrived at 1:30pm--but when we came out it looked like it was dinner time (wtf???). I asked Hubbo for the time and he said 2:30 pm. Ah yes, Sweden. How easy it is to forget that we are closer to the Arctic Circle than we were the day before. My poor camera. The red light was freaking out telling me there was not enough natural light so basically all of my pictures blow and not even Photoshop can save them, but hey, that is a memory in and of itself! Here is one picture that miraculously turned out normal: a view of Stockholm from Gamla Stan, the old town. After eating lunch we continued to explore Gamla Stan, which is just one small part of Stockholm. We also saw some other interesting things, which I will try to post in another entry. Most notable was the Nobel Museum, where they decide the candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sorry the picture is so dark. It is 3:30 in the afternoon for crying out loud.
To say that Stockholm is beautiful is an understatement. I'd have to say that this city has been the biggest surprise of any trip we've taken. And the people were wonderful and warm. Not reserved at all and very friendly. We will definitely be going back at some point (when there is more light!) to explore the other parts of the city that we didn't get to see this time.

2 comments:

Debbie T said...

You are so lucky to be able to do all that sightseeing...I live for your pics! lol I will do my traveling via your blog on the sofa..:=)

Lolly said...

I am insanely jealous - I would love to be so close to all of these sights! thank you for sharing them here!

What a sweet gift :)

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