The hostel beds were surprisingly comfortable and I slept in until about 9:30 this morning. Jonathan and Nick woke up at 7 and walked around for a bit. I valued my sleep a bit too much to do that.
After getting up, I went to take a shower. The showers were actually pretty nice for a hostel, and I was just grateful that I didn’t have to sit down for once. On top of that, after working at a Boy Scout camp for three summers, I have become used to using very gross showers. This makes all the Europeans ones seem a little better.
Sebastian, Nick and Jonathan wanted to go this really old ship wreck and maritime museum, but Harry and I had other plans. We wanted to go this really big library and the IKEA. The IKEA was slightly outside of the city, but was the largest one of the world. I have never been to one before and this seemed like a fitting opportunity.
The plan was to go to the library first, then head to IKEA. Harry and I were hungry, so we stopped at a cafe for breakfast. We found a random one and I got a pain au chocolat. The cafe was very cozy and a nice atmosphere. It was a bit expensive though.
Afterwards we headed to the library and it was gigantic and super pretty. We went to open the doors and quickly realized it was closed on Sundays. We will have to come back tomorrow.
The Library plus a cool statue.
After the library, we walked around for a bit. We stopped by the Royal Palace which had beautiful architecture and cool guards standing outside.
The Palace
The Guards
Later we headed to the central train station to head towards IKEA. It was in an area called Skarholm that was five miles out of the city. It would be a bit of a hike, but we were interested in seeing some parts outside of the city.
By the train station, we randomly found a restaurant called Boston Grill that featured a ton of Boston sports memorabilia. What a crazy coincidence.
The Boston Grill
The train was about $4 and we had to show a receipt to a lady in a booth to get through. She barely looked at our receipts, so we planned on trying to use the same ticket on the way back to avoid paying.
The trains were relatively modern and we rode for about 30 minutes. We got off the train and went to find the bus to IKEA. We probably needed a separate ticket, but it was only two stop so the driver didn’t mind. Ten minutes later, a large, blue and beautiful store known as IKEA was in our sights.
The Storefront
Our first mission was to find food since we knew IKEA would be great for a cheap lunch. Fortunately, this IKEA location had two cafes, a bistro and a restaurant. We settled for the bistro and I got three hot dogs, a frozen yogurt, and a coffee for only $3. For the price, these were pretty damn good and decent lunch.
My lunch
After eating, we spent an hour and half just exploring the store. We touched all the spoons, smelled all the rugs, and sat in all the chairs. Just typical IKEA things.
Here’s me taking a nice break to brush up on my Swedish reading.
Eventually we got bored and decided to head back. Unfortunately the bus to the train station wasn’t coming for 30 minutes, so we did the 20 minute walk instead. For some reason, Google Maps brought us onto the literal side of a highway. This was very sketchy, but only for a few minutes, so it was fine.
Harry and I on the highway
There was a supermarket next to the train station, so Harry and I bought three six-packs of Corona and two limes for the five us since they were on sale. In Sweden, only state run liquor stores sold hard alcohol and they were all closed on Sundays.
We unsuccessfully attempted tried to use our old tickets, and had to pay $4 to get back to the city. We were pretty tired and headed back to the hostel as soon as we were in Stockholm. We chilled out for about two hours and our friends all came back. We had plans to meet up with our other BU friend Chrisly for dinner that night. We all wanted Swedish meatballs.
The restaurant we found was pretty far, so we took the bus despite not having tickets. We genuinely didn’t know how to get them, but the driver was nice and let us on. The first place we wanted to go had too long of a wait, so we ended up going to a restaurant called Nortogot 6. Luckily for us, the owner was the same as the other place and had an identical dish called “meatballs for the people”, which was the name of the first restaurant.
The meatballs were pretty pricey, as all of Stockholm is, and cost me about $26. They ended up being super good, so I didn’t mind spending a bit more. It came with pickled cucumbers and these tasty Nordic red berries. It was super good and I loved every bite.
My meal
We attempted to finesse the bus again, but we were unsuccessful this time. Harry and Nick managed to sneak on the back though. The rest of us took the thirty minute walk to the hostel. We got a bit lost, but made it back in one piece. I did get to see a Skanska construction site, which was cool because it’s the company I am working for this summer.
Skanska
The whole city was covered in a light snowfall and super pretty. Here is a picture of our hostel from this night and earlier in the day.
My favorite boat ( a bit blurry)
The rest of the night was spent hanging out in our room and drinking beers. It was a very merry time and filled with many drinking games. After a few hours, Christly ubered to her hostel and we all went to bed.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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