Leaving Lund.

I left Lund on June 9th 2014 after possibly the best 6 months of my life. I absolutely fell in love with Sweden and Scandinavia in general. The city of Lund was historic and beautiful, I loved every minute of cycling around, meeting friends for fika and travelling. I met some of the most interesting, kind, thoughtful, inspirational and wonderful people during my time there and I miss them all every single day. My plan at the moment is to apply for Masters programmes in Sweden so I may be back there in the not too distant future but I thought I would just share some of the photos taken by the ridiculously talented Paul Carleton, they are of my brilliant friends and my last day in Lund. 

Celebrating Swedish National Day with meatballs and lingonberry jam. Starting from the left we have Antonia, Amy, Michael, me and Paul.

The awesome dinner party Esbe and Paul threw for us all. Starting with me and working left we have Amy, Lucy, Michael, Maxime, Antonia, (someone I don't recognise), Matt, Barney, Marie, Dennis, (two more people I don't know), Flavia, (another mystery guest) and Esbe!  

Amy, Esbe and me on my balcony on my final day in Lund, just before I headed off to the airport. How beautiful are they!?

Thank you to everyone I met for making my time in Sweden so magical. I hope I will meet you all again some day soon!

Last day in Stockholm - Vasa Museum:

We both slept well in the hostel Sunday night after all the fresh air the day before and woke up sad but ready to take on our final day in Stockholm. We had booked a later flight back to Malmo so that we could make the most of the day and so once we were all packed up and checked out we headed towards our final stop, the Vasa Museum. 

The Vasa Museum is a maritime museum in Djurgarden and is home to the only almost fully intact 17th century ship which has been salvaged, the 64 gun warship Vasa. The Vasa sank during her maiden voyage in 1628 and lay in Stockholm harbour for 333 years before it was salvaged in 1961. The museum constantly came up in my searches of the top things to do in Stockholm and according to the website, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia (it has been seen by over 25 million people). Now, the lighting inside was quite dim (in order to preserve the wood) and my SLR decided to die just as we got in so the photos aren't amazing but if you want more information the official website is http://www.vasamuseet.se

When you walk in the first thing that hits you is the immense size of the ship, it is absolutely huge. It was really hard to get a sense of perspective in the photos but you couldn't fit the whole thing in one picture, which is unsurprising when you think it was built to carry a crew of 450 men. The ship wasn't even the largest built at the time but is still an impressive 69m long, 11.7m wide and up to 52.5 meters high. The whole ship has been reconstructed and is 98% original, it was preserved well in the brackish waters of Stockholm harbour and so did not rot away like many other shipwrecks. 

Here you can kind of see its size in comparison to the people viewing it!

The museum was laid out really well and allowed you to view the ship from 6 levels - from high above on the viewing platform, to down below right at the bottom of the ship. There were lots of exhibits and films about the salvage and history of the Vasa which I think would be interesting to everyone, even those without an interest in maritime history. It was so interesting that we lost track of time and ended up spending over 2 hours wandering around the museum, only giving us a short period of time to have a final look around Gamla Stan and buy some souvenirs. 

I bought a couple of postcards and this gorgeous print - it was only £20 (not bad for a tourist zone where people are trying to flog you tea towels for £15!) It is really great quality and captures Stockholm as it was when we were there, sunny and vibrant. 

Overall I had a fantastic time in Stockholm, it is a stunning city and we had brilliant weather for our trip, Easter next year will have a lot to live up to! I would whole heartedly recommend it as a city to visit and I hope it wont be too long until I get to go back again. 

Stockholm - Day Two:

After resting my feet (note to self - do not wear heeled shoes when you will be doing a lot of walking!) and getting a bit of sleep, we got up bright and early, ready to make the most of the day and the lovely sunny weather which had finally arrived! We nipped downstairs for some breakfast and then headed out to the waterfront just in time to catch the morning fog lifting and the sun coming through.

Our hostel was right on the waterfront so we walked past all the boats and enjoyed feeling warmth on our faces for the first time in what seemed like months. We were staying just around the corner from the Royal Palace so we had a little peek through the gates and tried to inconspicuously take photos of the soldiers standing guard. 

As it was such a lovely day and we didn't want to waste it being stuck inside we headed over to Skansen, the world’s oldest open-air museum situated on the island of Djurgården. The aims of the museum are to bring the traditional rural culture to life by exhibiting furnished houses and farmsteads, cultivated plots and gardens and both domestic and wild animals. I was sold as soon as I read that there was a zoo with Scandinavian animals! 

Once you climb the hill and get inside you realise that Skansen is actually huge, 75 acres in fact! There are houses from all through the centuries built in their original form and actors dressed up going about the daily lives of people at that time. It was fascinating to see and speak to some of them and learn about traditional Swedish industry and life. Inside one of the houses they had a table laid out with traditional Easter decorations, including these pretty painted eggs. 

The museum is high on a hill in the park and has some amazing views out over Stockholm. 

It was so easy to forget that you were in a capital city, it felt like you had travelled back in time and were wandering through the Swedish countryside. 

Because it was Easter they had a special market set up in the centre, it was surrounded by a picnic area where they had big barbecue pits that people could use if they had brought sausages and burgers to cook. It looked and smelt wonderful, unfortunately we hadn't got anything to cook for ourselves so had a peak at some of the market stalls. 

Then it was on to the main attraction, the Scandinavian animals! They had reindeer, lynx, wolverine, moose, bears, foxes and owls. Some of the animals were doing a good job at hiding away from all the tourists but I managed to get some snaps of some of them. 

Randomly there was also a monkey zoo at Skansen as well but you had to pay extra to get in so we gave it a miss. I was sorely tempted to pay the extra £12 just to be able to get this close to these monkeys though! 

After a jam packed day marvelling at all the traditional Swedish houses and animals we headed back, getting some pretty amazing views out over the canals on the way.

That evening we just went and got Thai food (my leftovers of which someone then stole from the fridge, dammit) and planned our exciting trip for the next day…

Easter in Stockholm - Day One:

Having been in Sweden since January I decided it was about time I visited the capital, Stockholm, so me and my friend Amy packed our bags, booked our flights and headed away for the Easter weekend. 

It was a bit grey on the Friday but we headed through Stockholm to our hostel (The Best Hostel Old Town, in case anyone was wondering). It was in an amazing position and only cost £50 for 3 days including basic breakfast and wifi, so not a bad place if you wanted to visit Stockholm cheaply. We stayed in a 28 bed dorm and other than smelling like teenage boys (not in a good way) and being a bit hard to sleep it was fine. Anyway, once we had checked our bags in to the hostel we headed out to explore Gamla Stan (Old Town).

The Old Town is a total tourist trap but I can see why, it is a maze of narrow cobbled streets and brightly coloured buildings. These photos don't really do it justice because the sky was very grey but as you will see later, it looks so pretty in the sunshine. 

After a quick look around we had to make away across the city for our first attraction - the ABBA Museum! It is a lovely walk along the harbour to the island of Djurgarden, an area of the city park and also home to a load of the cities museums. 

Amy is a big ABBA fan and I have good memories to singing along to ABBA songs when I was little so we were both keen to visit the museum. The only thing I would say is that almost £20 a ticket it was the most expensive museum we visited, so that is worth bearing in mind. 

Inside the layout is very colourful and interactive. They have loads of the original costumes and instruments on display and you can have a go at auditioning in the studio, mixing your own music and creating a music video for famous ABBA hits, you will definitely come out humming songs all day! 

After a day walking around my feet were ruined so we made our way back to the hostel for a break before we went in search of dinner (we managed to find a nice place in Sodermalm and had steak and salmon as a treat!). I didn't get many pictures in the evening but I did get one just as the sun was beginning to set over the city.