Stockholm!!!!!!!!!

Hey there!


Last week I went to Stockholm with Tom to visit his friend Cibelle and of course to enjoy the sight.


We departed at 8.15 pm from my house in Voorburg. We took a train to Brussels, another train that took us one cab drive away from the airport. This was already a long trip. We arrived at the airport at 2 in the morning where we had to wait another 7 hours or so before the gates opened. The flight itself didn't take that long. 
It was beautiful flying over Sweden, what a sight. Lots of trees, water and trees and water and some tiny houses and then some more trees. Coming from a country with almost 17 million people on 41.526 km², this was something completely new to me. (Sweden is 11 times bigger than the Netherlands and has only 9 million people!)


Arrived in Stockholm we took a bus to Central Station and there we met Cibelle. We were pretty tired and I felt a bit ill, so we decided to go to her home in Handen, where we met her lovely family. Cibelle cooked us some lunch, which I'm gonna make myself today. We rested for a while. For dinner Cibelle's mother cooked this great salmon dish, the fish here in Sweden is sooooo good. After watching a really bad movie, we went to bed.


Had a lovely good night sleep and I'm feeling much better. All fresh we went to town, Cibelle took us to a view point in the east where we could see the whole city. We went to old town where they even have typical Dutch houses, funny. We strolled around, shopped a bit and went back home to eat.
That evening Tom and I had a great time at an Irish pub in old town. There was a live band playing traditional Irish music, pretty cool!


On Sunday we went to The Nordisk museum, which was really beautiful. The building itself was already overwhelming. Inside we found typical Swedish traditions, handmade embroideries, beautiful crafted wooden objects and a lot more.


Here comes my favourite part of the journey;
Dalero was our destination on Monday. The journey alone was beautiful. Dalero is a small fisherman's village in the east. The place was filled with Pipi Longstocking-houses and there was no one around. The sound of the Baltic Sea melting, the clean, pure air in my face and the beautiful landscape just took my breath away. This sight was something I had never seen before, such an overwhelming view and serenity. 


The next couple of days we practically just explored some more of the city. Cibelle told us to go to Sofo, the Swedish Soho district. We did some shopping (of course) and I learned that I am a good negotiator, here's the story: 
On Tuesday we found this bookstore where Tom found an amazing book with engravings of Anders Zorn, a Swedish painter. The book was 600 crowns, that's 75 euro's, so we decided not to buy it. The book didn't leave Toms mind, so on Thursday we went back to the store. Before we went back we looked the book up online and found out that on Ebay it costs 120 euros or so. This is a really rare and special book. Fortunately the book was still there, so I got in line. With my poker face on I laid the book on the counter and said something like 'this one please, but I looked at the price and I think it's pretty expensive for a book.' The clerk looked at the price and was a bit surprised too. ' So maybe we can make a deal' I said, knowing that this is a rare book and Tom really wants it. I proceeded  'I was more thinking about 400, I mean, it's not that big of a book, so maybe we can meet each other with the price.' The guy looked around, doubtful and then he said the words 'Okay, you can have it for 450'. Inside I was dancing, but I didn't show it. Outside, around the corner Tom and I high-fived and Tom was thrilled. I got nearly 20 euro off of the price, ohhh yeah!!


Thursday was our last evening with the family, I made a salmon and broccoli-quiche and we had a very nice evening with three different languages at the table. 
Cibelles father took us to the airport in he morning, so nice of him, because it was like 3.30 am. The journey went well. We walked around in Brussels for a bit, saw all of the touristic attractions and then decided to go home. Even though Sweden was so calming, I have to admit that I was really tired at the end of the week.


This was yet another fantastic trip. Thank you Cibelle and your family for inviting us in your house. We had a great time and enjoyed your company so much! It was really nice to stay at a warm, caring home like yours. Hope to see you soon!!


Toodles!!!


Here is a link to a selection of the pictures we took, enjoy!