Two weeks being a tourist in Stockholm

So for the past two weeks I've had an American friend from Discord visit Sweden and I've been taking him around Stockholm. So here's a post about what we did!

July 15th: I had just come off a week of night shift and he had just arrived in Sweden the day before, so we were both jetlagged. We took a walk around the Old Town. I showed him the tiniest alley, then we walked to Kungsträdgården and had ice cream before going to have dinner. I then took him to a rooftop bar to get an overview of the city and have some drinks. 

July 16th: We started early and went to the Palace to do all the things. We got there just as it opened at 10am and we did all the things I had previously done, but I love history so who cares. We started in the Palace basement where they have the foundation and surviving walls from the old palace that burned down in the 17th century. Having gone through that we went to the Treasury which is very small, before heading outside into the scorching sun to watch the guard change. Once that was over we went into the Royal Apartments where they held court in the 18th century. And lastly to one of my favourite spots: the Royal Armoury. We then had a very late lunch at 3:30pm, took a boat around the city, walked around some more in the Old Town, and then called it a day.

July 17th: We went to the Vasa Museum to look at the massive 17th century warship that was an embarrassment that sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage, but survived on the bottom of the Baltic sea for 250 years and when brought up became an item of national pride instead due to now being the only surviving 17th century warship in the world. It's hard to not be awestruck when you enter the museum and see it for the first time. We had lunch at the museum restaurant and then turned to the Viking Museum close by, which is pretty small, so once we finished there we went to the Museum of Wrecks next door. Thanks to its brackish water the Baltic sea is great at preserving wrecks and the museum was dedicated to the very many wrecks found on the bottom of the sea while also explaining the process of discovery and recovery with many interactive elements. After this we returned to the city and had dinner before calling it a day.

July 18th: We were pretty tired of reading at museums at this point so we decided to go to Skansen and look at the animals (and have ice cream and lunch). When we felt done there just after lunch we decided to head out to a suburb where they had the butterfly house and aquarium. It was a lot smaller than I expected so we finished in there in less than an hour, but it was still pretty cool.

July 19th: We headed out to the archipelago and its closest islands called Fjäderholmarna. We started out with lunch and then took a walk around the island, including dipping our feet in the water :3 We then got on the boat back and finished the day with a trip to the Hallwyl Museum, which is an old mansion from the late 19th and early 20th century donated as was to be a museum. We also visited the Nobel Prize Museum, which ended up being not at all what we expected.

July 20th: Easily the hottest day of these two weeks. We headed out to Drottningholm palace, which is where the king and queen live, but parts of the palace and the grounds are open to the public. After walking around there and having lunch we were both beat from the heat and decided to call it a day. 

July 22nd: After a day of rest we started up again with a trip to the Army Museum, which was all about Swedish military history from the Swedish Empire of the 16th and 17th century all the way to modern day. We then had lunch and called it a day.

Jul 23rd: He took the bus out to my city instead of me going to Stockholm and we spent the day first visiting Tom Tits science park, which was honestly way too hot and filled with kids, so after ice cream and drinks we took the bus up to Torekällberget for a walk among historical buildings and watching some more animals. It's basically a mini Skansen. Due to it being so hot we were beat after all this time outside and we ended the day there.

July 25th: This day was spent at Gröna Lund amusement park and we went on all of the rollercoasters. Including the ones that go upside-down which I had never been on before because I can never find anyone who wants to go with me xD

July 28th: Last day together and we started out with Sweden's Museum about the Holocaust, which was mainly about Sweden duiring WW2 as well as the fates of seven people who survived the Holocaust in different ways and made it to Sweden. A separate exhibit told the story of Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary, before he was taken by the Soviets and vanished. What ultimately happened to him is still unknown. After lunch we headed to the Museum of Meditterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities and took a walk through ancient Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Roman Empire.