Feels like Heaven! (aka Sweden)

Well, more like Sweden, but I think it may be as close to heaven as possible on Earth. And I'm not just referring to its geographic location being quite far north; everyone is stylish, super attractive, and super friendly. Oh, and they have no poor people, slums, or ugly people (at least in Stockholm). Just 'people' (upper class people pay such high taxes they are practically as wealthy as the middle class), tons of shopping, and good taste. This will be quite a long post because I have a lot to say about Sweden and haven't posted since last Thursday, and have nothing else to do for my entire hour and a half psych class.
Down sides of Sweden (since every place has them): super high prices, strange and strict alcohol laws and age restrictions. It was quite hard for me to switch from paying under a euro for a beer in Prague to going to a restaurant in Stockholm and paying 5 euros for the same quantity (of shittier beer). And it's even more expensive at bars and clubs.
Fashion: all are extremely stylish and all wear gloves and scarves. Super big, puffy, expedition-style jackets (many with fur) have become quite trendy, even in blue. The rest of coats are black or charcoal or MAYBE grey. Women wear ankle shin or knee high boots with tights. Men have sweaters too and just stylish bottoms of some sort.
Food: hamburgers and kebabs are quite popular, as are brats and french hot dogs (a hot dog stuffed into a french baguette instead of in a bun) as street food. Salmon in cream sauces, pickled herring - especially fried yet served cold, sushi, and chokoladballs (served in cafes, a ball of a fudge/flourless chocolate cake mix with sprinkles on top that is unfathomable). MEATBALLS are extremely rare and not popular.
Anyways I found possibly the most amazing bar in the world. 1 that advertises over 400 types of single malt whisky. 1 that advertises over 100 types of beer. 1 that DOESN'T advertise an age restriction of 23. I went in to get lunch there one day but it was too expensive, so I figured I'd come back that evening, until the bouncer told me you have to be 23. They want to maintain a certain 'class' in their bar, and the leather interior and homely cigar bar feeling require 'mature' people not drunk tourists. It was fine since there was a cool and quite similar bar next door. This was Saturday night, and later in the evening (which I will further discuss) I tried getting into clubs, only be told at the first one "you're not 27" and the next "you're not 25."
So I think my last post was from the Copenhagen airport which had atrocious internet and one of the nicest malls I've been in. I got into Stockholm and immediately realized I should have done SOME prep before going, which I plan on doing for the rest of my travels. Why did I feel stupid for doing nothing? I had no knowledge of their currency's value. I had no idea where in relation to Stockholm I was. I had no idea how to get to Stockholm. I had no idea what to do in Stockholm. Anyways I found the high speed train which took me at 200kph for 20 minutes to get to Stockholm (and that's the close airport). I got in, found my hostel - which I will add was a boat - and unpacked and got a beer. The rest of my 'dorm' came in later and we hung out. In addition to the strange Canadian couple (or brother/sister), there was a French girl from Switzerland and 5 EURASMUS students. EURASMUS is the standardized study abroad for European university students. I hung out with these 5 guys all night and then all day Friday. Brief summaries:
Dominic- Swiss-german, 26 years old, stereotypical of my view of Switzerland. Quite mature despite vomitting on his walk home the following morning from a Finish girl's place. Had an awesome scarf that inspired me to buy a similar style one (I was planning on getting some scarf).
Stephan- Serbian born but French and currently living in Amsterdam. Gave me an awesome list of things to do and places to go next weekend while I'm there. 20 years old, and thinks the French are the best. Can you guess his beliefs about Israel and the US? Duh... totally stereotypical. We had some good conversations about politics while strolling through the streets drunkenly.
Anders- 22 year old Dane, very clean cut and again stereotypical of my belief of Denmark. Very clean cut appearance, in charge of organizing his friends and getting them throughout the city.
David- 22 year old Spaniard, quite Euro looking (just like the rest) and not as good of English, although he seemed as if he was learning a lot of it quite quickly. Very nice and stylish, a short guy who looked nasty at soccer and loved to bounce to the techno beat.
Richard- 24 year old Dutchman, nicknamed "Akon" by his friends simply because he was the only black man among them. Kept claiming he was on his second drink, although he definitely confused 'second drink' with 'second second drink,' second, second second drink' and so on. Later pulled the same miscommunication with 'third' and 'fourth' drinks. Decided not to come to the club with us, and puked in a bag and in the Swiss girl's shoes. Awesome guy who convinced me of the need for gloves.

We went to a great club and I only wish I could have spent more time with them, as well as more time with EURASMUS students in general. We stayed at the club until about 530 Friday morning, and left when most people did. Upon waking up, I ate breakfast, stole them some deli meat and cheese, then packed. I was quite surprised about the amount of time they spent preparing to depart. They make sure everything looks proper when they leave, including using a lint roller on their coats, making sure their scarfs were on properly, and having their hair exactly as desired. Quite fashionable.
We found a place that offered a great lunch special of all you could eat salad and then a massive plate of salmon and potatoes in a sauce plus a coke for 8 euros. The amount of butter, mayo, and hollandaise in the sauce however was too much for me and plagued me all weekend (I actually just wanted to know how lucky Ari and Sam were to try escholar). Since it was raining hard and quite foggy all day, it wasn't really worth walking around, so we hung out in the restaurant just talking for a few hours after that. I went with them to the central terminal, said good bye, then checked into my new hostel. The new hostel had free internet as well, super comfy beds (much nicer than the bed in my flat), super clean floors, cool people, ergonomic shower heads, and a real nice kitchen with free coffee, tea, pasta, and whatever food other people did not finish (somewhat of a 'leave your leftovers for the next guests' thing).
Friday night I met up with the American girls from my Prague program, but called it an early night just after midnight... at the time it seemed like a great idea because I had gone to bed at 6,2, and 4 am's respectively the 3 previous nights.
Saturday morning I went out to the Old Town and walked around in the lovely cloudy weather. At noon I headed over to the Royal Palace to watch the changing of the guard (it's technically a changing of the sentry because they haven't needed official guards since the 1960s). After a fantastic performance (highlights include the rap dance-move 'brush the dirt off your shoulder' which they founded over 300 years ago and 1 drummer dropping a drumstick accidentally). I'll post pictures from this on a follow up post because I haven't transferred them to my computer and because this is a long post.
The American girls met me after the changing of the guard, and we walked to the city hall and then the central terminal. Stockholm's central station is directly in its downtown district and surrounded by society. The buses, trains, and metros all run through it, and there are many restaurants, cafes, and bars in it too. Above ground, there are department stores (Aholem's City and H&M of course), and tons of nice restaurants, cafes, shops, and people walking around.
I forgot to mention that Thursday night I had to check 3 coats because I've been wearing 2 sweatshirts and my rainjacket/skijacket mix. Not only is this annoying, but it is surprisingly not warm, or at least in Sweden. While walking around I found a store that had men's coats for 50%, so upon looking and trying them on, with the girls' advice, I picked out a nice winter coat for 65 usd. Not too bad, and since mom's been bugging me for 4 months now to get one, I thought no time like the present.
We also went to H&M where I got a super warm big scarf that can wrap around you like a mummy, or just keep your neck awesome. In clubs here, people - including Dominic - keep their scarves on despite no jacket and even sometimes just wearing it with a T-shirt. Quite European. There are TONS of H&Ms in Stockholm by the way... I found 3 within 100 meters, and over 20 in total. They are fairly cheap by US standards, especially department stores, with nice shirts for under 35 usd. Aholem's City is the nicer Swedish department store, and more in line with Macy's in regards to price and style. I also went to a store on Saturday called "Stylish Mann" or "dress mann" or "something mann" where i bought a pair of nice gloves. I wish I had gone to Aholem's City first because they did have nicer gloves for practically the same price, even though I really like the ones I got.
Saturday night consisted of being turned down at many bars and clubs, but we did get into 1 that was quite fun. I met a Swedish guy named Steward, although that's not how you spell his name. 3 things that display how awesome he was- he was always dancing and upbeat and partying, no matter what was on or who he was near, and somehow either knew or met every girl in site. He also asked why a drink wasn't in my hand, then poured half his beer down my throat (and a 1/4 of that 1/2 down my shirt), then felt bad about spilling on me and thus bought me another beer. He also told me he was only staying out until 3 because he had work AT 7am.
Anyways that bar/club was a lot of fun and we made the mistake of not listening to him and going to one of his suggestions earlier in the night, because by the time I tried getting into clubs, 1 girl was too tired and the other needed to walk her home (bitches), leaving me alone and not able to get into a club. Even with them we would have had to wait over 30 minutes. It was only 2 am, and some clubs close at 3, others at 5. I ended up walking back to the metro, meeting a Swedish girl (she was actually a brunette, but brunette swedes are not that rare but have a mysterious attraction to them) and having a nice 30 or so minute chat with her.
I actually met those girls at a bar, and brought 5 Americans studying in Western Europe with me. For most of the evening the girls were being quite no-fun, so I ended up spending more time with these other Americans. The following morning, the guy sleeping below me, Tony from Texas, told me he was going on a boat tour of the Archipelagos for twenty euros (that's a lot of T's). I decided to join him, and even though we were meeting 2 of his friends at the port, it is massive and 3 blocks from the central terminal. Unfortunately the terminal is massive and at 1150 we were 9 blocks from the port. The cab driver offered us a deal of 15 euros to get there, despite telling us it would only take 8 by the meter. "Business" he called it. We sprinted around the port for a while and finally found his friend waiting with us at the entrance to the boat, which took off 30 seconds after we got on. With no good seats left, we moved a table in front of a walkway (half blocking the walkway and half blocking the bathrooms) for a better view, and after an hour of this traffic jam, the boatsmen requested we move into the restaurant, an area we had been told we weren't allowed in. It was quite a nice upgrade.
This boat trip might have made my vacation by the way, and not just because I had a nice new coat. IT SNOWED! The gorgeous snow as we were boating around some of the 24000 islands was truly great, especially since we could go outside or in if we liked. Tony spent much of the 3 hours outside (he was wearing 3 shirts, 2 sweatshirts, and a snowboarding parka), while the 2 girls spent much of the time indoors (peacoats are nice but get wet quick). I alternated, and wished the whole time I had a camera which I accidentally left on all night. After our return, Karen and Brooke went to meet up with an old au'pere, while Tony and I met other Barca kids at the iceskating rink. Despite not having gone in almost 10 years and never having been good and having skates a size small, I was decent - in part because I stayed in control and didn't let myself fall. After enjoying this rink, I think they may make a movie one day about Swedish rival Asian ice skating gangs that have half dance off - half speed skate races with tackling. They were great skaters and scared the shit out of me. We later took a random bus from a random stop to a random stop, got off, and walked around until we found a restaurant. Since everyone speaks Swedish and English, many of the menus actually offer both, but we wandered onto a very small, very homely place with a menu of 3 appetizers, 6 main courses, and 2 desserts that had no English. It was delicious, and again, I love Swedish salmon.
I went to bed early so that I could wake up early and get in a full day before my flight home. I went to the Vasa museum for an hour and a half on Monday which was amazing. The Vasa was a ship that sunk in 1628, but because of the less salient salty water in the Stockholm port, the wood didn't decay, and in 1961, they pulled up the ship. 95% of the ship in the museum is original, and they have exhibits to show other stuff about life back then which was awesome. I even learned that in the 1600s, Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus wanted to display the awesomeness of the Swedes and how they would WIN IN STYLE by the intricacies of the boat and the extravagancies of the colors and the elaborateness of the statues (they have maintained this 'in style' idea... even some Parisians I met thought the Swedes to be stylish). After not being able to take pictures of this great ship (update: I just learned minutes ago upon going through my bag that I actually brought my charger with me and forgot I did this, thus not charging my camera despite being able to), I headed off to the indoor market. I was told by Americans that after searching for hours for meatballs, this was the only place they could find that had them. I walked in, and saw 3-4 very nice cafes, 2-3 very nice restaurants, and like 15-20 very nice vendors. The delis, fish stands, vegetable huts, and etc. seemed to all be fresher and nicer than most places in the states and reminded me of the upscale grocery stores (1 in NY and 1 in Chicago) that my mom took me to. Anyways none of the restaurants had meatballs, so I went to the deli, asked for their meatball lunch - which was a few massive scoops of mashed potatoes with like 10 meatballs that were smothered in some clamber sauce (might have just been clam or some Swedish word I didn't know) then heated up for me - and enjoyed my delicious and filling yet surprisingly cheap lunch outside in the square. I then wanted to by a terrorist scarf (the square ones with like a checkered pattern in different colors) from a street vendor for cheap, but realized I only had enough money to try a chokoladball so I got one and left for the airport (I arrived with 1 swedish krown left... pretty good).
My next post will be a few sentences about since returning to Prague and then a few photos for all of your viewing experience.