When we booked our trip to Scandinavia, I didn’t quite grasp the size of the geography we were about to traverse. Leaving Copenhagen behind, we boarded a high speed train for the 5+ hour journey to Stockholm. The train trip was a relaxing way to spend an afternoon. The scenery of Sweden zipped past the window while I sat back and flipped through a magazine, listened to music and read part of a book. When we pulled into the central station in Stockholm, I was ready for the next four days in the Swedish capital. Over that time, we were planning to see Royal palaces, a couple of unique museums, take a day trip to Uppsala, and to sample some Swedish delicacies (of particular interest to me was reindeer).
When I think back on my very first impressions of Stockholm that night, I was struck by the dichotomy of how foreign it appeared to my eyes (the architecture of Gamla Stan, the language on a menu – it didn’t look like anywhere I had been before), yet how familiar, comforting and welcoming it felt. My traveler’s spirit made itself home here without any hesitation. I immediately knew these four days were going to be special and I would be in danger of falling in love with this place before lunch the next day. Helping that happen was this experience the next morning on a city bus trip (dog lovers will understand…):
