The 3 airports I've departed from in Europe have a system new to me where they don't announce your gate until about 45 minutes before the flight is scheduled to leave. I'm not sure if this is designed to stagger people through security, but it does make arriving 2 hours early largely pointless since the most time-consuming part is getting through security. It also means you have lots of time to browse the many shops located outside the securit checkpoint.
I arrived at Stockholm from Edinburgh via Dusseldorf and headed toward Connect Hotel, which I found and reserved a room via HostelWorld.com that was just across the street from the little airport. The bad news was that the hotel was still being constructed, so I had to take a taxi and stay at another hotel. The good news was that a) Connect Hotel took care of my lodging and transportation for the night and b) while I was waiting for the taxi, I chatted with the desk clerk and learned that are actually 2 airports in Stockholm and realized that my flight on Thursday leaves from the one 30 minutes north of the city in Arlanda, instead of the one I flew into, 60 minutes south in Nyköping. Good to know that I need to cancel the reservation at this hotel for Wednesday and find one near the airport I'm actually departing from!
Monday morning another taxi took me to the Nyköping train station, where I grabbed the next train to Stockholm. Nyköping and Stockholm both had weather of pouring rain. It's fun to locate your hotel in the rain, especially when for some mystery reason the top front of the right shoe gets quickly soaked whenever walking in the rain, but not the left.
Tuesday, I spent several hours walking around in miserable drizzly, cold weather; it wasn't raining hard enough to avoid going out just enough to be super annoying. The RS guidebook I have doesn't cover Scandinavia so I followed a Frommer's walking tour of Old Town Stockholm I found online. Fortunately the rain cleared up around 1, so I got a few hours of pleasant walking. The Stockholm is a beautiful city made up of islands, which was news to me.
I won't leave you in suspense any longer: you're wondering what a Swedish H&M is like (since H&M is a Swedish company). Pretty much exactly the same as in the US and other countries I've seen. The one I went to near the Central train station had all the normal types of clothing plus workout clothes and makeup. It was big, but not bigger than the Fifth Ave one in NYC ... Or so I thought until I walked outside and saw 4 more big H&Ms within the same block. Actually, I'd seen the same thing (multiple H&Ms within a small area) in Munich and other cities. Their competitive method is smothering.
The currency valuing system here is endlessly freaking me out. The Swedish kroner's relative values are approx. 10 SEK = $1.67 = €1.07. I'm used to the relative value of things in Euros at this point, so in Stockholm I mentally divide prices in SEK by 10 and add 10% to get the Euro equivalent. However, I haven't been here long enough to get used to immediately converting the amount. So a bottle water in a vending machine is 20 SEK, but when I see it, I think, "What?! €20 for a bottle of water?! Oh wait no that's like €2.20." "€179 for a dress?! No no hold on..." And so on all day long.
Wednesday was a beautiful day with clear blue skies. So I went to Ikea, of course: I know you're wondering what a Swedish Ikea is like (since Ikea is a Swedish company). Pretty much exactly the same as in the US in terms of merchandise and layout. The main difference was in the food: there were a lot of outlets. The Ikeas I've been in the US to have one cafe plus a little market with frozen and packaged Swedish food, and maybe a restaurant that serves full breakfast, lunch, dinner. This Ikea had *5* cafes and 1 restaurant (but did not serve breakfast). The little market had lots of Italian ingredients, Latin ingredients, Ikea-branded food, but very few Swedish offerings. Speaking of which, I was surprised how many international ingredients were available at the supermarket near my hotel: there was an Asian section, Latin section, and Italian section just like in LA supermarkets.
After my short visit to Ikea, I walked around the island of Djurgården and then went to the Stadshuset (City Hall) for a tour and view of the city from the 106 meter tower.
Stockholm was a worst place for me to find food. Everything has either ham, with I don't eat, or smoked salmon, which I hate.
As mentioned, I had to cancel my hotel Sunday (since it was near the wrong airport), so I stayed instead at the Quality Hotel in Arlanda, 10 minutes from the Arlanda airport. This hotel was connected to a mall with an H&M right next door, a fitting end to my time in Stockholm. Also nearby was a Swedish Wal-mart equivalent called Maxi ICA Stormarknad. I saw an actual mullet on someone and I think that's all you need to know about Arlanda.
Stockholm photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annefreiermuth/sets/72157606145545140/detail/
