A short weekend in Stockholm

Anna Farmer on 08 October 2018
What better excuse is there for a girl's weekend away than visiting a friend who had recently relocated to Stockholm?

To be honest my knowledge of Sweden was limited to Vikings, Ikea, home of Abba and Meatballs (courtesy of Ikea!) I thought it was about time that changed.

After a short 2.5hr flight we landed in the land of lakes (Sweden has 95,700 of them). Stockholm Central is connected to Arlanda International airport via a very efficient train ride which glides past forests, it’s hard to imagine you are about to end up in the middle of the city.

I soon learnt that Sweden is the land of gender equality; parental leave has replaced maternity leave, so you see a lot of dads with their babies, its rather refreshing. Sweden has a population of 10 million where 1 in 4 people are under 20, I think you can feel this in the capital’s atmosphere; it’s fresh and exciting with a real buzz.

We started off with a drink (well rude not to) and it wasn’t as expensive as I’d first imagined but hang onto your ideas of going here for a drunken weekend. The drink culture is nothing like in the UK, possibly down to the cost but it seems they have a bigger appetite for the great outdoors and family life.

Talking of appetites, the restaurants here are incredible; there is a 3 Michelin starred restaurant here called Frantzen that I can’t tell you about but what I can tell you is that fish stew in the city was the best I’ve ever eaten.

I visited the Vasa Museum, which housed a 17th Century warship, it sank in 1628 and after being perfectly preserved on the seabed in the freezing Baltic waters it was raised back to the surface in 1961. It was the called the biggest jigsaw puzzle in the world to recreate but the results are stunning, you must see it to believe the size and craftmanship involved.

A visit to Stockholm wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the ABBA museum to pay homage to the great pop group, it was interesting hearing the stories on how the band was formed and the inspiration their home country had on their writing. You even get to sing karaoke, dance onstage alongside ABBA holograms and make your own ABBA music video. What’s not to love?

There wasn’t time to visit Skansen; the open-air museum which gives an in-site of how Swedes used to live, however we did get to walk around Gamla Stan which is the old area of the city; through cobbled streets, down narrow alleyways and past colourful architecture, galleries, churches, museums, eateries, bars and shops.

Our time was over way too fast, but Stockholm gave me a great taster and next time I’ll plan to go a little further afield to see what the rest of the country has to offer....