CN Tower
Niagara Falls
Golden Gate
Mt. Fuji
Great Wall
Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam
Pyramids
Petra
Colosseum
Leaning Tower
Parthenon
Stonehenge
Big Ben
The Chunnel
Eiffel Tower
Mt. St.Michel
Empire St Bld

Alaska glacier
Tokyo Tower
Forbidden City
Sum'r Palace
LaBufadora
Bilbao Museo
BlarneyStone
Disney Paris

With its 14 islands and 35 bridges, Stockholm may just have more coastline than Seattle and San Francisco combined.  I visit the World´s Biggest Ikea, get a Swedish massage, and eat some Swedish meatballs cooked up by some real Swedish chefs. 

Stockholm's 750 Birthday
It happens to be Stockholm's 750th (I seem to be catching a lot of big birthdays), so I swing by the Stockholm City Museum to take stock of Stockholm. Located near southern Sweden's thousand-island archipelago, Stockholm was founded on the small island of Gamla Stan. Easier to protect the palace that way. Except a (kitchen?) fire burned it down. Stockholm rebuilt the palace, opened its doors to international refugees, and expanded the city to the surrounding islands, resulting in today's Stockholm. The city's very scenic: with its islands, it's a third water, a third parks, and a third city (population-pleasing proportions I never can get in Sim City).  And the American-style diversity, unusual for most European cities, includes Turkey, Greece, India, and leather-clad punks.  People are really friendly and helpful.  You can see I have like five times as many people photos in Stockholm compared to Helsinki.

The blue building is the Concert Hall where the Nobel prizes are awarded.  Ironically, it´s on the market square Hotorget where criminals were executed in medieval days.

Museums
Stockholm has a ton of museums with all sorts of random themes, but they're kinda expensive, 50-70 K ($5-$7). You get much more history for your buck in Spain and Italy's $2-$4-equivalent museums. So I buy the $22 Stockholm card for 24-hours of free access to all the museums and bus/subway transportation. I'm determined to make the card worth it by visiting at least four attractions in a day. Turns out that most of the many musuems are mini-museums, just a hallway or two long, so it's pretty easy to whip thru them (and I'm really glad I didn't pay the regular price). Here's a quick summary by island, starting with the most unique attractions.

DJURGARDEN
The name of this playground island literally means "animal garden" or "animal farm," and that's appropriate because it has Stockholm's #1 attraction which includes a zoo:

Skansen is a cultural theme park with real traditional houses and farms taken from all over Sweden, folklife dances and a zoo. It's much easier for families to walk around the park to see how the various Swedish towns looked, than to actually drive there. And the zoo features a petting farm, moose, and bears.  Curiously, there's a Tobacco Museum right at the entrance to this family park and I can't even find the corporate sponsor...

Vasa Museum. In 1628, the huge warship Vasa set sail from Stockholm with 450 aboard and much fanfare.  Unfortunately, just 10 minutes into sailing, high winds capsized it, sinking it in Stockholm's harbor and killing 50 crew. The ship's exact location at the bottom of the harbor was a mystery, until an explorer found it, raised it 333 years later, preserved it, and put the whole ship in the Vasa Museum. It's totally impressive to have this huge war ship, cannon ports and all, inside a museum. Well, the three masts stick out the top, which makes it a nice landmark. You can check out the items, preserved when the ship sank, including cannonballs, clothing, dishes and luggage. It's very Titanic-creepy.

Tivoli Grona Lund Park.  Like the Santa Monica Paradise Pier, this amusement park on the water lets you see the ocean while you're riding a roller coaster.  You can get even better views when you ride a Big Shot machine that shoots you up and drops you down.  It's fun to hear the teens scream and swear in Swedish on the way up and down.

GAMLA STAN.  This historic Old Town contains the...
Royal Palace. I walk through the Apartments to see the dozens of huge royal tapestries. I swing by the Royal Armory to check out all the weapons (remember those two-handed swords from D&D - these suckers are like 5 feet long, easily doing 3-12 HP damage). The armory even has the clothing some of the rulers wore when they were assassinated, complete with the original bullet holes in the hats and tunic that'd make any CSI investigator happy. I wander into the Royal Carriage house and the Treasury too to see carriages and crowns.

Ridddarholm Church. It starts to rain, so I duck into this church with 600 years of dead Swedish royalty bodies...and quickly run back into the rain.

Post Museum.  I told you there were weird themes.  You can see the history of the Swedish Postal Service in this museum, and tons of old Swedish stamps.  Happy happy joy joy!

The Nobel Museum is in the old Stock Exchange Building thru 2004 until they find a permanent home.  Last year was the 100 anniversary of the Nobel Prize, so Stockholm celebrates with a Nobel museum.  Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, so the 700 Noble prizes have been presented in Stockholm.  After creating dynamite, Nobel created international companies, secured 355 other patents, and by-the-way wrote poety and drama, all enough to make any Type-A personality feel like they've been goofing off.  So he dedicated his $200 m fortune to the Nobel prizes, awarded in his fave hobby/categories: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and later economics was added.  My tour guide says it´s rumored that he didn´t have a math prize cause a mathematician stole his girlfriend.  Now is that noble?  Speaking of the Nobel prize...

KUNGSHOLMEN contains City Hall (Staudhauset) where the Nobel prize dinner and dance is held every December 10, Nobel's deathdate. 

HELGEANDSHOLMEN.  This little island houses the...
Medieval Musuem of Stockholm, with exhibits including the story of Birger Jarl, considered the founder of Stockholm just cause he mentioned the city in a letter (not a bad way to get some major props).  There are also some rune fragments, and an exhibit showing how the old justice system got medieval on criminals with punishments from hanging to execution, to being made the executioner (There was a quick job orientation: an executioner's first job duty was to behead the preceeding executioner).

After all those musuems, I think I definitely got my money's worth out of my card.  I even use it to take a trip to...

IKEA.  I had planned to find the first Ikea, but find out the Biggest Ikea in the World just opened a month ago.  That would win the Consumerism Wonder of the World, so I check it out.  While most of the merchandise is familiar, this supersize Ikea has that elusive style, size or color for the lamp or table that seem to be missing in our Ikeas.  And they have shoe-cabinets, since the Swedes take their shoes off in their foyers, like the Japanese.  Prices are the same or a few bucks less than ours.  A huge restaurant and cafes-on-every-floor offer more than just Swedish meatballs and lingonberries.  The pasta with salmon sauce and this tasty pastry are delicious.

Day trip to Vaxholm
Stockholm's near the archipelego, which includes dozens of other relaxing islands for good day trips, just 20 minutes to a few hours ferry ride away.  I take a 1.5 hour boat ride to Vaxholm to eat lunch on the docks and check out the old castle.   On the boat ride, I meet sailhand Pår and Lessong, who give me the scoop on Swedish life.

We meet up the next evening to check out Stockholm's

Nightlife.  Stockholm's nightlife reflects its diversity.  Par, Lessong

and I head down to Sodermalm, the poor-turned-trendy-artsy island to the south, to check out the bar scene.  We sip Thai coffee shakes at a great Thai theme restaurant.   Another night, I swing by the Swedish Hip Hop Awards, but it's about to finish, so I stop by the nearby Lebanese restaurant to watch some dancing.   The dancer gets up on the table to dance, perfect if you want to embarrass someone in your party.

Star Wars Premiere: Episod 2, Klonera Anfaller
Thanks to the Lucas wanting to World Premiere Episode 2, I get to see it in Stockholm, several hours before it´s released in the U.S.  Heck, that´s the other reason I went on this trip!   I manage to get a last minute cancellation ticket in the front row, midnight showing (same place I was for the Episode 1 premiere).  While the crowd isn´t as nuts as I know the LA crowd is, there are about 20 Jedis in the audience. More premiere photos.  I plan to see Episode 2 in all the remaining countries.

Food.  Swedish food includes meatballs and lingonberries, and rye crackers, which you can experience at your local Ikea.  Other foods include lots of salmon.  My choco-fix is Heath-bar like Dain candy. I have a tough time finding smorgasbord, which is basically a Swedish buffet found only in fancy hotel restaurants.  Many peole look with puzzlement when I ask where I can get smorgasbord, so I skip it.  But I do manage to eat meatballs made by authentic Swedish Chefs.

Some real Swedish chefs.  Paul, Frida and Mats serve me up some Swedish meatballs.  Don´t tell Mats, but you can get the same thing at your local Ikea.

Swedish Massage.  I head over to the pricey Centralbadet for a massage, really to get a free gym pass.  Unlike the Finns and their saunas, massages seem to be no big deal in Sweden for some reason.   It's just like a Swedish massage in the States.  And I kinda embarrass myself in the gym when I walk in and people are staring at me.  Some guy tells me you're supposed to change from dirty street shoes to clean gym shoes, like in Finland and Japan.  Since I only have one pair of shoes, I have to wear these hospital style -blue plastic booties over my hiking-sneakers -- which continues the stares.    

Swedish Language.  It doesn't really sound like the Muppets' Swedish Chef.  When I arrive in Sweden, everybody greets me with "Hey" which makes me think, Hey, these guys are real friendly.  Turns out that they´re saying "Hej," Swedish for Hello, so I´m sure we get our "Hey" straight from Swedish.  But it´s really tough for me to pronounce subway stops any words longer than six letters.  Fortunately, Swedes, like all Scandanavians, speak English really well.  They learn it in grade school, and unlike our foreign language in school, they really do learn it, mostly because they speak it.  The Swedes can even use jokes, plays on words, and idioms, which is waaay more than I've experienced in Spain, Italy.  It is possible to guess some simple words when they're written since Swedish is Germanic, which is a root for English.  For example, "efter clocken 23" means "after 11 o´clock pm."  Tack is Thanks!

Tack, Stockholm! Now it's off to Oslo, Norway.

Riddarholm Church houses Swedish royalty tombs.

The Swedes are extremely nice. I ask this couple which was kinda preoccupied for a photo, and the girl says, "You´re welcome.  Enjoy your time in Sweden."

The painted wooden horse is a traditional Swedish tourist souvenir, I mean handicraft.

Folk dancers just after they do some dancing.  This stuff may be traditional but it ain´t making it on MTV Total Request Live any time soon.  No, the Swedes don´t dress like this all the time.

The Vasa ship´s three masts stick out of the museum. You really can´t miss it.

Tivoli amusement park on the water.

One of the few real signs I´ve seen so far of any world conflict.  At this peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration, they chant in Swedish, but I can definitely understand "Sharon, Mur-der-er, Bush, Bush, Mur-der-er." I decide it´s time for me to make a hasty quiet "Exit, Stage Left even."  AND NO, THESE 200 PALESTIANAN-ORIGIN PROTESTORS DOES NOT MEAN ALL OF SWEDEN FEELS THIS WAY, OR THAT IT'S DANGEROUS TO TRAVEL! 

City Hall is where the Noble prize dinner and ball takes place.  If you´re not a past Nobel winner or Swedish Royalty, you can get a ticket by enrolling as a student in a Stockholm university - 200 tickets are given away in a lottery to students.

The Noble prize is a coin.  Oh yeah, and don´t forget the $1 million check.

Kev checks out the Viking runes. Damn, where´s my Indy hat when I need it.

They even have an information desk at the front door of the World´s Biggest Ikea, which is great! The friendly receptionist tells me that it's 165,000 square feet, much bigger than the average store size of 100,000 sq ft. 

The show floor area is in this huge four-level cylinder to keep you walking round and round she goes. Yes, the place is packed, but the people are shopping, not looking over the railings.

Vaxholm port is a very relaxing day trip away from Stockholm.  But city boy that I am, it´s too relaxing, so after a few hours I catch a bus back to the city.

Yes, you can get Thai food in Sweden.  They don´t have my fave Thai iced tea or coffee for some reason, but these coffee shakes Pår and Lessong join me on do fine.

Episode 2 hype is in full Force.

The Amidala here made both costumes as just a hobby.  Can you say, Go to LA to be a costume designer?

The Swedish Chef of Muppet fame...

I eat some Swedish meatballs, served by Mats the Swedish chef.