My First 10 Days In Stockholm

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And so it happened, one day I woke up knowing that I had a plane from Fiumicino di Arlanda.

It was the day that one of my biggest dreams became true.

I remember looking outside the windows of the airplane, from Germany on there was a layer of clouds which covered the whole ground. I was expecing it.

I remember also the airplane starting the descent manuever, looking outside with the eye of a pilot I saw the airplane piercing 3 layers of clouds! And I thought that the sun had no chance to reach the ground.

Then all of a sudden there was a lot of green around us, so much treetops that I was really wondering if there was a runway in front of us 🙂

Swedish TreesComing out of the airplane the temperature fell down a little, and I remember looking around the airport area, I could see only trees 10 meters high (30 feet approx).

Some people told me that Sweden is grey and sad, but looking around me at that time I though it was grey, green but beautiful.

I had a place to stay in the south of the city, on the other side compared to the airport, and it was a thursday night.

I was tired but I said to myself that I would get the train and the the taxi. (not only the taxi as planned).

Walking by the airport I say the advertisement of the bus shuttle service : we run on biofuel.

And I decided to take my first biofueled bus ride!

Getting closer to the city I was really surprised of how much traffic there was. Luckily for me we had the special bus lane so, no big deal.Swedish Taxi

But I saw a bunch of cars that I didin’t expect to see on a Thursday evening.

And only after the trip I made to get to my place I realized that I really underesimated the size of Stockholm. It is quite a larger city than the one I had pictured in my mind.

I will barely mention how I felt breathless looking at the city reflecting in the water while the taxi (powered by biofuel!) was bringing me to my destination.

After about one week I had the chance to walk in Galma Stan, as I also traveled back and forth all around the bus and tunnelbana system while I was looking for a permanent place to stay (which I found after a long and painful research!).

And by doing this I had the chance to meet plenty of people, Swedish and not.

I have to say that the Swede’s are really nice people, nowhere close as the cold-nordic-stereotype that people that never even talked to a Swede believe they are.

They are friendly and polite, if you smile or say “Hej” to a perfect stranger on the bus they will smile back to you and reply, something that NEVER happened to me on a bus in Rome.

In less than a week the temperature dropped and I saw the first snowflake of the year while I was walking during the evening in Kungholmen.

I was surrounded by this snowstorm and felt a little nervous, but I became extremely calm when I saw that most of the people around me just kept doing what they were doing!

People kept cycling, kept pushing their baby’s trolley and kept walking on the streets keeping their’s lover’s hand.

I keep feeling a little chilly even with my best (Italian) winter gear and people keep saying to me “this is not even the winter, is still autumn!”.

I saw a couple Swedish boys escorting their girlfriends to the bus stop and kissing them goodbye even with jackets much lighter than mine. I guess the Swedes have the heat inside!

2 thoughts on “My First 10 Days In Stockholm”

  1. A nice story, and nice pictures… you seem to have an eye for the beatiful. It will get colder, and you’ll get used to that, but do buy a warm jacket!

    Reply
  2. Thanks for a really nice story and I guess the first experience before touch down in Arlanda and Stockholm must be that it’s in the middle of a never ending Forrest full of trolls and fairys:)
    But Stockholm is a beautiful city on the islands, a Queen reflecting her self in the sea of Mälaren. With the icy winter approaching you might soon find your self skating around and explore the city by ice. Get your nice winter jacket though for our sometimes snowy polar weather and stay warm throughout the winter and explore the beautiful archipelago of Stockholm by sailing in the long, bright and beautiful Swedish summertime. Hope you’ll enjoy your stay:)

    Reply

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