More Scandinavian adventures

Day 2 in Stockholm started off with some sleeping in for once in our spring break trip. It felt great and definitely was a nice break from waking up at 3 or 4 am. We had our breakfast at the hostel of just a croissant, orange juice and fruit and we were on our way to do some more exploring around Stockholm.

We walked around Gamla Stan and went through the Gardens and the area around the Royal Palace. It was cool to see the guards and the fountains that went along with the Palace. We ate lunch at this small cafe where I tried this "chokolatebal" which is exactly as it sounds, a ball of chocolate! After passing through and visiting more of the Old Town we went to the trendy district of Soldermalm where we saw this beautiful canal that was still covered in ice.... pretty weird to see since it was about 45 degrees outside but it was really awesome. It was a sunny day so we went exploring and took lots of pictures of the different islands. Since they don't check any tickets on the public transport, we decided to go bus hopping to see more of Stockholm then we could on foot. We explored more of Soldermalm and of Djurgarden, where we were able to see the Skansen fairgrounds, which is the largest open-air market/folk musueum in the world.

In front of the icy canal

The view from Djurgaden to the rest of Stockholm was amazing, especially seeing the white swans and wildlife. Although it was a little chilly, we had so many layers on that we felt fine. Once it got dark though we decided to go back to our hostel to warm up and take a nap before going back out for dinner. We found another traditional Swedish place were we enjoyed some more Swedish meatballs and we tried reindeer! It tasted a little like a mix between venison and a steak but it was delicious.  After dinner we just decided to stay in and hang out at the hostel were we met some really interesting Austrailans, Italians and some Germans. That is oneof the great things about staying in a hostel is you are able to meet some many cool people from different nationalities. We had a very early flight, having to wake up at 4 so staying in probably was a good choice since we were off to Copenhagen the next day!

Once we arrived in Copenhagen we were really exhuasted/hungry. We found our hostel which turned out to be a really cute bed and breakfast in the central of Copenhagen on the main pedestrian shopping street of Frederiksberggade. The lady that owned it was really nice and gave us some great recommendations of stuff to do and places to eat. However we felt like eating some American food so went to the Hard Rock Cafe that was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel. The food was as you would expect and but it was kinda nice not to eat as exotic as we had been earlier that week. We walked down Frederiksberggade and found a huge LEGO store!

Famous Marina

 As Denmark is the home of Legos, they are quite popular there and apparently they have a gigantic Legoland park outside of Copenhagen, but sadly we didn't have to the time nor the money to go see it. We also walked around to see the Tivoli Amusement Park, which is the oldest amusement park in the world. Sadly it was closed because it wasn't warm enough yet but it was neat to see. We found one of the most famous and photographed marina's in Copenhagen so we spent some time just hanging out near there until we ate some Japanese food for dinner. Since we took a good 3 hour nap during the day we couldn't see as much as we wanted too, but we ended our night with some Pelsforth beer which is Danish and delicious, just hanging out in our hostel. A little lame but it had been a loooong week!

Rosenborg Castle and Gardens

The next day was our last official day of spring break so we still had a lot that we had to see in Copenhagen. We had a typical Danish breakfast at a restaurant which included eggs, a strange kind of bacon, fruit, picked herring (didn't try itsince it was breakfast) and bread with lingonberry jam. It was so much food since most Danes eat a much bigger breakfast than other Europeans. It is nice that everyone in Copenhagen spoke English but I also looked up someDanish words just to help me out! It was a great meal and then we were off on our day. We decided to rent bikes which was both really fun and really scary since we both hadn't ridden bikes in so long. Copenhagen is ranked #2 in Europe in terms of bike usage and they even have their own designated lanes in traffic, complete with turn signals and stoplights for the bikers. We biked around the city centre and found these amazing botanical gardens hiding behind this normal house... ate some "pigs in a blanket" at a 7-11 and then went to the Rosenberg Castle which had some of the most amazing gardens. We didn't have the time to go inside, but it was nice just to relax outside the gardens and go around the outside of the Castle. It was built in the 1600's by the king at the time but it has been virtually untouched since then! After the gardens we biked to the Little Mermaid statue,since Hans Christian Anderson who wrote it was from Copenhagen.

Little Mermaid

It was right on the harbor surrounded by rocky beaches which was really amazing to see. We also saw some other tourist sites such as the Opera house, the Royal Library and also the National Art Museum. That night we wanted to eat on the Marina so we ate at an amazing Danish restaurant that was actually outside. Although it was freezing, we felt fine because they had high powered heat lamps and huge fleece blankets that we wore over our clothes. It was an experience but it was fun to be outside in the cold with that many layers on people watching! I had some lobster and some mussels, yum yum :)

Wall of Legos!

We had another chill night because we were so exhausted from biking all day and sightseeing but it was an amazing spring break with memories I will never forget!