Stockholm

Now, everyone knows that I (Amelia) am normally a very organised and detail-loving person. Adrian, on the other hand, is not. The events of our first night in Sweden clearly show how much we are rubbing off on one another...

So, the plan was that my friend from uni, Stina, would come and meet us at the train station before taking us back to stay at her place. This would have been fine and dandy apart from the fact that a) our flight was delayed half an hour, b) our bags got lost for another hour, and c) I gave Stina the wrong day that we were arriving... (Yes, that third point may be the most important I agree).

I won't go into too much detail, but suffise it to say the youth hostel was booked out (only 10 minutes before we arrived at 1am I might add) and we ended up sleeping behind the Ethnographic Museum with a view of the Royal Palace. It gets light in Stockholm at about 3am but we persisted in our snooze till 8am when the threat of coming across passers by became a bit too real! Many hours, lots of internet checking and a few phone calls later all was well and we were safely ensconsed in the luxury of Stina and Vasco (her boyfriend)'s apartment.

Seeing a place with a local is the best way to travel. Stina showed us round her neighbourhood (an ecologically friendly, design heavy area near the central city) and then we did the tourist thing together and got a boat tour around the canals. She also wouldn't let us spend any money and we were treated to first class dinners courtesy of Vasco (including reindeer stew...mmm...) and packed lunches! It was so lovely to be able to see her again and we've concocted all sorts of plans for future European travel so it won't be so long between visits next time.

We checked out the Nobel museum and learnt all about the laureates from a booming voiced guide named Olaf, looked at a Lonely Planet funny signs exhibition, and watched the changing of the guards. Adrian has rated it as the best changing of the guards he has ever seen (and he's up to about seven so far) and the fact it went for an hour and included a gigantic marching band on horseback definitely rated it up there - I challenge you to watch the video and say if you've seen a better one!

Here are the photos of the whole of Sweden and Denmark as well, enjoy!