Wednesday, Sept 11

We have arrived, after a nearly 8 hour flight from Chicago, during which we suffered through multiple bouts of crying toddler syndrome (despite being seated in Business Class – who brings a toddler in Business Class?). We reached our Airbnb that we’re staying in around 9:00am.  The flat is in a very old building. The 2 flights of stairs leading up to our flat are worn down in the middle with at least a century of wear. Our flat has a small kitchen, a decent sized lounge (living room/dining room) and 3 bedrooms. There are a couple beds in each, so this fairly small flat can sleep 8 people (albeit in rather cramped conditions, 2 of the beds are just full sized).  There is one bathroom. Unfortunately, it has a rather nasty sewer smell that seems to be coming from the sink. We’re keeping the door closed at all times so as to keep the smell contained in the one room. Our intention was to head out straight away to get some groceries and start exploring, but we were exhausted after our flight. So, we took a nap for a few hours.  

In the end, we didn’t do so much exploring our first day here.  We did make it to 2 different grocery stores. On the way to the grocery store, we stopped at Naturbageriet SATTVA – a little bakery – to have our first Swedish cinnamon rolls.  The idea for this whole trip started when Rob found out that there were lots of cinnamon rolls in Sweden and Norway. I will say, the first ones didn’t disappoint.  We’ll be having lots more before we leave Sweden! As we started out again for the grocery store, Rob spotted some sweet little chubby birds flitting along at the edge of the sidewalk and in the street under a parked car.  They were so chubby and cute, not afraid of us. We got a good shot of one, see pics. It turns out they are house sparrows. Later we found some hand-carved birds in a shop that helped us identify the ones we’d seen in the street.  

The first grocery store didn’t have any pizzas for Rob, so we headed to the second one, doing a bit of shopping in the touristy shops along the way.  We are staying on the island of Gamla Stan, which is one of the oldest parts of Stockholm. Many of the streets are very narrow and are now pedestrian only. The main street just up from us is filled with touristy shops, both cheesy souvenirs and nicer things like woolens with Scaninavian designs and wooden shoes.  I’ve already bought a pair of wooden shoes with soft orangy-red leather uppers. Rob was able to find a pizza that he likes, but struck out on chocolate milk. We bought 2 kinds, and both were pretty gross. After eating dinner, we were off to bed a little after 7:00pm. Tomorrow we’ll get out and really start to see what Stockholm has to offer.