The Adventures of Flat Griffin: Five Days in Stockholm

Just 14 hours after returning from Provence, we set out for Stockholm, the capital of Sweden and the biggest city in Scandinavia. Stockholm is spread across 14 islands in a large archipelago on the south-central east coast of Sweden (along the Baltic Sea), with 30% of the city consisting of water and 30% of the city consisting of parks and green spaces. Because the city is so far north, residents and visitors (including us) are able to enjoy almost 24 hours of continuous daylight for most of June and July. On the flip side, winters are cold and very dark. English is spoken by just about everyone in Sweden since they mostly watch American TV programs in English. And in case you didn’t know, we can all thank Sweden for institutions such as Abba, Ikea, Volvo, H&M and, of course, daddy’s former employer QlikTech.

A Stockholm sunset at 11 PM. That's right, I said 11 PM! And in case you're wondering, the sun rose again at 2 AM. Thank goodness for room-darkening shades!

As referenced in my earlier post on Paris, my mommy’s friends Sunyi and Egil have been living in Sweden for 2 years. Mr. Egil, an officer in the Norwegian military, is attending graduate school in Stockholm. Ms. Sunyi is an English teacher for 1 and 2-year-olds at a Montessori preschool. In July, they will move to Oslo, Norway, so we wanted to visit them before they left Stockholm.

Unlike other big cities, Stockholm is an ideal location for cosmopolitan people who also happen to have kids. There’s a playground or park on every other corner and plenty of kid-centric museums to visit. Perhaps the two most popular attractions for children are Junibacken and Skansen. Junibacken celebrates the work of Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi Longstocking book series. Pippi enjoys celebrity status among Swedish kids and I’m her newest fan. The museum has recreated a variety of settings from Lindgren’s books for kids to play around in. Junibacken also features a story train which retells another classic written by Lindgren entitled The Brothers Lionheart. On the other hand, Skansen is a massive outdoor living history museum. The guides wear traditional Swedish costumes and retell life in former times. I especially enjoyed seeing all of the Scandinavian animals like moose, brown bears and even reindeer! Unfortunately, there was no sighting of Santa Claus.

Junibacken

Just like Pippi, I roll out the dough on the kitchen floor.

Petting goats at Skansen.

Many locals get around Stockholm on bikes. In fact, with dedicated bike lanes along almost every street and loads of bike racks around, it seems the city was built for cyclists. So we decided to do as the locals and ride bikes one day. We cruised across many of the bridges that connect the islands and ended up at Haga Park, where we picnicked with one of daddy’s former work colleagues and his family. After lunch, we resumed the bike tour of the park, where we fed horses before daddy, Egil and I decided to take a partial or full skinny dip in the very chilly Brunnsviken Lake. Here are a few photos (some censored) of our day in the park.

The bike lane. In my opinion, it should be available on more streets.

Helmet on, seat belt strapped and I'm ready to roll.

Of course, the Norwegian went in first!

Damn that's cold!

Feeding the horses with daddy and Egil.

We sure did eat well in Sweden. When we first arrived, Ms. Sunyi introduced mommy and daddy to one of the locals’ favorites – cardamom cinnamon rolls. It’s hard to imagine, but this combination of sweet cinnamon with the ginger-like spice of cardamom in a moist and chewy pastry was to die for…or so my parents came to believe. Other culinary highlights included a night out eating Swedish meatballs and caviar, a Korean barbeque that Ms. Sunyi prepared at home and visits to several of the hot dog and sausage stands that can be found on almost every street corner in Stockholm. We now know why hot dogs are all the rage at Ikea!

An in-home Korean BBQ!

Noshing on a French Dog - that's a hot dog encased in a baguette. Yummy!

Mr. Egil and Ms. Sunyi have a great flat in one of the best neighborhoods of Stockholm. Centrally located, we could easily walk to all of the main attractions as well as many great playgrounds, bakeries, stores and public transportation options. We also learned that one of the founders of the clothing store H&M lives across the street from our hosts. We’re not certain if it’s H or M but it’s definitely one of the two.

Egil and Sunyi (and the H&M dude, in yellow house on right) live on Tysta Gatan, which means "quiet street".

Finally, daddy will always remember Stockholm for the massage he had while there. You’ll have to ask daddy to tell you the story in person (and be sure mommy is there to provide more colorful commentary), but don’t be surprised if it involves a small Thai woman named 'Apple', a serious language barrier, her foot on his face and a not-so-happy ending!

All in all, Stockholm was a blast! Many thanks to our gracious hosts Sunyi and Egil. I just love them so much and hope to visit them again in Oslo. More photos from our trip to Stockholm can be viewed below.

Love,

Griffin