Ziatitina

... proudly presents : Stockholm!

Well, ladies and gentleman, after about 6 month of "sweet doing no traveling whatsoever in the girlie-pack style" it was more than time for Lucy and me to hit the road again. After some contemplation and various random research squeezed in between month end and budget meetings we decided on a lovely Scandinavian country we both had never been to before: Sweden. Thanks to Expedia we managed to find a fab deal and shortly afterwards, the trip was booked. There you go...no point huffing and puffing about, get it done :)

Friday afternoon in gray and almost rainy London... the wind had already driven us up the wall because it was so annoying, but then there was a weekend away to look forward to. BBC weather-forecast did not sound too promising, but a little cold would have not spoiled the trip as long as the sun would have decided to show its face. First time ever I passed through Terminal 3 at Heathrow and first time ever I flew SAS. Two things I have to say, check-in area is rubbish and really messy...but looks totally cool from the outside, but try to avoid any planes that start with the MD- code. Oh oh.... the engine was pretty much glued to my ear. I think we gave up talking to each other after about 5 minutes and opted for sign language instead. Try to do that for about 2 1/2 hours...I thought I was going to loose it after about 30 minutes. Never mind, even the fact that any refreshments have to be paid for did not put us off and we followed a really weird full moon through the window for about an hour. How bored must we have been??? Not sure, but a magazine only lasts that long and Sudokus eventually get boring, so.... peek out of the window and there it is. The most stunning full moon ever....and it reflects on the clouds underneath you! I wish I would have taken a picture, but that somehow slipped my mind. With a good half an hour delay we landed in Stockholm and were in a cab shortly afterwards to reach our hotel after midnight. Too bad the bar had taken last orders about 2 minutes before we got there, but it had been a long day, so the mini bar helped out with a little night cap :)

Yay, it's Saturday morning and we both slept like bears in our simple but lovely Ikea-furnished room. The Nordic Sea Hotel is conveniently located near the main train station and for those of you who actually get there at a decent time of the day the Arlanda Express is the one method of transport that we recommend to take from and to the main Stockholm Airport. It's just a 30 second walk away from the main train station and there are lots of special offers on weekends so two adults can travel for half the price. Handy, if you consider that Stockholm is quite expensive. The furnishings are simple, but nice. Comfy beds, good size bedroom and all Swedish channels show a lot of English movies/series with Swedish subtitles = you can understand pretty much everything. Anyway, we hit the road to start our Swedish adventure.

Looks amazing doesn't it? This picture was taken on our second day, when there was not a single cloud in the sky and it was so warm you had to take your jacket off :) But first things first... it's Saturday and we are on our way armed with guides and maps and enough of Swedish Krona ( or "Coronas" as nicknamed by Lucy). Past the Parliament and the back of the Royal Palace we find ourselves in Gamla Stan, the old part of town. Characteristic with its medieval and Renaissance architecture it has a lot of small ( car-less) cobbled streets filled with small shops of all sorts. After a brief pit-stop and a coffee we were on our way again, circled the island and walked back to reach the front of the Royal Palace - just in time to see the change of the guards. Well, at least we believe it was that particular occasion as a big band was playing and walking up to the palace in front of our eyes. According to our guide on one occasion one guard actually turned the wrong way during the change....oh, would I have loved to see that, must have been hilarious!!!!!

We crossed the bridge, surprised to find fisherman following their favourite past-time in the middle of traffic and tourists, and turned right. Past the piers of Stromkajen we followed the seafront to Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen, two smaller islands linked to central Stockholm.

I have to admit that the weather was not completely stunning at that point, but it was very pleasant and we were completely blown away by the panorama. On Skeppsholmen we wandered around randomly and ended up admiring some of the statues in front of the Museum of Modern Art. As the hours were counted we did not have time to actually peek inside, but this was a good starting point... :)

Kastellholmen is home to a lovely tiny weeny citadel on top of the hill, which can be easily. A short stroll up the hill and a few minutes in the sun later we ended up walking back across the bridge and along further piers towards Ostermalm. Strandvagen is a really nice, long walk along the seafront towards the island Djurgarden and this is were we found our favourite little bar, floating right there in front of us. :) That could not be left unexplored, and as it was indeed lunch time, we ventured down the platform and enjoyed a really tasty seafood sandwich and .... how could this have been missing on our girlie trip... a bottle of Rose. Unfortunately the sun disappeared behind some evil clouds shortly after, but were were promptly provided with some comfy blankets ( I think Lu's hair is still static....) as to make this the least of the problems.

I wish I could remember the name of that lovely place right now ( unfortunately in a moment of complete madness I cleared out my wallet earlier on and all those little receipts wandered in the bin...), but it doesn't particularly matter. By now we had reached the late afternoon and after a short exploration of Djurgarden we realized that 1. we had walked A LOT 2. it was really getting cold 3. too much fresh air can make really tired, we slowly wandered back in direction of the main station. This clearly took another 3 hours, with various diversions e.g. a 10 Pound G&T at the Soap Bar, lots of different and really weird sweets from one of the local shops, another 15 minutes on a bench in the sun and the discovery of a little Italian restaurant which we found after following a mad-flag-swinging-standing-poster-man. :) Well, I would have certainly not expected to eat Italian in Sweden, but it got really late and we were starving. Better than Pong any time, hey Lu??? :) Never mind, the food was good, the wine as well... With wobbly legs we walked the last 10 minutes back to the hotel and passed out shortly after.

Sunday morning presented itself in the most glorious of ways: not a cloud in the sky. We checked out of our hotel and wandered back into town to explore some of the areas we had seen on Saturday a little more. All I really wanted to do was walk along the sea and take in the atmosphere, the air, the panorama. Glorious!!!

It was hard to actually return to the hotel and pick up our suitcases. Neither of us wanted to leave this fantastic place, but it had to be done... Stockholm has been an incredible trip. The overall atmosphere is very relaxed and chilled. Everyone is really friendly and speaks good English ( sorry, my Swedish really isn't that fluid!!), but even if not we just try with hands and feet as usual :) Try to remember that alcohol is a lot more expensive to what you may be used to in the rest of Europe, and generally the costs are slightly higher. This should not spoil the experience though, as there are lots and lots of hidden corners that can be explored without spending a penny. I definitely want to go back and see more of it, and this time perhaps not just for a day and half :) But for now it is time to remember and think about another destination...we've got to keep it up, right??! :)

Tine

...a month later and a lot has happened. I have been traveling quite a bit so did not really have the chance to update my blog. Apologies.

Where to start? There haven't been any world-changing events between Lucy's Leaving Do and Easter, so I better start with that. Good Friday morning I left a very rainy, windy and cold London for a few days in Italy. The 4.30am wakeup was an absolute killer, but the sun that welcomed me in Linate was worth the effort. A brief stopover at home and after lunch we were on our way to Tuscany, Viareggio to specific. Too bad that the more south we got the less sun was to be seen in the sky and by the time we reached our destination there was a full on storm with horizontal rainfall and a seriously p... off sea. Nice....

From these pictures you can probably tell how f... freezing and windy it was :) Well, we certainly had to give it a try and see for ourselves how stormy it was. 15 minutes and an awful lot of water later we legged it back home to warm up. The next couple of days it got a lot nicer, with sunny spells and long walks along the "lungomare" ( = walk along the seafront with shops and little cafe's), nice restaurants, a little bit of shopping and a few beach visits :)

This happens when you try to take a picture with the self-timer and realize at the last second that you are standing in the wrong spot :) It's a miracle we didn't fall over...

Bene and me at La Capannina - one of those Vodka Lemon and you are sorted for the evening, trust me!

Unfortunately this break lasted way to little and on Monday evening we were already on our way back to Milan. But, there was not time to relax. Once back in London it was time for my last week at work and the very anticipated B-day/ Leaving Party at Sway Bar. A big Thank you goes to all present that night, and those that unfortunately couldn't make it. No forgiveness will be extended to those who promised to come and just didn't show ;) Just kidding!!! Here is a random selection of a few impressions of that night....

To my fellow ex-Stanhopians: Thank you SO much for the fantastic 3 years we had together. Keep in touch, ok? Once the new office is open we should arrange a good old piss-up like the old times. Missing you already!!!

And, quicker than I would have expected, my last day arrived and after 3 brilliant years in my building in Floral Street it was time to pack up and leave. There were a few tears, some flowers, champagne and an awful lot of bags ( the stuff one piles up underneath the desk in 3 years....incredible!!!) and the knowledge that I had a week holidays ahead of me to think it all over and relax. Yeah, right....relaxing? Not if one's flight is scheduled to fly out from Heathrow T5 5 days after opening and they are in the middle of the crisis. In fact, it couldn't have been any different, my flight was cancelled for the 6th day in a row and I luckily managed to get out of town with Easyjet from Gatwick instead.

Milan was lovely as always, even though I think I drunk and ate waaaaaaay too much :) Oh well, that's what holidays are all about, right? I even managed to get to Bergamo, a little town abut half an hour from Milan, for a day and explore the old part of town located on a top hill. With my usual luck the little train that takes you up there was undergoing refurbishment, so we had to take the stairs instead. It really wasn't that bad and the view was astonishing....

I have been back in London for about a week now, started the new job and slowly getting used to new and old things again. The new office is still a construction site, so there is very little that can be done until we get a bit further. I suddenly find myself with a lot of time on my hands and try to catch up on a lot of things I did not have the time or energy to do over the last 6 months. So far so good. Next weekend Lucy and I ( as part of the "Girls On Tour" Series) are flying to Stockholm for a short break. Looking forward exploring a city I have not seen yet!!

Tine x