Carry On Up the Archipelago
Trip Start
Jun 19, 2007
1
12
13
Trip End
Jul 21, 2007
Vaxholm,
Sweden
Saturday, July 14, 2007
It took us a long time to get going - it was almost twelve o´clock when we took a ferry for an hour's sailing to Vaxholm, gatway to the Swedish archipelago - a collection of several thousand islands, some of which serve as holiday getaways for Swedes.
Vaxholm was sort of cute in a Nordic sort of way, I guess, but I was after a pine forest national park, not something that resembled Sorrento or North Sydney. It was very busy, but we had run out of time to go any further out into the other islands. Lucky we didn't, really, as we got stuck in an enormous downpour. It really rained hard, just as we were enjoying our fried herring on brown cracker bread lunch
Last day in Stockholm
. We leave Sweden tomorrow for Spain, but we've really enjoyed the stay, even in the cramped conditions of our hostel and the relevant expense of the capital. Stockholm was incredibly accessible and the museums were great - as was the Old Town. With a bit more planning and a babysitter, we could have managed a concert or film too, but being with Rosa meant an early night for Josefa.
English is so prevalent here you get taken aback when something is not immediately translated from Swedish to English (such as on museum info boards) and you take it for granted when you stop someone in the street for directions that they may not actually speak English. But everyone did.
We celebrated by going out to dinner for a traditional meal of Swedish meatballs, crandberries and potatoes. I loved it. Rosa was happy as she got McDonald's instead.
Unlike Riga, we've generally made our own lunch and dinner here. The supermarket was good, although we're now slightly tired of ham and cheese sandwhiches. The hostel had free pasta, minus the sauce, and by about eight o'clock the kitchen is full of kids pouring pasta sauce into saucepans. Most, I'm guessing, eat nothing else. At least our breakfasts were good, thanks to Josefa, Kellogs Special K Berries and strong coffee.
