A lot of travelers skip Stockholm because it’s an expensive city. There’s no denying that Stockholm is really expensive compared to other cities around Europe but a visit doesn’t need to break your budget.

Me, Mau and Gri went to Stockholm for 4 days (3 nights) – from Friday ‘till Monday. We bought a very cheap flight from Wizzair and we booked the hotels via Booking, like always – 2 nights we stayed in a ship in the Gamla Stan shore and 1 night at the airport hotel in Skavsta.

What we did

We took long walks along the promenades: even though it was gloomy and rainy half day and the other half dark and cold, we couldn’t help but walking and watch the ships come and go, admire the city’s majestic profiles and enjoy the views – we walked 20km /day.

We visited the Vasa Museum – which is truly amazing – beside the big wooden ship being conserved, there is also a beautiful space dedicated to world geography and history. Face the world program and the Vitruvian man of DaVinci were impressive.

In Tivoli Gronalund – a very big amusement park – we only took a slight look because it was closed. No rides in those frightening carrousels.

We only used public transportation once – we took the ferry from Slussen to Skansen which is a park and a zoo at the same time. Really nice to visit – we got to see how glass is made during a workshop.

Fotografiska Museum is also a must see – besides the expo itself, you get to take photos in a photo booth setting and print them out. Unfortunately, I lost ours. It has also a nice shop with books, supplies and souvenirs.

The Ericsson Globe seemed awful to me. It’s a sort of ferry wheel except here the gondola actually goes around the side of the building. Awful!

The Pedestrian street near Gamla Stan has many different shops, if you want to buy a few small trinkets and souvenirs to gift people back home, I suggest you do it here.

Main highlight of the trip: We tried to get a Surstromming can back home but the airport security didn’t allow us to do it. No stinky meal for us!

What got us by surprise

• Smell of burgers and French fries – and I thought it was supposed to smell like fish and good wine
• Soup, mayonnaise, mustard or caviar are sold in tubes or in sausage like packaging
• The water is clean and fresh and they encourage drinking straight from the tap, not to buy bottled water.
• State owns alcohol monopoly – they don’t stock anything with more than 2.5% in convenience stores. If you want to purchase alcoholic drinks to consume at home, the only legal option is buying from Systembolaget.
• You have to leave the bar at 1 o’clock – Airfur Krog and Bar – beautiful Viking like place where we drank Mead for the first time.
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• Alcohol is nearly prohibited. But what about smoking? I never saw so many people having a smoke on the street.
• Cinnamon buns rule! Yup, they have amazing cinnamon buns. And some other type of pastries that resemble to pine flavor.