On our last day in New York we checked out of our hostel and decided to walk uptown to visit Central Park - this turned out to be a lot further than we had thought, and with my bad foot it took us well over an hour to get there. Never mind, once we arrived we had a quick look at the horse and carriages (we couldn't afford one!), then went into the park and relaxed by a pond full of terrapins, birds and fish - quite relaxing for NYC! Once my foot was feeling a bit better we walked further into the park, past loads of baseball pitches as well as grassy areas full of squirrels. By this time it was lunchtime, so we bought a hotdog from a food stand in the park (cheap but surprisingly nice!), before walking over to Strawberry Fields to see the Imagine mosaic - this area is right across from where John Lennon was killed, so there were loads of buskers playing Beatles songs which was nice. We started walking back through the park in the general direction of our hotel, and at this point it decided to start raining - we had a quick look at a fountain and then waited under a tree for the rain to stop. Unfortunately the rain got heavier and heavier, and eventually we had to just brave the weather and head to the subway (we didn't have our coats with us). Typically the weather was fine again once we got back to our hotel, but we collected our bags anyway and headed for the airport ready for our last overnight flight of the trip over to Stockholm. The flight was actually really comfortable to say it was a budget airline, and after 7 hours we were back in Europe. We were both really tired, so once we got to our hostel we had a shower and a rest before heading out to explore the area around where we were staying. We were in Vasagatan, just outside of the city centre but full of beautiful old buildings - we had coffee and a cake at a bakery across the road from our hostel (so good to have proper coffee again after the USA!), and then walked a little way along Drottninggatan, which is a very long street full of shops, cafes and restaurants that leads from near our hostel right down to the Old Town. Stockholm has a great feeling, much quieter and more relaxed than New York so it made a really nice change. After a quick walk we headed back to our hostel to get over our jetlag ready to explore the next day. For our first full day we headed back down Drottninggatan, stopping off at the TIC to buy the 'Millennium Map' of Stockholm - this shows where all the main places are from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, and since we both read and really enjoyed them we decided we had to do it - it was our main reason for wanting to come to Sweden! With the map in hand we crossed over the river, past the Parliament Building and a quick walk through Gamla Stan (the Old Town), and across another bridge to Sodermalm, the area where the books were set. With the map we explored the island, finding the houses where the main characters lived, had a coffee at their local cafe, and had some great views back over the river towards the Old Town. We bought some lunch and enjoyed the sunshine in the park (much more relaxed than Central Park!), before heading back across the river to Gamla Stan, where we had a quick look at the Royal Palace. In the evening we had dinner out at a restaurant on Drottninggatan - an Italian restaurant where we had some real Swedish cider too, the food in Stockholm is very good quality! The next day was our last day in Sweden, as we were flying back to London that evening. We left our bags at the hostel and headed down to Gamla Stan to explore the Old Town, stopping off on the way for coffee and pain au chocolats in a cafe on Drottninggatan. Once we got to Gamla Stan we looked around the outside of the Royal Palace, complete with guards - it's a very impressive looking building; we then headed to the Outer Courtyard of the Palace to get a good spot for watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Because we were early we got a spot on the front row, so we had perfect views of all the marching soldiers, including flag bearers, as well as the navy band who played some pieces. The whole thing last around 40 minutes and was really interesting to watch. Afterwards we headed further into the Old Town, and found a restaurant in a medieval vaulted cellar where we had a great deal on a lunch menu (food in Sweden is pretty cheap if you look for deals!). We then had time to have a look around the old cobbled streets of Gamla Stan, which are full of churches and old buildings painted in beautiful colours, before heading back up to our hostel to collect our bags in time to get a bus to the airport. We definitely want to come back to Stockholm in the future, and would love to explore some of the countryside if we get the chance.