My first day in Stockholm started nice and early at about 8:30am. The plan was to do both free walking tours (one in the morning in the new part of Stockholm and one in the evening in the old town). The morning one was guided by a really funny guy and talked a bit about the current royal family and took us to where the Nobel prize is awarded and gave us a bit of history on it. We also visited the smallest public statue in Stockholm.

The evening tour focused more on the history and the royal family of the past. Both successful and not so much. About how Sweden use to own Finland and other parts of northern Europe but then lost them. About their constant fighting against mostly the Danes. A bit about vikings, stuff like that. I was hoping to meet Kristi on this tour (a girl I had been chatting to through Couchsurfing who was kinda travelling the same direction I am) but she arrived a bit late and the tour was split into two groups; she got put in the other group.

However I did meet a group of Aussie girls on the tour and when it was over we went to a pub for some drinks and food. Also the Germany vs Brazil final was on and this ended up being one hell of a match. The result was 7-1 to Germany, but it was already 5-0 by about 25mins into the game. It just became a joke and the only real interest was how many goals Germany could kick.

On my second day I went to the Vasa Museum which a few people had told me about and recommended the day before. And I'm glad they did because it was amazing. It's great that after near a year of travelling there are still things which make me go, "holy crap that is so cool". They may not happen us much as they did at the start of the trip, but every now and again they do.

Basically the how museum is based around a ship built in the 17th century which sank on its maiden voyage after only 1.5km, still in the Stockholm harbour. It was 333 years before they were able to bring it up and then preserve it. A process which took several decades, 17 years of which consisted of constantly spraying it with some stuff (I can't remember the name of, but has the initials PEG) which over nearly 2 decades replaced all the water in the wood so that the wood wouldn't dry out and crack and decay.

So the museum is 5 stories going up around the ship, so you can see it on all levels. And each floor it has different exhibits. One contains the remains of some of the sailors as well as their clothes and other belongings. Another explains the process of bringing the ship up and preserving it. Then there was bits about how the sailors lived and other such things. It was all really very fascinating. But obviously the ship was the highlight. Because of the water it sank in and the silt and clay it was almost perfectly preserved. Over 90% of the ship is original.

After leaving the museum I had a bit of wander around the island it was on, as this was kinda the main tourist area of Stockholm consisting of several museums, parks and the theme park. I headed to the theme park to see the cost of it, which turned out to be even more expensive than Tivoli in Copenhagen, so I didn't bother with it and just headed back to the hostel.

I met up with Rickard that night (the Swedish guy I had met in Morocco) and we went and had some dinner at then went to the Couchsurfing meetup, where I also finally met up with Kristi. As far as Stockholm prices go this place was pretty cheap and we had a good time. The Netherlands were playing Argentina in the soccer, but I don't think anyone other than one Dutch guy was paying that much attention to it. It wasn't a particularly exciting game and it went down the penalty shots which Argentina won.

The next day I went with Kristi to a small island a couple of hours by ferry called Grinda. It's basically an island where you can do a bit of hiking but mostly swimming and relaxing on the beach. Which is basically just what we did. I hope I evened up my tan a little bit. I had a bit of an early night this night as I had had quite a few late nights and early starts the last few days and felt it was time to get a decent sleep before going to Gothenburg the next day.