Six weeks after I last visited Sweden, and five weeks after I went to the Eurovision in Concert, I was in Stockholm for the Eurovision itself.

This was going to be one busy holiday, and it started early on the Thursday morning with me driving to Stansted for an 8:30am flight to the capital of Sweden, which despite being my fourth time in the country, was my first outside of Malmö city centre. With the flight landing in the city of Nyköping, it took me the whole morning to actually get to the city centre where after grabbing a bite to eat I met up with my good friend Johan, with whom I had spent two weeks last summer travelling around the Balkans with.

Johan provided me with a brief tour of the city, crossing the numerous bridges that make up the archipelago of Stockholm city, through Gamla Stan and towards the Katarina Elevator where there is a wonderful view over the whole city. We then made our way back into the city and met up with our friend Jesper with whom we would all be staying for the weekend.

After getting some supplies for the week it was already reaching the evening and so I quickly downed my drinks and then left the guys back at the apartment and made my way towards the Globen Arena for tonight's semi final which I had also bought tickets for and would be attending alone.

Also in the city this evening was my good friend Camilla, with whom I had lived with in Germany four years previously; however due to my rushed schedule, we had arranged to meet outside the arena an hour or so before I planned to go inside.

Turning up rather tipsily, we had a lovely catch up with two of her friends I had also met in London three years previously (although it took me ten minutes to recognise one of them), before we proceeded to take 400 pictures so that at least one would look half decent. After saying goodbye, I proceeded into the arena to witness my second ever contest after attending the show in Düsseldorf five years previously.


Being inside the arena, like in 2011, naturally provides a different experience to watching on TV. There is no commentary, you get to see the behind the scenes, including the super fast changing of the stage instead of the postcards, as well as the audience reaction and tension to the results. Having spent all morning being surrounded on the plane and airport bus hearing comments such as "I wonder if Belgium will qualify tonight" I had sobered up enough by the results to remember that vividly. However when later asked how I enjoyed the opening I am unable to comment....

After a very long day of travelling, sightseeing, catch ups and watching the show I was glad to enjoy a more restful second day, and after enjoying a well earned lie in, as well as almostlocking ourselves out of the apartment with the handle fell off, Johan and I headed into the city again to visit the Royal Palace Armoury, as well as explore the Eurovillage, where Eurovision had taken over the Kungsträdgården park.

Posing for photos with a mock of the Eurovision Winner's Award we went for lunch before exploring the cave-style metro stations and eventually meeting back up with Jesper who was working today.

We then went to visit the Mall of Scandinavia in Solna before heading back to the apartment for an evening of drinks and chat, at which we were joined by some of Jepser's friends who joined at the embarassing moment Johan and I were singing along to decade old Eurovision recaps and songs on Youtube.

After another late night of drunken bants the day of the final had finally arrived.

Jesper went into the city to meet up with his friend Marcus, who would be joining us for the contest, whilst Johan attended a political conference. Meanwhile I had bought myself tickets for the ABBA Museum, and made my way towards Djurgårgden.

The ABBA Museum contains many exhibits donated by the members of ABBA themselves, including clothes, awards and instruments; and as this was also the Eurovision week, a special popup exhibition was also in place with memorabilia from the contest as well, making this an even more exciting place to visit. After a few hours at the museum I made my way back to Jesper's apartment, met Marcus, and we got ready for tonight's show.

Having a few drinks, the four of us made our way towards the arena and with the excitement finally building we were inside the arena finding our seats at the very back and top of the arena - which still had great views of the stage. Unfortunately Marcus had lost us, but nevertheless the three of us sat watching the show enjoying the live atmosphere (including the beautiful communal Green Room reaction to Justin Timberlake, showing that national stars can be just like normal people too) as well as struggling to see what was happening with the scores before the nail-biting finish.

After the show, still with no sign of Marcus (having heard he was at Central Station?!), another of Jesper's friends, Adam joined us and brought with him more booze to drink before attending the after party at the Tele2 Arena next door to the Globen. Having said hello to Emil from Malta, Johan and I also found Roel from the Netherlands and had a mini-reunion with the both of them whilst enjoying the after party. This ended at 4am where it had already begun to get light, and after waiting for a while to get our metro train, we missed our stop and had to walk back to the apartment. Eventually making it back gone 5am, it was now the same time I had got up just two days previously....

The following morning we awoke at the arrival of Marcus, who had told us that he had knocked into someone at the arena, been made concussed and sent to the hospital, from where he had only just been discharged. Unfortunately missing the entire show, and sadly flying back to Helsinki that evening!

We therefore sat and watched the whole contest on the television before it was time to go home, and I then headed in the early evening back to the central station to catch my bus back to the airport and eventually home. Eventually arriving back in my own bed at gone 12:30am UK time....a very long and busy holiday before a five day week at work!

Nevertheless it was a truly great holiday, filled with fun and jokes, catch ups, a city in beautiful weather, as well as the excellent Eurovision experience. Roll on Kyiv 2017?