When we woke up, it was already raining. We really wanted to see if the rain would stop, so we decided to go to "The Eye." It is Stockholm's really tall circular building and you can ride to the top of. At the top, the views are supposed to be simply amazing. So we bought our subway tickets and went on the trek to "The Eye."
When we got there, things did not exactly go as planned. The people inside told us it was too windy to go up to the top. This is not the first time wind has ruined my grand plans. Remember that one time we tried to go paragliding in good old Utah? The wind destroyed that dream as well. Well, anyways, the wind bested me again. This time, it just happened to be in Stockholm. Major bummer. So we took the subway back to the City Center. (P.S. If you are ever in Stockholm, don't try to go to "The Eye" if the weather is even a little bit bad. It is a waste of your time.)
From there we decided to go the complete opposite direction towards the Skansen open air museum and the Vasa museum. The only issue was that we are complete cheapos and we didn't want to buy any more tickets for transportation. So what did we decide to do? We decided to hop on anyways and play the " I am a foreigner and I don't know how to reload my tram ticket please don't put me in jail card." (We seem to be playing that card a lot lately.) To help in this elaborate plan, Jessica and I decided that any time a guard passed our approach would be to talk to him about being lost and bat our eyes as best we could. Jessica was up for tram ride numero uno. Her mad flirting/distracting skills were certainly up to par. She befriended the guard and we made it to our destination. Phew.
We decided to go to the Skansen open- air museum first. Skansen was actually the first open-air museum to be created in the world. We were beyond excited to explore all the buildings and traditional crafts this place had to offer. There was just one small problem.... It was raining like crazy. Paige and Hannah didn't quite like the idea of walking around in an outdoor museum and becoming sopping wet. So, they left to go to the Vasa Museum instead. Jessica, Rachel and I would not let the rain deter us. We were going in. Dun Dun Dunnn.
The museum was just as cool as we thought is would be. We were freaking fraking cold though. (I am pretty sure my hands were completely numb for the whole duration of the experience.)To try to stay warm, we would run from building to building. We saw some traditional Swedish homes, glass blowing, a bakery, a fix it shop and a poet's home. My favorites were definitely the bakery and the glass blowing. The bakery was absolutely delicious, and the glass blowing was mesmerizing. The other really cool part was that we were essentially the only people in the whole place. It was like our own private tour without a guide and we were a tad on the freezing side.
On the other side of the museum there was a small zoo. We went inside and there was the cutest little grandpa who was the overseer. He motioned over to me and told me to come see something. I obliged him and went over. He pointed at this really odd contraption behind this sheet of glass. "It is a binky dispenser. When kids are old and need to get rid of their binky, they put in through the hole and the cats take it away.... Don't ya wish they had one of those for alcohol? Ha Ha Ha." I seriously died. It was such a cheesy joke I am sure he says to almost all the visitors. It just made me love it even more.
After the zoo, we found the most amazing full size Swedish carved horses. Sweden is famous for them and this was just too perfect of a photo op to pass up.
A women whose character was a poet and there is Jessica's finger.
The Bakery.
Binky dispenser. Creepy, but cute at the same time. (Do you see the creepy cat on the left side?)
Binky hole. Buh bye binky's
One more because I love these horses.
They were so amazing, and so was the Skansen museum despite the fact my body was frozen. After we met up with Paige and Hannah for our next adventure. The Vasa Museum, aka my favorite place yet!
(It will be in the next post because this one is humongous.)
XO- Mikele