Stockholm

“Welcome to Stockholm,” he said. “Don’t come back. And don’t you dare move here.”

We heard this again and again, from friends, and from strangers.

Why? Because while we were there, Stockholm had the most addictively perfect weather. And apparently, we landed for the ONLY 3 perfect days of the whole year when the sky isn’t shitting on you.

If Crete was my favorite, Stockholm was Kyle’s.

Subway Art, on our self-guided tour of the Blue Line

You have not lived until you’ve had a cardamom bun:

Transport between the islands on the archipelago

Stockholm is an archipelago, a conglomerate of islands. We really enjoyed exploring each island, each which had a very different feel.

Sodermalm

Our “home” island of Sweden’s archipelago

My favorite island was Sodermalm, where we stayed. It is a very neighborhoody-type island, and complete hipsterland (basically San Francisco). The Hotel STF Zinkensdamm, which provided us with a tiny little sterile unit with fold-down bunk beds felt much like a ship and suited us well for the trip. While perhaps not my favorite sleeping experience, it was private and clean, I could see grass out the window, and it had a lovely communal porch. It was also next to a block of community gardens and if you walked a couple blocks to the nearby seaside park, you could dive off a diving board attached to the small pier.

Some of the best food we had was also on that island:

• Nystekt Stromming- Traditional fish sandwich food truck. Phenomenal.

• Meatballs for the people: One night we happened out for dinner, and I insisted on a “first” dinner upon passing Meatballs for the People, before second dinner at Nytorget 6. I regret nothing.

• Nytorget 6, a fancier restaurant with a classy bar, amazing drinks, a phenomenal traditional blood pudding dish and a fish dish

Blood Pudding with blood mousse, sitting in a vat of fat. It was pretty damn good.

Shopping:

The Swedes like their caviar. And food that comes in tubes.

And beautiful displays…

Gamla Stan

The medieval part and original home to the royal family

We spent a day visiting Gamla Stan, the medieval old town, where we took the fantastic “Sinister Side of Stockholm’s Old Town” walking tour and learned about the various hideosities of living in a medieval town, of dumping garbage into the streets and a fire plaque one had to purchase from the city and place on the outside wall if they wanted their house saved from a fire.

If you touch the walls and walk all the way down Sweden’s narrowest street, you can make a wish.

Norrmalm

Normal island. Boring island.

We jaunted through Norrmalm, where we went to a lovely little milonga and saw Milly!

Norrmalm is too boring for photos.

Djurgarden

A big ridiculous royal garden. And some museums. Royalty left boring building-y Gamlastan to come live amongst the flowers of Djurgarden.

And we spent an afternoon with Yulijah and her man and went to the Vasa museum. The Vasa boasts an old viking-type ship that was dredged out of the bottom of the bay. It never actually sailed because some overzealous nut decided he needed ALL THE THINGS on it, so it made no haste and tipped over with the first real wind.

We then biked to over to the actual Djurgarden (name of the island AND a garden that dominates most of the island), where we stumbled on an afternoon community garden festival, where people basked in the sun on the grounds of an apple orchard, and in the next field, people picked flowers from labelled rows to create bouquets they could purchase.

Notes:

• Nystekt Stromming- https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g189852-d2201594-Reviews-Nystekt_Stromming-Stockholm.html#MAPVIEW

• Free tour: http://www.stockholmfreetour.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Santorini

September, 2016

For some reason, ever since I left Santorini, I’ve been singing my own made-up song about Santorini to the tune of “Tiny Bubbles.”

It has a certain old-world charm, with its assortment of cave dwellings and white+blue structures built into a caldera-facing cliff, and smattered with steps.

We stayed in Karterados, a quaint little town just South of the main town, Fira.

Karterados

Karterados basically didn’t have anything. It was a convenient and quiet spot of respite before heading into the happening town, just like I like it. Many locals live here, and I particularly enjoyed ambling about the back-streets and stumbling upon random doors built into the ground.

Greece has fun windmills everywhere! …it’s on a cliff and we were told that it gets particularly windy in the winter.

Bus Stop

 

Fira, North of Karterados

The main city

Fira has a lot of shops and the most people. The city was fine, flooded with tourists, centrally located, but not my favorite.

In case you get tired of walking, there are donkeys to walk you down the mountain.

 

Imerovigli

North of Fira, where the wedding was held

Amel and Sofiane’s wedding is the reason that we made it to Europe in the first place! So without further ado: the Algerian wedding (with close-friend attendees from Algeria, France, and the United States).

The wedding was incredible, set in a hotel in Oia, overlooking the sea. The ceremony was humble, the attendees weren’t numerous, but this *was* their third ceremony! We listened vows delivered in English, provided by an Algerian friend who asked the bride and groom to repeat comically partial sentences:

Speaker: …”I….”
Groom: …”I…”
Speaker: “take you…”
Groom: “take you…”
Speaker: “Amel,”
Groom: “Amel,”
Speaker: “to be…”
Groom: “to be…”

Needless to say, we were giggling pretty hard.

After the ceremony, we listened and danced to a traditional Greek band and then had the most decadent and abundant dinner I’ve had in a while, including a moussaka the size of my face that was JUST the appetizer.

Amel surprised us with her beautiful traditional Algerian garb!

Oia

Northern tip of Santorini, (pronounced EE-yah)

Though swamped with tourists, Oia still manages to convey an old-timey, romantic ‘waltz around arm-in-arm wearing sandals and a floppy hat’ kind of feel.

Maybe it’s the lack of cars seen as you climb up and down countless white-washed stairs. Or all the art galleries. Or maybe it’s the determination in the air of pursuing a sunset, of all things. The stampede of people cramming into every Westward facing nook to catch the sunset is kind of great.

We also managed to stumble into the most charming bookshop I’ve seen in a long time.

Kyle loves books

 

South of Santorini

The South of Santorini doesn’t boast the same cliffside views that the rest has, but it is perhaps, in my opinion, better. It’s quieter, the best (and only) beaches are there, and there is access to the fantastic ruins.

Akortiri, Minoan Bronze age settlement, is an ancient city that was uncovered from layers of lava and is now contained in a large warehouse. You can circle the entire complex and can even walk through some of the old streets.

Visit the red beach! In September, the water is chilly, but swimmable and so striking with the red and black volcanic rock underneath your feet. You have an option to rent kayaks to kayak to two other beaches: a white and a black one!

 

The Yacht Trip

In which we travelled around the edge of the island and to the volcanic hot spring!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was a yacht trip in the caldera. We went, 10 of us, to various private swimming spots, were wined and dined very luxuriously, and swam into the reddened water of the volcanic hot spring.

A little spendy, but very worth it.

Alternatively, you can rent a boat to take you just to the volcano, where you can go for a hike and swim in the springs.

The gray lava “columns” formed when the lava dripped down the cliff

Sofiane and Amel picking mini oysters

Docking just outside the hot spring, which we swam into.

Next up: Crete (my favorite…no offense rest of Greece)