03/07/2023 From Asia to Europe
Saying goodbye to Asia (for now)
Since Blake and I love Asia so much, we were both pretty sad when we flew out of Luang Prabang, Laos today.
After a quick flight to Bangkok, we had an “easy” 9-hour-stopover in Bangkok, before catching the next flight to Stockholm at midnight.
Bye bye, Asia!
04/07/2023 Stockholm
What to expect
Stockholm
Back in Europe after one year
After another 11 hours in the air, with little sleep and unfortunately not so tasty airplane food (which we usually love), we made it to Stockholm at 7 a.m. in the morning local time. This was going to be a long day!
Not old, just older
In our 58 hours in Stockholm, we were first going to meet up with a good friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in ten years!
When I studied in Surfers Paradise in Australia in 2011 for one semester, I met an awesome Swedish girl who I immediately clicked with. After numerous parties on the Gold Coast together, we also traveled the Great Ocean Road in a camper van together and caught up in Stockholm again in 2012 in summer and in winter.
The good old times
It was amazing seeing Elnaz again and meeting her boyfriend and daughter as well as for her to meet Blake.
We exchanged so many fun stories from our “good old times” in Australia and got each other up to date about the past 10 years of our lives – time honestly flies!
Reunion with friends from the road
After going for a walk with them, Blake and I took the tram to meet some other friends for the evening, who we had met during our travels in Bolivia about eight months ago.
It was so much fun seeing them again and exchanging travel stories from South America, which – after our travels around New Zealand, Australia and Asia – seemed like a lifetime ago.
Thank you, jetlag
Around 11 p.m. we couldn’t hide our jetlag any longer and took the tram back to my friend’s place. Funnily, it was still light outside, which felt so weird to us after watching sunset around 6.30 pm in Asia and Australia for most of the time.
05/07/2023 Stockholm
Back in a real home
After having stayed in so many impersonal hotels on the road, it felt so nice waking up in a real bed and in a real home again.
Also, having breakfast that consisted of something other than an omelette as well as walking into a bakery that sold something other than white bread made us both so happy. It’s certainly the small things in life.
Visit the Vikings Museum
While Blake visited the Viking Museum, I stayed with Elnaz and her family for a proper catch up.
Take a boat to the islands
In the afternoon we all caught up at the harbour again, where we took a three-hour-boat ride to the islands. The scenery was so beautiful and it was great seeing all the typical Swedish (holiday) homes on the different islands.
Try Swedish meat balls
In the evening Blake and I had dinner in town and Blake tried the famous Swedish meat balls.
In love with Sweden
We both love Stockholm as a city where everything and everyone just seems more beautiful than the average city/ person.
06/07/2023 From Stockholm, Sweden to Split, Croatia
Off to the next adventure
And just like that, our time in Stockholm has ended as quickly as it had started.
We had one last breakfast with Elnaz and her family before catching the metro to the city centre.
Do a hop on hop off bus tour
Originally, we wanted to do a free walking tour as we usually do in bigger cities. But since we got lost in a conversation with Elnaz (and maybe also since our time management sucks), we missed it. This is why we decided to do a “hop-on hop-off bus tour” instead.
A quick turnaround
Even though we knew Stockholm was going to be expensive, we were still shocked at how expensive it actually was. (I’m sure coming from South East Asia didn’t really help either.) However, we really enjoyed our time here. We loved catching up with old and new friends. And we loved exploring the city by foot, bus, metro and boat.
We are both pretty sure that this wasn’t the last time that we would come to Stockholm.
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