We traveled from Copenhagen to Stockholm via high speed train. We were surprised at the Swedish customs people who got on board who then asked people where they were from, where they were going and what bags they owned - it was a step up from the Hungarian customs personnel who simply whizzed past while asking "anything to declare?" Annoyingly we were sat apart for the duration of the journey - somehow we had both ended up with a window seat rather than being next to each other as requested. Luckily a similarly bemused couple sat next to both of us who were happy to swap.
We arrived in Stockholm and were immediately hit by the higher prices. After a lot of confusion and help from a bloke who worked in the metro, we both bought a card that granted us 6 journeys each for about £17. It was a bit of a shock after paying much less in places like Paris and Lisbon. We traveled to our accommodation and spent the rest of the night what to do in the following few days.
On our first full day we got up relatively early (after some confusion with our host regarding breakfast time) then headed to the old part of Stockholm. We quickly realised that our preconceived ideas of the weather were way out; it was clear blue skies and almost unbearable heat. We walked to an area south east of the old town which was quite high up and gave us some great views of the city. We then ambled around the harbour and had a gigantic walk around the city's rivers. We finished up back at the old town and had a good look round before finally throwing in the towel and heading back to our accommodation.
Our second day was spent doing more of the same but on the other side of Stockholm, looking at a small island near the old town. We also had a look at the Ericsson Globe which is a large spherical arena that also represents the sun in a very large scale model of our solar system that is scattered all around the city. The weather was playing tricks on us as one minute the sky was a constant grey with no sun in sight, then in the space of about 10 minutes it all cleared up and was once again ridiculously warm. Later in the day we were held hostage by public toilets...the city is filled with coin operated public toilets that you need 5 Sec to use, only the one we used decided it didn't like our change and refused to open. I dislike paying for public toilets, especially when you are denied a piss after paying for it. We had no other change and there seems to be no such thing as a free toilet (except for small men-only urinals sparsely spread out) so we had to head back. Luckily it was late in the day anyway and we were pretty tired and had looked at everything we wanted to see.
Stockholm is a very impressive city. Much like Vienna, everywhere you look is grand and you can tell that the country's economy is doing well. The downside is that everything is so expensive so things like eating out or doing excursions are almost off limits.
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