Stockholm. Day One.

I arrived in Stockholm on Friday night. Exhausted, I did little. I explored the town, picking up my snowglobe (SPOILER: which safely snuck through Swedish security on the way back to Warsaw) and getting dinner.

Saturday, I awoke, ready to see the town. Unfortunately, my eagerness meant that I arrived for my ten o'clock tour of City Hall at 9:20. On the way, though, I got some early morning shots of the streets of Stockholm.

Above is Gamla Stan, the island on which I stayed. It's the home of "Old Town" the largest or oldest or coolest or best preserved medieval city. I made sure I saw all the good things, but I'm not sure I knew what they all were.

City Hall is where they award the... NOBEL PRIZES (except for the peace prize).

This is the City Hall staircase down which the Nobel Prize recipients and the Swedish Royal Family walk. One day, I will write a book full of optimism that will change the world. Then I too will be recognized with a famous walk down these steps.

This is the ceiling of the actual conference room. It may or may not look like the underside of a Viking boat. Rumor has it that Vikings had political conferences under their boats during the winter. This may or may not be true.

The Gold Room is where everyone goes to dance after eating their Nobel Prize dinners. During the Nobel Prize dinner, each guest has 60 cm of space. Except for the recipients, who have a roomy 70 cm.

This is a mosaic of the lady of Stockholm. She is really unattractive. Stockholm itself is not unattractive. Do not be fooled.

This was my favorite part of the City Hall. Can you guess why? Hint (It starts with an "A" and ends with a "merica")

After touring the City Hall, I continued my noble quest (haha, get it?) by rushing to the Nobel Museum, which had a tour at 11:15 (I had this trip timed to the second!). The Nobel Museum was cool, and I learned more about Alfred, who set up the prizes in his will (shocking the relatives who thought they'd receive some of his fortune). Then I examined the Marie Curie exhibit, which as a special exhibit was far better than the Marie Curie museum in Warsaw. Disappointing. Also, a reminder that I cannot escape Poland.

The next thing on my agenda was a tour of the Royal Apartments of the Royal Castle. The castle is huge and has millions of rooms (approximately). So only a small portion of them are open because the other ones are in use. By the Royal family. So that tour was at two o'clock. I stood in line to get my ticket, watched some changing of the guard ritual that took forever, then went off to explore the Old Town (i.e. follow tour groups around, figuring they would go to important places - AND I WAS RIGHT!)

So, first we went to this really tiny statue. That might be the smallest statue in an Old Town or something silly like that. But people tossed down coins and rubbed its head. So I did too. Which means I lost out on one whole zloty.

Next, we went to this really old German church. It was old. And German. Evidently Germans were in Sweden. A long time ago. Because it was old. It also reminded me a bit of some of the churches we looked at near Wroclaw. So maybe there's something very German about the wood and the architecture.

Next, I wondered down to the smallest narrowest street in the world. I patiently waited approximately two hours before I could get alone enough to have a very nice person take a photo of me.

Then, after grabbing a muffin for lunch, I headed to the Swedish palace, which unfortunately, I do not have pictures of. Because Sweden is lame. And evidently their royalty is protected by copyright laws or something silly like that. So this is the palace at night.

And this is one of the more impressive rooms that I was able to find on the internet. There were others that were way cooler, but this is at least an example of the rooms.

After about ten minutes with the tour guide, I knew that a "45 minute" tour was going to get us to approximately two rooms with no actual useful information, so I split from the group. After examining everything, including the shield with the coat of arms they made for Lech Walesa in 1993 - featuring a crown, fleur d'lis, and a cross (of course), I headed across to the next island over where I went to the Modern Art Museum.

Unfortunately, their regular exhibit was closed. So they had only a special exhibit about Monet, Turner, and Twombly. Two of which I'd heard of before. They also had a photography exhibit, but modern photography as art is not my favorite thing. At least not the stuff that would end up in modern art museums. At least not the stuff that isn't American.

There were some real winning moments, though. Like the beautiful irises.

I returned to the hostel after dinner and more walking around Old Town to realize that my hostel roommates were gone, and the room was all to myself! I stayed up reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in celebration of my Stockholmness and prepared for an exciting Sunday.