Day 6 - Reykjavik to Stockholm (August 10)

Ugh, why does having fun have to seem so difficult sometimes. We were up at 4:30 to catch our 7:30 flight from Reykjavik (Kaflavik Airport) to Stockholm (Arlanda Airport). Fortunately, being Iceland in the summer, the sun was up already so it didn’t feel too early. Other than driving through some cool lava fields, which in my bleary state I didn’t pick-up on when we drove into Reykjavik, the rest of our morning and flight were uneventful.

A COUPLE OF FINAL THOUGHTS ON TRAVELING TO ICELAND – If you have time to get out of Reykjavik, then I would recommend a stopover in Iceland. The landscape is unique and unlike anything you will find in Canada. Driving on the main routes is very straightforward, except for recognizing the names of places, and as our drive to Dyrhólaey showed, you can see some neat stuff in one day. Karen has been to Iceland before and she says to stay away from the very touristy places like the Blue Lagoon (too commercial) and Thingviller National Park (not as picturesque as other parts of Iceland). If we had more time, there is a lot more of the country that I would like to hike through.

At the same time, I don’t recommend Reykjavik itself as a travel destination. Like all cities it has its interesting sites, history, and institutions (e.g., museums and pools), but it is not cosmopolitan or “European”. Also, the weather is not great for summertime travel. Perhaps most important to me is that the city centre was not designed to accommodate all the tourists the city now receives. The sidewalks are narrow and walking around felt cramped. Plus I didn’t find the people in the touristy part of Reykjavik all that friendly, or perhaps it was just the pushy German tourists I was having trouble with (take that Brad).

Karen points out that I am not a city person, so have a bias against Reykjavik from the get go. Maybe, I say. Karen has now been to Reykjavik three times and she likes it. She thinks it has a fun vibe, good walking and restaurants, and interesting shopping. There you go, one city, two views.

STOCKHOLM – We landed at Arlanda airport around noon. After kicking around a bit getting our bags, hitting the tourist information centre, and getting some lunch, we caught the express train from Arlanda into central Stockholm (20 minute trip).

Once we left the train station, I immediately felt like I was in Europe. Other than the giveaway of people speaking Swedish, there were lots of older buildings with fancy stone facades, lots of people walking, people on bikes, people in cafés, etc. Having not spent any time in Europe, other than a short time in Amsterdam in 1996, this is what I envisioned an older European city to look like. One thing I liked right away was how easy it was to walk around in central Stockholm. The sidewalks are very wide and there are some streets that are closed to vehicle traffic. This, plus the beautiful sunny day, was good as we needed to walk about 20 minutes to our hostel, each of us pulling our overstuffed suitcase behind us.

For those of you who know Stockholm, our hostel was north of the central station across the street (Sveavägan) from the park that is bounded by the Stockholm City Library, the old Observatory, and the Stockholm School of Economics. A bit of a walk from the main sites and Gamla Stan (Old Town) of Stockholm, but a good location for us.

After settling into our room and resting for a bit, we went out and found some groceries at the local Coop store. Then it was onto an exciting evening of eating, planning the next day’s itinerary, emailing, blogging, playing Minecraft, reading, and getting a good night’s sleep.

WHY A HOSTEL? – First off, hotels and restaurants are pretty pricy in Stockholm. Staying in the hostel was much less expensive and it gave us a place to cook our meals while still keeping us within walking distance of downtown Stockholm. Also, this hostel had a lot of private rooms, including a room with three beds for us, although the room was very squishy. Also, I was hoping that staying in the hostel would provide a lesson for Marshall for his future travels, i.e., there is more to travel than hotels. I am not sure if it did. The people staying at this hostel were not as chatty as I expected—groups stuck to themselves more or less. Perhaps access to internet makes hostellers less chatty. More likely it was because this hostel was not a true youth hostel, i.e., scruffy teens backpacking across Europe, but with its separate rooms it catered to small groups (there were other families staying, older couples, etc.).