A travel buddy
Yay me! I got a travel buddy who joined me in Sweden.:)
So, now we are two.
My travel buddy and companion is a great girl called Sveta. She is born deaf, and we communicate using a sign language. Sometimes, I get really stuck, and Sveta has to repeat her sentence for me again and again… But she keeps patient! I hope that after three months of travel my language level will get higher.)
We will travel together through Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Then Sveta will return to Saint Petersburg, and I will go to sunny Italy.)
So… I’m not alone, and it has become even more fun to travel.:)
Stockholm
At first, Stockholm scared me with its size… I had to quickly get used to the idea that I can’t reach any place I need in 30 minutes anymore. Stockholm has a huge subway network. As I see it, they
have a ground and an underground metro. Although, Swedes call the ground metro commuter trains. However, as viewed by a person from Russia, it’s nothing else than the metro, but on the ground. And it’s really very beautiful! You can often see stained-glass windows, mosaic, paintings, painted vaults there… It’s nice to be there. And considering that it’s not easy to find one’s way around this type of transportation, it’s a rather important factor. Generally speaking, you can just come up to any person, point into the name of the station you need, and he or she will say how to reach it.
The center of Stockholm looks like Saint Petersburg.) There are centuries-old buildings, many bridges and water everywhere! And it’s incredibly beautiful! We walked around the city and from island to island, wandered along narrow streets and watched the gulls the whole day. The city is really impressive. There is the Astrid Lindgren museum on a separate island. We didn’t get there, but it’s generally possible.
In fact, I don’t remember Stockholm well, as I got very sick again and almost couldn’t get up from bed for several days because of very strong fever. Moreover, my phone broke down, and we were left there without maps, the Internet and translation. On top of it all, both of my charger cables and my headphones wouldn’t work. So, I had all the joys of life together.:)
I managed to partly fix the phone: it has no Wi-Fi now, but it coexists peacefully with the Swedish SIM-card. I had to buy new cables, as well as headphones. I started to feel better only in about 4 days, and the joy from being able to simply go outside was immense!)
In Stockholm, in the city center, there is a really wonderful laundry, which is ready to take your clothes for 10 euro and return them in an hour absolutely clean and dry! There, almost around the corner, there is a Chinese restaurant, where they serve an amazing buffet lunch for 10 euro from 11 a.m.
The address of the laundry: Västmannagatan 61B
Our host was unbelievably quiet and a little strange.) He designs software for computers, knows 7 languages and travels a lot. There was a splendid Lonely Planet book at his place, which contained information about interesting sights of all the world countries! This book relieved me when I had cold and spent evenings in a sleeping bag on the floor.) We taught our host the sign language and talked about various countries for a long time.)
What stuns me most of all in Europe is that on Sunday almost nothing is open! Cafes, shops, laundries, supermarkets — everything is closed! Really everything. It’s a weekend.
What’s more, Sweden welcomed my Saint Petersburg friend who came from the Åland Islands for a day. Anton, thank you a lot! Without you, we wouldn’t have fixed my phone, I wouldn’t have got a Swedish SIM-card, my Watsapp wouldn’t have worked… You saved me. And I was very glad to see you!
So, Stockholm is beautiful. With a very special atmosphere.
Next time I will walk there more.)