Day 9

Today was the first full day in Stockholm so we had to get used to a few changes


Firstly, breakfast


It wasn’t awful - just different. We are a bit more tightly packed, there are no pastries but everything else was there so we still managed to eat our fill


Secondly, and most importantly, Stockholm is massive compared to Oslo


More people, more traffic, and ten times more shops


To find the pedestrian areas, we needed to go towards the lions and after that there were shops aplenty







I did wonder what this might be like



We only did about 20% of the area before we headed off to where the Royal Palace was to get some souvenirs and food

















Joss made a new friend - someone has a new profile picture I think…..



For food, we decided to have an Italian - something light and healthy






Fuck it - another failed intention


Then, after lunch we had a tour around the Royal Palace













As you can see, it was fairly opulent and the tour guide was very good but there were 3 things I just couldn’t get over..


Firstly, the American guy that kept saying “mmm yeah that’s right” as if he were scoring the guide on his accuracy (cock)


Secondly, the 2 American women (theme forming) that kept asking inane question after question


Lastly, and most importantly, was this guy, who, faced with going grey and going bald, decided to put a dead hamster on his head - honestly I was mesmerised 



I kept waiting for it to talk….


Well the tour took quite a lot of emotional energy out of me so we went to a bar to replenish 





I spent most of the time on the phone to Sunvil asking why our Stockholm passes wouldn’t work


The lady at the other end said it was all new and not their fault but I managed to convince her that it was her fault, getting ever so slightly more forceful with every sip of beer until she actually managed to fix it


It was only then that I realised it was an attraction pass rather than a travel pass so we probably won’t use it anyway as we’ve already booked the things we are doing …..


We decided it was going to be a Kieren-food day and his choice for dinner was Swedish Burger King


He was very happy with his choice




After which we went to a bar called Bishops Arms (they had no apostrophe so I can’t bring myself to put one in) and had a lovely time






Harriet was laughing here because even though it was me that was holding the phone, I couldn’t work out where to look….


One thing to note was that it was mixed toilets


After going through the door marked “Toilets” if you went through doors 1 or 2, you ended up with a loo


If you picked door 3, then it was urinals


None of this was signposted so Joss and Hattie were lucky both 1 and 2 were empty when they both went else they might have been in for a pleasant/unpleasant surprise


I was luckiest of all when I went to the urinals as a mismanaged wind break meant I had to dash to a cubical and luckily there was another in the urinal room


Phew


It’s been a great start to Stockholm - looking forward to tomorrow 

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