A European Winter Adventure Part 2: From Baltic Waves to Stockholm Streets

This episode captures my journey from Helsinki, Finland, to Stockholm, Sweden and the adventures exploring Stockholm focusing on my experiences aboard the Viking Line ferry to Stockholm and the charm of the city itself. From exploring Gamla Stan to visiting the famous Vasa Museum, this episode delves into the highlights of Swedish culture and cuisine, showcasing how travel enriches our lives with unforgettable experiences.
   • Journey aboard the Viking Line ferry and its unique experience  
   • Delicious onboard dining highlighting Swedish cuisine  
   • Discovering the enchanting streets of Gamla Stan  
   • Visiting the Vasa Museum and learning its fascinating history  
   • Tasting traditional Swedish meatballs and unique local hot dogs  
   • Reflecting on the emotions and beauty of winter travel in Stockholm  
   • Inviting listeners to explore their own travel stories and experiences

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Flight 527 , runway 8K . You're cleared for takeoff . This is your captain speaking . If you love travel , and we know you do , buckle your seatbelts and keep your tray tables in the upright position . You should be seeing the illuminated fun signs throughout the aircraft because we're about to take off on a chat of epic proportions . Welcome to Tray Tables and Time Zones , the podcast where travel isn't just about taking vacations , it's about enriching your life . We'll dive into the highs , the lows and the downright absurd moments that come with exploring the world . Whether it's food poisoning on a long-haul flight , trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp or traveling to Disney parks worldwide , we cover it all Serious at moments , but mostly we're here to laugh and share some brutally honest travel stories . So let's do it one time zone at a time . This is Trey Tableson , time Zones , and this is your host , josh Bogle . Tables and Time Zones , and this is your host , josh Bogle .

Speaker 2 1:07

Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Trade Tables and Time Zones . I'm your host , josh Bogle , and today is part two of the Northern Europe sojourn that I am currently on . So I'm coming to you this morning from my cabin aboard the Viking Line ferry Cinderella somewhere to the west of Stockholm , I'm sorry , to the east of Stockholm , heading toward Stockholm proper and where we will port and let everybody off here in I don't know four hours or so , but I wanted to go ahead and throw some thoughts out there on this one , because , man , what an adventure this has been . So I wanted to do this ferry trip instead of flying over to Stockholm , just for the experience , because it's an overnight ferry and I had never done one and this boat is , while it's old , it's probably the size of some smaller cruise ships that are out there . It's pretty big , anyway . So I wanted to do that and get that experience and I thought it would be fun , since I was doing trains and flying , and now I just figured what the hell , let's throw in a ferry ride at it while we're at it . So anyway , this is not like a like I said , it's pretty big . It's not like a traditional ferry that you know , you move from one little island to the next island . This is more like a cruise ship that basically sails through the Baltic from Helsinki to Stockholm and back and back , and there's a lot of these ships in this region that go back and forth from , like Helsinki to Tallinn and down to Germany and Stockholm and a lot of the major capitals and ports along the Baltic all have this ferry service that runs back and forth all the time through them and , frankly , it's pretty convenient .

Speaker 2 3:01

The ferry port for Helsinki was right in the middle of town . It was really easy to get to . I actually used Uber to get there because it was kind of crappy weather and so I just booked an Uber and rode over from the hotel on the Uber to the port and walked into the port and it was pretty interesting . I mean , they had a self-check-in kiosk , kind of like at the airport . It prints out your tickets and like your room key and everything . It's basically just like a thicker cardboard room key that you would get like at a hotel , but it's a little more cardboardy and not plastic , and then you go upstairs , you swipe your card a couple of times . You know you wait for them to open , boarding on the ship and you walk by some security . They looked at my passport , check my ticket and that was it . I was off and so I had a .

Speaker 2 3:58

I guess what you what on a regular cruise ship would be like an sort of an ocean view room . The room is tiny . I took some pictures of it . I'll post those on Instagram , but it's all you really need , right ? I mean , you're on this ship for 17 hours , basically , so you're just going to need it to sleep , but it did have a window , which was nice , and a bathroom which is really nice , and the bed was comfortable . It's part of the package or whatever that I got the ticket with .

Speaker 2 4:26

I had dinner last night and it was supposed to be a buffet , but they have the buffet closed for the next couple of nights . I don't know if they're doing work in there or if it's because of low crowd or what . It didn't seem like the ship was very full . Now , granted , it is kind of you know , no's , not kind of it's . It's in the middle of winter , so there's probably not as many people traveling um as there normally would be , so maybe it didn't warrant use of the of the buffet , so they switched everybody over to like kind of a sit-down restaurant .

Speaker 2 5:00

But they had a basically three courses included , so it was an appetizer , a main and then a dessert . And I got to say the appetizer was kind of meh , but it was kind of a duck confit thing , but it wasn't . I don't know what they did to it . It's almost like they mashed it or like they pulled , porked it , if that's a word or a phrase . It's like they took the duck and kind of like took some forks to it and shredded it up , but really finely it wasn't very good . But the main was short rib with kind of like a red wine sauce and these kind of creamy roasted potatoes .

Speaker 2 5:42

And I'll tell you what . That was actually pretty damn good . I was stunned when I tasted it . I mean it had tons of flavor and the sauce was really good . I was really surprised . And then for dessert I had this it was almost like a chocolate mousse , but it was a little thicker . It was somewhere between pudding and mousse , right , I don't really know how to explain it , but it was basically like a chocolate mousse . And then it had coffee ice cream on it and then chair cherry sauce with cherries . Damn , it was really effing good . I mean , like I was , I was shocked as shit . I mean it was really good and so I have to say , you know , if you take out the appetizer , at least the rest of the meal was quite enjoyable . So I was really pleased with that and I , after dinner , took some time strolled around the shop , strolled around the ship .

Speaker 2 6:35

They have these big ass . It's almost like a grocery store . It feels like when you walk in there , of duty free shops on here Because you can come on and buy you know typical what you see at like airports , right cologne and perfume and cosmetics and uh , booze , cigarettes and and shit like that . But this also had like clothes and a few other things and of course they had the candy like you can normally get at the airport . So imagine a like supersized duty free shop at the airport . That's kind of what this was , but it's a lot of people will take advantage of it because the prices are a lot cheaper than they are either in Sweden or in Finland , because the taxes are really high over here . So people use that a lot and this place had a bar , a couple of bars and a little nightclub or something and you know some other stuff .

Speaker 2 7:29

But whatever I was , I was starting to get tired . I figured it out that I've been seems like I have . I've had a hard time getting my internal clock synced up with up here and I finally figured out the reason . It's not the time because I adjust fine to the time changes right , it's the sunlight or lack thereof . So because it's winter and we're pretty far north , the sun doesn't come up until like nine , where it didn't in Helsinki to like nine 30 , right , and then it never truly gets up into the sky . It's kind of I mean , it gets bright out like a sort of like a normal day , but it's . It's got this twilight tinge to it because the sun never gets very high right above the horizon and then it's set really early . So I'm just not used to that little of sunlight and so it's thrown me off to where I'm getting tired early . But then I'm waking up early as shit , which right now it's six . But I've been up for a while . I've already been up and had a shower and screwed around and packed up with some of my stuff and everything like that , and it's just because I couldn't sleep anymore , everything like that . And , um , and it's just because I couldn't sleep anymore . Now I will say that I can't blame last night's sleep on the light or the lack of sunlight as much as holy shit , the sea was rough . Now , thank God and knock on wood , I don't get seasick . Now , thank God and knock on wood , I don't get seasick .

Speaker 2 9:07

I've been on a boat one time fishing in North Carolina off the coast and we got caught in a really pretty bad storm and that was wild and my little stupid ass was sitting out on the seats outside riding it out and you know half the other people are inside puking their guts out and I was fine and I've never been seasick on a cruise ship . And my father-in-law , before he passed away , he took me out one time with my now wife to watch fireworks off the coast , because he was a big time an offshore fisherman . He did it all the time and he was really pretty , pretty well known for it , and so he took us out so we could go off the coast and then look back to the city to watch the fireworks . It was gonna be really cool . But this is the first time that he'd had me out on his boat , and so he he had me have a few drinks before we went , and as we were going , and then he proceeded to take the roughest , fastest path he could and I think he was trying to test me to see if I could , if I would hold my , hold my booze and hold myself together , you know , while getting jostled all around the ship on the boat and everything . And luckily I did and luckily I did , and so hopefully that that pleased him that his daughter wasn't going to marry someone that couldn't hold their own on the water , but anyway . So luckily I don't get seasick .

Speaker 2 10:46

But last night I'm here to tell you we were getting the hell beat out of us . It woke me up a ton and I'm like rolling all around the bed and you can feel like your body pressing into the bed and then coming , you know , being tossed up as we're hitting these swells . It was , it was a ride . I mean , it was bumpy . So I was , you know , off and on , asleep all night and it's cause , you know , you're not in your own bed and you're kind of screwed up from sleep and then now you're getting tossed around the room quite a bit and it was interesting , it was wild . I mean , of course I'm closer to the bow , so I get it more than if I was in the middle of the ship and I'm up higher , so again you're more affected than if you were lower in the ship and toward the midsection . But I mean I could look in my window and you could see the massive amounts of spray being kicked up as the bow of the ship was diving back down into these valleys and hitting the next swell . And it was wild , I mean , and it was throwing water up to me and I'm on the ninth deck of the ship , but it was wild . I mean , it was throwing water up to me and I'm on the ninth deck of the ship , but it was fun . I mean the Baltic was pretty wild-ass last night , but anyway , it's an adventure . It's just another part of the story , but I had to jump on here and record while it was still fresh in my mind because , wow , it was an adventure .

Speaker 2 12:05

So , as far as what I've got left here on the boat , I've got breakfast here in a couple hours and then we'll come into port . I think around 10 o'clock and I actually booked just an easy transfer . They had like a really cheap bus transfer that's going to go from the docks to the central station , central train station here or there in Stockholm and my hotel is like a five-minute walk from the central station , so I booked that just so I could get up to the station and then I'll just walk over to the hotel . I don't know if I'm going to have any luck trying to do an early check-in . Know if I'm going to have any luck trying to do an early check-in . I've reached out to them a couple of times and I've gotten the same answer from everybody is that they do it kind of on a case-by-case basis . Of course , some hotels in Europe I found and Asia is this way as well they'll have some rooms available that I can get into early . That would be nice so I could just go drop off my stuff and get settled a little bit before I head out on the town and start exploring Stockholm .

Speaker 2 13:07

But I'm looking forward to Stockholm . There's a lot of things that I want to check out . Gamlaestan , which is the old town , looks really cool . I'll go walk around and just stroll through that part of the city . I got tickets to go see the Vasa Museum , which is the I think it was 17th century uh worship that was built by Sweden and it was going to be .

Speaker 2 13:29

Basically the story is that it was going to be .

Speaker 2 13:31

You know the major , impressive worship of their fleet , right , it was state of the art for the time and huge .

Speaker 2 13:39

And the problem is is they made it to top heavy and it got like I don't even know if it got like a quarter of a mile from the Harbor or from the dock and it started listing and it started taking on water through the gun ports when the damn thing sunk right there in the Harbor Like it got to sail for like 20 minutes , if that right .

Speaker 2 14:08

I mean it ended so quickly and sunk to the bottom . But because of the mix of sand and the water , salinity and everything at that spot where it was at , it was basically perfectly preserved at . It was basically perfectly preserved down there in the mud and the sand and everything on the harbor floor . And so I think in the 60s is when they first started excavating they actually went in there and were able to retrieve the ship and it's almost in perfect shape , right , it was just preserved , and so they brought it up on shore and they've built a museum around it and it's supposed to be just spectacular , a really cool thing to see , and so I'm definitely going to go see that . I got tickets for that tomorrow and I'm just going to go see the sites of Stockholm and and kind of see where it takes me .

Speaker 2 15:01

You know do a lot of strolling around and guy have a plan to eat you know Swedish meatballs and traditional Swedish meatballs and not at Ikea but like at a real restaurant and do some things like that . And of course , we're in . You know Scandinavia . So I got to go try one of their versions of the hot dog , which I've seen a couple of , and see if it can match . You know what the other countries have put out Because , as you guys that listen to the podcast know , you know , right at the very top for me is Iceland , iceland's hot dogs , for whatever reason I love Just you know another reason to love Iceland , but their hot dogs are probably number one .

Speaker 2 15:44

Number two for me in Scandinavia would be Denmark . Right now , the one I had in Denmark was fantastic . So I'm looking forward to trying the Swedish version and see how that ranks in the Scandinavian Northern Europe hot dog wars . But yeah , excited about that . So , anyway , I'm looking forward to going and seeing Stockholm and everything and then scooting on over to London here at the end of the week . But what I'll do is I'll continue this podcast .

Speaker 2 16:17

This will just be a little section of it but , like I said , I wanted to talk about the ferry ride just because it was so wild ass coming in and we're actually starting to come into some town here . It's really cool the view out the window . Since Sweden is , or in Stockholm area , is , a archipelago . There's tons of like these , you know , waterways and islands and things , and we're starting to come into some of them as we come in from the . We're coming in from the east , moving west . We're not in open water and we haven't been for a while , but you know , you're starting to see lights and it looks like houses and boats and stuff on the shore as we come into more and more civilization . But , man , this is pretty cool . Anyway , I'll tell y'all more about it once . I , once I , uh , uh , have been able to check it out for a bit longer , but yeah , so I'll add to this podcast as I explore Sweden and Stockholm and hopefully we'll put out a next podcast , hopefully the day that I leave Sweden or that first evening in England to kind of talk about what I did in Stockholm and then , um , then part three can be London and , uh , the trip home . But anyway , um , I will talk to you guys soon . Hey , everybody , it is it's about 3 , I don't know 325 or so , on Wednesday January 15th .

Speaker 2 17:50

So I have been in Stockholm now for a little over a day , so a day and a half , and I'll tell you I am super impressed with Stockholm . Like I , I really really like it . It's got a , it's got an amazing feel to it . Yeah , there's just some cities that when you go into it's just got a really good feel . Helsinki was kind of like that too , I think , with the .

Speaker 2 18:20

What hurt me with Helsinki a little bit was just the adjustment right , because it's not just coming from the U S the time change , which is not that bad , actually . I do usually decent with that . It was more of getting used to the sunlight or lack thereof , and then the constant movement early on . But Helsinki had this really kind of cool feel to it , even though I was getting used to the whole , you know , not a ton of sunlight and different weather and everything . It was a really cool feel . But coming to Stockholm , it kind of has that same feel . It actually may have more of that feel . It just feels like a good place and you know it's funny .

Speaker 2 19:01

This is basically the third no , this is the fourth Scandinavian Northern Europe capital that I've been to . So I've been to Copenhagen , I've been to Oslo , I've been to Helsinki now , and now I'm in Stockholm and I will tell you that three of the four I really really liked . So the one outlier was Copenhagen , and some of that may have been just like the circumstance it was at the end of a long trip and so we retired and then we got stranded on the subway and that turned into a bit of a shit show . So you know , I didn't maybe give Copenhagen a huge chance , but I will say the other capitals so far have been fantastic , and Sweden . Stockholm is just wow . I mean , it's really cool because it's an archipelago and it's on islands , so there's a lot of water around , which is really cool , and bridges and things and the streets are you know there's cars , there's trams .

Speaker 2 20:12

I used the trams today in the public transportation for the first time in Stockholm and , wow man , so easy , so efficient , so good . It was really really easy to use . Efficient , so good , it was really really easy to use . And after what I'm getting ready to talk about here , I walked around a lot in the city and saw a couple of places and just kind of roamed the streets and it's so walkable and everybody's out right Walking and I mean , yeah , there's cars and there's bikes and everything , but it's such a walkable city as far as just ease right , and they make it easy because there's a lot of pedestrian-only streets and big sidewalks and it's just very easy to stroll around the city . And then the architecture is amazing . It's very kind of old Europe in some ways . I mean there's plenty of that , plenty of that old Europe feel . You know the churches and the buildings that are very much ornate , but there's also some modernness to it . It's hard to explain unless you see it , but it's really really cool , just a good vibe . You know , you get that feel for a place and it's just got a really good vibe and I've , I've really enjoyed it so far , so kind of what I've done up to this point is yesterday kind of got settled into the hotel , you know , got a little lay of the land , went and got some supplies , got some drinks and stuff to put in the fridge in the room just to have them kind of readily available . And then by the time I did that it was about time to go eat some dinner . So my hotel I'm staying at the Scandic Downtown Camper , which it's kind of outdoorsy themed hotel , kind of like a or maybe like a lodge , like you know how you picture the Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World or you think about some of the National Park Lodges . It's kind of themed that way . Right , the colors and the furniture and everything . It's really , really nice . I slept fantastic last night Big room , pretty view down onto a square , plenty of amenities , the crazy hot water pressure , and it was great Anyway .

Speaker 2 22:29

So went , got checked in the hotel , settled in and then decided I wanted some traditional Scandinavian , you know , swedish style food . Right , it's more like a home cooking . I didn't want it too fancy . Anyway , I found this place in Gamla Stan , which is the old city , it's this island that's just south of where I'm at , so you just walk down the street basically cross a bridge and onto that island and you're in Gamla Stan and so there's one of the old royal palaces is over there and this really kind of famous square and then , like these narrow streets , right , it's basically all pedestrian . You can just walk up and down . There's some souvenir type shops and stuff in there , but there's a lot of just regular , you know everyday businesses that are over there as well , so it's not ridiculous . So I went over there , strolled around , stopped , had coffee , which is a huge thing in Sweden .

Speaker 2 23:27

The FICA culture of , you know , taking time out of your day to have coffee and chat with friends or whatever , grab a pastry , is a real thing . And since I am a person who likes to drink coffee morning , noon and night , right Like , I drink coffee in the morning and I drink it before I go to bed , it's just that's the way I am . It has no limits in my life as far as times of drinking coffee . So the coffee culture here and the willingness to drink coffee pretty much throughout the day has been fantastic because you can get a good cup of coffee pretty much any time of day . There's no limits , there's no real worries . The cafes don't close super early here , anything like that . They're always open , so it's been very nice .

Speaker 2 24:07

So went over , had a cup of coffee kind of strolled around and then went to a restaurant called slinger bolton , I think it's how you say it . Anyway , it's a kind of like a oh , this is a little cafe slash bistro , but it's really nice . Not a ton of tables , I think , probably , if I'm thinking back to it maybe 15 tables at most , two waitresses and everything's cooked to order . Beautiful food . I got as traditional as I could because I wanted to try it , and I got the Swedish meatballs and they were splendid , fantastic , just absolutely fantastic . Tons of flavor and this beautiful gravy over them and great mashed potatoes and real lingonberries , like actual whole lingonberries , kind of just lightly stewed . So they put off some liquid and everything but real lingonberry . It was amazing . I mean , it was like the next level of meatball .

Speaker 2 25:10

And then for dessert I got their tiramisu . They just happened to have tiramisu and when I ordered it the waitress was yeah , that's what you should have ordered . And she said we just made the pan of it that you're going to get your piece out of . And so they brought me this huge piece of tiramisu and , good God , it was so good . Legitimately you could tell everything was made by them . It was super fresh and oh God , it was so good and I am quite the connoisseur of tiramisu and it was splendid .

Speaker 2 25:50

So I had a great dinner and then I came back to the room and kind of just laid around a little bit relaxed and was trying to just hang out and see if I couldn't stay up a little longer and then sleep a little later this morning . And that worked out . It worked out really well . I ended up sleeping really well last night and slept until pretty much the alarm went off . I think I had set my alarm for like 7.30 or so , so fairly late , and slept to it .

Speaker 2 26:24

I got up , got cleaned up , went downstairs , had breakfast at the hotel , which was very nice , had a huge variety of food , a nice European hotel breakfast , which is it's hard to beat the European hotel and their breakfast . They're always pretty much universally great and this one's no different . I mean just a huge variety of food and all pretty tasty . Had a few minutes to kill and then went down to jump on the tram the street level trams and ride over to another Island . That's more of like a big nature preserve . It's like a big park , basically . But on this island is where there's several museums , including the Vasa Museum .

Speaker 2 27:12

Now , you may have heard of the Vasa Museum . I learned about it when we were originally going on a Northern Europe Disney cruise that ended up cutting out Stockholm as a port among a couple other ones . Helsinki was another one . It cut off several stops because of when that cruise was occurring was right after Russia invaded Ukraine and kicked that whole thing off . So you know , everybody was very much hesitant to have cruise ships you know , too close to Russia and the Baltic and so they had cut several ports off , including Stockholm . And that's when I had learned about the Vasa museum .

Speaker 2 27:58

So when you walk into the Vasa , you come through the doors and then you're just like holy shit , there is a giant ship sitting inside of this huge room . It's jarring . You're looking at this ship and it looks like if you're you're a kid , you know like a pirate ship . Right , that's what it looks like because it's it's just like the pirate ships in the movies and and everything that you've seen . That's what it looks like . And you're looking at this thing and you're just like my god . It's shocking because it is big and it is perfectly intact and you know , the preservation that the government here in Sweden has done to this ship is amazing . Like they , they talk about several of the things that they've done and that they're actually doing right now is really cool . They're actually building a whole new cradle system for it , because the cradle system that they have there is is the original one and they've come up with , you know , much better techniques that doesn't , you know , further hurt the ship when it's holding it , and the way that they have to keep , you know , the entire building at a certain humidity and certain temperatures to not affect the wood it's .

Speaker 2 29:23

I'm I'm just here to tell you it's an amazing museum and I had read and listened to some podcasts and stuff about people talking about that . You know it was a shockingly good museum and that it was just amazing . And then every time they came to Stockholm they went to the museum again and I was like you know . I mean you get museum hype sometimes , to be honest with you , and I've gone to a bunch of them and there's really been very few that have lived up to just straight up hype 20 fold I couldn't believe what I was looking at and just the care and the way that they've gone about restoring and maintaining this ship at this piece of history is just unbelievable . It is so cool . I don't know how many pictures and how much video I took while I was in there , but it's a lot . I'll start to say it's a lot , and it was I just every turn . You know my jaw was kind of dropped .

Speaker 2 30:37

You know they even had like they . There was this one section , because basically the entire ship is the is the museum right , but on the , the floors where you go up so you can see different parts of it , they have some exhibits of other , you know , things that they were fat , that were found along with the ship and one of them was like this chest right , it was this some sailors personal chest and the lid was on it . It had never , the lid had never come off of that ship and since it was put onto the onto it and they took the lid off and they had it in this display case and there was this hat , you know , like a man's hat , just pushed down in there , perfectly Like it , and it was perfectly intact . It was just . It's amazing .

Speaker 2 31:24

I mean I I'll sit here and ramble on forever about it . But I will just tell you , if you're ever in Stockholm , no matter what you do , go to the Vasa . It is absolutely worth it , it's easy to get to , it's worth every bit of time that you can give it right , worth every bit of time that you can give it right . I mean , I think older people you know , adults , kids alike will be amazed and fascinated by this museum because it invokes a certain fantastical thought in your brain because , like I said , it looks like a pirate ship . And then you know , if you're older , like me , and you start realizing just the circumstances of how this thing one was maintained , by its circumstance of being sunk where it was , and you know all the work that had to have gone into building the ship to be as ornate and to building the ship to be as ornate and grand as it was , and then all the work that's been done to , you know , maintain it and keep it safe . Once they got it out of the water . It's , it's , it's a really , really awesome thing .

Speaker 2 32:38

So I went to the Vasa and I was blown away . And then I proceeded over to a food hall and strode through it . It's kind of like a high-end food hall . It was pretty cool to see , but really it was just kind of a stop along the way because there's a Bruno's Corva I believe is how you say it hot dog stand very close to there and they do supposed to be some really good hot dogs and it's a certain style , right .

Speaker 2 33:09

So the big style here in stockholm is that they do the baguette , they basically hollow out a baguette and then they stuff the sausages and the other things down into the , the hole Right , and so you can kind of eat it easily on on your way because it's got , the bottom is enclosed because it's the end of a baguette , and then everything's kind of down inside of it , almost like a , like an ice cream cone or something like that . So you go up there and basically your big choice is do you want one sausage in it ? They basically cut it in half and put it in there or do you want two , and the big thing for most people is to get two . And sometimes they mix and match .

Speaker 2 33:57

They have like mild sausages , medium sausages and hot sausages and the really kind of one of the famous ones is the Cabanos , which is like a spicy . It's a thin , a long , thin sausage . That's spicy , right , and so I got that one and then the other one I got added into the baguette was the house sausage , which is a hot sausage and it was like really garlicky and peppery and it's just a thick it's more thick sausage anyway and then they put like mustard ketchup in there and then sauerkraut and it's really good , really good . Like it didn't defeat the Icelandic hot dog but it's , man , it is really really good . The variety of sausages you can get in this thing and the bread and the way you get it so that it's easy to eat and to walk with and everything it so that it's easy to eat and to walk with and everything and it's a damn good , like hearty , because it's big .

Speaker 2 35:12

Okay , I mean it's a lot . It's a hearty , easy to handle , easy to walk with lunch . That , um , I'm a , I'm a pretty big fan of it . It was really , really good . The sausages were super fresh , um , really tasty . Uh , same with the bread , like it was . They crisp it a little bit on , um , I think almost like a panini press kind of thing , right To give it a little bit of crunch and also , I think , probably to help help it stand up against , you know , all the toppings and the sausages and everything that you're stuffing inside of it . But it worked , it's just fantastic and the ladies that were working there were super friendly . There was no problem to order . That's one thing I've found as well .

Speaker 2 35:58

In Stockholm , especially man , pretty much everybody can speak English and they will . Once they realize that you're an English speaker , they would jump right into English and it's not a big deal at all . There's been several times where I have been like the greeting from whoever I'm interacting with , the person that I'm interacting with . They've greeted me as if I was a Swede , and then I'll say like hello or whatever back and they instantly switch to English and it's not a big deal at all . And again , I'm in another country where I'm constantly jealous of the fact that most of these people are being taught English and Swedish almost concurrently as they're growing up , and so it's very easy for them to learn it , whereas in the states we don't do that , and so , you know , you get to be my age and you're jealous of people that are just fluent in a couple of different languages because they've had the opportunity to learn it , you know , from a very young age , which makes it a ton easier . So , so , anyway , that's a pretty cool trick that , uh , that they can do here . But it's so , you know , if you've , if you're concerned about language gaps and don't be , especially not in Sweden it's very , very easy to get around if you're an English speaker .

Speaker 2 37:26

So , anyway , I uh , after having my hot dog , I was pretty full and my phone was getting low on charge , and so I was like you know what ? I think I'm going to go back to the hotel , take a break , you know , relax a little bit , and then I'll go back out later on , and so that's what I'm going to do . That's why I'm talking to you now , is that I'm uh , I've had my little break . I'm fixing to go back out for a little while and I'm probably going to go through , go , stroll around some more of the old town , take in a few sites , maybe get something to some dinner and grab some more coffee , I'm sure , and and just kind of take in some more of the city . That is one of the problems of coming in the winter is that it is what ? 3 o'clock , almost 4 o'clock right now , and it is damn near dark outside , because the sun sets very early this far north this time of year , and so it's going to be dark soon and while that's not a problem I mean it's very safe and easy to walk around here , and while that's not a problem , I mean it's very safe and easy to walk around here but it's something that takes away a little bit from you being able to see some of the buildings and stuff that you want to see , because your time is shortened , so it's more of a , you know , in the afternoon evening you've got to be willing to go inside and do things or go see things , because it's pretty much dark .

Speaker 2 38:49

Hey , everybody , so it is January 16th . It's probably about about five , 36 o'clock in the afternoon here in the hotel in Stockholm . And since this is my last night , kind of wanted to give a wrap up of the of the Stockholm portion of this trip . This is my last night . Tomorrow I fly to England I think my flight leaves around one o'clock in the afternoon and then I have a quick stop in Zurich and then on to Gatwick in London and pretty excited about getting back to London . As I've said before , I love that city and so I'm really excited to be back . But I got to tell you I am pretty sad to be leaving Stockholm .

Speaker 2 39:37

I have really really taken to the city since I've been here . I know it's been a short trip , but it is definitely not the last time I will come to Stockholm . It has been a real treat . The city is incredibly easy to get around . I rode the subway a ton today . I think I had mentioned that I was going to get some pictures of the big art installations that they have done in the subway stations where they've basically painted the walls and had various artists come in and kind of add in modern art aspects and paintings and all kinds of things to the subway stations here in Stockholm . And so I rode the subway a ton today . It's so easy to use . It was really convenient .

Speaker 2 40:31

And then , after riding around um the subway all most of the day , I uh went to lily brothers , which is little brothers in english bakery , and got two cardamom buns . And I'm here to tell you these were unbelievably good . Like it's kind of a unexpected flavor because they're sweet , but they've got that kind of um well , a cardamom taste to them . They've got , you know , it's kind of a spice that's unexpected but so good and it's addictive . Right like you , you have a couple of bites and you're you , you stop and then you're like man , I want , I want some more of that . And so they were really really good .

Speaker 2 41:20

And then I went and had a really late lunch at this place called Frankie's burgers , so it's kind of an American style burger place . This place called Frankie's Burgers , so it's kind of an American style burger place , but it's very small . There's like six seats in this place . They have a bar and then a few two person tables . So I ordered the burgers , really really good burgers . The buns were almost too fresh because they were really really soft and they almost kind of started falling apart on you . But the patties were extremely well done . The ingredients were super fresh , the combos , the way they put them together , really , really good , and so it was nice to have a burger just to mix it up a little bit .

Speaker 2 42:00

I got to give it to the Swedes they can . They definitely know how to make a decent hamburger . So I was impressed by that and then I ended up deciding , instead of taking the subway back to the hotel , I would walk , because it's Stockholm and it's easy to walk , it's safe , it's clean , it's big , wide pedestrian areas and such to to , to make it very easy , and the pedestrian is certainly king in the city , I you know . It still amazes me . If there is a crosswalk that is clearly marked on the street , even if it doesn't have , like the lights , you know that turn , you know , so you can walk or don't walk if it doesn't have any of those lights . It's basically a fair game , and so people will just walk out across those and the cars come to a stop . You know , like there's no , there's no . You gunning the engine to get through the intersection to to before you have to deal with somebody or that's crossing or whatever it is . It is very much a oh , there's someone in this , in the crosswalk I am stopping , like I can see now why some people would have this issue when they come to the US and they go to cross the street and you know , the cars don't necessarily stop .

Speaker 2 43:17

So I had a nice , enjoyable stroll back to the hotel . It's just so nice to walk around in this city . Like I said , there's a ton to look at . You know , visually it's a stunning place , and so there's little pieces of architecture here and there , art or buildings that are just unique or cool looking , that you want to take a look at , and so it's very easy just to take a stroll and check all those things out as you're going . You're going .

Speaker 2 43:55

So , like I said , kind of to wrap up Stockholm and of Sweden , this will absolutely not be the last time I am here . It's one of those cities where I definitely want to bring my wife to . I think we would really enjoy it because it's , you know , a lot of strolling and having a drink . You know , sitting outside and having a drink or stopping and having a coffee and a pastry . Those things are really , you know , big here in Sweden , especially in Stockholm , and just the strolling around and taking in , you know , the , the museums and the art and everything . So it's definitely a place that I will be back .

Speaker 2 44:30

But again , I'm really excited at the same time , because tomorrow means I am going to London and , like I've said before , I love London and I can't wait . And then on Sunday I think around lunchtime , I think it is I will hop on the plane and fly home and that won't be a very exciting flight . I've done it several times before . I think I'm in economy yeah , I am in economy going home . So it will be the bare bones experience of flying from London back to Houston on United Economy , which is just kind of a way to get from A to B . So nothing to write home about , but it will be good to be home .

Speaker 2 45:16

I've had a great time on this trip so far . I know London's going to be a blast , so I can go ahead and make that statement because it's just it's London . It's never been a bad time , but I've really enjoyed this trip . It's been a lot of fun , a whirlwind of different transportation types and places that were new and everything like that . So it's been a lot of fun , and I've also really enjoyed getting the opportunity to kind of talk about it as I go and share it with you guys , and so the plan is to get this one posted before I head back to the States , which shouldn't be a problem , and that will kind of take care of this series . I'll probably have a little wrap up once I get back home and maybe put that in a ramble episode or just maybe make a short part three to this podcast to kind of give an overview . But I will say it's been a very successful trip and I've I've really enjoyed it .

Speaker 2 46:11

Hopefully , um , you guys will enjoy listening to , uh , the stories . So anyway , as I always say , if you get a chance , please rate and review . The podcast really helps move us up . We don't have a ton of reviews on Spotify or Apple podcasts , so if we could get some more , that would be great . So if you get a chance , I'd really appreciate you doing that . Also , check us out on Instagram . I've actually been posting quite a bit of pictures and such from the the trip , so there's some cool stuff on there . So if you get a chance , follow the link and check out our Instagram . Again . Thanks everybody for listening . I've really enjoyed the trip and I hope you've been able to enjoy it along with me . So until next time . I very much appreciate it , thanks , bye .

Speaker 1 47:02

This has been Trade Tables and Time Zones . Worldwide travel is one of the funnest things you can do in life and it's our passion to talk about the good , the bad , the funny and the ugly . Nothing is off limits . We hope you've enjoyed the show . If you did , make sure to like , rate and review . We'll be back soon , but in the meantime , find us on Instagram at Trade Tables and Time Zones . Meantime , find us on Instagram at Trade Tables and Time Zones and for questions or comments , send your email to tradesandtimes at gmailcom . Take care and see you next time on Trade Tables and Time Zones .