Swedish Meatballs

What a glorious day I had yesterday. I spent about 3 hours walking around Skansen, the world's oldest open air museum. It was like taking a walk in the woods, only there were old buildings here and there to check out. Some of the buildings were originally built there, some were moved there. The idea being to show the way the Swedes lived in simpler times. There were old family farms, glassworks, a mine, a furniture builder, and so on. There was also animals which are found in Sweden.. reindeer, lynx, foxes, wild boars, seals. It was only minus 2, but my hands got quite cold since I didn't have my gloves and I had my hands out of my pockets a lot for taking pictures. After my wanderings, I went to the restaurant on site and had some Swedish meatballs. Yummy!

For the rest of the afternoon, I went to the Vasa museum. It is a museum about a Swedish warship which left on it's maiden voyage in 1628 to go to fight the Polish. There are two remarkable things about the ship. First, the ship was a fantastic work of art. The King ordered a ship which would proclaim his greatness... and it does. The ship is covered in carvings... of coats of arms, of mythical figures, of figures from the Bible, and so on. It is absolutely incredible. Second, the ship sunk only about 1.5 km into it's journey, sat at the bottom of the sea for 333 years until it was found, and was then raised. Due to the low salt content of the sea around Stockholm, the worms which normally do such a job destroying wooden boats, do not survive here. The ship is in amazing condition. 95% of it is perfectly restored. Many of the articles on board were also recovered and are on display, along with the skeletons of over 30 individuals who died when the ship sunk. All in all, a highly recommended museum.

After visiting the Vasa, I made a project of finding some gloves since the cold of night was coming on. So was the snow... oh how I love the falling snowflakes. I realize that I do miss that! After some cheap gloves were bought, I caught a movie... it's so great, they are in English with Swedish subtitles, so perfect for me! Then it was back to the hostel for another night of chatting with whoever happened to be around.