Unfortunately for me, the day for which I’m writing this blog post was the day where we spent most of the day on the train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. Our trip to Copenhagen was a resounding success as I found the city to be just as charming as the first time I visited except with MUCH better weather. With Copenhagen being such a small city, it was really nice to be able to walk around and see almost everything the city had to offer. We even managed to have a couple of days where the rain decided to stop long enough for some sun to come through. But as our time in Copenhagen came to an end, we boarded a train and headed for the border to Sweden. While the train ride was quite long, it happened to be on board one of the nicer trains I’ve ridden on across Europe. I certainly did my best to keep myself occupied during the train ride by watching the new season of Orange is the New Black and discussing politics with Dr. Birchfield. After killing most of the trip with these, a nice lunch on the train, and a short power nap we were closing in on Stockholm’s Central Station. Pulling into the city gave a fantastic view as the sun was out and the city was beautiful!

parliament pic

In front of the Swedish Parliament building!

Our late afternoon arrival would have given little time to explore anywhere else in the world, but when the sun doesn’t set until 11 P.M. you have a lot of time on your hands. We ventured out in a large group to get a taste of what Stockholm has to offer. We stumbled upon the area in which the Royal Palace and Parliament buildings are right next to each other. Neither had an extravagantly beautiful or ornate architecture, but both were impressive and distinctly Scandinavian in nature. We then spent some time wandering around the area called Gamla Stan. This is Stockholm’s “old town” where there has been a settlement of some sort dating back to the year 1252! The streets were narrow and lined with shops and houses. One of the distinct things that I noticed in regards to architecture of not just this area but Stockholm as a whole in my brief visit is the black roof tiles on most buildings in the city. When you’re in France or Italy almost every building and house has red roof tiles that I began to associate with Europe in general. However in Sweden all of the tiles are black giving the city a unique architectural aspect to set it apart from its neighbors in the south. I look forward to the coming days and really getting to experience Stockholm!