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Allie's European Adventure
I just got back from a weekend in Stockholm which was great! The city was beautiful and all the people were so nice. Myself, and my friends Cory, Alix (girl), and Vinnie went. We arrived Friday afternoon, and after checking in to our hotel rushed out to get something to eat cause we were all starving! Alix and I enjoyed a delicious meal of Swedish meatballs and boiled potatoes. We walked around the city alot, going to all the little islands that Stockholm is spread over. The southern portion of Sweden in an archipelago, and you get great views of all the islands coming in on the plane. One island, Galma Stan, is the "old city" where the original Stockholm was. We spent time there seeing the old building and exploring the little alleyways. We went up to the royal palace for the changing of the guard on Saturday. It was cool, but a little toursity. At the end, the marching band played Abba's Dancing Queen, which made me go "oh no .. they did not" but everyone in the crowd enjoyed it and danced. We also visited the Vasa Museum which houses the world's oldest preserved ship. It sunk on its maiden voyage in the 1600s in the Baltic Sea. They brought it up in the 1960s and it was still fully preserved because of the lack of salt in the sea. It was really cool, and huge! The museum also had lots of information on life in Stockholm in the 1600s and life as a sailor so that was neat too. Friday night we went to the world's first permanent ice bar, which is owned by Absolute. It was really cool, they give you parkas with fur hoods and gloves. The drinks are all served in ice cups too. It was pretty fun. Our last night there we went out to eat in Stockholm's oldest restaurant which was started in the 1400s by monks who served travelers and sick people. We had a good meal, and had a lot of fun talking to our waiter who was a friendly, old Swedish man.
Overall Stockholm was great and I would recommend it to anyone. The city was so clean with loads of public green spaces to hang out in. The fact that its completely surrounded by water is cool too and makes for a great atmosphere. It was very different than Rome, so it was nice to see a contrast.
This week we are doing a workshop with two Penn State professors who came over, one in architecture and the other in theater. The goal is to understand a space by changing it and seeing what happens. Tonight we went out with them, and all 15 students had big black umbrellas. We went to the Campidoglio (Michelangelo's piazza on the Capitoline Hill) and formed like a giant ball with our umbrellas, or other random things to disrupt the space. Generally I thought it was artsy and weird, but it was interesting to see peoples reaction to us.
I'm looking forward to everyone coming over soon! Only about ten days away! I've been eyeing up some good restaurants for us all to go too haha. Love you all.
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