(Almost) Everything about Stockholm

I'm getting really sick of talking about this trip (which is a bad sign, because it probably means that you're sick of hearing about it) so I'm going to try to pack a lot into this post. Basically, these are most of the photos I took in/around Stockholm, Sweden. I left some things out, but most of them I intend to talk about later.

(*deep breath*) Alright. Here we go.

Stockholm has lots of pretty houses in the woods.

But most of my time in Stockholm was spent like this:
browsing souvenier stores. Oh yeah!

They had these little gnome guys everywhere!

Also popular in the Swedish shops were these trolls.

My favorite shop by far was this sci-fi/nerd store I found.
It had so much fantastic stuff!
Here's just a sample - a Batman Christmas story.
From the blurb, it seems like Batman has been down recently
and Alfred is trying to cheer up "Master Wayne" for the holidays.
Who wants to read this book? ME!

Ah yes. My first (and really, only) Swedish meal. I had it in IKEA.
Which, as you hopefully know, is Swedish itself.
And do you know what else I got there? SWEDISH FISH!
(Can you say, 'My life is complete'?)

See the sign? Apparently elevators are even more vindictive
and vicious in Sweden than they are in the United States.
(This is bad news for an elevator-phobe like me.)

P.S. Did you know there's no name for the fear of elevators?
They just classify it under 'claustrophobia' or 'acrophobia.'
I find that highly inaccurate and offensive.
New goal: invent a word for the fear of elevators.

There are vikings in Sweden. Some even pose on the street.
But if you try to snap a picture while he's not looking
(so you don't have to pay) BE CAREFUL!
He might spot you, growl ferociously, and chase after you.
At least, that's what happened to me.

This was on the door of our Swedish hostel.
"Please the key?"
We don't know what it's supposed to mean, either.

This hostel wasn't as free-wheeling as The Monk's Bunk.
It was mostly empty and a lot more quiet.
But there was one HUGE advantage:
we could drink the tap water there without fear of giardia!
(*sings* "Livin' on the edge!")

Our hostel room. 

This is our friend AJ. We met him at the hostel.
He sponsered several movie/junk food nights in our honor.
He's from Liverpool, and we inspired him to "be Mormon"
for three days. No drinking, no smoking, no swearing.
He almost made it, too.

Back to the sights of Sweden.
This is a very old church, but that's all I know about it.

This is a corner of a larger field, apparently.

That's the parlimentary building, I believe, behind the bridge.

One of many, many, MANY museums.

Some lovely boats.

Us taking pictures of lovely boats.

The front lawn of the Musuem of Modern Art in Stockholm.

Display from an architectural museum we visited.

THIS building is actually cool. It's the birthplace of the term
"Stockholm Syndrome."
I heard the whole story, but I'm too tired to tell you about it now.
So click on the link above, and Wiki will explain for me.

This is a historical musuem we visited in Stockholm.
They had a very cool display on vikings.
(It made me itch to watch "How to Train Your Dragon")

Then we went romping through the woods again, and we happened upon
a most peculiar thing: a playground, seemingly growing naturally out of the wood.
We ran over and explored and my keen eyes spotted something spectacular:

THE COOLEST TEETER-TOTTER EVER!

No, really. It was awesome. The thing goes up and down AND spins!
The whole time I was on it, I thought, "Some superpower America is,
if we can't even come up with teeter-totters this cool!"
I'm hoping that I can show the pictures to an engineer when I get back
and he will build it for me. We need to get this trend started in the States.

I'm going to post a video of it here, because that's the best way to get a feel for how the thing moves. However, I should warn you of some vulgarity: the video opens with one of the riders saying, "Ow, my crotch!" So sorry. Quite unladylike of her, but that teeter-totter does make one sore.  If you would like to spare your ears this profanity, I'd recommend listening to "The Entertainer" while you watch. In fact, I recommend that even if you aren't offended by vulgarity. The audio isn't all that important anyway.

There, now you've seen all of the most important stuff in Stockholm. That didn't take too long, now, did it?

Oh. And on a side note, it turns out that yesterday's post (the one about the forest) was my 300th post on this blog. Whoa! How did that happen?!