I was quite intrigued about Stockholm's archipelago, comprised of over 20,000 islands, and I had to figure out a way to get out there and see it. I woke up Saturday morning and headed to one of the tourism boat areas, and bought a ticket for a 3 hour archipelago tour to Vaxholm and back. There was rain in the forecast for the day and I was hoping that it would hold off until after the boat tour, because what fun is being on a boat if you are not out on the deck?! Of course, as soon as the boat started to push back out into the open water, it started to sprinkle. I was able to handle the rain for the first half of the trip to Vaxholm, but it started raining harder and I gave in and went inside... but it wasn't all bad because there was a bar on the boat and I grabbed myself a nice big Swedish beer. The ride back from Vaxholm I had the back deck of the boat mostly to myself because I was manning the rain with my umbrella to take in the views and get some more goods pics. I was amazed with the sizes of some of the houses, as some of them were bigger than some of the islands. One thing I learned is how Absolut vodka was created. Back in the day (1800s I think), Stockholm went through their own Prohibition period and all booze was outlawed in the city of Stockholm. So, the guy built a distillery on the first island of the archipelago that was outside of Stockholm city limits, created vodka that people from the city would boat to and buy booze to take back to the city with them. This ended up being the first Absolut vodka factory which grew much bigger once the Prohibition was lifted into the global brand it is now.
Captions: Top - Picture just after departure of the Grona Lund amusement park in Stockholm
Pic 2 - Some of the big Villas along the water outside of the city
Pic 3 - Example of one of the smaller islands that people live on
Pic 4 - You can see 4 different islands in this one picture
Pic 5 - My beer on the boat
Bottom- This boat (Sailing for Jesus) waved hello to me and were all laughing at me because I was drinking a beer on the top deck of the boat by myself under my umbrella in the rain
After the boat cruise I found a Swedish hotdog stand and had to try one. It was OK, nothing special that I would need to eat again but it could have been the random stand in the middle of the park. I wanted to get out of the rain a bit so I went to grab a bite to eat and found a good restaurant and ate a great scampi sandwich with another big Swedish beer.
I either saw an advert some place or happened to remember that there was an Absolut Ice Bar in Stockholm, so naturally I had to check this out! It was still raining so by the time I made it over to the ice bar my pants were wet almost up to my knees and was not the best time to head into an ice bar. I bought my ticket, they put on this huge warm parka and said go ahead! At first, I was a bit disappointed. It was empty for one except for two other people, and it was TINY! I was expecting a big normal bar but I guess people cannot bear the -5 degrees Celsius for a long time. The bartender asked me which Absolut's I usually drink, I told him 'Mandarin or Peach,' and he replies, 'what about Vanilla?' and I said that was fine. The drink he made was delicious and it was cool because the entire bar was made of ice, including the glasses. I walked around a bit to take it and and stay warm. I started talking to the bartender and found out that he worked across the street at a restaurant and he was only filling in for a week to cover for his friend which was gone, AND this was his last shift. So he did not really care at all and made me a new drink for free :-). I asked if he could take my picture and I asked if I could go behind the bar and he replied "No, but yes, go ahead." Then, he made me another drink for free! I lasted about 35-40 minutes or so even though my jeans were completely frozen but it was well worth it.
So cold, yet so cool.
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