Sweden

Hej!

We returned from a trip to Sweden a few days ago. It was lovely and I miss it already. Charlie had never been (I've been 3 times now) and was interested in going for our (apparently) yearly international adventure/wedding anniversary trip. We spent time in Stockholm, Gotland, and Gothenburg over 10ish days out there. Let's dive in!

Stockholm

We started the trip in Stockholm. We got to town at 10:30 AM and then had to power through an entire day without any sleep which was absolute torture and my adrenaline started running out around 3 PM. We made it to 8 PM before passing out at the hotel.

The next morning we ventured out to the Vaxholm Bed & Breakfast in the Stockholm Archipelago for a cinnamon bun-making work shop I had signed us up for. This was a trip highlight for both of us. It was just us and a woman named Vilma who walked us through the entire process of making the Swedish (and superior if you ask me) cinnamon buns and sent us home with a bag full that we had made as well as the B&B's recipe.

The next few days were spent doing a shit ton of walking which included but was not limited to visiting the open-air museum Skansen, the photography museum Fotografiska, a few bakeries, and wandering around Åhléns.

Gotland

After a few days wandering Stockholm, we headed south to Nynäshamn to catch the ferry to Gotland, a large island off the southeast coast of Sweden. I had read that the town of Visby was an inspiration for the town Kiki lives in Kiki's Delivery Service and it's often mentioned as a fun place to check out. It was another highlight of the trip. Visby is an extremely well-preserved medieval town and it was the beginning of the off-season making it basically empty which added to the ambiance. We had some good sandwiches served to us by a friendly shop keep, bought a 1940s pencil drawing of the Visby walls from an antique store and had 2 Swedish children ask us how old we were then run off laughing after we answered them. Rude.

Gothenburg

We headed back to Stockholm after 2 days on Gotland. We had plans to spend our anniversary night at a hotel in Sandhamn in the Stockholm archipelago before 1 last day in Stockholm. On the ferry we had a change of heart and decided to pivot and go to Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden instead. We did have our anniversary dinner at the restaurant at Fotografiska after getting back to Stockholm that day before then boarding a train to Gothenburg the following morning.

I didn't take many photos in Gothenburg for some reason. We went to the World of Volvo museum (that was for me), had some good soup dumplings, took the tram out to the edge of town to see some of the Gothenburg Archipelago, and wandered around Trädgårdsföreningen (try and pronounce that one).

We headed back to Stockholm 24 hours later so it was very much a whirlwind trip to Gothenburg. I liked it. I wish we'd have planned for it and stayed a bit longer. We had one more afternoon in Stockholm after getting back before then heading to Arlanda to head home the next day. Our last meal was at Meatballs for the People, a meatball place I'd eaten at when I visited with my friend Copeland back in 2016. It was just as delicious as it was 8 years ago.

Sweden's great and if you've ever thought about visiting take this as a vote of confidence from me that you absolutely should go. It's a wonderful place.

• joseph