This is for Kristal

This is our hostel

The Vasa Ship with a stranger in the pic

Royal Palace

Pretty sunset

Center Square

The guy on the end is Freek

Apparantly I didn't post enough pictures about Stockholm, but my camera died so I had to get other peoples camera cards. Anyway here is more pics!

Stockholm

Ok so Stockholm puts every other place I have been to shame. It's so amazing, I wanted to stay longer! And the seven hour bus ride that I was dreading didn't even phase me, I was a champ if I may say so myself. We got to Stockholm Friday around 3 and went straight to our hostel which was a boat. It wasn't bad. On Friday, we just walked around the city and went shopping. It was such a big city and so many stores, I was in paradise. That night for dinner we went to TGIF. I've never been so excited for a TGIF in my life. It was so delicious, best meal so far for sure. On Saturday, we had a tour of the city which was really cool. Stockholm is so pretty! Sidenote, people always say American's love Mcdonald's and crap but I feel it is just as bad if not worse here. During our 2 hour tour, most of the student's stopped at McDonald's at least once or twice. Plus on our drive down we ate there, and on the way back. They eat it all the time, so I better not hear any more crap about American's and McDonald's. They should be thanking us. Anyway, after the tour we went to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guard, it was so cold. Haha Addy started crying it was so cold. After that, we had lunch at a cafe then went shopping again. I got all of my souvenirs for the family and some for myself too. It was a successful shopping day. That night, we went to dinner with all of the other exchange students at some bar. It was ok, TGIF was way better though. On Sunday we went to the Vasa Museum. It was the coolest museum I have ever been to. We spent four hours there! Seriously, I've never been a huge fan of musems but I just love them here. The Vasa Ship was built in the 1600's and it was the biggest and most expensive boat ever made. Well, 20 minutes after it set sail it sunk and 333 year later they brought it back up. It's a long story but anyway now the original ship is in the museum, but since it's so old it's deteriorating and they think it will only last 50 years. After the museum we hopped on the bus and drove back to Vaxjo. Stockholm was so fun and my favorite weekend trip so far, we already have our next trip to Stockholm planned!

Malmo

The Turning Torso
People that wanted to be in our picture on the Canal Tour

Malmo is the third largest city in Sweden and it has the tallest building in Sweden there, which is also the second tallest building in Europe. It's not that tall, it's 42 stories. Which is still big, but nothing like New York. Our fellow American friends went to Malmo a couple weeks ago and told us it was overrated and not to bother, but when we drove through Malmo with Robert and Sigrid (Branch President and Wife) we thought it looked so fun! First of all, there is a glass mall that is like twice as big as gateway. So we decided we had to go. The weather was so nice, not a cloud in the sky which is very unusual. When we got there, we went on a canal tour around the city, it was so cool. We saw all these houses from the 14th century where the famous people back then lived, and people still live in them today! We saw a castle, a ton of parks, a cathedral, the turning torse (biggest building) and some other buildings. When we first got on the boat we didn't even think that it wouldn't be in English haha, then the guide starts talking in Swedish and we were like, seriously? But luckily she spoke English too and there were some other people who didn't speak english so she spoke both languages! After the canal tour we went shopping! Once again, ugh I didn't get anything but I am going back for a pair of shoes that I can't stop thinking about. It's a sign I need to buy them if I'm still thinking about it. Shopping was still way fun, they had so many stores with the cutest things. We also went to see the turning torse. On our canal tour we rode past it on the boat but we thought we should walk there too. It took forever to get there.. we were thinking this better be worth it. Then we saw this store which totally reminded us of costco and we went in and they had Reese's! Totally made the walk worth it. The turning torso was cool though, except you can't go in it which is a bust! Still, I'm glad we made the trek. Lunch was a disaster. We found this place earlier that looked really good and we said we were going to come back here when we got hungry. Let's be honest, I'm horrible with directions and in a city I have never been to.. we never found the place. By the time we were done searching it was almost time to leave so we had to grab something quick. We went to a bagel shop thinking it would be easy, cheap and good. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Everything I ordered they were out of, literally everything. The only thing they had left was a bagel with bacon and tomatoe which had been made that morning. ( P.S. it's past 5 by now ) So I decide to try it. The bacon wasn't even cooked!! I gagged when i saw it. The workers probably thought I was a bratty American but I could care less, cook your freaking bacon! So I took everything off my bagel, but since it had been made 10 hours earlier the mustard was soaked into the bread. I ate a bagel with only mustard on it. I was quite bitter about it too, but I didn't let it ruin our fun day. We were sad we couldn't stay longer, since everyone told us it was overrated we weren't expecting much. However, we were pleasantly surprised! All in all it was a very fun day and I would do it all again, even eat the mustard bagel. Yummy.