Uh oh, only a few days into the trip and I’m already behind on the blogs.It’s been a busy few days to the least…
Anyway, on December 17th (around lunch I think?) we headed into Stockholm via the subway. Despite having a friend direct us onto the train as well as friends at our final stop, we still managed to get lost and ended up exploring the back alleys of Stockholm before anything else. Just another Long family adventure as usual…
When we eventually met up with the Jyde family (well, more like when they found us waiting for them in a Hilton Hotel), we all walked to Gamla Stan which was the original Stockholm city, built around the year 1000. Gamla Stan is on it’s own little island and is made up of narrow, cobblestone lined streets and lots of pretty (cheesy) tourist shops. The highlight for me was definitely wandering through the outdoor Christmas market in front of the Nobel prize building. 🙂
After the Gamla Stan market we visited the royal palace!
In the evening, we were directed to a “secret venue” for a “secret cultural event” that we would be attending with the whole gang. Nobody would tell us anything the whole day about what we would be doing until we arrived at a church. We were surprised to find out that we would be attending a ceremony to celebrate Lucia, a swedish Christmas performance that (we thought) only happens on December 13th. Apparently, it happens on December 17th as well! The choir was beautiful, seeing it in person was such a unique experience!! Of course we couldn’t take any videos during the performance so a link was the best I could do…
https://sweden.se/culture/celebrations/the-lucia-tradition
By the end of the show, the Swedes were tired of doing swedish things so we got Indian food for dinner. 🙂
