Stockholm Day 3 - Bad luck did not seem to be gone!!
The trip’s dose of bad luck did not seem to be departing us quite yet.
We got lost on our way to our first appointment, Langholmen hostel. The thing about Stockholm it is made up of a series of islands. We mistook a massive bridge for a much smaller one that we should have been walking over, and ended up in a completely different area. After asking several incredibly helpful Swedes, we finally got back on the right track, and arrived at the Langholmen, an incredibly unique hostel/hotel, which used to be a prison and was converted in 1989. Because of its incredible history, and located on an island, this made it one of the more interesting hostels I have visited. This place is big, and it has been converted very well into hotel and hostel facilities. There is everything that you might need in this place, and lots of outdoor space. Being on an island as well, the surrounding area is just beautiful. Once you find it (and it is actually a lot easier than we thought) it is a good location, not too far from the heart of the centre of Stockholm.
The bad luck carries on
Following this we had to get quite a distance over the other side of town. Being quite late at this point, it wasn’t helped by the fact that we had been told to get off at a subway stop much further from the hotel than we needed to be. This meant of course, we were running late again, and were lost again. Not a good start to the day! We finally met with Louise at the Hotel Attache, who was just superb and when she found out that we hadn’t eaten (nor would have a chance to for the rest of the day), she made us some sandwiches to eat while we chatted. Swedish hospitality is second to none and we encountered so many friendly people in our few days in Stockholm which made our trip very memorable. The hotel Attache, is a lovely, independently owned, small style hotel. It has a lovely feel to it, and is surrounded by greenery and garden area. There is a sauna downstairs for guest use, and each guest (and us as a special present) is given a beautiful book of Stockholm. Really lovely place, and actually very close to a subway station once you knew where it was.
Unfortunately we had to cancel our visit with the City Backpackers, which was an incredible shame, as this was one that both of us had been looking forward to. We tried to reschedule for the following day, but unfortunately the person we were to meet with would not be there then. I explained that we would try our very best to get there by the end of the day, by 5pm.
After this, we went back across town to the STF Friedensplan hostel. This is a very big, very impressive hostel that is in an excellent location. We met with Savvas who was extremely passionate about his city and his hostel. We were very impressed with the quality of the rooms with lots of space in them, and also flat screen televisions in each room. Savvas explained that this would soon be converted into internet computers for each room which was a huge bonus. Fantastic facilities, and catered to whatever budget and needs you had, having options for breakfast and bed linen. Very impressed with this hostel, and Savvas presented us with our second unexpected but lovely gift of the day; a mousse each to remember Sweden by.
Different ways
We left there and separated to do the last hostels of the day. I went to the Wasa Park Hotel, which is a lovely old style hotel in a fantastic location on Ericsplan. I met with Anita, and she could only show me one room, as they were almost fully booked, but it was a lovely homely room, with traditional Swedish wallpaper and furnishings. It is a small scale hotel, so you will be well looked after.
Following Wasa Park I looked at my watch and intended to rush down to briefly see City Backpackers, but unfortunately by this point it was 4.50pm and Joakim had been leaving at 5pm.
I met up with Neha back at the Colonial, and although exhausted, we decided to go straight out and find some food as we were ravenous.
We found a gorgeous and funky Italian/Moroccan place where we ate delicious ravioli and even more delicious chocolate brownies for dessert
We returned to the hotel a couple of hours after we had left it, and after finding South Park on the TV and watching that, we fell quickly into a deep sleep for the second night in a row.
