Globe Corner Blogs

Even though my Norwegian grandfather brainwashed me into believing that Norway is superior to Sweden in every way, I love Stockholm. I thought that I was going to have a leisurely three days to hang out in Stockholm and visit friends, but the plan changed and instead of sight seeing, I was recruited to help someone move into her apartment. So my three days turned into one and next thing I knew, I was on a whirlwind tour of non-sequential Swedish history.  Knowing that I had three things on my agenda (Swedish meatballs with real lingonberry sauce, vikings, and really big ships), my friend tailor-made a schedule for me. And she had one thing on her agenda: showing me why Stockholm is the “Capital of Scandinavia“.

The morning started a bit rough, as I was still recovering from watching Pierce Bronson sing his heart out in MAMA MIA! with a lot of ABBA-loving Swedes the night before. But after some much needed coffee, I was ready for the first stop: the Vasamuseet. The Vasamuseet is home to the royal warship Vasa and is one of Stockholm’s most popular museums. Now being a proud second-generation Norwegian, I didn’t think that this would compare much to the Vikingskipshuset in Oslo, but I was very impressed.  The ship has been restored to it’s glory (even though it didn’t sail far — it sunk in Stockholm’s harbor on it’s maiden voyage), and it is truly a masterpiece of wood carving.

Next stop was the Skansen Museum, the world’s first open-air museum. With over 150 buildings from the 1800′s from all over Sweden, this gave a good glimpse of what it was like to live in Sweden at that time. It has a town square where you can watch craftsmen in their workshops, bakers in their bakeries, and Swedish chefs prepare Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce. The park also has a small zoo, and so I was also able to see reindeer, bears, and moose. Oh my!

Moose Stockholm — photo by Lisa

After watching the moose lounging about posing for photographs, we decided that it was time for dinner. My friend talked me in to dining at a medieval-themed restaurant named Sjatte Tunnan. It was indeed an “interesting” experience, and if you are into Dungeons and Dragons at all, this is the place for you. We carefully decided to order the meat platter and salmon but were quite surprised when we were given daggers in lieu of forks to stab our meat with. After a lot of mead (medieval beer) and the live music started, it turned into a raucous good time . The restaurant was fun, delightfully cheesy, and the salmon was really good. However, if I were to go again, I would smuggle in a fork. Maybe I am not the Viking that I thought I was, because I was trying too hard to eat moose pate politely with a dagger.

Read more: Museums, News, Oslo, Scandinavia, Stockholm, the Vikings, Travel


Lisa can usually be found staring longingly at the Eastern European shelf at the Globe Corner Bookstore. However, she really wants to go to Colombia.

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