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Showing posts with label Nordic Countries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nordic Countries. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

Country Guide: Sweden

Name: Sweden (in Swedish: Sverige)

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Stockholm

Language: Swedish

Currency: Swedish Krona

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type F

Description: Sweden is the largest country in the Scandinavia region, bordering Norway and Finland. It is famous for its cold, snowy weather, and for its success in the areas of interior design, crime fiction, and music, having produced several Eurovision winners, including ABBA. It is also known for its high standard of living.

Why You Should Visit: In 2020, my boyfriend Claudio and I spontaneously visited Stockholm and had an amazing time. The city is beautiful, especially the historic centre (Gamla stan), and it has plenty of interesting museums to check out, such as Skansen open-air museum, and the Viking Museum. If I go back to Sweden, I would like to see more of the country's natural landscapes, including the glaciers and fjords that Scandinavia is famous for.

Fun Fact: Sweden has more islands than any other country in the world!


My Blogposts About Sweden

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- London: Day Four + Arriving in Sweden (Stockholm)

- Stockholm: Day One

- Stockholm: Day Two

- Stockholm: Day Three

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations (Stockholm)

Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Stockholm)





















Clockwise starting from top left: a traditional house at Skansen open-air museum, House of Nobility, Stortorget, traditional log cabins at Skansen, Gamla stan (all located in Stockholm)

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Sunday, 6 June 2021

Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations!

Growing up, I always loved watching the Disney versions of fairytales. (To be completely honest, I still love watching them now!) The great songs, magical characters and beautiful settings always kept me entranced. And although I detest the institution of monarchy, and especially hate how the Windsor family are worshipped here in Britain (they're incredibly dull and "un-magical" compared to the likes of Elsa and Ariel!), I still have a fondness for fairytales.

This fondness translates into a love for visiting destinations around the world that look like they've come straight from the pages of a fairytale, including castles, palaces and charming little villages. And this post is going to be about some of my favourite fairytale-esque destinations. I've narrowed it down to a list of ten, which was surprisingly challenging. Here they are!


The Cotswolds, England, UK




















This is not really one single place, but a whole area of England. The Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which covers six counties in the South West, South East and West Midlands regions, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the whole country. It's known for its castles and manor houses, scenic countryside, and most of all for its picturesque little villages. The three most famous and beautiful of these villages are Castle Combe (pictured above), Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water. These three villages have a real old world, fairytale atmosphere, and are great places to escape to.

Read more here and here!


Bruges, Belgium




















My first proper solo trip was to Bruges, or Brugge, in Belgium back in 2015 during my Gap Year. I really fell in love with the city during my few days there, and hope to go back again sometime in the future. Being there really felt like being in a fairytale land; it's filled with canals, little bridges, pretty buildings, and lots and lots of swans!

Read more here!


Dieppe, France




















My favourite place that I visited in Normandy during the French part of my Year Abroad has to be Dieppe, mainly because of its fairytale-esque castle that sits on a hill overlooking the beach. Not only is it pretty to look at, it also has a great museum inside, featuring many impressionist paintings. The architecture of the rest of the town is very attractive too.

Read more here!


Vaduz, Liechtenstein




















Actually I think the whole country of Liechtenstein counts as a fairytale destination! But Vaduz is the only part I've actually visited (though I did see Gutenberg castle from the bus on the way in). For a capital city, it's very very small, which makes sense, given the size of the country it's located in. The whole city is a really great place to explore, with some interesting museums and nice architecture, but the highlight has to be the castle, overlooking Vaduz from a mountain above.

Read more here!


Salzburg, Austria
















Austria has to be one of the prettiest countries in the world, thanks to its lakes, mountains, castles and beautiful cities. Perhaps the most beautiful of these cities is Salzburg, a place which feels like it's barely changed for hundreds of years. It's filled with lots of stunning old buildings, and two of the most stunning are the Mirabell Palace and Hohensalzburg Fortress, both of which can be seen in the picture above. 

Read more here!


Hochosterwitz Castle, Austria




















One thing I really loved when I lived in Austria was taking the train to travel to various places within the country and beyond. I would always see amazing scenery wherever I went, including plenty of incredible castles. My favourite was Hochosterwitz Castle, located between Sankt Veit an der Glan and Klagenfurt, and one day I took the train to Launsdorf to take a closer look at it. I love how it's built around a mountain - it really is just like a fairytale come to life. 

I'll also take this opportunity to give an honourable mention to Landskron Castle, another castle in the Kärten region, that's almost as impressive.

Read more here!


Lake Bled, Slovenia




















Lake Bled in Slovenia is a tourist destination that's grown in popularity in recent years, and it's easy to see why. The place is so idyllic, with its medieval castle on a clifftop and its island in the middle of the lake, which you can only get to by rowing boat. It really looks like it's come straight from the pages of a storybook.

Read more here!


Bratislava, Slovakia
















An underrated capital city in Eastern Europe, Bratislava is a great place to visit, that can easily be explored in a day. Its sights include pretty squares, alleyways and churches, as well as the unique UFO Bridge. But the highlight has to be the imposing and beautiful Bratislava Castle, which overlooks the city and the Danube river below. It's definitely worth climbing up the hill to the castle to see it up close and to enjoy the amazing views across the city.

Read more here!


Stockholm, Sweden




















Stockholm is another European capital city with beautiful old buildings and a fairytale atmosphere. My favourite part of the city is the historic centre, Gamla stan, which dates back to the medieval period. Here you can find plenty of quaint cobbled streets and significant buildings, such as the Royal Palace, Riddarholm Church, and Stockholm Cathedral. But perhaps the most iconic part of Gamla stan is Stortorget (pictured above). This square with its famous tall, colourful buildings really is a picture perfect place.

Read more here!


Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve, Chile




















When people think of fairytale destinations, they usually think of places in Europe. And it's true that up until this point, this list has consisted entirely of destinations in my home continent. But I'm switching things up with this final destination on my list! Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve is an incredible area of natural beauty located in the Patagonian Rainforest in southern Chile, featuring waterfalls, rivers, lakes and volcanoes. It's also a hub for ecotourism, and features two amazing and very fairytale-esque hotels: the Nothofagus hotel (which looks like a giant treehouse) and Montaña Mágica (magic mountain) lodge (pictured above). Definitely one of the most magical places I've ever been to!

Read more here!


It's been a nice bit of escapism to compile this list and to reminisce about some of my favourite trips. (How great were those days when we could go wherever we wanted with no restrictions?) 

Although my lack of freedom to move on with my life is still getting me down, I'm feeling slightly more positive than I was this time last week, because I now have a couple of things to look forward to. I've got a short trip planned for tomorrow morning, which I may blog about next week, and I've also booked some time off in July, which I'll use to go on a short break away, or at least on a day trip or two. 

And hopefully, some bigger travel adventures are on the not-too-distant horizon...


Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

Monday, 30 November 2020

Stockholm: Day Three

The third day Claudio and I spent in Stockholm was also our last day there, so we needed to make it count! But because we had already ticked off all the places we'd most wanted to see during our first two days, and another place we were interested in was closed, we were able to relax and go with the flow a bit more.

First of all, we decided to go back to Djurgården island (where we'd gone on our second day) and visit another museum there: Nordiska Museet (the Nordic Museum).

We'd seen the building the previous day and had been very impressed by it, as it's like a fairytale castle.






The interior is also very elaborate and has a huge statue of the former king, Gustav Vasa, who looks quite a lot like Henry the Eighth!

During our tour of the museum, we found out that the building was built specifically to be a museum, and that its style comes from Dutch-influenced Danish Renaissance architecture.

The exhibits were also very interesting and taught us a lot about the history and culture of the Nordic countries, with a focus on Sweden. The parts I found most memorable included a recreation of a 1940s Stockholm apartment, an exhibit about the Sámi people, and an exhibit about how Britain influenced Nordic fashion in the 1960s!

Maybe it wasn't quite as exciting and immersive as Skansen, but I'd still consider it to be one of the city's must-visit attractions.

Next we went off in the direction of another museum we wanted to visit. On the way, we saw this fairytale-esque building that I felt compelled to take a photo of. I wasn't sure whether it was a church, a house, or a small castle but I liked it a lot! (I eventually managed to find out later that it was a villa called Jägarhyddan.)




The next museum we'd planned to visit was the ABBA museum, but when we got there, we discovered it would cost the equivalent of about £50 for the two of us to visit! We're not big enough fans of ABBA to be willing to pay that much, so we just looked around the shop and then left. (One of the disadvantages of Scandinavia is that it's certainly an expensive place to spend time in!)

Afterwards we were wondering around, trying to figure out what to do next, when we suddenly came across a ferry terminal. The next boat was leaving in a few minutes time, so we got on board!

The ferries in Stockholm are part of the system of public transport, but we'd heard that they were also a great way of seeing the city. And that definitely turned out to be true! The boat trip was really fun, and it was especially great to see Kastellholmen, a little island with a red castle.











The ferry didn't take us where we'd expected to go; we'd thought it was going to a place called Slussen, but it actually took us to Gamla stan, where we'd been on our first day. That didn't matter though, because we didn't have any particular destination in mind.

After we'd figured out where we were, we decided to walk over to the island of Skeppsholmen to take a closer look at some interesting buildings we'd seen from afar.

The island was quite an unusual place, as it was almost deserted compared to the rest of the city. But it was a very scenic place, and I especially liked the pink building that looked like a castle (Admiralty House). We also had great views across to Gamla stan from there.









After exploring Skeppsholmen, we took the ferry back over to Gamla stan and spent a really nice couple of hours enjoying the sights there for a second time.

Then we made our way back to the central station, passing through one of the main squares of the city, Sergels torg. We'd been past it on the tram in the morning and I'd thought it was quite unattractive, but by night it was all lit up and was really something else.




Part of the square is sunken, and as we walked towards it, something caught our eye; there were hundreds of people there waving Chilean and Mapuche flags!

The day before, the plebiscite for a new constitution had been held in Chile, and the approve vote had won by a landslide. This was why all the Chileans in Stockholm were out celebrating in Sergels torg. 

We joined in the celebration for a little while, and it felt like a very historic occasion. I will definitely remember it for a long time.






It was the perfect end to an amazing few days in Sweden.

The next morning, we had to get up at 3am to go and catch our flight. But thankfully everything went much smoother than it had done on the way there! We were able to take the pendeltåg (commuter train) all the way from the hotel to the airport, which worked out much more convenient and cheaper than taking the Arlanda Express, even though we had to pay a special fee to enter the airport. And we also got through security with no problems!

All in all, we really enjoyed Stockholm, and I'm glad that Claudio had the chance to experience a country other than England during his first trip to Europe. It's a shame we couldn't go to France or Italy, but hopefully we'll have other opportunities in the future. Besides, it was great for both of us to discover Scandinavia, a very interesting part of the world which I hadn't visited before. In the future I'd definitely go back to Sweden again, as well as to other Nordic countries.

In a way, it was strange being in Sweden, as it was like Covid didn't exist there. Life was just going on as normal, and most people weren't wearing masks (we were). I kind of got used to having a bit of normality again, so it was a shock when a new national lockdown in England was announced a few days after we got back.

Luckily we were able to fit in one of our most important trips before the new restrictions came into place...

Read about Stockholm: Day One here and Stockholm: Day Two here!

Sunday, 22 November 2020

Stockholm: Day Two

On the second morning of our stay in Stockholm, Claudio and I took the tram from the central station over to Djurgården island, which is where the majority of the city's museums are located. We were on a mission to visit Skansen, the world's oldest open-air museum!

My mum actually went to Stockholm in 1982, and she told me that Skansen was one of the places we should definitely visit. I looked it up online and instantly wanted to go as soon as I saw the pictures!

The museum covers a huge area of 75 acres and allows you to discover life in Sweden across different periods of history and all regions of the country. It includes many authentic buildings, such as houses and churches, as well as native Nordic animals. It's a very immersive place, and you need to spend several hours there to really make the most of it.




One of the things we loved most about Skansen was seeing the animals, of course! Some of them were more shy than others, but all of them were amazing to look at. Among the Nordic animals, we saw wolves...




...bison and wild boars...




...a sleepy lynx...




...a family of brown bears...





...seals...




...reindeer...




...and elk.





There were also typical farm animals, including some adorable pigs, and a petting zoo with rabbits and guinea pigs. The guinea pigs had their own little Machu Picchu-inspired room!













It was also brilliant to see some typical Scandinavian buildings, including houses, churches and farmsteads.




















There is even an 18th century manor house, Skogaholm Manor.




Another part that was very interesting to see was the Sámi camp. The Sámi people live in the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, and are the only indigenous people in Europe. In the area where the camp is, you can see plants from the north of Sweden.








I also found it interesting to see the Finn settlement, which is based on the forested areas of Sweden where Finnish farmers used to live.





In addition, the museum includes a recreation of a quaint little 19th century town, which was very nice to walk around. 








We even discovered a snowmobile during our visit!




Exploring Skansen was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Stockholm. What I really liked about it was that it gave us the opportunity to discover more about the entire country of Sweden, which was nice, because we only visited Stockholm during our trip.

After spending a large part of the day at Skansen, we walked around the surrounding area for a while. It was a really attractive part of the city, especially because of all the autumn colours.




Our next stop was another exciting museum not far from Skansen: the Viking museum! It was really fun to learn about the Vikings and to even dress up as them!








Even the staff in the museum looked like real vikings. They were all about 7 feet tall with long hair and beards!

There is also a ride that you can go on within the museum, which leads you through a story about a Viking family. It was quite similar to the ride I took in the Jorvik viking museum in York last year, but a little more dramatic and exciting! I remember that Jorvik gave me Wanderlust to visit Scandinavia, but I hadn't expected to be in Sweden just a little over a year later!

As we were looking round the gift shop before leaving, we overheard some voices from the next room. Claudio was very happy, as he recognised the accents as being Chilean! So we went round the corner and met three Chilean guys who live in Stockholm. We chatted to them for a little while, and they told us about some of their favourite places in the city.

It turns out that Chileans are one of the biggest non-European demographics in Sweden and are by far the largest Latin American demographic, so there's quite a big community there. It was really nice for Claudio to have the chance to speak to people from the same country as him for the first time since he arrived in Europe.

The following day was our last full day in Stockholm, and I'll be writing about it next. Highlights included a visit to Nordiska Museet (the Nordic Museum), a boat trip and a very special celebration in Sergels torg...

Read about Stockholm: Day One here and Stockholm: Day Three here!