Stockholm

Stockholm is a lovely city of large islands, easily accessible by a handful of major bridges. The old town, Gamla Stan, is one of the smaller islands, completely surrounded by the rest of the city. My rolling suitcase on its cobblestone alleyways announced my presence to everyone in town. Oh well. In the middle of Gamla Stan, there's this large sculpture of the Europe-wide legend of King George slaying the dragon:

I bought a meal of Swedish meatballs from a small café, sold by a nice Russian lady who hardly spoke English. After some miscommunication due to the language barrier, she lamented that she only speaks Russian, Spanish, and Swedish but not English. Spanish?! She married a Cuban man many years ago and Sweden is one of the few places in the world where they can live together. The embargoes almost prohibited their relationship, but Sweden had no problem with it. So we continued in Spanish and all was better. Strangely, I've heard as much Spanish in Scandinavia as in the Bronx. Apparently, Spanish tourists really like to go North for holiday. I don't blame them - it's beautiful! 

Stockholm has successfully turned a national embarrassment into one of its greatest tourist attractions. In 1648, the Vasa ship sank on its maiden voyage. They had some proportion problems, so it sunk nearly instantly. Rather than sail the seas, it sat in the salty North Sea for over 300 years, preserved almost completely. Now it sits at the Vasa Museum. By an engineering feat, they excavated the entire ship from its resting place in 1961 and restored it. It's huge: 7 decks, 64 guns, and countless sculptures, including one of King David and his harp! It's pretty epic. Below is the royal seal of the King of Sweden:

Stockholm is just as expensive as Denmark, which limits their tourist attractiveness. But it's quite picturesque and definitely worth a visit. Swedish is quite close to Norwegian, and not far from German. But they all speak incredibly perfect English... except the Russian lady who sells meatballs ;)

"O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!"  ~ Psalm 8