"I'm from Sweden. We don't wear clothes in Sweden." - Alexander Skarsgard

Last week John and I went to the land of blondes, Ikea, and many hours of daylight... Sweden. Going to Scandinavia was on my Europe bucket list, so I made sure to fit it in before we go home.

We hopped on our friendly EasyJet flight and settled in our seats, 4A and 4B. We were surprised that we were so close to the front of the plane because we're usually at least in row 20-something. I got out my Kindle, put on my seatbelt, and practiced saying "Yeah" with a Swedish accent. And then, on our longest Europe flight yet, a clean cut looking young man with the WORST BO ever sat right next to me in 4C. Everytime he moved, I got a whiff. It was awful. I wanted to run out of the plane and board the one heading to Newark. Yes, Newark. It was that bad.

Surprisingly, I survived the flight, and we made it to Stockholm. John immediately decided he liked Stockholm with all of the pretty blondes and redheads walking around. I immediately reminded him that he was married.

The first thing you notice in Stockholm is the prevalence of 7-11s. Yep, the green / red / orange signed Slurpee stores. On every corner, like Starbucks in Seattle.

Also, duly noted is that 7-11s and garbage smell the same no matter what country you're in.

First thing on our agenda was to find and consume some Swedish meatballs. They were delish. 

And John even found a super dark beer, so all was right with the world.

The next day was cloudy, so we headed to the number 1 Stockholm Trip Advisor recommended and parent recommended (since my parents were in Stockholm last fall) site, the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa was a huge ship that was built in the 1600s to go to war. They made elaborate carvings, painted it, armed it, put about 200 men on it, and then about a mile out of port it sunk. About thirty people drowned, and it layed on the sea floor just outside of the city for about 300 years until they decided to pull it out in the 1950s. About 90% of the ship is still intact and was preserved underwater. There are also some skeletons, clothing, pots, weapons, etc recovered. It's now on display in a museum where it's like a little peek into the 1600s. It was a lot cooler than either of us thought it would be.

That evening we headed to the port to hop aboard our first ever cruise ship to go to Tallinn, Estonia. I was assuming it would just be a little boat from the 1970s, but it was way better.