I feel like this was the most enriching trip so far and I think it's the one I liked the most. Probably because I was able to understand more Swedish than in the other trips and I could actually utter some words. I read some time ago that when one learns a new language, they have a new identity with that language. I noticed how slightly different I was when I spoke in English than when I spoke in Spanish last year, but I was dying to see what would happen with Swedish. So far, I know that I am not as self-conscious and shy as in English, but I'm neither as ice-breaker and confident as in Spanish, obviously. At least, I'm happy to know that I'm not as self-aware when I speak Swedish as I am in English, and I just say it whether it's right or wrong. And that, from a linguistic perspective, makes me really
happy.
As to the trip itself, it all started on a 22nd March driving to Málaga early. I actually drove to Málaga this time! It feels like things are changing. So, after checking in and passing the security point, etc, we found ourselves in
Linköping by 16:00! After that, we took a
flyggbussarna to
City-terminalen and, at first, the plan for the first evening there was to wander around Gamla Stan for a bit and maybe meet a friend, but that didn't go as planned, since I got a bit sick and spent the whole evening practically in the bus station until it was time to go to our
Swedish home for this trip. That's right. This time we went all Swedish about it and stayed in a Swedish apartment. No hostels at all. Although I must say that I missed the views from
Gamla Stan this time.
Since barely anything happened on the first day, apart from us catching up with our friend, I'm jumping into the second one because it was more fun, you know. We started the day with the Swedish happy birthday song
"Ja, må hon leva" because it was Katrina's birthday. This was actually fun to hear because I've always thought that it was a fun Swedish tradition. For those who are not familiar with it, they usually wake up the birthday person with a song and breakfast. We don't have the same birthday celebration in Spain, so I was very excited to experience it.
After having breakfast and more catching up (in Swedish even! *smirk, smirk*), we headed to
Monteliusvägen and
Skinnarviksberget to look at the views over
Gamla Stan and
Kungsholmen from
Södermalm. To be honest, I like any view over
Gamla Stan and the city hall, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the one from
Monteliusvägen. God, is there a more beautiful building than the city hall? I think I will write a post only about the city hall building, hahaha.
Kidding, I am not that crazy.
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| Stockholm, Monteliusvägen. Winter. By Ana R. |
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| Stockholm, Skinnarviksberget. Winter. By Ana R. |
Well, I am not pretty sure about what happened next, but I think Tommy went to work and we walked to
Gamla Stan and sat somewhere in
Skeppsbrokajen to have lunch and enjoy the sun. I haven't said anything, but we were actually very lucky and had very good weather during the whole trip. It was actually a bit warm! In the sun, of course...Here you have the proof of such a lovely weather! I should say that a Swedish woman saw us and got a bit jealous, so she joined us and sunbathed next to us for a bit, haha.
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| Stockholm, Stortorget. Winter. By Ana R. |
Around 15:00 we head to
Slussen again because I was meeting up with
Maria for the first time. This trip was actually full of "first times": the first time I hold a conversation in Swedish face-to-face, the first time I went thrift shopping, etc. But certainly not the first time I went to Expresso House! Seriously, can we dedicate some space to how much Swedes love
Expresso House? It's crazy! (In the good sense). When you ask a Swede to meet up, you'll usually get an answer "Expresso House", followed, of course, by its location, because there are dozens! Anyway, I met Maria. We had a lovely time together. It was a bit of a messy exchange of me because I keep on mixing Spanish, English, and Swedish. But no worries, I'm still working on that guys, hahaha. As my friend Martin says, that's the con of knowing multiple languages!
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| Stockholm, Götgatan. Winter. By Ana R. |
After meeting Maria, we took a long walk towards
Riddarholmen, which is one of my favourite parts of Stockholm now, and the city hall to see the sunset and go back to the aparment again. If you got the chance, please visit
Riddarholmen. I haven't seen such beautiful buildings in my entire life! As you may notice, I have a thing for architecture, but who doesn't?
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| Stockholm, Riddarholmen. Winter. By Ana R. |
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| Stockholm, Munkbrohamnen. Winter. By Ana R. |
Take care and stay tuned for the next posts!
~ Love, Ana ~
You are shuch a lucky girl! I'm glad you enjoyed a experience like that one. I hope you have the opportunity to come back soon and learn more Swedish. By the way, it is very interesting what you said about the linguistic identity, I have also noticed that people (included myself) slightly change depending on what language they are using.
ReplyDeleteRebeca! Thank you so much! It makes me really happy that you enjoyed the post and, especially, that part! I find it quite interesting! It's like you get to be someone else speaking another language and living somewhere else, hopefully! Hahaha. I like how each language gives you a different personality and I noticed that I've grown up when it comes to learning languages. The feeling of seeing improvement is so addictive!
DeleteLove,
Ana