Sweden Day 6: Hello to icy stockholm

This is on 29th march, day 61:

We had or last few sightings of snow for the winter as we got nearer to stockholm. The temperature at stockholm was about 3 to 4 degrees. So, no heavy snow there. Here is one of the main stations we passed by, Gavle Central. We passed by Umea too! That is calista's place! But I think i was asleep at that time. I saw it on the way there though:

And I have a better pic of the restaurant on board the train. I visited it to get the breakfast 'feel'. Azri and I had the bread we got from supermarket for breakfast :D

and here, you can see the snow starting to dwindle ald...

And then... welccome to stockholm central station! We reached the station at about 10:30 am. We were planning to tour around till evening and take the night train to Copenhagen and go home through germany.

We had to get the tics for the following night train at stockholm first, before going out to tour. So, we took a queue number at the conter and waited. We met this plump guy while waiting opposite the counter. He claimed to be a lawyer and seemed nice. He was excited to meet us, asians. But then, our Q number came up fast and we had to go to the counter. He said he'll look after our bags and we left our bags with him. I kept looking behind to check as Azri entertained the counter lady. I then noted that his Q number is gonna come up soon too! So, I went back to take all our bags over to the counter. The man said that it was okay and that he had cancelled his Q number via sms to look after our bags! haha! I totally don't believe him lor! There didn't seem to be any such number on display or anything! He then understood that I was adamant in bringing over the bags and say goodbye to him. He then started welcoming me to his home if I were to come back to stockholm again. And he even said, "... you don't need to bring your friend over. Just come alone and we can have a good time! I can help you with stuff like money, if you need help..." haha! I gave a humble acknowledgement, picked up as many bags as i can and brought them over to the counter! hahah he was gone by the time he finished getting our night train tickets.

We helped ourselves to some maps at the tourist info center at the station and started going around. We could see the big river as we got away from the station:

We then crossed the river to reach the other side, took some pics along some palace and went over to this Vasa museum that the man suggested to us. It was a museum with a big ancient war ship that was recovered and museumised. The museum had a show during which I had a great sleep, and some history of the time of the ship, info about its occupants and so on.

We then walked on to this palace on the other side of the river. There was a small guard changing ceremony when we were there! the guard just started shouting when we were taking our pics. And this bunch of soldiers starte marching in from the corner. Here is a clip of the entire parade:

We walked over to this place called Gamla Stan. It's supposed to be a small island with narrow streets and old buildings and a big palace. The shops are cute too! So, here are some of the more interesting pics:

And then.. I had a ASIAN meal!! how wonderful!!! here: I think it costed 6 euros. But very nice and spicy and vegetarian =D

After this, we walked back to the stockholm central station and looked around for a supermarket. We then found Azri's s'pore friend who was living there for a while. He directed us to a supermarket which was so out of the way. The nearest supermarket was a 20 min walk from the central station! can you believe that??!! We met up with a backpacker from holland on our way. He was also looking for a supermarket. We bought our things and got back to the station in time. The train we were travelling on was full. So, we had to get our tics checked before boarding and the conductor didn't look at our calendar again. lucky us :D

It was so full that we didn't even get to stay in the same cabin! That's all for today!