Kirsten Comes to Visit: Three Days in Stockholm

Kirsten came to visit Finland! Having visitors is always the highlight of our trip, or I guess I should say season, even though Rusty's seasons do feel like extended vacations :)...Anyways, so far Kirsten has been our only visitor and it may stay that way until we leave, but that's okay cuz we're just happy she could make it out and her timing was great because we got to have her for Thanksgiving! Plus we were lucky enough to see every one for Christmas when we went home! 

Kirsten and I wanted to travel around outside of Finland as well, so I decided to meet her in Stockholm, Sweden. I have always wanted to go to Sweden, I have no idea why, but I was pretty excited about it. And we had a place to stay, thanks to one of our friends who served his mission in Finland. Lucky for us, he has friends in both Sweden and Finland, so he arranged places for us to stay!

DAY ONE:

Fortunately, I was able to find a flight that landed in Stockholm just 30 minutes after Kirsten's flight landed. So, we met up at the airport, bought three day transportation passes, and headed over to the place we were staying so that we could leave our luggage before sight-seeing. Our awesome host had sent me detailed directions of getting from the airport to her house. We had to take a bus and then a train and then find their house from the train station, but thanks to her great directions, which we followed step-by-step, we managed to get there easily. They were gone at church, but had left us a spare key. They were the nicest couple ever and had thee cutest daughter. They were the best hosts and we are so grateful for them and their hospitality!

Now that Kirsten and I were luggage free, we hopped on a train to go downtown. We ate at Pizza Hut, thinking it would be cheap and quick since we were anxious to start exploring the city, but boy were we wrong. It was the fanciest Pizza Hut I had ever been to. It was a sit-down restaurant complete with chandeliers and servers- who knew fancy Pizza Huts existed?! After lunch, we walked around the city. It got dark quickly, so we made plans for what we wanted to see in the daylight.

De-icing the plane

DAY TWO:

The next day we got going early since we knew the sun would set around 4pm! We took the train back downtown and went to a lot of the same sights we briefly saw the night before. We walked to the Royal Palace and saw the changing of the guard. I didn't even know there was a King and Queen of Sweden...first the Pizza Hut, then royalty...Sweden was full of fancy surprises haha.  We also saw City Hall, which sits right on the water, and my favorite- Gamla Stan, which is the old town of Stockholm.

We decided last minute to go to the Vasa Museum, which displays the only 17th century ship that has been recovered from a shipwreck. We got there just 30 minutes before they closed, but luckily that was enough time since the museum only consists of the ship. We finished off the night at Vapiano, an Italian restaurant our hosts recommended- the pizza there was delicious! And I recently saw they have one in downtown Chicago, so hopefully I can go back one day!

The wonderful breakfast our host prepared for us. They had the best bread ever!

When we first arrived to our host's house, there were deer right outside!

Waiting for the train

Eating Kirsten's Swedish Fish in Sweden!

Sweden is home to the Nobel Peace Prize

DAY THREE:

Our last day in Stockholm, our flight to Helsinki left around 2pm, so we got up early and headed to the Stockholm LDS Temple. It was the most unique temple I had ever seen. The angel Moroni, which sits at the top of almost every LDS Temple, sits on top of a tall pillar right outside of the entrance. Kirsten and I chatted with the worker, who was the sweetest elderly man from Sandy, Utah! I especially love seeing temples outside of the US. It makes me feel right at home. And not only that, but it also makes me excited to know there are enough members of the church in the area for a temple to be built. 

We hurried to catch the train to go back to get our bags, said our goodbyes to our host, and then headed to the airport. While going through airport security we were stopped because of the two large cans of pumpkin Kirsten had in her carry-on. We debated with airport security for about 15 minutes whether or not, the pumpkin was liquid. The worked said the only way we could bring pumpkin was if it was a whole pumpkin haha. But after the long debate, she told us if we had a Dr's note saying we needed the pumpkin then she would let us through with it. I think that was her way of telling us to go forge a Dr's note, so we followed her directions ;) and she let us through! Our Thanksgiving was saved! Next stop- Helsinki!