End of September till beginning of October 2018 I went to have a five-day trip to Stockholm. I was lucky that the autumn weather was soft on me and except for a few cloudy days it wasn't raining much and not too cold outside. Going off season again leads so less crowds and cheaper prices, which comes really handy in an expensive country like Sweden. My hostel of choice was the Generator Stockholm hostel and I took official transportation bus to go from a to b but mostly I just went walking, which saved a lot of money. As I flew with Norwegian Airlines I arrived at the Arlanda airport which is outside of the city but you can easily catch a train or bus to get into the city. I used Norwegian Airlines a couple of times before, they are cheap and if you don’t have checked in luggage like for this short trip, they are totally fine as a budget airline. They mostly fly to airports with a less central location, so you have to calculate the ground transportation into your savings, but I still saved a lot compared to the more central airport.

Another tip: Don’t take cash! You won’t need it at all! Actually, most of the places did not even take cash, so I payed with it as often as I could and exchanged the big rest back home into Euros and lost a lot of money due to this stupidity… A credit card on the other hand is a must have!

But back to Stockholm, I really loved the flair of the city, I wanted to go for such a long time. Originally I was planning to fly to Barcelona that extended weekend with a friend, but she got ill so we had to cancel and I looked up cheap flights and finally got the shot to go. The Swedes are kind but a little bit reserved, but since I was busy exploring that was totally fine for me. I sorted this blog into city areas, since Stockholm consist of diverse bigger or smaller islands, to give you an overview of where to go combined with my photographs. Hope you enjoy.

Gamla Stan

Gamla Stanis the old town, a tiny little island in the middle of Stockholm and a tourist magnet. You will see why. It has a lot of historical spots and places to visit and so many cute streets and places to explore. I wouldn’t recommend eating in this area because they charge a lot due to all the tourist, but still I had a hot chocolate while it was raining and ate a delicious cinnamon bun.

Fun or not so funny fact: Stockholm isn’t the place to go if you want to lose weight, at least not to me… I actually gained a few kilos because healthy food or food in general is expensive so I choose the cheaper options while at the same time their sweets, especially the cinnamon buns or the places I went to eat cake at are delicious.

This is a historical museum on a tiny little island when passing over to Gamla Stan.

View at Norrmalm.

Touristy but still nice!

I know, western food and this in the tourist area... I have to admit, I had to eat a veggy burger in this place, just because the way it looked like and it was quite tasty though really expensive.

Isn't this beautiful?

The Storkyrkan.

So many beautiful old buildings!

The tip of one of the most beautiful churches I have seen so far. Really love the details of the roof. It is called Riddarholmskyrkan.

View over to the town hall.

Södermalm

A must do from my perspective is to go on top of the Skinnarviksberget, a mountain on the Södermalm island south in Stockholm and walk the Monteliusvägen, an elevated path and from both spots you will have a stunning view over Gamla Stan and also Kungsholmen. It is not hard to walk and I really enjoyed a few sunny but windy hours up there.

Can you spot the red railing in front of the buildings? This is the Monteliusvägen, the photo was shot from Gamla Stan.

And THIS is part of the awesome view! I got the good luck to have a rainbow in it as well :)

A German and Sweden flag combinded with a cute red boat, I had to shoot it.

The town hall, a few more photographs of this beauty will follow later.

I have no clue what it is, but this is the top of a building on Södermalm.

This is another one, don't they look like little or not so little castles?

Djurgården & Skeppsholmen

You don’t have to waist a lot of money on a boat tour, you can use official transportation to make different trips. I started at the Waxholmsbolaget harbor and took a boat to the Frihamnen harbor. It is no round trip but you pass by a lot of really beautiful spots. You can also take one around Gamla Stan, but since I walked around it anyway, I didn’t need the perspective from the water and therefore choose a different route. On the way back I got of earlier at the station Blockhusudden which lays in the east of the island Djurgården. I walked over the island and really like the look of it, it doesn’t make you feel that you’re in a big city. The water sites are beautiful but also there is a lot of nature and cute gardens on this island as well as nice villas and houses. Since I was there in autumn, it wasn’t as picturesque, but I still really liked it. Especially I recommend having a break at Rosendals Trädgård where you can have a nice organic coffee, tea and delicious cake. On this island you also find Skansen, a sort of rural fair and also a theme park. A girl in the hostel went to see the theme park and was really excited, but I didn’t went to visit it myself.

View on Skeppsholmen.

Ancient windmill and cute houses on Djurgården.

Cute little lighthouse.

This sculpture is acutally named "God our Father on the Rainbow" and looks as if a guy is chaising stars. In summer there is actually a fountain comming out of this sculpture which creates the rainbow effect.

Swans - Oh do I love the zoom in my camera, even though it is just a travel compact camera.

A harbor on Djurgården and acually one of my favorite shots of this trip. I just love the reflection on the water.

Close up on a ship.

Crossing over to Östermalm.

View from Skeppsholmen over to the old town.

Details again, ships are just so fascinating to me.

The same ship with the old town in the back.

And here you'll have it again, from a different perspective.

Kungsholmen

As I heard Kungsholmen is not so popular for tourist and that explains why it seems I was the only one. To me it is underrated. Sure, if you just have a weekend, then skip it, but if like me you also have some time to just stroll by the water you will have a really nice view. Especially if you like bridges, architecture and water like I do.

Can't I have one of them? Crossing over from Norrmalm to Kungsholmen.

The Västerbron bridge. I enjoyed relaxing on this meadow.

Another shot of the Västerbron walking east from the bridge to the centrum on the coast line.

The town hall with lots of ships.

I definetly need to learn sailing one day...

Details of the town hall. I love the moon shapes.

Even more details. How lovely...

View from the town hall to Gamla Stan.

Even more details, look at this hairstyle ;)

Norrmalm

This is the area where I stayed in and actually this is not an island itself but just an area of Stockholm. The main shopping area is in this part of the town and also the central station so it is really central and not far from the old town as well. There are also some spots to explore in this area.

This is where conserts take place at the Konserthuset.

You always wanted to know where the term “Stockholm syndrome” comes from? This is where it is originated. In this bank criminals took a few hostages and they were kept there for six days. At the end the hostages felt connected to the captors and defended them from the police. This phenomenon was noticed later in different cases but took its name from this robbery. If you’re interested in psychology definitely search some more about this syndrome. To me it is fascinating!

Sculpture short before the bridge up to Skeppsholmen.

The Grand Hotel, loved the flags , architecture and lanterns.

The stairs in my hostel ;)

A sculpture in the Humlegården park.

The artsy Brunkeberg Tunnel going underneath a mountain in the middle of the city.

Doesn't this tunnel look great?! They play scenic music in this tunnel so it feels like in a science fiction movie.

Bergianska Trädgården - Botanical Garden

I wasn’t in the mood to go into the greenhouses so I just enjoyed the sun and walked around the outdoor area of the botanical garden. Since it was autumn the flowers or plants weren’t as photogenic but the area around was super nice and it felt like being in the more rural Sweden. By the way, visit the Old Orangery in this garden to have delicious cake or snaks!

What brought me to this area? I have to admit, these gardens wouldn’t have been on my sightseeing list, but I met someone from couch surfing for breakfast who lives on the university campus so the gardens where just a short walk apart. Till now I never used couch surfing for an overnight stay, but I tested the meetup function in Stockholm and it worked really well! I also went to a Sunday fikka that takes place each Sunday in a coffee shop and we were around 20 travelers and a few locals. It was really great to hear all the different stories and I would always try to find such meetups again.