High society Pizza Hut

Well, I went out on my own today around 2:00. It was nice because I felt safe enough and in a big enough city to not have a problem going out alone unlike how it was in Honduras last year, when I was terrified to be by myself! I walked the opposite direction from any way we had gone before and ended up walking through more of the city. I passed a park where a lot of people were enjoying the unusually warm weather here (70s) and then passed the Stockholm library.

Once I started getting into a less populated area of town, I turned to my left (planning to make a square around the city) and walked until I saw a sign that indicated where the “city” was. I turned left again, thought I was lost for good, but then realized that I was back on Drottningatan, which is where all the shops were that we saw yesterday (much further down by the water). I continued on that and thought I was lost again but then passed the fountain and city building that we went by on our first day and I knew where I was. I made it back to the hostel and crashed for a 2 hour nap. It was pretty hot and sunny outside and I was wiped out when I got back from that walk. I got up when Brandy has just gotten back from the National Museum and the Modern Museum of Art. We decided to hang around here for a bit and then walk down to Södermalm. We left for Södermalm around 7:00 and it was just ok. There were some cafes but since it was Sunday, it wasn’t as happening as we though it might normally be. We passed these old houses that apparently people still live in, even though there is no water and maybe no electricity (they walk to a well for their water). They were right in front of this big church and were also surrounded by some pretty upscale looking residential buildings.

We basically made a big oval shape around the island and got back to the area around our hostel around 9:30. We decided to pop into Pizza Hut because it was nearby and not much else was open…. what an experience!

This wasn’t just Pizza Hut. It was a restaurant. We had these nice menus and it was pretty insane. We ended up splitting a family-sized pizza (like a medium or large) for 189 SEK/kr. That’s $31!!!! Yeah, that much for Pizza Hut! The pizza was way better though than it is in the states. After we were done, we decided to walk to Central Station to try to book our train tickets for tomorrow since we were having trouble doing it online. Because Brandy and I have had some retarded moments (including one tonight with the train ticket kiosks), we went into the information center for some help. We found out that if we booked our tickets at the kiosk, we could get last minute tickets which saved us a little more money. It was originally going to cost 563 SEK ($93) but the last minute ticket was only 279 SEK ($46.50). I ended up being able to book my ticket with no problem (other than the fact that I used the wrong card and nearly panicked until I realized I had more than I thought in my bank account). Brandy has had a hard time using her cards here and we couldn’t pay with Swedish krowns at the kiosks. She is getting up early tomorrow to go to the station and book her ticket with an agent. We’ll be on the 11:20 train to Jönköping that has a transfer in Nässjö. I think we arrive in Jönköping around 3:00 tomorrow and will have a few hours before our dinner where we will all get together (both the VT group and the Penn State group).

It’s almost midnight here now and the French girls have finally shut up! We walked in around 11:15 (lights out/quiet time starts at 11:00) and they were just chatting away as if no one (and there were a few people) was sleeping. I’m about to go jump in the shower downstairs and maybe take a few final pictures of this place and then hopefully all the girls up here will be asleep.

It is looking like we will be spending our last weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. We have found a hostel with availability (around $20 a night) and the tickets to get there are around $160. We are going to wait and decide by Tuesday because we might be done a day earlier than we think and would then be able to take a night cruise there instead, which I think is cheaper.

Don't forget to check out my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/JELeventhal
I will be updating the pictures under "Stockholm hostel" tonight when I go take some more pictures of the bathroom area and downstairs. I'm finally figuring out how to insert my pictures (the way I want to) here so expect more of that as well.