'Yes, that's the crown princess of Sweden'

The night on the ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm was relatively short. It was quite noisy as our cabin was located close to the anchor chain. In the middle of the night, there were a few bangs as the ferry also stopped in Aland. We had our breakfast at the so-called Grande Buffet. For a continental breakfast in the middle of the Baltic Sea, not bad at all. At the same time, we looked at the first skerries of the archipelago in front of Stockholm. We also took a short morning walk on deck to observe the entry into Sweden. The ferry arrived in Stockholm at 10 am and the city welcomed us with rain, so we took the bus to the hostel. We dropped off our backpacks there and went straight to the Vasamuseet at Djurgarden. This museum is visited by around 1.2 million visitors annually and houses an old ship named Vasa from the 17th century. It was really impressive and we were particularly fascinated by how a whole museum could be built around such a ship and how well the history of its maiden voyage could be reconstructed. We don't want to spoil too much about the museum for you. We can only recommend that you visit this museum when you are in Stockholm. After visiting the museum, the sun came out a little and we strolled along the promenade of Östermalm. From there, we went back to the hostel, checked into our room, and then went to eat at a restaurant called Nomad around the corner, where we enjoyed traditional Swedish meatballs (Köttbullar). We spent the evening at the hostel, enjoying a fun karaoke night and plenty of beer. After the 4th glass, Pascal and I actually had the courage to sing a song, 'One day baby, we'll be old, oh baby' - This song has a total of 4 sentences, but we had a lot of fun. Slightly drunk, we fell into bed.

The next morning, we slept in and had a slightly more expensive Swedish Fika at a fancy café around the corner (Vette Katten). Fika is what Swedes call a coffee break with a small sweet pastry included. The cool thing is that you can drink as much filter coffee as you want and it's still affordable :). After that, we walked to Gamla Stan (Old Town) and wandered through the narrow streets. There, we discovered a really cool bookstore with some beautiful editions that made our book nerd hearts beat faster. But we stayed strong and didn't buy any books. After all, we had to keep the backpack light. So we named this as a reason to visit Stockholm again in the future. Since it was Sunday, we couldn't miss the changing of the guard at the Swedish Crown Palace. It was a small cozy ceremony with a marching band that even had some modern songs in their repertoire, so it didn't feel too formal. Plan some time for this. The ceremony actually lasted about 45 minutes. We then walked from Gamla Stan, visiting the cathedral and the square where the Nobel Prize Museum is located, to the southern hipster district of Södermalm and strolled along the streets. Here we also came across an English Bookshop again and visited two churches that can be seen from afar. Behind Sofia Church (Sofia kyrka), we sat down in a cool garden bar in Vitabergsparken and enjoyed a very tasty coffee with a Swedish cinnamon roll in the sunshine. From there, we walked back through Södermalm, which looks very similar to Berlin Kreuzberg. From Södermalm, we returned to Gamla Stan in the late afternoon, as the crowds had already disappeared, and took some beautiful evening photos. After walking all day, we relaxed at the hostel in the evening. Unfortunately, Johanna caught a cold that evening.

Due to Johanna's cold and cough, we took our last day in Stockholm in a more relaxed manner. The sun was shining. In the late morning, we walked from our hostel in the north of the city towards Djurgarden, through streets and alleys that we hadn't discovered before. When we arrived at Djurgarden, we rented bikes for the afternoon and rode around the island to the easternmost point. After all the walking, cycling was a pleasant change. The route from west to east of the island Djurgarden is about 4 km long, so it's actually doable in half an hour. The bike tour started on the northern side of the island. We relaxed at a small nature reserve with a pond in the middle of the island and watched grey herons nesting in tall trees. When we reached the easternmost point, we saw another ferry entering the harbor. From there, we cycled to the southern side, stopping here and there and finally ending up at a cafe where we enjoyed delicious waffles. From there, we decided to visit the Rosendal Palace in the middle of Djurgarden. As we walked around the palace, we couldn't believe our eyes and saw the Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden with her children Estelle and Oscar, meeting with an older man in uniform and his family right in front of us. We couldn't believe it at first. So we asked the two bodyguards again to make sure, and even after Pascal asked the question again: 'So, who is everybody?' The bodyguard casually replied: 'Yes, that's the crown princess.' With this experience, we consider our first visit to Stockholm complete and look forward to visiting this beautiful city again in the near future.