Stockholm: "Culture...yay."

Diane and I were loudly awoken by our middle ages female cabin-mates this morning, disrupting our precious recovery sleep. Nevertheless, we were waiting at the hop-on, hop-off station at 9:40 ready to take on the day. We stopped at Skansen to go into the world's first/only (?) outdoor museum. All over the park are the original houses from different eras and different parts of Sweden. The buildings were acquired by the museum and people were dressed in costume in different buildings to tell visitors about the place. We saw old farmhouses, schools, churches, manors, and a town center. There are also Scandinavian animal exhibits throughout the park. This took us around 2 hours and we got a bite to eat around 12:30. We walked along the Djugarden island after that and saw the amusement park and the outside of the Vasa Museum. The museum holds the whole Vasa ship which sank on its maiden voyage. We continued walking and saw the Nordic Museum which was one of the most beautiful buildings on the island. 

We hopped on again and rode it to where the Concert Hall is. There was a cute fruit market so we hopped off the check it out, briefly. Hopped back on and then hopped off at the City Hall. Unfortunately it was closed for an event so we walked around the building and sat on a bench for a while to soak in the sun. It was around 2:00 and we were at a loss for what to do. It was our last day of traveling and we were exhausted. The city hall is right on the water so it was nice to chill for a little.  The next stop was supposed to be the Culture House, but we couldn't muster much enthusiasm for that, hence the title. (read it unenthusiastically). We tried to stop in but we were lured into the mall next door. Inside, we stumbled across the greatest thing we found in Stockholm--the American Cookies food cart. No, we did not get a cookie but rather we got something else that was advertised: a cupcake cut down the middle with fro yo served on top. Oh my goodness--best invention ever! I got a chocolate cupcake and Diane got carrot cake and they were both amazing! Definitely the best fika I've ever had. 

We rode the bus back to Gamla Stan and popped in a few stores before walking back to the hostel/boat to pick up our belongings. We killed some time there and decided to walk to the bus station early. Part of me feels guilty about relaxing when we have more time to do things, but as my dad said, I have been going 100 mph since the softball tournament and I just can't tour anymore.  About to hop on the 2 hour train to Skövde where one of our teammates thankfully will drive us to the apartment, sparing us the 25 minute walk with our stuff.  I'll go through my ~1600 pictures tomorrow and hopefully get some of them posted. It was a whirlwind of a trip, and I think the Saints, Diane and I totally dominated every aspect of it!!