Stockholm

[minorpreludes]

Hi there, I'm planning on visiting Sweden at the start of June. I am a 26 year old african-american female and I will be traveling alone. I've chatted with people who live in Stockholm, and I've researched a bit about blacks in Sweden and everything seems to be positive (for females anyway). I've heard that Swedes are extremely polite to

Comments

[moon_kaka]

Hi, I'm Asian & I was there in summer and it was super fun :) ppl all smiling everywhere, I recommend buying the 2 or 3 days of public transport, u can get into anything to travel around the city (including the boat to other islands in the city), it's really a big convenience. I really love discovering the metro station, they r all different

[monkeedreamer]

Depending how long you are staying, I definitely second the public transport option, they have the BEST system!! You can purchase I believe 24hr, 2 day, 3 day, or 7 day, I think the options were? and you get this little plastic credit-card like thing that you can charge with more time if you want, and you just swipe it at the entrances/exits in the metro/train station, and on the trains the "ticket checkers" just hold it up to a little gadget, it's quite nice.

[minorpreludes]

I live in Philadelphia and the public transportation system is AWFUL. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm pretty excited just to ride a train or bus and see how well kept the trains and everything is in Sweden, I've heard fantastic things about it just like you have said :x. I am absolutely going to purchase a 3 day thanks!

[monkeedreamer]

I'm from Chicago myself, I'm no stranger to shitty public transit. I pretty much always avoided using any if at all possible. But Europe is AMAZING, trains are old hat to me now, but I still quite enjoy taking the metro and trams, even though I've been doing it pretty consistently since early on this summer, haha. It's just so different than the US, and soooooooo much better!!

As an aside, someone else mentioned Gamla Stan, there's an L in it, just so you're aware, heh.

Have you been to Europe before? What takes you to Sweden?

[minorpreludes]

I've never been out of the USA unfortunately. About two years ago I was introduced to a band Detektivbyrån, and I immediately fell in love with them so I wondered where they were from and it turned out to be Sweden. And to be honest I didn't didn't know much about the country so I decided to research it. Sweden is now where I'd like to stay for an extended amount of time, everything seems so wonderful there. Health care systems, people, government, and it's just aesthetically so beautiful and clean. Such a major contrast from what I've been surrounded by most of my life. So, the first step to really deciding if it would be the place to live for a bit is a short visit :) Also I'll be able to meet Detektivbyrån, they're such sweethearts. I looked into Au-pairing as well, but I'd need to look into that much more.

[monkeedreamer]

Ah I see. I hadn't been abroad until last summer ('08), now I live here. You definitely should come. It's a good place, and for those in the EU especially, it's ridiculously easy to be able to move there, so I am going to guess it's also one of the simpler places for non-EU citizens to also be able to move to. There's a lot of wonderful places here though, not just Sweden! But if you don't know any other languages, that'd probably be a good one to choose. =P Most countries, in the big cities at least, most people will speak at least "traveler's English," if not speaking it near-fluently, but to work... heh.

Anyway, feel free to hit me up in my personal journal if you want, as someone who's made the leap, I might be able to answer questions, give insight, or whatnot. =)

[minorpreludes]

oh thank you! i'll probably be bugging you soon with all of my questions :)

[monkeedreamer]

hehe, no problem. I'm always glad to help, and certainly enjoy talking up Europe! ;P

[minorpreludes]

thank you so much for the links! Everything looks so beautiful. :)