"My own water baby" a Stockholm Travel Page by Sjalen

"...and I can't handle being so far from you
Stockholm sick blues"

Fastlane Roogalator

The city where I was born. Known as Venice of the North because of all its water and with the tourist slogan "beauty on water" this is truly one of the world's most beautiful capitals. Over the last decades it has become a bit more stressful than it was but it is still a wonderful place! The population of a little more than a million (in Greater Stockholm that is, the town itself has just under 800 000 inhabitants) today come from all over Sweden since this is where the jobs are found. This makes it extremely hard to find permanent accommodation and people often end up staying second or even third hand in small flats in the suburbs unless they have the right contacts or loads of money to buy something with costs escalating out of proportion. Fortunately, most other things about Stockholm is great as I hope these pages will show. Come to think of it, the city has no less than three World Heritage sites, which otherwise only cities like Rome and London can muster!

There are also more museums here than in most world cities. Ideal during the cosy, but dark winters. Having said that, the darkness in winter is often brightened up by snow, which is much more rare in the far south of Sweden. It is also more than compensated for by the light in summer. Therefore, do not be surprised if you visit in spring or summer and find everyone sunbathing in parks. We are just "tanking" light :)

Stockholm is a city where you can go swimming in the sea or lakes in summer and skating on the same water in winter. It is a city where every bit of bedrock sticking up has houses climbing on top of it, but with plenty of greenery in between the different rocks. This can make the various outer suburbs a bit more isolated and therefore anonymous compared to most other major cities but at least the public transport network expands everywhere and its topography makes it perfect for New Years' fireworks almost anywhere :)))

I would not mind living here again, this time as an adult, but just like most western capitals, the cost of renting apartments compared to the only slightly higher salary scare me off. Whilst making my mind up, I have to be satisfied with visiting my parents who've moved back to their youth city after some years on the West coast during my childhood.

If you want to check what is going on in Stockholm at the time of your visit, find a hotel deal or just browse, this is the official tourist site:
http://www.stockholmtown.com