Last night in Stockholm! And since I have water on my mind, I've been meaning to write about this but keep forgetting. The tap water here tastes better than any bottled water I've ever had. We got 2 regular bottles of water free with the room and I've just been filling the empties up in the bathroom. I don't know how they do it, but it's crystal clear and tastes like it came from a glacier (not like I'd know what that'd taste like, but that's how I imagine it when I close my eyes). I'm going to fill up my bottles tomorrow when we leave so I can have some saved.
It POURED rain today for about an hour which ruined one of our activities but it was still a GREAT day. I got a great night's sleep since my travelling companions left by train yesterday to spend 2 nights couchsurfing in the outskirts. There were things I still wanted to see in the city so I stayed. I went down this morning for breakfast, got my food (yup, proscuitto, cucumber, cheese sandwich, OJ, and coffee), and noticed the hotel hostess was eating alone as well. Since I'd already interacted with her on several occassions I asked if I might join her. She said yes so we talked over breakfast. She asked what happened to my fr
iends and what did I have planned for the day and I told her they left and I planned on going to some museums then meet up with them later. Just small talk. After the Vasa Museum (read next post), I came back to the hotel to relax for a bit before heading off to meet up with the gang. I decided to have lunch in the bar so I went down, ordered a club wrap and a coke and sat down to eat. No more than 2 minutes later, she stolls in for lunch herself so this time she asks if she could join me. I of course say yes then jokingly say "Since we've had breakfast and lunch together, why not do dinner too?" She clearly took it as a literal statement so said "Ok" and that's how I ended up with a 
dinner date in Stockholm for tonight. We went to a Italian restaurant about 6 blocks from the hotel. There are a LOT of Italian restaurants in this city. It was fun!But the other highlight of the day was getting to go to the Absolut Ice Bar at the Nordic Sea Hotel. The Absolut Ice Bar is an entire bar made of ice including not just the bar itself, but the walls, glasses, tables, chairs, decorations, etc. They only allow 30 people in at a time for 45 minutes max. The Ice bar is in a special room that can only be accessed through 2 air locks. The room is kept at -2 degrees Celsius or 23 degrees Fairenheit. You
have to make reservations prior and prepay. Admission also gets you a free drink. When you enter, you are given a special parka and gloves. The parka is designed to not only keep you warm, but also to minimize the amount of body heat that escapes. You walk in and are hit in the face by a bitter cold. The room is lit mostly through the ice and it changes from blue to green to red. It's pretty neat. One side of the room has a full length bar made of ice blocks. The ice is harvested in a special area between Sweden and Norway at the furthest Northern part of both countries. The ice is completely pure and transparent. They rebuild the Ice Bar every 6
completely of ice. The special today was Absolut Current vodka, Lindenberry juice, and a berry flavored liqour. It was good and had to be over 50% alcohol since it didn't freeze in the glass.
We stayed in the Ice Bar for half an hour then wanted to wander over to Stockholm Kulturefest. It's a 5 day music festival held all over the city and today was the opening day. Unfortunately, we walked out of the Ice Bar and it was raining. We walked over to Kulturefest anyway but most
of the people had left because of the rain and several of the vendors were closing. However, we did get to see a few of the booths still open such as this one. They'll make you a pillow shaped like a gun or make you a custom quilt. Mmm... not exactly my kind of thing...We head out first thing tomorrow to catch a train to Malmo then onto Copenhagen! I'm going to miss Stockholm. It's a wonderful city and I know I'm walking away without seeing quite a bit, but I'm also excited to see a new city, new culture, new people, new food. I can't wait!
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