Saturday June 30th

It was so weird to go to bed when it was still light out at midnight! I woke up around 3:30am and the sun was rising...crazy. My judgement of time is so off because of it.

Today we had breakfast at the hotel which had basically anything you wanted (even lactose free milk, yogurt, and cheese!) We headed out with our jackets and umbrellas expecting a full day of rain. Our first stop was the Vasa museum which displays this huge ship called the Vasa that capsized in the Stockholm harbor in 1628. It was insane how preserved and massive it was! Apparently the Baltic Sea isn't very salty so wood is preserved (or something like that...?) It was interesting to learn about how they found it and brought it to the shore, crazy engineering! There were shoes, rings, and even skeletons that were found in the ship.

Next we walked across multiple islands back to Sodermalm. Stockholm is so beautiful with numerous islands that make it up. The sun was shining and no clouds were in the sky so the weather report was definitely wrong. The water made everything look even more stunning. We had a coffee at this cafe called Mellqvist Kaffebar where apparently the author of the Dragon Tattoo trilogy wrote parts of his book. Pretty cool to see after reading all the books and seeing the movie.

We headed to the Drottingholm Palace which was a bit outside the city. We had to take the subway and apparently got on the wrong line so we were stuk at a terminal station on the metro for 10 minutes and couldn't get out. That was an experience! We eventually got to the palace and it was gorgeous. Right on the water and so green and beautiful. I love this city, probably one of my favorite so far. It's hard to think about what life is like in the winter! I would love to live here but wow I don't think I could handle it.

After dinner it started to pour so hopefully it only rains during the night since tomorrow we have lots of exploring. I can't wait to shop! It's so great to be with family, my aunt and mom are so similar it's quite eerie!

Less than a month left till I head home...so weird to think about.

Love and miss y'all!

Sbohem,
Whit