Sailing Stockholm's Archipelago!

Hi everyone!

Today was yet another amazing day. I never want to come home! Can't believe I've already been gone two weeks, it has flown!

This morning I walked to the ferry terminal out front of the Grand Hotel and got a ferry to Vaxholm, a town in Stockholm's archipelago. Just an hour by ferry out of Stockholm you can access the archipelago. If you classify an island as 10 square metres or more, the archipelago is made up of 23,000 islands! There are 800 islands with houses on them. 

Thought it was a bit weird that no one came to sell me a ticket on the ferry. And sure enough when getting off the ferry all other passengers handed the man a ticket. I didn't have one! Luckily the girl behind me didn't either so we went and bought one. We both laughed at ourselves. Got off the ferry and said to her that I was meeting someone. "What are you meeting them for?" She asked. "A sailing tour of the archipelago". "Me too!"  And that's how I met Erin! Erin is from Chicago but has lived in Aberdeen in Scotland for four years. She was travelling alone too and we chatted all day. Was so lovely to meet her and she's so nice!

Anyway we were meant to meet our captain. No one came. Erin called up and it turned out we had been standing right near him the whole time!!! Our captain's name was Håken and his assistant Lisa. Both were really kind. Another two people joined us; a couple from Austria. We boarded our yacht, the Divina Aurora. 

We spent the day sailing through the archipelago. It's so beautiful out there! Islands with forest, cute little houses and lighthouses. Amazing. The tour cost me $300 and I had been umming and ahing as to whether to do it or not. I am SO glad I did. I had guides and lovely people to chat to all day. I got to help sail the yacht. I got to laze about on deck and climb up on random parts of the boat. We saw so much of the archipelago! And Håken and Lisa took us from Vaxholm to Sandhamn (another town much further out) instead of the usual loop to Vaxholm. So we saw even more than people normally do!!!

One of my favourite parts was the lunch. We docked in a sheltered bay type place (so did about 6 other boats!) and had lunch. It was amazing. I've been eating groceries most of my time here so it was great to have some variety. Swedes start off with cold food first so we had herring in various sauces (mustard, tomato and onion) with bread and cheese. Followed by salad, potato salad, salmon, beef, turkey, more bread! Finally we had some goulash. The entire meal was incredible. I loved the herring as well. I ate and ate til I was so full I knew I wouldn't need dinner haha. Definitely got my money's worth!

The sun appeared at various points but it actually got quite cool as well sometimes. Erin and I got sprayed by a wave at one point!!! We laughed lots over this haha. 

Ended our day in Sandhamn. I had a hot chocolate which warmed me up! I've also begun drinking coffee while here. Are you proud nan and pa??? Anyone who knows me well knows I never usually drink coffee! 

Erin and I got a ferry back to some place starting with S that was hard to pronounce and then a one hour bus to Stockholm. Here we enjoyed the biggest ice cream I've ever had which was officially my dinner due to me being so full. 

Have had a great day and a fantastic time in Stockholm. Would highly recommend to anyone! Also anyone reading this considering travelling alone....do it! I may have conversations with myself in my head but I'm starting to feel so much more confident in myself and my capabilities. It's great to have some me time :)

See you all in Bergen, Norway tmro!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox