Skansen

This is the happiest place on earth...for animal lovers! Best day ever! I've been so excited about Skansen since Kevin told me they had a zoo, which was two days ago, but the weather has been rainy and today was the best day to go...I was not disappointed!! This is now my favorite place in Stockholm, followed closely by Gamla Stan!

We started the day with granola, then headed straight to Skansen! We got there around 11:30 AM, along with all the other tourists in Stockholm. We hadn't seen very many until today. Skansen is located on the island of Djurgorden, which is pretty much a huge park. On the island, along with Skansen, is a sweet Nordic Museum and Vasa ship...a decked out symbol of the Swedish empire with lots of gold, carvings, really ornate...that was so ornate that it sunk as soon as it left the harbor it was so heavy. Luckily it sunk down so far that the mud preserved it. Years later when technology was available, they pulled it out of the mud and water and put it in a museum. Sadly we didn't have time to see it, but maybe some day.

Back to Skansen, the first thing we went to was the zoo part! We saw many much moosen, reindeer, seals, otters, a lynx, bears, wolves, a wolverine...kind of, guinea pigs, cats, a Fox(by the way, they say nothing), owls, snakes, lemurs, prairie dogs, and peacocks. Pictures are below!

We went in the morning, so the animals were extremely active! We spent a good three hours at the zoo and got to watch them feed most of the animals! The seals have such an awesome personality, they kind of remind me of a dog, and were my favorite! Followed by the wolves, who were very active before feeding time. One wolf was even walking around with a huge bone until he decided to bury it.

After the zoo part, we walked around the old Swedish town part. They took old buildings from around Sweden and brought them to Skansen and made a town. We took fun pictures and even watched some glass blowing of a cup being made.

After all this, the park was closing and it was time to leave. Just a note, Skansen is not for those that don't get around well or have trouble walking, because you do this a lot here!

Next, we had a hot dog in the park and laid down with our shoes off and reviewed our pictures. It was nice to be off our feet.

We then walked for about 30 minutes back to Stockholm Central train station. On the way back we saw a Palestine protest. We continued on to the town we are staying in, where we got some dinner from the grocery store. It was "treat yo self" night! I bought a Magnum ice cream (chocolate really is better here), and Kevin got Mazariner (they are indescribable except that they are amazing).

Tomorrow we head to Poland. It will be a long day of travel, but nice to be off our feet.

Today budget:
Skansen= $40
Food= $18