Quite the city, Stockholm is not just clean but a beautiful place to be in if you're wanting to just take in the sights and the view. Just on the water, the Old Town is a great place to walk around in as there is much to see and do - plenty of shops on all the small, cobbled stone streets. You can smell the waffles from a mile away, and the cafés are a great hangout. The locals are very friendly and can tell you pretty much everything about Stockholm from its history to getting directions to any place. The food is great but definitely hidden. My family passed by a restaurant attached to a small hotel in the Old Town and was only open during certain seasons of the year - in this case sumer time and winter time. In the summer, the restaurant venue is on a rooftop with a barbecue and few tables, serving mainly meat dishes. Every night is different - the night we chose to go had Pork, so the entire pork was served from chops, to loins, to belly and more. It was a fun night with great food and family.

It wasn't hard to keep ourselves busy as there were so many cultural things to do - museums are a big thing there and a few palaces/castles too. The Archipelago was definitely a hit with the tourists. People would take a ferry that would come pretty much every hour or half hour on the hour/half hour. It was great as we got to travel through the Archipelago. We stopped on an island called Voxholm, which was a tiny town but was about an hour's away from Stockholm. We stopped at a hotel restaurant and ate the herring which reminded us of Amsterdam and it was tasty! Try the local beer too. We also went to the museum that held an old shipwreck - The Vasa, which sunk in 1628 and has since been brought back up to the surface and is being preserved in the Vasa Museet. It was a grand exhibit and worth seeing whilst in Stockholm.

We also celebrated my aunt's birthday at a restaurant called F12 - 1 michelin star - and it was a fantastic meal. The wine pairings were superb and we just had a lot of fun. The duck confit in our set menu was delicious and the butter and various breads tasted The staff were very accommodating and the food was a lot of fun. Also, afterward you could take a stroll into the Old Town if you were feeling full, the summer is a great time to be in the city but it does get chilly in the evening as you are right on the water.

Stockholm definitely was a unique place to visit, be sure to find out what Tem Toms are and to have a look at the food market there (for you Vancouverites, it's an upper class version of Granville Island).

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