Stockholm

Stockholm is a very friendly city and the people I me tin the hostel were very cool and very fun. A friend of a friend lives in Stockholm, and while she was not in town this weekend, she gave me some helpful advice about where to go and what to see.
So the first day, I headed over to Skansen, described as a mini-Sweden complete with animals. Imagine a 1 part petting zoo, 1 part zoo of Scandanavian animals, and 1 part farm museum/colonial Williamsburg, except Swedish. There were people dressed up in periodic costume who were answering questions about how people lived in the earlier days of Sweden, and then they were leading people in activities such as lassoing reindeer, fighting with sticks, training as the vikings did, and weaving, for starters. I walked around this place for about three hours or so, and then headed over to the Vasamuseum, the centerpiece of which is the Vasa. The Vasa was built in 1618 to fight in the Thirty Years War, but it sank about 1.5 kilometers out of the main harbor of Stockholm. In 1953 it was found and over the next 8 years it was brought on to land intact. The whole museum is a combination of exploring life on a ship in the 17th Century, the building of ships at that time, the design and decoration of these ships, and an overview of Swedish life in 1620 or so.
After that it was back to the hostel for their free pasta. It was not the best pasta I have ever eaten, however it was free, so long as you had sauce and could cook it. So I went over to the nearby supermarket, bought chicken, basil, tomatoes, and onions and then went about making a sauce for the noodles. This was the first time I had cooked in about 1 month, so it was quite cathartic. After meeting some people at dinner and then heading out to a few bars, we returned to the hostel about 2 and then I passed out about 4 or so (this became a pattern that I followed for the rest om my stay in Stockholm). The next day I headed out with a few people from the hostel to the Old Town, and we checked out the shopping district, the old town, found a pretty cool Irish pub, and then played pool for a few hours before heading back to the hostel for more free pasta.
This night we headed out to the club district and as not everyone in our group was over 23 (apparently something they do in Stockholm when the clubs are getting too crowded), we went to a pub over in the west of Stockholm, before heading over to check out a live music venue. However, the line at this venue was quite long, so we instead headed to a lounge about 2 blocks away with no cover. I am pretty sure we were the only non-Swedes there.
The next morning we headed out and grabbed some kebab for breakfast before checking out the Swedish Museum of Modern Art and the Architectural Museum. After this we headed back to the same pub from the day before for Australian Day, though it is not actually until Monday, it was celebrated on Saturday. 10 euros got us into the party, a beer, a meat pie, and entry into the pool tournament. we stayed on for a few hours and then headed back to the hostel to meet back up with other folks before heading out for the night. This time we headed to the "hip and artistic" neighborhood of Stockholm. We again ran into the issue of not everyone being 23 and then we tried 2 other bars before meeting 6 Swedish girls in McDonald's (someone had to use the toilet) and they took us to a bar that player mostly American 60's music, had no cover, and had quite cheap, especially for Scandinavia, cider. We danced there until it closed and then went back to the hostel after stopping for some 2 am kebab.
The next morning (today) I woke up, showered, typed this and will leave for the train shortly to Oslo where I will spend a few days before heading over to Bergen.