Cities and Towns

Coming from the wonderful Brisbane, Australia, I know a fair bit about the city life. With 2 million people in population, I grew up with the hustle and bustle of it all. Living in a smaller town has been quite a different - and fantastic - new experience for me, but when I found out I would be heading off to the great city of Stockholm for a couple of days, I thought it would be a breeze. Back to the busy world I had known my whole life...well, let me tell you how it went.

The Exchange Gang

Living in Piteå, I hadn't realised how accustomed I had become to the ease of travel, the open space and sense of freedom. It seemed as though the moment Jaymie and I jumped off the plane at Arlanda airport, and arrived to our first train terminal in Stockholm, the crowds of people were overwhelming and you could almost feel the heart racing trying to keep up with it all. Luckily Jaymie and I had wonderful Stockholm exchange students to guide us through this labyrinth of people and onto our scheduled train, luggage and all. It's so great to see our fellow exchange students again. Despite the fact that I may have met some of them merely once, I always feel like they are part of a big extended family and we get along instantly. I especially showed this when greeting Jack, Zac, Margo and Ben. At racing speed I had my arms out wide ready for a hug, Ben starting to run towards me and Jack with his camera to catch this wonderful reunion when suddenly, BAM, Ben slips and I go crashing down as I trip over him. Smooth, Alannah...Smooth. The recording of it? Here you are. 

Now in Stockholm, the city is spread out across islands which means that it is both beautiful and large. Trains seemed to be the ultimate way of navigation, and each station seemed to be designed differently which made the rides interesting.  If I had a few more days there, I'm sure I could just spend it travelling through the stations and checking out the artwork! Fortunately, we did manage to see a fair few stations just from the travelling we did in order to see different parts of Stockholm during our stay, so I didn't miss out completely! Anyway, it probably seems weird for me to spend time discussing public transport, so let's move on.

Us exchange students were provided with a tour guide around Stockholm for our first days, where we were shown some of the main attractions such as the stadshus (town house), gamlastan (old town) ,Drottningholm Palace and Wasamuseet (Vasa museum). I have to say our tour guide was the absolute sweetest and full of information. We also went to Stockholm's themepark, Gröna Lund! The cool part about this themepark is that they have live concerts by well known artists several evenings each week! During the evening that we visited, Zara Lasson, a Swedish singer who became famous after winning a Swedish talent show called Talang performed. Surprisingly, I think her voice actually sounded much better live than it does in her recorded music. It's not every day that happens. At Gröna Lund, you can also win 2kg worth of chocolate at some of their games! If I return, I might definitely have a shot at that, because you can never get enough chocolate right??

We also had two birthday boys which I would like to give a shout out to! Joining the adult life we have Jack, now reaching 18 years of age, and one of the wonderful northern oldies, Josh, turning 19. Their birthday was celebrated with a trip to IKEA - because all boys love shopping - and of course a party in the evening with the exchange students and some of Jack's Swedish friends. Jack's host mum had put in a tremendous effort for the day, organising breakfast in bed, dinner for the party and even a speech where she spoke about some of the wonderful experiences she had had so far as a host mum to Jack. I would say the party was awesome and definitely enjoyable and I hope both Jack and Josh enjoyed it as much as I did!

Now being back in Piteå I have mostly been resting from this hectic, busy and awesome trip. It was so wonderful to see all these exchange students again, but I'm glad to be back to the relaxed lifestyle I have grown to love in these past few months. I think I've really learnt that sometimes...less is more, and Piteå has everything I could possibly need! Also, I will be moving host families soon, meaning I am now officially 1/3 of the way through my exchange! I have had a wonderful time with the Wallsten family and cannot thank them enough for everything they have done for me, so it will be sad to say good bye.