Canadians in Stockholm

The list of new ways to say cheers continues to grow. I can now add Skål from Sweden and Prost from Germany. My days in Sweden were spent with more Canadians than Swedes. The first night there I was put in a room with two guys from Quebec (Pierre-Sneaky Pete and Walid-Wallet) and a Torontonian named Donny. We all arrived in time to join the Wednesday edition of the Stockholm pub crawl. The crawl was disguised as a walking tour which didn’t make a lot of sense in the dark of night. If anyone stays at the same hostel in the future I recommend not signing up for the tour and just follow them to the bars as they go. The landmark info was poor at best and we didn’t get any free beverages included in the trek. Despite the odd set up for the event it was still good times. Our Canadian clan joined up with a group of American ladies and stayed out far too late into the night. My final night in Stockholm featured a new group of Canadians all decked out in hockey jerseys at the Hovet arena to watch AIK VS Frolunda from the Eliteserien. Two of the boys were wearing their team Canada jerseys which became the focus of some minor controversy as the away team’s colour is red. The game itself was a defensive affair and was won in a shoot-out by the home team after being tied at 0-0 at the end of overtime. The on ice product was high quality and not much below that of the NHL, but the major difference was in the stands. European sports fans continue to amaze me with their enthusiasm and dedication to their teams. The supporters section in the right corner of the arena didn’t sit down the entire game and rolled through a wide range of songs and chants.  The away goalie took a dive early in the game to draw a penalty and became the most hated man in the arena for the rest of the game.  I enjoyed my Swedish elite league experience I added the AIK jersey to my collection despite having zero room left in my backpack. The non-Canadian highlight of Stockholm was the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a ship built for the King of Sweden in the 1600s, but it turns out it wasn’t built very well.  Merely 1500 M into its maiden voyage the useless piece of junk tipped over and sank. The waters off the harbour provided a great place to preserve the ship almost in its original state until it was raised and restored during the 1960s. I said the ship was a piece of junk, but that was just a comment on the engineering of it and the fact it ended up at the bottom of the harbour. The ship itself was quite impressive looking and the hundreds of carvings and statues must have taken a long time to complete and a fortune to pay for. The Vasa museum is definitely at the top of my list of museums visited so far and will be tough to beat. A 5am wake-up call set me on my way to Munich to take in the Oktoberfestivities!