This is a continuation of my posts on all the food I had during my 12 day trip to Finland, Sweden, Copenhagen, and Iceland. You can find part one on Finland here.
Day One: Stockholm
Walking mileage: 10.4 miles
After deboarding the ship, I trekked into Gamla Stan and dropped my bags off at the hotel. I had a few hours before my ticket time at the ABBA Museum, so explored Gamla Stan for a bit. It was a beautiful section of the city, all contained to one island. Windy roads, old buildings, tourist shops, and restaurants spilling out onto patios everywhere. No cars. It looked and felt very Italian, and there was a lot to do within a very small walking radius. Not to toot my own horn, but I picked a great hotel location.
I saw a few sights and got a lay of the land before settling on Under Kastanjen. And, I cannot stress this enough, this was such an underrated gem of a restaurant. Outdoor seating underneath a chestnut tree (Under Kastanjen meaning Under Chestnut). They had an enticing selection of pastries, coffee drinks, alcoholic drinks, and real food. I just got a lunch, but knew I would want to return for Fika.
I ordered an americano, a pesto mozzarella panini, and some mushroom soup. I realized as I paid that I basically bought two lunches. The girl taking my order may have thought me a glutton. But honestly… a soup and sandwich was just the right size meal for me. I was hungry. It was an excellent soup and panini, and the quiet courtyard atmosphere just could not be beat.
It wasn’t overrun, but did start to fill up a bit as I sat there. I got to do some people-watching, including witnessing five old Swedish ladies asking some influencer whether they could sit at her table. She said it was fine, then stumbled through trying to explain that she would be filming, but just herself. Then I proceeded to watch her film herself in 20 second bursts, setting up her phone, pressing record, drawing on her tablet for a bit, then stopping the recording to watch it, obsessively fix her hair, and then… repeat. It really is fascinating to watch in action. Like, I suppose of course influencers have to behave like that to make their videos. But it was bizarre. I was just thinking how it’s a shame how I prefer writing and photos to convey stories. If I had no self consciousness and could film myself sitting and pretending not to know there’s a camera, maybe I could go #viral.
Anyways, after my lunch, it was off to the ABBA Museum! It lived up to every expectation.
It was quickly followed by the Vasa Museum, which exceeded every expectation (only because I didn’t have any).
After all my time indoors, I was feeling guilty about not enjoying the brilliantly sunny day outside, especially when I saw rain predicted for the next day. But, as I was in a rush to check in to my hotel and figure out dinner before my 7pm play, I checked my email and saw it had been cancelled! I wasn’t too upset – it was the less exciting of the performances I had booked, and I could slow down my evening to enjoy the weather and have a more leisurely dinner. I’m just saying: I know how to plan a trip, and I know how to re-work a trip on the fly.
So I ferried back over to Gamla Stan and stopped for ice cream at a shop I had bookmarked. I was ravenously hungry and knew I would not be able to make a rational dinner decision in that state, so the ice cream was honestly just good thinking. Skeppsboro ice cream was right on the water, near the ferry station. They had a sign at their counter saying to “watch for pickpockets.” Yeah, sure. I always do that. I refrained from asking about their bird situation. I knew who the real threat was. I prefer the threat of pickpockets – a known human threat. Instead of the unknown agents of chaos that is the bird population.
I had a difficult decision with their flavor options, but I ordered salty licorice and lemon poppyseed (a similar flavor combo to the kind I had in Finland – I wanted to see how it compared). One lick, and I knew I had to come back the next day to try more. The salty licorice was everything I wanted it to be, and the lemon poppyseed was incredible.
This got me thinking of one of Mari Andrews books that I read several years ago. There’s kind of two philosophies you can take with travelling. Option 1: I want to try everything and will go to as many places as possible. Or Option 2: I’ll stick to my neighborhood and repeat places, so that I can pretend like I “lived in xyz place” even if just for a few days. I typically go Option 1, but I was realizing that I may take an Option 2 approach in Stockholm. Helsinki was fantastic, but I hadn’t been overwhelmed with options. It was easier to pick places to eat. In Stockholm, I felt inundated with options. There were like five restaurants on every street of Gamla Stan. I was overwhelmed. And the first two places I’d been were so great that… I decided I would just go back to them.
Anyways, after freshening up in my hotel, I set off through Gamla Stan in search of dinner. That’s when that feeling of too many options really set in. Some places were overflowing with people, some weren’t. You could get any type of food you could want, there were truly five restaurants per block on some streets… Overwhelming. I hardly even knew what I wanted. But I knew I was over sandwiches. So, maybe inspired by the Italian feel of the town, I ended up at Da Peppe.
Chardonnay and carbonara. A beautiful view, and a cool evening. It does not get better than that. Also, my dinner cost about half of what my play ticket cost, and that was refunded, sooo…. I actually made money on my dinner. Girl math, as they say.
I followed this up with a leisurely walk about the mainland city of Stockholm. Parts of it were beautiful and parts of it were just… city. This was good confirmation to me that I made the right choice to stay in Gamla Stan, and made me feel less guilty for putting so much of my focus on Gamla Stan and Djurgården island. Those are the prettiest parts of the city, and you know what? I’m a tourist.
Day Two: Stockholm
Walking mileage: 6.7 miles – Cycling mileage: 13 miles
I started my day with some yogurt and muesli from the hotel buffet before setting off for a pastry. As I said, a common routine for me. I had bookmarked St Paul Bageri because there’s a St Paul BageLRY here in the Twin Cities and the similarity was just too good not to see what was up with the Stockholm Bakery.
I got an americano and cinnamon bun. It was tasty, but also very cardamom-y. I was wondering at this point whether I should branch out. I was perhaps getting too many cinnamon buns, and was I just doing it out of obligation, or a feeling like I needed to only try each place’s cinnamon bun? I was also getting a bit tired of cardamom. It was in everything!
My feet were starting to feel all the walking at this point. I had also seen someone biking on Djurgården as I approached on the ship, and I thought it looked fun. So I went back to Gamla Stan and rented a bike for the day. I biked all around Djurgården and then went to the Waldemarsudde museum. It was a great morning, and the predictions of rain did not pan out!
I had lunch at Fabrique – a place I had marked to try, but a second location that I hadn’t known about was close to where I was biking. I got a Croque Grokal sandwich and a saffronschnitt. Which, I learned was a saffron take on a classic Swedish cookie. I sat down with my cookie as they heated up my sandwich, and as soon as I sat down on the beautiful waterfront patio, I knew… this would be another battle in the war.
I sat with my cookie, and it started with just one chirping bird. On the branch of a tree conveniently planted right next to the patio. It tried to be discrete. It really did. But I knew it for what it was: a scout. On a reconnaissance mission. My hackles were up. So I started eating my cookie before my sandwich, just in case it was stolen from me. It was a delicious cookie. Not overly sweet, lightly saffron flavored, with some almonds on top.
When my sandwich arrived, I had two plates to guard, and there were now two birds. But then I used my significantly larger brain and used my bike helmet to cover the cookie while I ate my sandwich. Birds: 2, Audrey: 2. I could watch the other tables deal with the birds.
Which, speaking of the other tables… it was noon, and I saw some old ladies have pastries and coffee. That is, to my understanding, what Fika is. I thought that was an afternoon thing, but it was definitely lunch time. so were these old ladies just having pastries for lunch? That’s fine by me, but come on. Just call your cultural tradition for what it is: pastries for lunch.
I digress. My food was delicious (really great bread for my sandwich), and I won my first battle with the birds. A great lunch.
I spent some time at the Nordic Museum also on Djurgården before biking back to Gamla Stan. I rewarded this bike ride with some more Skeppsboro ice cream, naturally. This time, I got hazelnut and cinnamon bun. I know I had just said I was getting tired of cinnamon buns, but I felt like I should try it! And it was good. Again… too much cardamom, but overall good. The real stand out was the hazelnut though. Wow. Taking a bite of hazelnut gelato with whole hazelnuts just reminded me that Nutella isn’t good because of the chocolates, but more because of the hazelnuts.
I had a 7pm concert at that night and wanted to eat before, so I freshened up for dinner and walked over to the Herno Gin Bar. This was a gameday decision that I added to my itinerary after walking past it that morning. I saw “gin bar” in the window, looked it up, and knew I had to go. It also had food, so I figured it would work as dinner too.
I have never faced a harder cocktail decision. Everything sounded good, or at least interesting. I could have tried anything on the menu. But I had to chose, so I picked the Sour as my first choice. It was very tasty – truly icy, all the flavors blended well, nothing too strong.
They didn’t have their pizzas available yet, so I ordered from their appetizer menu. And I had to be a bit out of my usual box on this. I ordered some chips with a dip made of seaweed caviar (vegan caviar…?), and some herring toast. I am not typically a herring person. I’d never had it before. But I needed dinner and everything else on it sounded tasty, so I got it, thinking I would discretely remove the herring if necessary. But I tried it, and I was surprised how great it was! The herring wasn’t fish-y tasting at all, and all the components of the toast worked really well together. 10/10 would order again. The seaweed caviar dip for the chips was also tasty – it was not a particularly strong flavor, which was okay with me.
I followed up my food with another drink – the “Nutty.” It had “Gin, biscuit, banana, almond.” I was intrigued because those are not typically flavors I associate with gin. It was served with a cookie in the glass, and the waiter described their process of making their own cookie orgeat. It involved crushing up digestive cookies, heating it up with sugar and almonds, soaking it in banana liquer, pressing it through a cheesecloth, then making some sort like cream cheese out of that and doing another pressing to get the whey out of it. I was amazed they did all that process, and more amazed that this guy explained it all in a second language.
The Nutty was delicious. Truly a memorable drink – sweet, and somehow all the flavors worked perfectly with the gin. The cookie on top helped too.
^ I included photos of the menu above so you could understand how hard a decision it was. And that wasn’t even all the drinks!!
I concluded my evening at the orchestra/opera performance at the Royal Opera House celebrating 500 years of the Royal Stockholm Orchestra, so all-in-all, a pretty great evening.
Day Three: Stockholm to Malmö
Walking mileage: 12.3 miles
I had a leisurely morning – I didn’t want to try and cram too much else in while in Stockholm, so I just walked around the Kungsholmen island for a bit while I listened to Maisie Peters new album. A great album (written and recorded in Stockholm!) and a great walk. I ended it at Under Kastanjen again because I knew I needed to try one of their pastries, and because they have such a great location. I got a pistachio croissant and an americano, and it was a dream. I mean… Friday morning and barely busy at all, so just me and a few others in the quite courtyard. I love this place. I want to gatekeep it and also want to shout at people to go. I hope they’re doing well. The waitstaff was enitrely young-20-something women.
This was a pretty snack-y day, because I took a four hour train to Malmö. I loaded up on some snacks for the trip, including a licorice protein bar, some caramelized onion flavored chips, and a pear fizzy water. I noticed a lot of recuring flavors in the snack options in both Sweden and Finland, but the most obvious to me were pear and licorice. Probably because those are the most exciting flavors to me.
I read my book on the (sold-out!) train, enjoyed my snacks, and arrived to Malmö on time. But… a little hungry for a proper meal. The dining car had not enticed me. So I grabbed a train station sandwich from Gateau. Gateau had been on my list in Finland before I realized it was a chain and I took it off the list. But, I got to try it eventually! It all works out. (The attitude that became the mantra of my trip, as things kept working out.) The sandwich was satisfying, with hearty bread. Just exactly what I needed.
Fueled up, I checked in to the largest hotel room of my trip (king size bed!), and got out the door again quickly to explore Malmö. I concluded pretty quickly that Malmö is a beautiful, quiet city. Definitely not tourist-centric, which was kind of the point of going! I wound up in a park that was one of the most stunning I’ve ever seen – massive trees creating lovely, secluded shady portions of trail. Multiple lakes. A hedge garden. Pildammsparken. Then, a walk across town to see the other major park with a view to the ocean and Copenhagen, and also the iconic Turning Torso building. I really got the lay of the land in Malmö and certainly got my steps in. But then, time got away from me and I realized dinner was needed.
After walking through another beautiful park to get to a brewery, I realized that I had gone to their just-beer location. So I re-tooled on the fly and chose from the other numerous food options in the area. I wound up getting a tofu bowl to-go from Boru Bowl Bar and enjoying it on the steps of a canal. I did a lot of eating outdoors on this trip, I am realizing. It was either nice sit-down meals, or it was eating outside. Honestly? The way I enjoy it. May in these places is just stunning. Begging to be out of doors.
The bowl was just what I needed. As in, it had VEGETABLES and was SPICY! Two things I had not been getting much of. So it was satisfying. And again, one of those moments where you think about how Swedish people eat regular food in their day-to-day, so this was a perfectly acceptable meal to have in Sweden.
Also, the only Swedish food I had left that I wanted to get in Sweden was Swedish pancakes. I walked past maybe dozens of places in Gamla Stan advertising “American pancakes,” and no Google searches for best Swedish pancakes in either city yielded any results. I was annoyed – I am in SWEDEN! Who needs American pancakes??
So I was just going to eat my Asian bowl and enjoy it!
I ended up skipping the beer because I had an early morning and a king-sized bed to return to. But… I did end up getting some gelato from a place a block from my hotel called Legato Gelato. Great name, and it was also one what I believe was THE busiest block in Malmö. It was 9:15pm and there were 4-5 restaurants on the block, all bursting to the seams with people on the patios. Truly it was loud just to be on the street.
I was glad I hadn’t tried to eat there – it would have been hard to get a table and also to have heard myself think. The pistachio gelato was fantastic though. I got to enjoy it on my walk and in the comfort of my hotel room.
Day Four: Copenhagen
I spent the day in Copenhagen, taking the train to and from Malmö. A separate post on that will come tomorrow!
Day Five: Malmö (Half Day)
Walking mileage: 12.1 miles
I ventured to the hotel breakfast after skipping it the day before to go to Copenhagen. And at the final station of the hotel breakfast… on the final day of my time in Sweden… there was a heated chafer with the label “pancakes.” I held my breath, and… underneath were Swedish pancakes!! It all works out, truly. I manifested my Swedish pancakes one way or another.
They had strawberry jam, a spread called Nugatti, and whipped cream all available. I did one strawberry, one Nugatti, and they were, of course, exceptional. Slightly thicker than Al’s, but the flavor was the same. I was satisfied.
It was also just as well, because it was Sunday morning, and most bakeries and coffee shops were not opening until 10am. I got a 10am coffee from Joe and the Juice and headed out to properly walk Pildammsparken and the lake within. I got Joe and the Juice because I was so astounded with how prevalent it was in Finland and Sweden. It was everywhere, and I was amazed because I had seen a few in the US, but wasn’t aware it had proliferated that much. Lo and behold, it was founded in Copenhagen! So naturally it’s a popular Nordic/Scandinaivan coffee shop.
I was also halfway through my order at this Joe and the Juice before the barista realized I couldn’t speak Swedish. That felt like a bizarre sort of travel victory.
I wanted to spend a bit more time in Malmö and maybe swing into a museum, but I was very wary of what awaited my at CPH. So I just walked around and saw some more sights from the outside, and then got some lunch. It felt good to have a bit of a slower day after the non-stop of Copenhagen. I was really enjoying Malmö. It felt like the kind of place I could imagine living. And if I looked up the job postings at a video game company I walk by? Well.. just getting ahead of myself as usual, of course.
I got lunch at a place called Farina, which is a little bakery that also does lunch, and their Sunday special lunches are always slices of focaccia pizza. My slice with ricotta, zucchini, and pesto was delicious. There was a fantastic array of pastries too, and I thought I would maybe exhibit restraint and not get any, but… Then I remembered there was potentially some fresh torture awaiting me at CPH. So I got a passionfruit cream brioche for the road. There were a lot of compelling brioches – chocolate orange and pistachio as well!
(I enjoyed that passionfruit cream brioche on the train to CPH, as I crossed over the Øresund Bridge. It was delicious – fluffy bread, tart curd, freeze-dried strawberries.)
It turns out, there was no fresh torture awaiting me at CPH. I was staying in the Schengen zone and hadn’t fully understood what that original line was even for. Oh well. I was early and unstressed, even if I was bummed because I could have spent more time in Malmö. I got a Barebells protein “milkshake” from one of those 7/11 kiosks, because I realized I should have some protein, and also I was intrigued to try a new product of theirs. That was the thrill of CPH this time around, which is better than the alternative.
Before catching the train, I had swung by Casual Bakery, which was a bagel shop. This was a strategic move, because I was flying to Iceland, which had a time change. It was a 3 hr 15 minute flight, but I was going 2 hours back. So I was landing right at dinner time in Copenhagen, but too early for dinner in Reykjavik, I wanted a dinner in Reykjavik, but then wouldn’t be checked in til likely 9pm CPH time… etc, etc. The point is: I was going to be discombobulated time-wise. So I figured, a hearty snack to tide me over until a later dinner. And I decided a $5.90 bagel sandwich that I brought from Malmö was better than whatever ridiculous airport food I could find.
I was exactly right. It was just a sesame bagel with cream cheese, but it was far better than any airport find, and something about it just really hit right. I think I may be becoming a convert to sesame bagels? Instead of everything bagels. This is not very exciting news to anyone but me, but I think it’s happening. I was also wondering if it was maybe in the cream cheese. In Germany, I loved the milk way better than any milk in America. So I wondered if I maybe just like European cream cheese even more than American cream cheese. I’m not sure, but that bagel was a great treat on an otherwise pretty run-of-the-mill flight.
I enjoyed eating this while doing some classic people watching. It’s a meme how people will spend flights going through their camera roll and clearing photos out because there’s nothing else to do on their phones, and I watched the man sitting in front of me do that. But he was making some bizarre choices. He watched a full 20 second video of himself filling up gas, and he kept it. But then he deleted like 20 photos of the aurora borealis? To each their own, guy.
Anyways… it was on to Iceland for me!