2025 in Sweden (Stockholm)

my flight landed at Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) Airport on June 14!

stayed downtown for two days and two nights (until June 16)

had a look at Stockholm's old town of Gamla Stan and an old ship called Vasa housed at Vasamuseet ("Vasa Museum"):

a few things:

• Stockholm still felt somewhat "Swedish"
  • the Swedish tongue was well and alive in both written and spoken form
    • one coffee shop, Vete-Katten, was not over-run by "tourists" in June 2025
  • it goes without saying that workers at "tourist" spots there also knew English rather well
• no longer "exotic" for some time (thanks to IKEA, Volvo and the like), Sweden would stand in as my gateway into other lesser-known (northern and eastern) European lands
• still, many (like myself) flocked to the old downtown of Gamla Stan hoping to have that fika "coffee break", as if they were drinking horse milk in Central Asia!