↑ Sitting by the bay window in this first floor room at Miss Clara By Nobis in central Stockholm. It is situated within walking distance to Hotorget as well as T-Centralen metro stations in Norrmalm, Stockholm.
For our Easter break getaway, my friend and I visited a couple of Scandinavian countries. It was part leisure, and part photographic and textile research. If you’re looking for a winter holiday, travelling to the Scandinavian countries in March and April is fantastic because you can still experience the signature cold climate and beautiful snow with the benefit of slightly longer daylight hours.
First stop – Stockholm, my second visit to the modern Nordic capital. We took the budget airline Ryanair from London Stansted Airport to Stockholm Stavsta Airport. We saved a bit more on airfare with Ryanair but spent an hour to get a bus from the airport to central Stockholm. Dear travellers, if you are short on time, or are looking to get into Stockholm city centre more quickly, I would suggest flying into the bigger, more international Arlanda Airport instead. There, you can easily catch the 20 minute Arlanda Express into the city centre. The airline that takes this route from London Gatwick tends to be Norwegian Air, marketed as a budget airline as well.
We arrived at the hotel ahead of check-in time, so we dropped off our luggage there, had lunch thereby, and walked to one of the sites on our list, Stockholm Public Library.
Every Chinese lady must have hot drinks at hand 😅. It’s a strange food and drink habit among the Chinese that hot beverages rather than cold are better for health. I phoned housekeeping for two cups and a kettle (it was a really nice quality one too). They also asked if I needed tea, which I think they would have provided free of charge, but being a typical Asian traveller, I brought my own individually packaged teas.
Let’s talk about Swedish travel eats. Might I just add that I adore Scandinavian foods, something about how simple and substantial they are that really satisfies me. We only had one night in Stockholm, so I made sure we went to my favourite restaurant from my previous trip to the city: Pelikan, a restaurant with a rich heritage, popular with both tourists and locals.
Restaurant Pelikan
Blekingegatan 40
116 62 Stockholm
Sweden
We ordered two mains. First, the signature Pelikan’s Meatballs with cream sauce, gherkins, lingonberries and potato purée. And second, my personal favourite, the boiled knuckle of pork with mashed swedes and three kinds of mustard. And it was perfect! Soft, gelatinous pork knuckle is one of my top food textures – it is so moreish and nourishing. Some parts of the knuckle are a tiny bit tough to finish, but I made a huge dent in it, and finished all of my mashed swedes as well.
The portions at Pelikan are wonderfully generous, and we found two main courses to be enough food for two hungry travellers.
To make this meal even more perfect, I finished it off with meringues and vanilla ice cream with warm chocolate sauce. Is it blasphemous to talk about McDonald’s in the same breath as a fine dining restaurant? Anyways, as a child, my favourite dessert at the fast food establishment was their chocolate sundae. The Pelikan chocolate sundae is a sort of luxury version of it.
We woke up early the next morning to fly to Bergen. As a pre-flight snack, I chose two items from the menu that are rather Swedish from this little cafe next to our gate.
Croissant filled with shrimps and egg mayonnaise. 
Chokladbollar – Swedish chocolate brownie energy ball rolled in desiccated coconut.
Lastly, something very important to note about Sweden and Norway – they are cash-free economies. That means many vendors do not accept cash. For travellers, this means hassle-free travel, and no need to stop by the currency exchange. But also, you must get your payment cards in order before you come – ideally a debit card, especially for self-checkout kiosks. Credit card payments are absolutely fine in shops and restaurants.
And that’s a wrap for our one-day trip to Stockholm. Thank you for dropping by lovely readers, and stay tuned for more beautiful weather, stunning architecture and gorgeous food in the upcoming posts.
