Sharing Travel Experiences

Travelling with a Lifecruiser

by Andy Hayes

Ever meet someone on social media and feel like you’ve known them forever? That’s how I feel for Mrs. Lifecruiser, a fellow travel manic based in the lovely and beautiful country of Sweden. We had a lengthy email discussion about life, love, and travel. Here’s an except – I hope you enjoy it.

Can you tell us what’s behind the meaning of Lifecruiser?

Lifecruiser is all about cruising through life with a positive attitude, sharing and exchanging what we meet on the way with others. We want to inspire others to explore more. It gives an opportunity to be amazed, learn about the world and have fun.

All of us has a tendency to “snow in” on our own lives, we have difficulties to really see our daily lifes miracles that actually are there. We’re exploring the world by travel to place after place, enjoying every little every day life detail of that place. Which many times may not be as ordinary as you think, if you really start to examine and think about it… We’re so spoiled.

That’s also the reason for our many photos and why it takes us so long to sort them after being away on a trip – there are too many wonderful things to show and a photo never can do it justice, but we sure try hard to!

I’ve heard so many saying: we can’t travel – or can’t afford to travel, but the thing is: everyone can, in some way, if you really want to. It’s all about priorities and to have the right travelitude!

You’re based in Stockholm, one of Europe’s most stunning capitals. What’s the best way to spend a day (or two) in the city?

Two days are a bare minimum to visit Stockholm and the best time to do it is in the summer months June-August.

Going through the Old Town with it’s cobbled streets (Mårten Trotzigs Alley measures 35 inches between the walls!) and historical buildings and then taking the ferry over to Djurgården is a must. Out there is the old Vasa ship museum, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open air museum with lots of historical buildings and a zoo at Skansen and wonderful green recreation areas in the surroundings.

In another part of the Djurgården is the Kaknästornet, a tower that is 155 meter/508 ft with excellent view over Stockholm (and a restaurant) – one of Scandinavia’s and Northern Europes tallest buildings actually.

It’s very nice to take the boat from the town city hall (also worth a visit inside) to the “second” Royal palace where the Swedish Royals actually lives, Drottningholm Palace, to stroll around the park (considered to be a mini Versailles) or have a romantic picnic there, which many Stockholmers have.

(Of course, I may be biased since we got married in Drottningholms Palace Church

Dining is another highlight. It’s said to be between 1600-2500 restaurants here in Stockholm and with a big variety, so I think we have enough for all tastes. Though, if you’re like me when out traveling and want to taste the local food it can be tricky to find a restaurant that serve that in the evenings, try during lunch hours. Stockholm has such an international cuisine nowadays.

If it’s lots of pubs and people with a casual and hip style you want it’s definitely “Söder” (south part of Stockholm city) you wanna go to. The more trendy ones is down at Stureplan in city. Stockholm has an extensive nightlife and a high density of singles. *hint*

Many tourists often don’t get much further afield than Stockholm. What are some must-see highlights that might require a little more effort to reach?

I highly recommend to take any of the many boats, including some steamboats, departing from city out in the Stockholm archipelago. Besides the fact that Stockholm city itself consists of 14 islands combined with over 50 bridges and is called the Northern Venice, the archipelago has about 30.000 islands and skerries to be amazed over!

Further away:

Book the ferry that departure from Nynäshamn (south of Stockholm) to the island Gotland at the east coast. It takes about 3 hours. Be aware of that you might have to book well in advance, since it’s Swedens paradise and party island #1. The small town Visby is full of life all July and even has an annual medieval event the first whole week in August, called Medieval Week.

If you need a rest from the party life of Visby, rent a car or take the local bus up to the northern tip of Gotland and take the free road ferry to the smaller island Fårö, which has Swedens best beaches with the finest sand – and where you every year in July can spot a very famous person: Me! *giggles*

(if you recognize the name of the island Fårö, it’s because the very famous film maker Ingmar Bergman lived there and also made some of his films there)

I truly recommend to rent a car and drive around in Sweden by yourself. The traffic is quite safe in all of Sweden. Avoid the motorways to see more of the country – outside the cities you get to see some real countryside, farming lands, the characteristic Swedish red cottages and about 100.000 lakes!

If you prefer to come in the winter time: go to the icehotel.com up in Lapland, the north of Sweden and do some excursions from there, dog sled, moose safari or snowmobile safari. If you’re from UK, it now departures direct flights from Heathrow to Lapland. There are also excellent skiing in the Swedens mountains.

I think many visitors are confused between the terms ‘Scandinavia’ and ‘the Nordic countries’ – could you set the record straight?

I certainly do understand the confusion, since they’re very often used as people like and if you try to look it up in some kind of Encyclopedia, you might end up even more confused… I’ll try to shed some light on it.

The Nordic countries consists of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland (including the islands surrounding them as Åland, Greenland, the Faroes, Jan Mayen, Svalbaard), which shares a lot of common history and did co-operate in a special Nordic council even before EU. So the term Nordic countries is not only geographical, but also based on the membership in that council.

Scandinavia is a term that has been including Sweden, Denmark, and Norway because of old historical (antique) as well as geographical reasons, but today sometimes is mixed up with the term Nordic countries. There is no official definition declared, only a lot of different explanatory theories about the name Scandinavia and from where it did came. No one seem to know exactly.

Thanks for all the insights, Lifecruiser. Readers, I encourage you to visit the Lifecruiser travel blog, where you’ll find more trials and tribulations, including these gems:

• To go to jail in Stockholm – a captivating pleasure
• Wrecked Crash Landing
• Problems on the road

Pictures really do tell more than thousand of words, so also have a look at the Lifecruiser Travel photo collection at Flickr.

Been to Sweden? What’s your view? Anything we missed?