SKANSEN! Finally got the chance to come to this voted number 1 spot to go in Stockholm. It's an open air museum that also functions as a zoo, which also happens to be having a Christmas market this time of the year. In fact, we went on the very first day of the Christmas market (which, on hindsight, explains why some of the people in charge of explaining the Swedish culture seemed kinda "rusty" or "raw" with the explanation). There's actually gonna be more stuff going on on Lucia day (13th of December, which is a public holiday here; celebrating a Christian martyr, St. Lucia, for dying in the Roman's hand because of her religious belief. Also, it used to coincide with winter solstice. It also coincides with my brother's birthday. Which happens to coincide with Huihan's birthday) but we decided it's gonna be a bad day cos it's Huihan's birthday (nahhhh kidding, cos it's a public holiday and with the special programs confirm damn pack).
And before I start, I must mention that it actually drizzled snow... However that works.
Anyway, first part of this awesome place is the Town Quarter where there're real huts moved piece-by-piece from other parts of Stockholm/Sweden to be assembled here. And they are not just for decorative purposes, inside each and every one of these houses are showcase of various aspects of Swedish life, with people explaining what they are doing (as aforementioned). These includes bakery, goldsmithing, saddle-making, printing, book binding, furniture-making, engineering, and even a very awesome live glass-making (to be fair, they are actually all live but this is the coolest):
All the houses were also decorated up for Christmas and some of the showcase even enacted out how life would be like on the day of Christmas here in Stockholm few decades back.
After we finish touring all the huts was animals!!! Saw lynx, European bison (extinct in the wild), adorable seals that keep popping their heads out of the water as though checking if we've left, elks (without their antler cos they shed it recently), wolverines (it's a real animal named like this but looks nothing like Hugh Jackman or a wolf but more like bears; oh, and they brown bears were hibernating, dammit), big grey owls (that were sleeping; since they are nocturnal and nights here are so long we didn't wanna disturb their short "nap") and most importantly, reindeers!
(They're important also cos I've eaten them before I've actually seen one in real life...)
And ya, look at the bisons:
And finally, the highlight of this trip:
But no, the true highlight:
Didn't buy anything in the end (except the warm chocolate, cos... it's warm) since they're either overpriced or just simply too exotic (have you tried pickled herrings or goat cheese? Or have you seen a S$20 hotdog bun?). But the atmosphere was really perfect: people crowding around the large fireplaces, a dance square in the middle of the marketplace where people (mostly kids and their parents) were just dancing to some Swedish folk songs (Huihan commented that it sounded like the emcee is telling a story and people are just dancing as the story goes), and as a whole the crowd was just awesome (not often you see such turnout in Scandinavia that is not in a club or pub... or, along Lappis corridors/lounges)!
Finally, the cold defeated us and we decided to head back (we kinda finished the whole place anyway). Went back to Slussen to find the famous Stockholm tea (but it closed few minutes before we reached), then went hötorget to get our dinner stuff (and Huihan lost her SL card along the way!), and finally, awesome sambal seafood and dumplings for dinner after a cold long day......
