Day 15 - Street Fair & Soccer for Our Final Night

Saturday was our last full day of the trip and we ended it in perfect fashion, watching a great soccer match between Netherlands and Costa Rica while feasting on some good old American ribs. A big part of this trip was to take in World Cup matches in different European cities to see and experience the World Cup through their eyes, so it made sense for our last night to be centered around this quarterfinal showdown.

Greg's flight was at 6:30am and Matt's was at 2pm, so Saturday was the final day to pack in anything we felt that we left out.

As we've mentioned, our hotel has a Marcus Samuelsson restaurant called American Table in the lobby. He's a famous Swedish chef with restaurants all over the world including NYC, Vegas, etc. On Saturday morning we actually ran into him in the lobby and chatted with him a bit about Sweden and a few spots to hit up while we're in town.

Our Saturday was spent exploring the Sodermalm part of Stockholm, which is a central island in Stockholm that is known as an up and coming bohemian alternative part of the city. We were told it has a variety of fun shops, unique restaurants, fun bars and happening nightlife. We stopped for brunch at Nytorget 6, a popular casual breakfast and lunch bistro. We grabbed a table outside and got our day started with espressos and omelets.

 

 Matt's routine haircut while on vacation

We stumbled upon a street fair on Gotgatan, a main north/south street in  Sodermalm. It had performers, food trucks, DJs, and tons of people out and about enjoying the sunshine

It felt a bit like Mardi Gras with oversize cartoonish characters

 

Street bands performed while spectators danced and took in the sounds

 

Greg was trying to get tips from a local hula hooper, but was unable to master the trade

After walking around the street fair and enjoying a few beers at the outdoor cafés, we ventured to The Gandolen, a bar/restaurant overlooking both Stockholm central and the Sodermalm area. One of the elevators to Gandolen, which sat on the 27th floor, had a maximum of 2 people so it was a bit snug

View from The Gandolen facing south down the Norrstrom water way

Top of Stockholm

View facing north west toward Stockholm central. You can see that their isn't a ton of high rises in Stockholm.

 

 

We eventually wrapped up our walk around Sodermalm and made it back to the hotel to change for the evening. Our night was centered around the Netherlands v. Costa Rica match at 10pm local time.

 

Our first evening stop was to the mega Euro-chain sports bar O'Leary's to finally sink our teeth into an order of their American ribs

 

We then bar hopped around the Vasastan area of Stockholm and set up shop at Monks, a bar/restaurant stocked with a tons of beers and more importantly several TVs

Monks had a bit of an American theme including this over the top and slightly bizarre Obama/American flag masterpiece

Celebrating the Netherland's victory with a little flare

Matt finally tried a French style hot dog, which basically means the wiener is stuffed into a bread tube and filled with whatever condiments you desired

 

 

Our final day and night consisted of experiencing local culture events, indulging in local cuisine and libations, and taking in a few soccer matches, pretty much the exact road map for how we wanted to spend this trip, and a great way to wrap up 15 days in Europe.