Hello! This is Shimao. Many of you may be fans of IKEA furniture. Norse mythology has also been a motif in various works such as anime and novels. In this article, we will introduce a stay in Sweden that may seem familiar to you, but you may not have a clear image of what it is like.
What I saw at Arlanda Airport…
In July 2022, I landed in Sweden, for the first time in my life. After passing through immigration, I was walking toward the bus station when I saw a cab stand. I casually looked at the cab stand and saw…. TESLA (I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture)! I had never seen so many TESLAs before. I had no idea that even the cabs were EVs… I felt how advanced Scandinavia is. Of course, not all of them are EVs, but EVs are running at a frequency not seen in Japan.
There are various SIM cards available in Sweden, but I got a COMVIQ SIM card at a convenience store at the airport. My friend who accompanied me bought a SIM card from Three in Japan and brought it with him.
rom the airport to the city center, you can take a bus operated by flygbussarna. You can pay with your card and get a QR code that replaces your ticket. There is also a group discount, so if you are traveling with more than one person, please take advantage of it. For group tickets, you need to hold the ticket over the QR reader for the same number of times as the number of people. The representative of the group should not board the train too quickly!
Arriving at Stockholm Central Station
Hello! This is Shimao. Many of you may be fans of IKEA furniture. Norse mythology has also been a motif in various works such as anime and novels. In this article, we will introduce a stay in Sweden that may seem familiar to you, but you may not have a clear image of what it is like.
What I saw at Arlanda Airport…
In July 2022, I landed in Sweden, a Scandinavian country, for the first time in my life. After passing through immigration, I was walking toward the bus station when I saw a cab stand. I casually looked at the cab stand and saw…. TESLA (I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture)! I had never seen so many TESLAs before. I had no idea that even the cabs were EVs… I felt how advanced Scandinavia is. Of course, not all of them are EVs, but EVs are running at a frequency not seen in Japan.
There are various SIM cards available in Sweden, but I got a COMVIQ SIM card at a convenience store at the airport. My friend who accompanied me bought a SIM card from Three in Japan and brought it with her.
Link
From the airport to the city center, you can take a bus operated by flygbussarna. You can pay with your card and get a QR code that replaces your ticket. There is also a group discount, so if you are traveling with more than one person, please take advantage of it. For group tickets, you need to hold the ticket over the QR reader for the same number of times as the number of people. The representative of the group should not board the train too quickly!
Omio: Train, bus, and air reservations for Europe and North America
Arriving at Stockholm Central Station
Buses go from the airport to Stockholm Central Station. From this station, you can take the metro and train to the subway station. I don’t know how they came up with this design, but it was a strange feeling. Public transportation is sufficient for getting around in Sweden. Ticket machines accept credit cards, so there is no need to bring cash. More convenient is to download the SL app. You can purchase tickets for public transportation by paying with a card. To use the ticket, simply display the QR code and hold it over the ticket gate, just as you do with airport buses. There are various types of tickets, from coupon tickets to unlimited rides, and you can choose according to the length of your stay and the frequency of your public transportation use. I purchased a one-week unlimited-ride ticket for 430 SEK (about 45 USD, including card fees). The SL app also has a transfer search function, so public transportation can be completed with just one app.
I was expected this, but the prices are high…
I had heard that prices are high in Scandinavia, but I knew that by Japanese standards, I would not be able to afford to shop around. I went to a fast food restaurant near the central station for lunch on the first day of my arrival, but all the menus were priced in the range of $9 to $10. At that time, I thought “Scandinavia is expensive…! But now that I look back on it, I realize that it was probably inexpensive fast food by Swedish standards. It was a set of kebab and fries, and the taste was delicious. No plastic was used, wooden knives and forks were used. Garbage is collected separately, which shows a high level of environmental awareness.
The residential area looks comfortable to live in.
The Airbnb accommodation I found was located in a residential area a few stops away from Stockholm Central. The city of Stockholm as a whole is impressive for its water and greenery. There are parks here and there, and BBQ facilities for public use. There were also BBQ facilities. The area is well-known for its emphasis on social welfare, and it seems to be a good place to raise children. The dial key case with the key to the inn was a type where you press the knob after matching the number, but I couldn’t press the knob at all and had to struggle for about 30 minutes. It was a rare accommodation with cats, and the condition of use was to take care of the cats and the houseplants everywhere. To our surprise, there was an indoor sauna in addition to the shower room! There is a trampoline in the garden! Sauna lovers may want to check this out when looking for lodging. By the way, we spent 130,000 yen for 7 nights and 8 days, and since there were 4 of us, the price was 4643 yen per night, which seemed reasonable for Scandinavia.
How was it? I will introduce Stockholm’s sightseeing spots and food in another article, so please check back soon!
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