I left Copenhagen yesterday morning to get the train to Stockholm. I crossed over the channel through the bridge-tunnel, and then had about 45 minutes to wander around Malmo. It's not especially exciting, but it was interesting to see and I had nothing else to do with the time. I noticed a sign here that said something about how construction would continue until "the 46th week" - is that really easier than saying mid-November? Since it was a travel day all of my afternoon was spent sitting on a train. For the first time since coming to Europe, the view was properly scenic. Sweden actually has forests and lakes and rivers in a way that reminds me very much of New Hampshire or Maine. I was getting pretty sick of seeing nothing but boring fields every which way for hours on end, so this was an extremely welcome change of pace.

Stockholm made an extremely strong first impression. My hostel is right in the old town on a small island; the whole city is built on little islands like this and I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. It's on a tiny medieval looking road that I wouldn't want to try getting a car down in a neighborhood entirely filled with roads like that. I haven't had much time to explore the area, but it seems really cool. A Hostelworld meetup was taking place at a nearby Mexican restaurant (I heard someone pronounce "tortilla" very wrong), so I met a few people there. We talked for a while before moving on to a pub where we met a few more hostelgoers. One of them was this Italian woman from Rome who was extremely offended by the idea that I might visit Italy without visiting Rome. She had lots of advice for travelling Italy and even offered to let me stay at her house, so it seems like I might have to make it down there. She was saying that the tourists aren't quite as bad this time of year which I found encouraging. We'll see what I feel like once I'm in Turin.

Not sure how I'll spend most of today. The city looks amazing and I really want to see more of it, so I may just walk around, though there are a few museums that I definitely want to see as well. I might head out of town at some point to see Uppsala or something, but that won't be today.