I'm writing to you all right now from Galma Stan - the old town of Stockholm. This is a great city and I have had as close to a perfect day here as I could have hoped.

I have grown to like sleeping on trains and buses over the past weekend, so I actually had a tough time falling asleep last night. Once I fell asleep, however, I had some very bizarre dreams. For the sake of decency, and the innocence of some of my younger readers, I'll just let you know that it had something to do with Katrina, the Norwegian concession stand girl, the Swedish World Cup soccer team, and several different varieties of herring. I'll let your imaginations do the rest.

Thanks to an early call from a friend, however, my pleasant dreams came to a premature conclusion (thanks, Daniel). But it was defiantly for the better, because by the time I got out of the hostel, it was already late enough. I took the tunnelbana (the subway) to the central station and walked my way down Drottingatan, a major shopping street, to Galma Stan, the old town.

Galma Stan reminds me of all the things I loved about Prague without most of the things that I didn't love. It has the same windy, hypnotising streets of Prague, and the same substantial feel of history, without the thin gloss of a economy entirely sustained by tourism. Stockholm is spotted with the occasional tourist trap, but I couldn't escape the feeling that the local Swedes were drawing as much pleasure from the sunny summer's day as I was. In Prague, tourists seemed to grossly outnumber locals. Prague seems like a place where people visit. Stockholm seems like a place where people live.

In traditional euroschlep fashion, I kind of just lunged myself into the middle of old town to see what I could find. The first thing I found, which was also the first highlight of my day, was the excellent Nobel Museum. In the last week, I have seen my fare share of museums and I've developed a bit of a good sense for measuring one when I see it. The Pergamon in Berlin is a good museum. The Jewish Museum is a bad museum. The Nobel Museum is a great museum.

They had a great exhibit on Albert Einstein that focused, in what I thought was a cool approach, on his relationship to the Nobel Foundation. He was one of the most nominated people in the Prize's history and the museum did a great job of showing why, year after year, he was declined the award. When he finally won, it wasn't even for his famous theory of relativity (which I don't understand), but for a theory of his on light photons. Interesting stuff.

After the Nobel Museum, I tossed myself in the general direction of the Stadshuset - the Stockholm City Hall. This was another great tour (and highlight #2). First of all, the tour outlined the eccentric behavior of its architect, which is pretty visible in the buildings crazy design.

The building is great because on the one hand, its very impressive but on the other hand, its also very ugly. Second of all, the building had a beautiful terrace that served as a peaceful and private shore of Lake Mälaren. Even more so, this secluded corner was being used as a nude sunbathing spot for some of Sweden's most beautiful girls. Unfortunatly, half way through the tour, my camera ran out of power, otherwise I'd most definatly have some interesting photos to share with you.

After I got my fare share of staring, I moved on back through town to Nybrovikin, a charming inlet with boats to take me wherever in Stockholm that I wanted to go. I chose a short little trip to Djurgarden, the city's incredible municipal park, to see (highlight #3) the Vasa Museum.

The museum has a fully restored Swedish war ship from the 17th century that had sunk in the Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage just a few hundred feet from its launch point. This is a real treasure. The entire ship was preserved, for hundreds of years, under tons of silt in the saline-free Baltic water. Twenty years ago, the ship was found, surfaced, and totally restored. And if the ship were not enough of a reason to get excited, the museum built around the ship, a temperature and moisture controlled facility, is an sight to see in itself.

I walked around the Djurgarden and its amusement park for most of the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the sunshine and Swedish pastries. I hopped another boat back to Galma Stan to grab dinner at Järntorgspumpen, great Italian restaurant.

Now my perfect Stockholm day has come to an end. I'm going to head back home, consider doing some laundry (and then decide not to), and go to bed a happy man.

Tomorrow, after checking out a modern art museum that was closed today, I will leave for Helsinki, Finland. I had considered a side trip up to the Arctic circle, but I think I am going to have to play it a little more conservatively for the next few days. After all, I want to save up my energy for St. Petersburg this weekend.

See you in Finland.

-Euroschlep