I Travel, Therefore I Eat.

Briefs from my vacation in Stockholm and why I like running away so much.

I have just been in Stockholm, Sweden for vacation with my daughter. I’ve been once before for a convention, but that was in November of 2021, not the most auspicious timing lol, but even back then, I was charmed by the country. Turns out, I was equally charmed on this trip! If it’s not on your to-go bucket list, you gotta add it.

This was my yearly vacation with my kid. I save up my credit card points to make it as fun as possible, and it’s the highlight of our year. We always do a deep dive about the place we’re going a month before we travel. This year, we watched tons of Viking documentaries and YouTube videos and of course, tracked down all the food travel shows we could. (Rick Stevens, thanks for being so smart and dreamy!) I find that if we do this kind of “research” before we leave, she gets a lot more out of it and I feel like I get my money’s worth, lol.

Here are some things I observed about Sweden that may or may not be completely accurate in general, but it’s what I experienced and it’s my newsletter, so here goes.

• The kid culture here is OFF THE CHAIN. There is so much lovely stuff to do with kids here, and it’s all so much more enjoyable (and less obnoxious) to experience than kid stuff in the states. Even the theme park in the middle of Stockholm was calmer, less frenetic and…tolerable, lol. The playground areas in town were so homespun and focused on crafting and using your hands to do things. Family life feels so much less commercial and integrated into everyone’s daily life, too. I’m glad I took my kid at eight years old, while she still wants to play on the playground and do other activities that are age-appropriate, like blacksmithing.

  

  The nice guy at the history museum told my kid she was technically “too old” to start apprenticing as a Viking blacksmith, since they used to start kids off at six, but she was determined to make up time. Really worked the bellows well. I rarely post even an outline of the kid, but this is too great to not share. Every kid needs a little manual labor to earn their vacation, right?

• I’d seen it before, but the Vasa ship museum continues to be breathtaking. One of the top sights I’ve ever seen. I will keep visiting again and again. You gotta go.

  

• Food-wise, lots of thoughts. One, Swedes do not share plates. Seems like there’s no buffet style. Even the Chinese restaurants serve “four dishes” on one plate so no one has to get grubby scooping off a communal dish. I approve of this method. It’s so civilized.

• However, they eat pizza with a fork and knife. This…is not okay.

• There’s a lot of apple juice. I think this is a Nordic thing in general, but I’m a fan because I hate OJ. Having an alternative fruit juice for breakfast is pretty great.

• Food can def be relatively weird here, though. Like, shrimp sammies are everywhere for lunch. As is stuff in tubes, like this Kalles stuff below.

  

  I tried it on a dare. My verdict: I dunno why this kid is smiling so much. No offense. But fish paste on toast or eggs for breakfast is NOT for me.

• Outside food (because I could go on for a LONG TIME about that), train travel and subway travel is such a dream. This applies to countries outside the US in general, but Sweden had something unique: transit FERRIES. Yup, hop on a boat, get across town. So cool!

Honestly, I think being able to use proper mass transit is why I like traveling so much: I just want to use my own feet to clear the “fog of war” in an unknown place. Just like in a video game, except instead of uncovering monsters, I uncover pastry shops.

I also love seeing how other people live differently from the way I do. And getting lost in places where I don’t know anyone. Actually, this is what I’ve recently learned about myself: I want to be among tons of people in a big city, but not have to connect with any of them. “Stranger in a Strange Land” is kinda my life motto. And I’m okay with it!

Last item: To try to enhance the travel experience, my kid and I always do one guided museum tour and one guided food tour everywhere we go. Since she’s really picky, I always assume she’ll skip half the food offered to her. Not this year! She ate it all. Even…this crawfish’s eyeball.

Yeah, the other adults on the tour were grossed out, too. That’s my kid!!! :D

Next year: Japan. Who knows what kind of eyeballs she’ll eat there!

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Book of the Month:

Going forward, I want to highlight one book a month I’ve recently read or am currently reading to spread love for good stuff.

Princesses Behaving Badly

A fun, if superficial, survey of a collection of rank royalty. Not kiddie AT ALL, despite the cover. Very fun read! Caused me to do further deep diving on some interesting historical characters.

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Interesting Links:

• Maybe I shouldn’t share this, but I couldn’t stop scrolling this list of how much plastic is in some of the things we eat. Yeesh! Not great!

• True Size is a website that gives you some perspective on how big continents and countries actually are. Your mind will be blown, mine was.

• This recipe for homemade gnocchi using potato flakes was actually...delicious?!

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Personal Links (Also Interesting):

• I recently updated my Goodreads account with a lot of books from the last five years?!?! I can’t believe I neglected it for so long, sorry! But I made tons of updates, please follow me there if you use the service! Will keep it up, promise :D

• As a followup, we ended up raising $15k+ for the Papayago Rescue House during my birthday livestream, and allowed the charity to build out an amazing new hospital room for their birds! TY for doing so much good as a community!

• I will be in London at the For the Love of Fantasy Con, Aug 16-17. Then at SPN cons in Sept/Oct/Nov, check my website for deets and dates.

• I’m in the new upcoming audio drama Havoc Town with Jewel Staite, produced by Aaron Mahnke from Lore. I think it drops soon on all podcast apps, squee!

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See you next month, and on my Discord channel in between for chatting and friendship! <3

oxox
Felicia