May 16th

I was going to go to the Nordic Museum today, on account of it being the only thing open on Mondays, but I decided to give myself a little rest from sight seeing and instead took a ridiculously long walk. I walked past Gamla Stan and down the waterfront where I walked past the exclusive shopping district, the national Swedish theater founded by Gustav III in the 18th century, past the Nordic Museum and around the inlet labeled Djurgardsbrunnskiven on my map (pretend there's a little circle over the a). Today was the perfect day for a nature walk, the sky was blue and there were big fluffy white clouds and all the birds were singing and the trees were so green. It was so lovely and peaceful, all the sounds of the city were gone and I could just relax and meditate. I felt like Lizzie Bennet. Rural Stockholm is so beautiful and tucked away amidst the trees are these pretty pastel colored houses of Victorian or neoclassic design. It was so nice to take some time to be alone with my thoughts. The last two weeks have been so insane, I never really got a chance to breathe.

While starting on my nature walk I stumbled upon fellow fashionable opera singer Jenny Lind. Her statue is by the Nordic Museum. I tried to get some decent pictures of her but she was so backlit I'm not sure any came out. But I want to go back anyways and see if I can find some one to take a picture of me with her. I will title it "Stylish Sopranos".

About halfway through my nature walk I wandered off on a little side path through a nature reserve area, where I saw some gray birds (I'd tell you what kind of birds but the plaque was in Swedish) and at least 11 enormous Swedish snails. I've never seen snails that big before. There was also some sort of yak-looking animal that supposedly lived there but I didn't see any.

In total my nature walk was at least 7 km, that number not including the walk to and from the hostel and my short side trip. On the way back to the hostel I stopped by a restaurant floating on the water and had a really good burger.