Stockholm in (less than)24 hours

Stockholm in 24hours.
(pictures at the bottom)

We woke up on Saturday morning at 10: “What do we do today?”…”let’s go to Stockholm!”
We left from Oslo at 11 in the morning and manage to be at dinner in the old city in Stockholm at 19.30.
The road that goes from Oslo to Stockholm is very nice, the speed limit is not that high(usually always less than 90km/ph), but it makes sense if you think it is not an highway and wild animals can cross your way any time. If you travel early in the morning or late in the evening you have high chances to see foxes, fawns, badgers and if you are very lucky reindeer and mousses!
On our way to Stockholm we stop to buy candies and to a very nice and big fair somewhere in a not very small town in Sweden, but let’s get to the juicy part.

What to see in less than 24 hours:
We got to Stockholm at 19.00 circa and manage to find a parking spot just in front of the Royal palace (how lucky): 15 SEK per hour, not bad at all for being in the very city centre!
We had a very nice walk in the streets of the old city, in my opinion this is probably the island I prefer among all the other Stockholm extends on, we also found a very nice restaurant for dinner where we had reindeer’s steaks!
Right after dinner we had a walk ‘til the parliament admiring how beautiful this capital cities is with all the lights and water flowing everywhere, it is just stunning!!
IF you feel like it there are plenty of places where to have a drink after dinner or go to have fun, we didn’t really felt lie it and decide to find an hotel where to spend the night: if you go there by car and don’t want to spend huge amount of money for a room and for the parking I would suggest to move a little bit outside the city centre as we did, we found and hotel at 10 mins by car from the centre and with free parking(90€ a double room with breakfast).
On Sunday morning we drove back to the centre, exactly to Monteliusvägen from which you can have a very nice overview of the whole city( tripadvisors and other apps suggest the city hall, but this one is for free and it is in a very nice area of the city)
We than had a walk in the hipster neighbourhood, which is always fascinating and at 1 pm we decide to get back to Oslo.

Please not that we haven’s set any alarm clocks neither Saturday nor Sunday, weekend is weekend and you should enjoy it!

Remember “It’s the journey, not the destination!”
List of what we did:
*stop to a fair while driving in Sweden(2 hours circa)
*stop to buy lunch and candies(1 hour circa)
*dinner in Stockholm old city(1 hour and an half)
*after dinner walk in the gamla byen(1 hour and half)
*slept
*breakfast and left hotel at 10.30 on sunday
*Monteliusvägen and walk in hipster area(2 hours and half) and back to Oslo

Itinirari per una settimana di vacanza in Norvegia.

(se non vuoi leggere ma sei qui per le foto, sono in fondo al post)

Mettiamo subito le cose in chiaro: la Norvegia e’ stupenda. E’ stupenda se ti piacciono i paesaggi naturali, se ami stare all’aria aperta e non sei alla ricerca di citta’ con secoli di storia e monumenti migliori del Duomo di Milano.
La Norvegia e’ anche cara, tantissimo. Una notte in albergo costa non meno di 100€ per una doppia, ovviamente pranzo e cena NON inclusi. Una birra costa dai 10 ai 15€. Un pranzo non costa mai meno di 20/25€, neanche da McDonald. Insomma, se se Italiano e non sei miliardario, fare le vacanze in Norvegia pue’ essere molto costoso.
Ecco qui un paio di itinerari non eccessivamente cari, ma che permettono di visitare un sacco di posti famosi di questo fantastico paese.

Oslo ha 3 aeroporti:

• Torp: dista a circa un’ora e mezza di pullman da Oslo centro, Il pullman costa circa 30€ a tratta.
• Rygge: dista a circa 40 min di pullman dal Oslo centro, e’ raggiungibile anche in treno. Il biglietto del pullman costa circa 20€ a tratta.
• Gardermoen: dista a 23 min di treno dal centro. I biglietti costano dai 10€ se si viaggia con NSB a 23€ se si viaggia con Flytoget

L’albergo meno caro di Oslo si chiama Anker Hotel, hanno anche appartamenti. Un’altra ottima soluzione sarebbe affittare camere da AirBnB, in linea di massima i Norvegesi sono persone di cui ci si puo’ fidare quindi e’ improbabile prendere fregature.

Se si viaggia in estate(da Maggio a Giugno):

1. Giorno 1: arrivo ad Oslo nel pomeriggio.
2. Giorno 2: Oslo.
3. Giorno 3: treno per Bergen. Ci mette circa 6 ore di giorno e 8 di notte, altamente consigliato farlo di giorno per dei paesaggi mozzafiato.
4. Giorno 4: Bergen.
5. Giorno 5: pullman da Bergen a Stavanger.
6. Giorno 6: Salita al Pulpit Rock, circa 2 ore a tratta. Rientro ad Oslo in aereo/pullman/treno.
7. Giorno 7: rientro in Italia in mattinata(da Oslo).

Una settimana in inverno con Neve(da Dicembre a Febbraio):

• Giorno 1: arrivo ad Oslo nel pomeriggio.
• Giorno 2: Oslo.
• Giorno 3: Oslo.
• Giorno 4: macchina da Oslo ad Hemsedal(circa 4 ore di macchina). Hemsedal e’ una nota localita’ sciistica, molto famosa per l’after ski.
• Giorno 5: Hemsedal.
• Giorno 6: Hemsedal-Bergen(circa 4 ore di macchina).
• Giorno 7: Bergen e rientro in Italia in la sera(da Bergen).

Questo e’ solo uno scheletro iniziale per capire cosa visitare, sono stata in tutte le localita’ consigliate, quindi se avete bisogno chiedete pure.
Qui un po’ di foto della Norvegia: https://www.facebook.com/arianna.aondio/media_set?set=a.10204900720306035.1073741827.1480933146&type=3

Fried zucchini flowers(REAL recipe)

I’ve Google “fried zucchini flowers recipe”…JESUS! For cooking “love” is not the only necessary thing, turns out you actually need the right ingredients.

I won’t provide you quantities, just follow what your instinct says.

Let me start with the batter: you need water, flour, OLIVE OIL, a sip of BEER and little bit of salt. You can also use some brewer’s yeast to make the batter more pompous. No, water and flour won’t give you an excellent batter. And no, adding eggs, spicies and anything else you can think of won’t make it any better.

Well, you also need zucchini flowers(if you have zucchini plants, pick the flowers in the morning when they are open, make sure there is not a possible zucchini growing from the flower).

How we actually do it:

In a large pot, heat about 2″ oil over medium heat, drop some batter and check if it actually fries. Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl, then whisk in a little bit of beer and olive oil until almost smooth . One by one, dredge the blossoms in batter, shaking off the excess; gently lay them in the oil, without crowding the pan. Cook, flipping once with a slotted spoon, until golden brown, 2-3 minutes total. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with sea salt and devour while hot.

Sure my grandma would be proud of this blog post.