I picked up some Allure Hoome Sport Extreme by Chanel when I was in Stockholm Arlanda airport, and I have to say, I really, really like it.
It is a powerful type of scent, and I would recommend it for night use, although I like it so much I use it through the day 😀 It is quite a sensual smell, and it hits you right away, unlike some others which take a while to sink in.
As with Chanel this is quite expensive, this regular 50ml bottle cost me £52, which is usually the ball park price for a 100ml bottle of an EDT. It is worth getting if you do not buy a lot of aftershaves, and want something to get you noticed on a night out.
So I was at Arlanda airport last week flying out of Stockholm, ahhh the memories. I was at terminal 5 of Arlanda, which deals with the international flights. The airport is actually quite small, not as small as Newcastle, but not huge, quite a nice size actually.
I was in departures and went to duty free to pick up some things, I got my Chanel Allure and I picked up some vodka. The vodka was Smirnoff Espresso, I had never seen it before so I was excited to get it; Apparently you can only get it from duty free if the label on the shelf is to be believed.
I went to pay and the guy tells me “We cannot sell alcohol if you are travelling within the EU, it’s the law”. WTF!?!? I could not believe it. Sweden is so strict with their alcohol laws, it won’t even let me take it out the country! Apparently it is true, at least according to their website, they do not sell alcohol if you are flying within the EU.
I like Arlanda airport though, it’s nice, friendly people, and very clean. When I arrived one of the first things I noticed about it was how clean it was!
So after I came back from Stockholm I flew into Heathrow, and I booked my train back to Newcastle so I would have a good few hours in London, so I could spend a little bit of time there. I did the usual tourist sight seeing type stuff, I have seen most of the sights but it’s London, so no harm in seeing them again 😛 It is a cool city, the weather was really warm and I chilled in Trafalgar Square as well as going around the usual spots.
I heard about Smirnoff Gold several months ago and blogged about it. It is a cinnamon flavoured vodka, and it has edible golden flakes in the vodka. The problem is that you cannot buy it on the UK high street, so it’s a little bit special. I heard from many people who had bought it that they got it from duty free shops in airports, and on the ferry from France.
When I was in Heathrow I was looking around the duty free for nothing in particular and them remembered about this vodka, and after a couple of moments browsing I found it so I bought it 😀
It is a 1L bottle, and I think this flavour may only come in that size as it’s all I have seen (as opposed to the standard 70CL)/ It was a little on the expensive side, £28 if I remember correctly. If you read my blog you will know I like strange and unusual vodkas and like to try new ones, so it is worth it for me.
I have not tried this yet, but I will do soon and write about what it is like.
You can check out my other Smirnoff vodka bottles, which includes:
I brought home a few presents from Stockholm, you know, the typical tourist souvenirs which you can pick up on holiday to remind you that you were there. I brought home a few things for people, and I got myself a couple of things too. A picture calendar, some boxers, a badge and wristband and a shot glass.
I also went to the Hard Rock Cafe and picked up a t-shirt to add to my little Hard Rock t-shirt collection. I now have: Edinburgh, Dublin, Sharm El Sheik, Amsterdam and Stockholm. I like to try and get different style and designs, so this is the one I got from Stockholm…
At Arlanda airport I bought myself a fragrence, why not I have not for a long time 😉 I tried the Chanel Allure homme sport Extreme and it was really nice so I picked up a bottle. Nice bottle, really nice smell, quite a strong kind of smell but is really nice.
I was so busy sight-seeing and walking around Stockholm that I actually did no real shopping at all! I went to a little shop in Gamla Stan to buy a couple of souvenirs, but other than that I did not buy anything such as high end fashion, although Stockholm does have a lot to offer.
It was both strange and cool to be within a 10 minute walk from my place to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Mulberry and others.
I was right next to Sture gallerian which is home to many cool places, but I did not have any time to go in. I did however take a couple of pics.
Something which Stockholm has a LOT of which we do not have in the UK are 7Elevens. They are everywhere, and I did go to a couple to pick up a few things like snacks and drinks.
So day 3 was Sunday, my last real day in Stockholm and it was probably the most “tourist” of days I had. Despite only having around 3 hours sleep, I went out and did the tourist thing once again 😀 I went to Gamla Stan (The Old Town) and saw a lot…
I was walking around for so long and walked so far, going around Gamla Stan, Slussen and ended up around the Central Station before heading for something to eat back in Stureplan. My feet and legs were already hurting, by the end of the day I was dead!
Gamla Stan is so cool, there are just endless tiny streets to walk up and down, it really is a maze of an old town.
Enough of the text, here come the pictures, and there are a lot…
The second part of my Stockholm Saturday I spent in and around Djurgården. It is a nice green area with plenty of water and things to see. There are a lot of museums and attractions such as the Vasamuseet, Aqueria, Gröna Lund, the Nordic Museum and more. I was considering going into the Vasamseet but the queue was absolutely huge! I went back after an hour or so and the queue was exactly the same!
Saturday was my first full day in Stockholm, since I arrived on the Friday in the late afternoon. I got up early and went to explore my surroundings, which was Stureplan and the area around it. Later I went to Djurgården which I will post in the following blogpost.
I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to get myself a T-shirt and bought some presents, and then just went around the area to get used to where I was. It seemed to work because I never felt lost 😀
So I arrived in Stockholm, and got to my lovely hotel. I got a hotel in Stureplan, which is pretty central to stuff and is the “posh end” of Stockholm. There are many cool areas in Stockholm but I chose this and this hotel because it had good reviews on Trip Advisor, and was ranked 11th higher than big names like the Hilton. These days I like this style of hotel, a boutique hotel, they are small but not tiny, and usually their attention to detail is better, as was this one.
They have a cool American style old lift with a cage, it looks pretty good. The room I booked was a Superior room which was great, 4m high ceilings, nice big bed, good size LCD TV on the wall, complementary WIFI in my room, and the bathroom which I loved. The only bad part was the view; The superior rooms have either a view to the street (a good view) or a view of the back which is pretty much no view, and that is the view I had. I wanted a street view, but I was not in my room much to enjoy a view anyway. I also had a nice little mini bar, and chandelier above my bed.
So the bathroom, the coolest part; I loved the massive shower head and really large shower, the sink with the coolest tap in the world, and large long mirror.
I got into my room at around 19:00 and since I had been up since 03:30 I had a quiet night. I had a little look around the hotel, went to the hotel bar and had a couple of beers. The hotel bar was nice, and faced on to the street, so you could look out at Stureplan and watch the world go by.
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