Scandinavia: a prelude

You know how Americans choose the summer between high school and university to go on a once in a lifetime trip to Europe (Eurotrip)? Similarly, I took the opportunity of the longest summer vacation in my life to travel around Scandinavia for six days. In all honesty, I had a bit of a hard time coming to terms with the significantly smaller amount of historical monuments in the Nordic countries. Don't get me wrong, there are undoubtedly many things to see, but in comparison to just about any Italian city or village, the difference is painfully obvious. Nevertheless, I welcomed the change wholeheartedly. After all, one goes to Scandinavia to admire the present and future state of the culture, not its past. In the said six days we discovered Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen, along with a brief interlude in Örebro and Karlstad. In the following four blogposts, I am going to do my best to present to you the four Nordic capitals based on how I experienced them, including as many photos as I can without it becoming tasteless/excessive.