better than that time kirsten dunst was marie antoinette

"they have the most attractive royal family."

that was ben somogyi's immediate response when i told him my intention of studying in sweden. ben knows my weakness: attractive people. with this in mind, i had to visit the palace in which the royal family resides (not to be confused with the palace in the old town in which they work).

the family lives on the island of drottningholm. to get to the island you can take a boat for 40 krona, or you can take the metro and then a bus, which for us (with our program-purchased unlimited ride passes), is free. we went with option two. this longer and less glamorous commute was worth it though. not for the money we saved, but because of the amazing thai tourists we ran into. they all had matching sanrio bags, bombhead haircuts, soft drinks from mcdonalds, and dragon print sweatshirts. the two girls, although wearing kind of scary-bondage-y heels were still such midgets. i'd say 4'5" at best. they as we pulled into our stop outside the palace gate with our new friends (i wish), it became very clear to me that this was going to be a 'money rules' kind of day.

my favorite room was definitely the stateroom in the main building. in order to prove his legitimacy as a ruler, one of the kings commissioned lifesize portraits of all the major monarchs of europe during his reign. all of these portraits now hang in the stateroom. it was really amazing to see all of these figures in one place. hey isabella, hey franz joseph. since the palace is old and precious they were all "no photo." sorry.

then we headed up to the chinese pavilion. i felt like i 'got' it because i'm like so in touch my azn roots. nbd. then we had waffles and coffee in the pavilion cafe made-to-order by a girl dressed like a milkmaid.