Tetris | schwingeninswitzerland

He travels a lot for work so he appreciates hotel amenities. I really don’t care too much about my accommodations as long as they are clean and centrally located. I’m so cheap that I’m bad. Very, very bad. I’ve stuck him in all kinds of hovels. Stockholm isn’t a cheap city, luckily there are some great places that are easy on the budget, centrally located, have great views (see above and below), have a great on site pub and provide a unique experience. You can stay on boat hotels in the Södermalm neighborhood (both on the Riddarfjärden and the Stadsgardsleden sides of the link to Gamala Stan).

They had bikes you could borrow and cool lounges, but the best part was the amazing view from the seats (some of which were in lifeboats) on the upper deck. We sat there taking in the views, enjoying the sunset and singing The Lonely Island‘s (with T-Pain) “I’m On A Boat” from the movie Stepbrothers.

I give mad props to people in the Navy who live like this on a long-term basis. The room was tiny, but had everything we needed. We even had our own bathroom (It is something that he appreciates, but I have no problem foregoing. Just ask him about the hovel I stuck us in when we visited Dublin).

We had some new experiences in the bathroom. I’d never showered in a place like this. It was tight (so tight that you can see my toes standing on the toilet lid), but workable. Everything fit in there like a masterful game of Tetris. It was impressive and surprisingly easy to use.

The best part of the room itself was the view from our porthole. Amazing!

Switzerland is one of the smallest, but most densely populated countries in Europe. It has a population of approximately 7.3 million, with 173 people per square kilometer. Here, space is at a premium. In all other European countries, appliances are 60 centimeters wide. Here, they are 55 centimeters wide. Why? Space. There is a lack of it.

When we were looking for apartments, I noticed all the elevators were the same (tiny) size. This appears to be a pretty standard size that is just large enough to fit appliances in one at a time. Our kitchen is packed like the blocks from a game of Tetris, but it all fits. We are lucky to even have appliances like a dishwasher, oven, washing machine and dryer.

They are also smaller than we were used to in the US and only hold about a half to a third of what our washer in the US did. It also takes a bit longer to wash and dry a load here, clocking in at about 4 hours. The result, we wear things a little more before throwing them in the wash.

By the way, everything seems larger in the US. Check out the size of the US toilet paper roll compared to the Swiss role.