23rd June, 1030pm - 1ST NITE IN STOCKHOLM
Technically our 2nd day in Stockholm, and in Greg's room. I'm currently sharing it with Julian, Jordan, and Sophia, while Wiki and Greg stay in his friend's room.
We reached Stockholm late in the afternoon yesterday, and went straight to Greg's hostel. Took us quite a while by bus, and then train. After that we walked from the station to his hostel.
Greg's room is pretty spacious, compared to the rooms in NUS, and all the furniture in it looks like it came from Ikea. Not surprisingly, considering that Ikea is Swedish. :p Sharing a room with the guys is pretty ok, considering all the extra suanning I get from Jordan. There's also a kitchen for us to use, so all things considering, it's a pretty good deal, considering we're staying here for free. :p
Jordan has also gone on this mad quest for bottles, cans, and all kinds of recyclable materials. Greg told him that in Stockholm, you get like 1 or 2 krona for every bottle you recycle into the machine. So now everywhere we go, he goes rummaging around in the rubbish bins for bottles. It's embarrassing and hilarious at the same time, to watch him.
The party also intended to cook tonight's dinner, so Greg and I went over to his friend's hostel to borrow/steal their rice cooker. On the way back, we walked through this forest path to his hostel, and I'm starting to realise why he loves Stockholm so much. Just behind his hostel is a vast forest, and a wide lake, with a jetty and yachts. ( Owned by the private residents ) It's perfectly normal to them, but to us, 100% urban dwellers, the idea, of being able to live in such nature, is still vaguely dream-like. You know that such things exist, but you will not truly believe in it till you see it with your own eyes. I half-expected to see pixies or tame deer in the trees, but no such luck. :p
That night, we attacked Greg's provisions for the first home-cooked local meal we've had since we arrived here. Long beans, Foo yong egg, and rice, all warm and cooked. Aahh... And then Milo to top it off after dinner. ( Milo! I'd never been so happy to see Milo! ) Greg is letting us raid his store of Maggi and Milo because he's going back about 3 days after we leave, and he doesn't wanna bring them back with him. Alrighty then, not stopping myself then. :)
On this day, 23rd, we woke up and helped ourselves to his provisions of Milo and Mee again. Then it was off to Gamla Stan, the city area. This time, the shopping streets were narrow alleyways, with cobbled streets, which only served to add to its old town charm, which is Stockholm's main appeal, coupled with its many lakes and rivers. In fact, just out of the train station and in the city for the first time, this was what we saw:
My god. A tremendous lake, with yachts and boats, docked, right outside the train station. There were plenty of gulls flying overhead also, because of all the water nearby. Greg was right when he said that Stockholm was a relaxing city.
The shopping district, as we entered.
Gamla Stan, the shopping district per se.
Once we hit Gamla Stan itself, me, Wiki and Sophia went mad. There was one shop where the three of us, went in, happily shopping, while the 3 guys were reduced to sitting outside in a row, surrounded by bags of food, and our backpacks.
Imagine a shopfront, and 3 extremely bored males sitting at its window, looking gloomily at the people walking by. Their shoulders are slouched and their hands are jammed into their jacket pockets. Around them are bags of fruit, and more backpacks than 3 guys can handle. Then look at the shopwindow, advertising a closing down sale. Now you know why they're seated there like that...
Then we discovered H&M's! Some of the stuff in there is averagely priced, by Singaporean standards, but cheap by European ones. We spent even more time in there, and the guys decided to bail out on us at this point. They left us there while they went to the tourist information centre. Well, it was time well spent. I emerged with one top, one headband, and one new bra. Hee.
Incidentally, I lost that headband in Berlin, so you guys will probably never see it. Hai.
Then back to Greg's hostel for spaghetti and salad. We cooked it all in the kitchen. ( No, I didn't cook, just chopped lots of veg. I'm not that good. In fact I was the first to volunteer for dishwashing duty )
Admittedly, Jordan is a very good cook. The spaghetti was really, really good, and it was one of the best meals we had in Europe so far. Now we're just laying in Greg's room, while Julian finds alternative accomo in Copenhagen. Turns out they rented a car while we girls were shopping, and now he's trying to change the accomo in Copenhangen. We, or rather they rented the car for fri-sun, but in our original plans, we were supposed to be in Cop on sat, so now we're staying in Stockholm longer. We'll see how it goes.
How it went, in the end, was that we decided to cancel the accomo altogether in Cop, and then drive down to Malmo, ( A Swedish town connected to Cop, sorta like Singapore to Johor ) over to Cop, and see what we could find in Cop. You gotta wait till I upload Cop to find out what happened to us in the end.
Additional pix from Stockholm:
Swedish Guard
Changing of the guard
Julian and Jordan get desperately thirsty
Er, forgot what this building was... Think it was a museum
Busker. You drop a coin in her hat, and she bows slowly and gracefully towards you. Her movements are very refined, very smooth, like a trained dancer.
There are plenty of buskers in Stockholm, some good, some ok. If any of you come here, considering bringing a guitar...;)
The square where we saw the busker
Overhead view of the city, and the lake.
We reached Stockholm late in the afternoon yesterday, and went straight to Greg's hostel. Took us quite a while by bus, and then train. After that we walked from the station to his hostel.
Greg's room is pretty spacious, compared to the rooms in NUS, and all the furniture in it looks like it came from Ikea. Not surprisingly, considering that Ikea is Swedish. :p Sharing a room with the guys is pretty ok, considering all the extra suanning I get from Jordan. There's also a kitchen for us to use, so all things considering, it's a pretty good deal, considering we're staying here for free. :p
Jordan has also gone on this mad quest for bottles, cans, and all kinds of recyclable materials. Greg told him that in Stockholm, you get like 1 or 2 krona for every bottle you recycle into the machine. So now everywhere we go, he goes rummaging around in the rubbish bins for bottles. It's embarrassing and hilarious at the same time, to watch him.
The party also intended to cook tonight's dinner, so Greg and I went over to his friend's hostel to borrow/steal their rice cooker. On the way back, we walked through this forest path to his hostel, and I'm starting to realise why he loves Stockholm so much. Just behind his hostel is a vast forest, and a wide lake, with a jetty and yachts. ( Owned by the private residents ) It's perfectly normal to them, but to us, 100% urban dwellers, the idea, of being able to live in such nature, is still vaguely dream-like. You know that such things exist, but you will not truly believe in it till you see it with your own eyes. I half-expected to see pixies or tame deer in the trees, but no such luck. :p
That night, we attacked Greg's provisions for the first home-cooked local meal we've had since we arrived here. Long beans, Foo yong egg, and rice, all warm and cooked. Aahh... And then Milo to top it off after dinner. ( Milo! I'd never been so happy to see Milo! ) Greg is letting us raid his store of Maggi and Milo because he's going back about 3 days after we leave, and he doesn't wanna bring them back with him. Alrighty then, not stopping myself then. :)
On this day, 23rd, we woke up and helped ourselves to his provisions of Milo and Mee again. Then it was off to Gamla Stan, the city area. This time, the shopping streets were narrow alleyways, with cobbled streets, which only served to add to its old town charm, which is Stockholm's main appeal, coupled with its many lakes and rivers. In fact, just out of the train station and in the city for the first time, this was what we saw:
My god. A tremendous lake, with yachts and boats, docked, right outside the train station. There were plenty of gulls flying overhead also, because of all the water nearby. Greg was right when he said that Stockholm was a relaxing city.
The gentle, lapping sounds of the lake pressing against the dock. The cool wind blowing against your hair. The sun, warm, but not hot, on your face. The white gulls, highlighted against the bluest sky you ever saw, flying against the calm, white clouds ambling along the sky. Their screeches echoing throughout the sky.
What a great day for shopping. Hahaha..
The shopping district, as we entered.
Gamla Stan, the shopping district per se.
Once we hit Gamla Stan itself, me, Wiki and Sophia went mad. There was one shop where the three of us, went in, happily shopping, while the 3 guys were reduced to sitting outside in a row, surrounded by bags of food, and our backpacks.
Imagine a shopfront, and 3 extremely bored males sitting at its window, looking gloomily at the people walking by. Their shoulders are slouched and their hands are jammed into their jacket pockets. Around them are bags of fruit, and more backpacks than 3 guys can handle. Then look at the shopwindow, advertising a closing down sale. Now you know why they're seated there like that...
Then we discovered H&M's! Some of the stuff in there is averagely priced, by Singaporean standards, but cheap by European ones. We spent even more time in there, and the guys decided to bail out on us at this point. They left us there while they went to the tourist information centre. Well, it was time well spent. I emerged with one top, one headband, and one new bra. Hee.
Incidentally, I lost that headband in Berlin, so you guys will probably never see it. Hai.
Then back to Greg's hostel for spaghetti and salad. We cooked it all in the kitchen. ( No, I didn't cook, just chopped lots of veg. I'm not that good. In fact I was the first to volunteer for dishwashing duty )
Admittedly, Jordan is a very good cook. The spaghetti was really, really good, and it was one of the best meals we had in Europe so far. Now we're just laying in Greg's room, while Julian finds alternative accomo in Copenhagen. Turns out they rented a car while we girls were shopping, and now he's trying to change the accomo in Copenhangen. We, or rather they rented the car for fri-sun, but in our original plans, we were supposed to be in Cop on sat, so now we're staying in Stockholm longer. We'll see how it goes.
How it went, in the end, was that we decided to cancel the accomo altogether in Cop, and then drive down to Malmo, ( A Swedish town connected to Cop, sorta like Singapore to Johor ) over to Cop, and see what we could find in Cop. You gotta wait till I upload Cop to find out what happened to us in the end.
Additional pix from Stockholm:
Swedish Guard
Changing of the guard
Julian and Jordan get desperately thirsty
Er, forgot what this building was... Think it was a museum
Busker. You drop a coin in her hat, and she bows slowly and gracefully towards you. Her movements are very refined, very smooth, like a trained dancer.
There are plenty of buskers in Stockholm, some good, some ok. If any of you come here, considering bringing a guitar...;)
The square where we saw the busker
Overhead view of the city, and the lake.
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