stockholm & helsinki
copenhagen day 1 (23 mar 06)
well i have to include this first day in copenhagen of our exciting trip to stockholm and helsinki. read and find out why...
firstly, daren and i realized that we were going to be late for our stockholm eurolines bus after reaching the dtu bus stop at 9.25pm. we found that the fastest way to get to copenhagen was by bus 150s to norreport and then taking a train down to copenhagen central station. but when we panickingly arrived in copenhagen, we couldn't find the eurolines bus and we rushed around asking for directions. fortunately, we saw a group of people pacing around, with eyes fixed towards the road, seemingly looking for the bus that should say cph -> stockholm. these were our fellow bus mates. our bus was later than us. it actually came from rottersdam and hamburg, and from copenhagen it'll cruise up north to stockholm. although we were behind time by half an hour, both of us were initially quite happy with the bus trip coz there were not many passengers and we could each take two seats.
so as we thought we can enjoy peaceful sleep on the spacious bus...
'passport please. what is your purpose of travel?' we were awakened by the custom guards.
the bus drove into this garage and the doors of the garage were shut tight. we were instructed to leave the bus with all our belongings. first, the police dog sniffed at each of our luggages and then we were requested to open them. i was lucky that i didn't need to have my bags searched. maybe i look too young and innocent. haha. the whole event was over in about an hour. no explanations were given and the custom guards spoke in danish. thus our hypothesis for the event was that the bus may be carrying drugs from the netherlands and they suspect that one or a few of us may be drug dealers!
the rest of our trip to stockholm was thankfully peaceful. we arrived at malmö at midnight, bashed through the snow storm at abt 4am and arrived in stockholm at 8.30am.
stockholm day 2 (24 mar 06)
our extremely ad hoc tour began at stockholm central station. with the city map, we decided that the least mentally engaging way is to walk along the coast of stockholm. (can you see me in the pic?)
stockholm is bustling with people and has an equally fair share of scenic nature.
we then wandered off to Gamla Stan, where the royal palace and cathedral is. the royal cathedral is enchanting; it has stained glass, brick pillars and golden statues along the stairways. the design on the ceiling and walls was kind of arabian. it indeed reflects a king's taste and lifestyle.
there are many museums in stockholm, but us being non-museum people, we only took pictures at their entrances but refused to go in. on the other hand, we joined the crowds along the shopping streets of stockholm. the things weren't particularly nice or cheap, so the drowsy mood soon set into me (read: i was gracified).
in the evening, we met pak wing for a kebab dinner and after that he bought us to his dorm. it's near the train station called 'universitet', because stockholm university is at that station. pak wing's dorm is really nice. his room is large, has his own bathroom, the kitchen looks homely and there's a tv!!!
stockholm day 3 (25 mar 06)
25 march is waffle day!
our first destination today is skansen, which is in djurgå
since it was already quite late, we aborted our plan to go to the ice bar. which from what we saw outside was just ice tables and walls and people in weird winter hoods carrying glasses of alcohol made of ice. pretty bold of them to claim that the ice bar is a replica of the ice hotel. haha.
in the late afternoon we made our way to the viking line ferry. our ferry is called 'mariella'. we paid €37.50 for a seat on board; a cabin would cost much more so we decided to just stick to having a seat to sleep on tonight. as our ferry departed stockholm, it crushed through the frozen sea! slabs of ice cracked and broke into bits, giving way to our majestic voyage. this picture is one of the islands of stockholm.
the night in the ferry wasn't as enticing as the beautiful sunset. i slept on the floor in the airseats room. it was freezing cold. i felt so much like a refugee, having paid a cheap ticket to leave my war-torn homeland, to go on board a classy ferry, but having no cabin to sleep in. it was so uncomfortable and icy that all i want is for mommy to patpat me to sleep. =(
helsinki day 4 (26 mar 06)
daylight saving today. plus finland is one hour ahead of denmark, so we have to travel into the future by two hours.
we missed the sunrise, but who cares about sunrise when you're trying to survive the traumatising night. we're finally in the land that is forever in christmas, finland. a pity we couldn't pay santa a visit though.
we made our way to stadion hostel, which was an old school's classrooms in the olympic stadium. on our way we passed by the finlandia hall (it's walls are all white. to camouflage in the snow?), the parliament house and the finnish national opera house. there was also this frozen lake called töölönlahti. there are signs around the lake to warn people against thin ice, but the lake was crowded with people walking around. a finnish lady told us that there's gonna be parachuting on the lake! we went down to the lake and indeed, colorful parachutes started decending right in front of us! (zoom in to see the parachutes, not my wind-blown hair.)
after depositing our stuff in the hostel, we made our way back to the harbor for another ferry trip. this time it's to suomenlinna, an island off the city of helsinki. suomenlinna is a unesco world heritage site. it was a sea fortress built in the second half of the 18th century by sweden to defend against the russians. the ferry crushed through the ice again but our excitement was receded by our viking line ferry experience.
suomenlinna was fun. coz it was not too touristy and we had the freedom to wander off in whichever trail we like. thus, we took the adventure in our hands and climbed to the top of the fortress and to the rocks that extend out towards the sea (or ice, coz i can't tell where's the land and where's the sea). 
we met a family staying in suomenlinna. the couple and their three kids and they were skating on the frozen pond. the father warned us about skating in the sea, and his wife talked to us about their life in suomenlinna. i got really envious of their children of having the opportunity to grow up close to nature. they live a simple life but get to do all the fun stuff like skating in a naturally frozen pond. 
we left suomenlinna feeling refreshed.
in the evening, we treated ourselves to a sumptious lappish dinner in a restaurant called 'zetor'. it is part of the 'helsinki menu' chain of restaurants. the restaurant has many interesting concepts: menu printed on newspapers, set menus on a carton of milk, homely table cloth, toilet lit by blue neon lights and wallpapered by old magazine pictures. the newspaper menu was the most interesting as each dish has its own lavish description. what caught my eye was the appetizer Soup de Grâce.
we ordered two dishes:
1) lingonberry, mashed potatoes, reindeer meat (€16)
2) mashed lingonberry with beetroot, onions, reindeer liver (€10)
dinner was scrumptious, the best meal in many months.
helsinki day 5 (27 mar 06)
as usual, day n is for shopping. we visited the old market hall, the hakaniemi market and various shopping centres. and after being inspired by last night's dinner, we rummaged around for the heavenly 'poron'. we emptied the shelf of the s market (a supermarket) of canned reindeer meat, even though each can is €3.75. it's worth every cent.
we left helsinki on the finnish budget carrier blue1. got a miniature bottle of finlandia vodka on the plane as a souvenir. goodbye helsinki! i'll miss you!
well i have to include this first day in copenhagen of our exciting trip to stockholm and helsinki. read and find out why...
firstly, daren and i realized that we were going to be late for our stockholm eurolines bus after reaching the dtu bus stop at 9.25pm. we found that the fastest way to get to copenhagen was by bus 150s to norreport and then taking a train down to copenhagen central station. but when we panickingly arrived in copenhagen, we couldn't find the eurolines bus and we rushed around asking for directions. fortunately, we saw a group of people pacing around, with eyes fixed towards the road, seemingly looking for the bus that should say cph -> stockholm. these were our fellow bus mates. our bus was later than us. it actually came from rottersdam and hamburg, and from copenhagen it'll cruise up north to stockholm. although we were behind time by half an hour, both of us were initially quite happy with the bus trip coz there were not many passengers and we could each take two seats.
so as we thought we can enjoy peaceful sleep on the spacious bus...
'passport please. what is your purpose of travel?' we were awakened by the custom guards.
the bus drove into this garage and the doors of the garage were shut tight. we were instructed to leave the bus with all our belongings. first, the police dog sniffed at each of our luggages and then we were requested to open them. i was lucky that i didn't need to have my bags searched. maybe i look too young and innocent. haha. the whole event was over in about an hour. no explanations were given and the custom guards spoke in danish. thus our hypothesis for the event was that the bus may be carrying drugs from the netherlands and they suspect that one or a few of us may be drug dealers!
the rest of our trip to stockholm was thankfully peaceful. we arrived at malmö at midnight, bashed through the snow storm at abt 4am and arrived in stockholm at 8.30am.
stockholm day 2 (24 mar 06)
our extremely ad hoc tour began at stockholm central station. with the city map, we decided that the least mentally engaging way is to walk along the coast of stockholm. (can you see me in the pic?)
stockholm is bustling with people and has an equally fair share of scenic nature.
we then wandered off to Gamla Stan, where the royal palace and cathedral is. the royal cathedral is enchanting; it has stained glass, brick pillars and golden statues along the stairways. the design on the ceiling and walls was kind of arabian. it indeed reflects a king's taste and lifestyle.there are many museums in stockholm, but us being non-museum people, we only took pictures at their entrances but refused to go in. on the other hand, we joined the crowds along the shopping streets of stockholm. the things weren't particularly nice or cheap, so the drowsy mood soon set into me (read: i was gracified).
in the evening, we met pak wing for a kebab dinner and after that he bought us to his dorm. it's near the train station called 'universitet', because stockholm university is at that station. pak wing's dorm is really nice. his room is large, has his own bathroom, the kitchen looks homely and there's a tv!!!
stockholm day 3 (25 mar 06)
25 march is waffle day!
our first destination today is skansen, which is in djurgå
since it was already quite late, we aborted our plan to go to the ice bar. which from what we saw outside was just ice tables and walls and people in weird winter hoods carrying glasses of alcohol made of ice. pretty bold of them to claim that the ice bar is a replica of the ice hotel. haha.in the late afternoon we made our way to the viking line ferry. our ferry is called 'mariella'. we paid €37.50 for a seat on board; a cabin would cost much more so we decided to just stick to having a seat to sleep on tonight. as our ferry departed stockholm, it crushed through the frozen sea! slabs of ice cracked and broke into bits, giving way to our majestic voyage. this picture is one of the islands of stockholm.
the night in the ferry wasn't as enticing as the beautiful sunset. i slept on the floor in the airseats room. it was freezing cold. i felt so much like a refugee, having paid a cheap ticket to leave my war-torn homeland, to go on board a classy ferry, but having no cabin to sleep in. it was so uncomfortable and icy that all i want is for mommy to patpat me to sleep. =(helsinki day 4 (26 mar 06)
daylight saving today. plus finland is one hour ahead of denmark, so we have to travel into the future by two hours.
we missed the sunrise, but who cares about sunrise when you're trying to survive the traumatising night. we're finally in the land that is forever in christmas, finland. a pity we couldn't pay santa a visit though.
we made our way to stadion hostel, which was an old school's classrooms in the olympic stadium. on our way we passed by the finlandia hall (it's walls are all white. to camouflage in the snow?), the parliament house and the finnish national opera house. there was also this frozen lake called töölönlahti. there are signs around the lake to warn people against thin ice, but the lake was crowded with people walking around. a finnish lady told us that there's gonna be parachuting on the lake! we went down to the lake and indeed, colorful parachutes started decending right in front of us! (zoom in to see the parachutes, not my wind-blown hair.)
after depositing our stuff in the hostel, we made our way back to the harbor for another ferry trip. this time it's to suomenlinna, an island off the city of helsinki. suomenlinna is a unesco world heritage site. it was a sea fortress built in the second half of the 18th century by sweden to defend against the russians. the ferry crushed through the ice again but our excitement was receded by our viking line ferry experience.
suomenlinna was fun. coz it was not too touristy and we had the freedom to wander off in whichever trail we like. thus, we took the adventure in our hands and climbed to the top of the fortress and to the rocks that extend out towards the sea (or ice, coz i can't tell where's the land and where's the sea). 
we met a family staying in suomenlinna. the couple and their three kids and they were skating on the frozen pond. the father warned us about skating in the sea, and his wife talked to us about their life in suomenlinna. i got really envious of their children of having the opportunity to grow up close to nature. they live a simple life but get to do all the fun stuff like skating in a naturally frozen pond. 
we left suomenlinna feeling refreshed.in the evening, we treated ourselves to a sumptious lappish dinner in a restaurant called 'zetor'. it is part of the 'helsinki menu' chain of restaurants. the restaurant has many interesting concepts: menu printed on newspapers, set menus on a carton of milk, homely table cloth, toilet lit by blue neon lights and wallpapered by old magazine pictures. the newspaper menu was the most interesting as each dish has its own lavish description. what caught my eye was the appetizer Soup de Grâce.
we ordered two dishes:1) lingonberry, mashed potatoes, reindeer meat (€16)
2) mashed lingonberry with beetroot, onions, reindeer liver (€10)
dinner was scrumptious, the best meal in many months.
helsinki day 5 (27 mar 06)
as usual, day n is for shopping. we visited the old market hall, the hakaniemi market and various shopping centres. and after being inspired by last night's dinner, we rummaged around for the heavenly 'poron'. we emptied the shelf of the s market (a supermarket) of canned reindeer meat, even though each can is €3.75. it's worth every cent.
we left helsinki on the finnish budget carrier blue1. got a miniature bottle of finlandia vodka on the plane as a souvenir. goodbye helsinki! i'll miss you!
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3:26 AM
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