That's not just what Alessandro says every 15 minutes about anything and everything, it also mildly describes what Stockholm is like. My weekend trip to Stockholm, Sweden, was by far one of the better places which looked and felt remarkably scenic. Travelling with several other european friends also taught me new things and slowed down the pace of enjoying what I call sightseeing. Most of all, I had lots of fun!
Thursday, 30th March 2006
I left Campus Village at 9pm to meet Aga, Chiara, Alessandro F., and Oliver at Lyngby to head down to Copenhagen together, where our overnight bus to Stockholm would pick us up. There were another 5 Italian friends (Luca M., Luca B., Alessandro B., Giovanni, and Matteo) who came up with us on the trip, but our 10-person group was to split up since they managed to find a hostel and I, managed to get Ken and Jeff's help to let my 4 friends and I crash with them at their place. The bus crossed the bridge towards Malmo and headed north towards Helsingor before arriving in Stockholm approximately 7 and a half hours later, slightly ahead of schedule.
Friday, 31st March, 2006
We arrived at Stockholm Central at 6 in the morning, after a long 8-hour ride on the bus. After deliberating about transport costs and ease of travel, we each bought the 3-day pass for unlimited travel on buses and trains for just 180sek (or SGD$40), as opposed to the 20 stamp ticket for 145sek (SGD$32). We left the 5-men Italian group, and I took the rest to Professorsslinggan in Lappis where I was to put up with Ken and Jeff for 2 nights.Trains in Stockholm operate similarly to that in Singapore, where you swipe you
r card at the gantry for access, whereas those in Copenhagen is based on trust such that you click your clipcard for potential checks by inspectors and there are no barriers to the platforms. Buses in Stockholm also call out the street names on electronic displays so you know roughly when you need to press the "stannar" button and alight.Thanks t
o Ken who gave me a more-or-less accurate address (you'll know why later), I had no problems taking my 4 friends 4 stops up the metro to T-Universitetet where we hopped on a bus and reached Professorsslingan around slightly before 8am. When we reached his block, I pressed the buzzer of Room 105, but saw Matt Mah emerge from his room, not ready for the morning yet! Ooops. Apparently Ken had given me Matt's address instead of his (Room 108)! We sat around in their kitchen till slightly half past nine when Ken finally emerged from his room and I started the introductions again.Without any prior planning other than that one hour in the kitchen before leaving the university, I must say we accomplished quite a feat that afternoon by visiting the Moderna Museet (free) and Swedish Musuem of Architecture (free) in the little island of Skepps-Holmen, before walking back towards the National Museum of Fine Arts (free). We later visited the Musikmuseet (free) which took us an unexpectedly long time because we enjoyed playing with all the different instruments, and as a result had to postpone the visit to the famous Vasa Museum till the next day. By the way, if anybody can recall prior episodes of the Amazing Race, tell me if I'm right that the white ship behind us in the picture below (Af Chapman) was featured as one of the checkpoints.
I must admit, it was only after visiting the Music Musuem that I learnt that ABBA was Swedish, and so were Roxette and Ace of Base! Chiara and Aga (and myself) went crazy over ABBA's songs and the displays we started to sing/dance whenever wherever we could. In addition, I was also previously unaware that the tune of Madonna's "Hung Up" was adopted from ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme"! Shame on me! Well it doesn't pay to know late does it? Together with the children's section and camera-fitted stage, everyone had a good laugh and good time reliving old times.
By 3.30pm, we figured it was too late to visit the Vasa Musuem since it clos
es at 5pm, so we just strolled along the bustling street Hamngatan towards Klarabergsgatan where T-Centralen is. We bought groceries to cook dinner (no surprises, pasta again!) at Ken's place and invited Min Ding and Qiuchan (who were putting up in Matt's room, and who arrived a day earlier in Stockholm from Copenhagen) too..5.jpg)
After dinner, Alessandro B. messaged me to check our plans for that night and I told him Ken was going to take us to a party down at one of the houses in the university (something like DTU's cellar bar except with music and a dance floor, and nothing like NUS's Munchie Monkies). With nothing else planned, I guess they figured it was better to ma
ke the trip up from their hostel to join us at the party. So Ken led all 10 of us for a 15-minute stroll across the university compounds till we arrived at the "yellow house", or as another Singaporean friend Jacob I met there said, "Gulla Villa". Unfortunately for us, that Friday crowd was unusually small, yet fun nonetheless. There, I met Jeff and Tianyao who arrived much later, together with the "non-Singaporean Stockholm-ers" who travelled down to Copenhagen just a week ago. In particular, Steven (from Scotland) seemed warm yet looney; when he saw me empty handed and asked me what was I doing, he quickly turned around to the bar and asked for a beer, shoving it into my hands, no questions asked. *gasp* Of course he quipped that I needed to buy him back a drink if and when he comes to Singapore next time.Saturday, 1st April, 2006
We woke up and left together with Ken to our first stop, Gamlan Stan, or the Old Town. There, we witnessed the change of guard at The Royal Palace before walking towards Stor-torget where the Nobel Musuem is. Alessandro met up with the spanish friends who were also visiting from Denmark and arranged for us to meet at 3 to take the boat tour around the Stockholm harbour.
With time to spare, we walked about Gamla Stan before heading south towards SÖdermalm, where I wanted to see Fjällgatan, the street with one of the best views of Stockholm. Before reaching that street we wandered about Slussen, and took the stairs up to Katarinahissen for a spectacular view of Stockholm and its harbour from several storeys high.
By 3pm, we started to make our way on foot back to the Operan, where we
were supposed to meetour spanish friends for the boat tour. However, by the time we got there, tickets were sold out and we were forced to look for an alternative. After one bus ride several stops later, we found ourselves at the Vasa Musuem (40sek) at 3.30pm, where we spent the next hour and a half watching the film and taking the guided tour. Despite our lack of time in completing the museum, I must say I loved the Vasa Musuem a lot, having learnt quite a bit about Swedish history from the tour guide.
We later walked about the harbour and headed towards the GrÖna Lunds (Tivoli) at Djurgårdsstaden where we boarded the ferry back to the Old Town, with a stop at Skepps-Holmen first. We walked along the shopping street Drottnninggaten back towards the City Centre where we stumbled upon a Netto (which we identified as a franchised Danish mini-mart). We bought pasta to cook dinner at Zinkensdamm, where our fellow spanish friends were putting up. There, Ken and I met Maria, Inora, Miguel (from Spain) and Cary (from Brisbane). After dinner we headed back "home", but not before I suggested stopping in the city to take in the Stockholm lights one last time.
Sunday, 2nd April 2006
We left Professorsslinggan after bidding farewell to Ken, and rushed down to T-Centralen to put our bags in the lockers before collecting them just before we leave Stockholm
. We tried to rush back to where the Operan is on bus 65, but missed the 11.30am boat tour (again) by the time we arrived. Since we wanted very much to watch the "grand" ceremonial change of guard at 1.10pm, we decided to save the 120sek (SGD$26) meant for the boat tour and visit the Nobel Musuem (40sek) at Gamla Stan instead. If there was something to take away from the visit, it's probably the quote "The Nobel committee needed Einstein more than Einstein needed the prize..."We headed back to The Royal Palace to witness the ceremonial change of guard, which was intrinsically different from that of Saturday's since there was the military band playing and "performing" as well. When the band finished playing and were dismissed at a nearby location, several tourists rushed to take pictures with some of the soldiers, including us....
Afterwards, we walked back towards the Central Station to prepare to leave Stockholm. We bade Ken farewell at the City Centre and rushed back to collect our bags in the lockers before heading to the bus terminal to depart Stockholm. We left at 2.45pm but only reached back Copenhagen close to midnight, an incredibly arduous journey of 9 hours. All in all I spent not more than SGD$210 for this weekend trip (including return bus ride, food and stuff) to Stockholm. Thanks Ken (Matt, and Jeff) for putting us up!
Anyway, after 6 hours of dis-continuous typing and uploading pictures onto blogger, here are the rest of the pictures (which took another 2 hours to upload and edit) and some videos:
http://ableabel.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album25
No comments:
Post a Comment