Stockholm: (City Hall dinner)

All international students were specially invited to a reception with buffet at the City Hall.
Free dinner! :)
And at City Hall, where the Nobel Prize Banquet takes place every year.



"Imposing brick building in the city centre"

We attended the reception for Master students due to shortage of tickets. About 1/4 of the master students were Chinese....



Patiently waiting for the feast to begin



The actual banquet hall upstairs was really beautiful with gold gilded walls of egytian carvings. Too bad the food wasn't exactly good and was too little. Everyone just sorta tried to grab whatever they can get asap. Within a short while, most of the food was gone. I appreciate the free dinner, but perhaps more could be done to ensure that there was enough food for everyone and proper queues were made. :(



Sergels Torg at night
It's weird that they leave the fountains running even when late at night.

Gothenburg

Took a 3h SJ train ride from Stockholm to Gothenburg(Swedish is Göteborg) to visit the Chalmers pp



Gothenburg is 2nd largest city in Sweden after Stockholm and was once the center of the Swedish ship-building industry. But to me, it's more like a quiet suburb now.



Peaceful Anti-abortion street exhibitions. The Gothenburg Riots in 2001 must have rocked the quiet town.



Flags displaying Gothenburg's coat-of-arms are everywhere



The statue of Poseidon->a frequently used symbol for the city.



Liseberg-largest amusement park in Scandinavia
Seems like the only thing to do in this city. Still, it livens up the whole city.
Singapore?



Stars like Elton John & Tina Turner performed here



Aerial view of the amusement park from the revolving tower



This is the scariest ride in the park, with its 70degree drop and inversions. The freaking fast speed is probably the reason for its name 'Balder'.
Han & I conned ourselves to try most of the rides by buying the unlimited ride pass.



Scared out of my wits. Don't understand why the kid behind me is looking like he does this everyday.
Whoever is feeling suicidal should go do roller-coaster rides b4 jumping from HDB flats or onto MRT railway tracks



Absolutely fantastic hosts! The 3 girls kindly gave us one whole room to sleep in. Kudos to them for making Shephard's pie and Jet for making omelette, Salmon & Kiwi-Icecream dessert!!



Interesting signs on the road



HDB estates look-alike



Göteborg Botanical Garden-supposedly to be one of the outstanding botanical gardens in Europe



Giant garden vegetables









Haga->restored working class quarters in the past; similar to our Gamla Stan in Stockholm



Skansen crown->defence fort agst Denmark which was never used in the end



View of Gothenburg from the fort hill



Fish Church->Fish mkt in a church-like building. Reportedly to serve delicious seafood broth. Too bad was closed on Sunday.



Is this graffiti?



How they change advertisements in Stockholm's subway

Stockholm: Djurgården (Skansen)

Skansen-an open air museum and zoo located on the island Djurgården



What a Welcome!



Nordic Animals:
Brown Bear
For some reason, many people enjoyed watching the bears, esp the little cubs running around playfully



Interesting board displaying the diff types of bear around the world



Lynx-wild cats



Elk aka Moose



Grey Seal



Reindeer



Bison



These kids kept feeding the goats so much. The little kid wearing the beanie was so cute stumbling among the animals. Amazingly the much bigger animals didn't push him down



This little kid can barely walk, yet he's already riding a pony





Dala horse-symbol of Sweden



Traditional Swedish homes in the past



Demonstrating how to obtain flour from potato



Belfry-bell tower



Windmill



Can't they have this sorta garden roofs in Singapore?



Chains of pacifiers. Must have been left behind by too many babies



Free food!
Tall Maypole in the background



Even got music. Feels like a fair



They have too much food...