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...

Stockholm: Gamla Stan (Royal Palace, Nobel Museum)

Zhaoxin, Yu Lin & Kaiyun came over from Chalmers. Henry was away in Gotland playing table tennis, so I brought the girls around Stockholm...



Stockholm-Venice of the North
Stockholm basically comprise many islands and they are joined by many bridges.



The tallest building in the pic is Riddarholmskyrkan Church--Stockholm's only medieval church and the burial place of royalty. The island which it is on is Old Town (Gamla Stan)--the beautifully preserved historical heart of Stockholm and a famous tourist attraction. The next tallest building is Stockholm City Hall where I will be going in 2 weeks' time for a free buffet dinner for exchange students



Viking Ship?



Royal Palace-official residence of King of Sweden



People gathering at the coutyard of the Palace, awaiting for the change of Royal Guard



Incoming & Outgoing Royal Guards (note the cute reindeer flag)
Military units from all over Sweden take turns to stand guard at the Royal Palace



The military band was fantastic! They played a variety of songs (including Norwegian folksong) and was more like a live band concert.



King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia



Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip, Princess Madeleine (same age as Prince William of Wales, born in 1982)



The Treasury is deep in the palace vaults, showcasing the state regalia to the public.
No photography was allowed, so I didn't use flash :)
Above is the ceremonial robe



Crowns, sceptres, keys and swords



Hall of State where the King opened parliament till 1975, now used for official occasions



Aparments of the Orders of Chivalry





I just like how the background complement the statue



Nobel Museum!



Alfred Nobel's death mask and famous last will highlighting the nobel prize
He was a:
Author: "A recluse w/o books & inks is already in life a dead man"
Idealist: Setting high ideals for himself and contributed to society in many ways
Technological Optimist: had over 300 patents most notably dynamite
World Citizen: Travelled frequently and decided that nationality should not be a deciding factor in the awarding of the Nobel Prize
Empire Builder: nearly 100 Nobel factories in the world



Cableway of past laureates



Neverending Möbius Strip



The temporary exhibition was about Einstein, Man of the century



Enjoyed reading some quotes from him:
"....worst outcrop of the herd nature, the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed...."
More quotes



Nobel Feast

Side note: I do not understand why George Bernard Shaw refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."



Had Mooncake(courtesy of Minrui) & Barbecued Pork Strips(courtesy of Adeline)

Finland: Helsinki

Vikingterminalen at Slussen
Going to Helsinki on Viking Line with a huge group of friends



Shared the small cabin with an Austrian couple and an Italian
There is no window! It is just a picture of a lighthouse...



View from the ship. The view is not bad, though it pales in comparison to the fjord cruise in Norway



Plus it gets freezing cold on the top deck cos we are in the middle of the Baltic Sea



Sadly, there isn't much to do in the Viking Line besides some restaurants, shops and pubs. So we had to play cards to entertain ourselves. Well, it was a good way to bond with the new friends



Finally arrived in Helsinki after 1 night of ship ride.
Finland is also known as Suomi in finnish
Finland has quite an interesting history involving Russia and Sweden. Helsinki looks a bit like Stockholm except there are certain architectures that have a slavic(russia) feel to it.



Symbol of Helsinki-Lutheran Cathedral



Statue of Alexander II, Russian Tsar and grand duke of Finland; smaller statues are symbols of law, light, peace and work



The Government Palace



University of Helsinki



The 3 buildings (the Cathedral, the Government Palace, Uni on the Senate Square) are designed by the same architect in neoclassical style to resemble St. Petersburg



Boat ride to ...



Suomenlinna fortress (called Sveaborg in swedish)
It is the greatest sea fortress in Scandinavia(built on 6 islands), but was shamefully surrendered without a fight the one time it was about to see action, resulting the loss of Finland to Russia



Vesikko-WWII coastal submarine

The fortress may be a UNESCO world heritage site but there wasn't exactly much to do except nice sea views, museums and tunnels of the old fortress. (Reminds me of Bryggen in Bergen, also a UNESCO site, but nothing much to do). So we went off after 1-2 hours.



Temppeliaukio 'Rock' Church-a church carved into stone and a popular tourist attractions



Popular venue for concerts due to excellent acoustics



There were esp many Chinese tourists here. When I went Norway, most of the asian tourists were Japs but in Finland, most of the asian tourists are Chinese



Jean Sibelius monument
Finnish Composer and violinist whose works are synonymous with Finnish national identity
Finlandia



Swan of Tuonla about a mystical swan swimming around the island of the dead



There are just these 2 statues for Jean Sibelius. Perhaps a better tribute should be given to one of Finland's greatest classical composers (eg Norway's Grieg's Museum). At least have some description of the man himself.



Uspenki Cathedral-the largest ortodox church in Western Europe
The Byzantine-Russian architecture is a clear symbol of Russian impact on Finnish history



Couldn't resist the strong aroma of food from the food stalls next to the harbor



Are U hungry?
The fried whitefish is esp good. Imgaine the fish in our nasi lemak but with edible bones



Heading back Stockholm home

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Some interesting facts abt Finland:
-Finnish has a reputation for being difficult to understand and learn. It doesn't help if you know German, English, French or any other languages
-rank 1 in corruption perception index (s'pore no 5)
-rank 1 in global competitiveness index (s'pore no 7)
-rated as the second safest city in the world in 2005
-creative insanity