Kaiz

All Entries

2006-01-09T13:04:00.000-08:00

Sweden:

Stockholm
-Some SEP thoughts
-(Farewell)
-Flemingsberg (Flottsbro, Roger's home)
-(Last few days)
-(Modules)
-(Officially Winter)
-(Royal Palace Visit II)
-(Life in Lappis)
-(City Hall dinner)
-Djurgården (Skansen)
-Gamla Stan (Royal Palace, Nobel Museum)
-Gamla Stan, Skeppsholmen
-Mac, Cars, dinner w Roger
-Skarholmen(IKEA), (Bicycle)
-(KTH), (Stadion)
-(Farm behind Lappis)
-Odenplan, (Capoeira)
-(Stockholm uni), T-centralen
-(Arrival), (City Termainalen)
Other cities:

Uppsala
Gothenburg
Kiruna
-(Iron ore mine)
-(Snowmobile, Dogsled)
-(Icehotel)

Norway:
Bergen
-Mount Fløyen
-Grieg's Museum
Flam
Oslo
-(Nobel, Vigeland)
-(Arrival)
Others:
Oslo-Bergen NSB train
Bergen-Flam Fjord Cruise
Flåmsbana

Finland
Helsinki

Estonia
Tallinn

Belgium
Brussels
-(Mini-Europe)
-(Oasis Concert)
-(Arrival)
Bruges
Ghent
Leuven
Antwerp

Czech
Prague
-(Wenceslas square, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle)
-(Museum of communism)

Poland
Warsaw
-(Old Town, Lazienki Park)
-(Ghetto, Uprising Museum)
Krakow
-(Wawel Castle, Jewish memorial, Schindler Factory)
-(Wielieczk salt mine)
-(Auschwitz)
Katowice(transit)

Russia
St Petersburg
-(Russian folk dance)
-(Catherine's Palace)
-(Main sights)
-(Arrival)
Moscow
-(Kremlin, Red Square)
-(Ukraina Hotel, Metro)

Singapore

Stockholm: Some SEP thoughts

2006-01-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

Sweden trivia:
Sweden has never been occupied by a foreign power, at least not since Gustav Vasa united the country in the 16th century. Neither did she experience any bloody civil war.

I never saw any commuters sleeping on trains & buses!! Nobody seems tired! In S'pore, most of the time i see students or working adults dozing off on MRT, buses etc

Stockholm has a quite an impressive public transport infrastrucutre. All the buses and trains arrive at their stops at a specific time everyday. If u wanna get from pt A to pt B in the least amt of time, u can use this website. U just have to tell the system the time of arrival or departure, origin and your destination. The system will immediately tell u how to get there and what buses and trains to take at exactly what time. This efficient public transport planner ensures that u do not need to spend more than a minute waiting for each train or bus.

Reflections:
With less than 5 months for my exchange period, it was quite hard juggling travel and studies. Sometimes, I had to study while on the train/bus ride when I tour other countries. Special thanks to Henry too. Without him, I wouldn't be able to complete some modules.

Being far away from home made me realise some things:
-Nothing beats a good workout
-Even though I usu listen to English songs in S'pore, whenever I hear chinese song from my laptop, it made me think of home. It's always like this isn't it? Seeking the big unknown out there yet craving for the companionship & comfort of your own home.

I am glad and thankful that nothing screwed up. After all, a lot of things can go wrong on a seemingly simple exchange: not able to map the module back in NUS, failing the module(Most courses offered in English are Master's programme and they had quite a high failing rate), falling sick, travelling plans going awry, misplacing your passports...

Gandhi said "I do not want my house to be walled in on sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any."

Stockholm: (Farewell)

2005-12-30T08:34:00.000-08:00

Super fast Arlanda stockholm train @ 200km/h that brings me from Stockholm to the Arlanda airport in 20min

Strong snow storm again. The plane delayed departure for at least 1/2 hour

Deicing the wings of the plane

Farewell, Sweden

Bangkok. Haven't seen greenery for a long time

Transit in Bangkok. Good to see the sun again. The humid and hot weather hits you the moment u get off the plane.

In time to see off Changjie & Junxiang who are flying off to Linkoping, Sweden. Sigh, it's their turn for SEP.

Stockholm: Flemingsberg (Flottsbro, Roger's home)

2005-12-29T06:39:00.000-08:00

Flemingsberg train station

It was the biggest snow blizzard I've seen in Stockholm so far

Roger's dad kindly drove us to Flottsbro, which is home to Stockholm's highest ski run

Me with Roger's ski blade

Roger and his brother, Joakim who's holding the snowboard

After that we went to Roger's home. All the cars in the carpark are all locked up in individual cages. Apparently, there've been too many cases of car thefts.

Their home is in a flat which is like our HDB

Roger wearing his high school graduation cap in his room

I was very shocked to see Sun's CD album here. Roger explained that she went to his church and gave out free CDs

The traditional Santa Claus in Scandinavian folklore: A tomte gnome who is believed to take care of a farmer's home and barn.

Roger's family who cordially treated me to a fantastic dinner

Stockholm: (Last few days)

2005-12-27T06:19:00.000-08:00

Last few shots of places in Stockholm

Galleria at Kista

Kulturhuset

This is what Maxime Vidier, one of my team-mates in the Swedish Culture module said abt Kulturhuset: "I have been in the Kulturhuset and I know no other city in Europe that has such a nice meeting point for people of every generation. The old, retired people can play chess there, the children can play in the Barn Rum, while their mothers can drink a coffee one floor downstairs and the teenagers can read books in their own library and sit in their own Café. There are also libraries, art exhibitions, three Cafes and music rooms in the Kulturhuset. Many countries have copied parts of the Kulturhuset for example the public library or the music rooms, but I could find such a big house for culture and entertainment nowhere else yet. "

Drottingatan street full of tourist shops

Gallerian @ Kungstradgarden

Kungstradgarden where there is a open-air ice-skating rink with music being played over the loudspeaker. If u have your own skates, u can skate there for free.

Pre-Christmas dinner with corridor-mates

Koohan, a Korean who grew up in Sweden. He always joked with us, joined us for our late night instant noodle dinners and left jokes for us on the fridge. The Swedish flag is the gift I got from Christian during the pre-christmas dinner.

My last lunch with my chinese friends

To be honest, I felt quite depressed during my last few days in Sweden. I had only 'kill bill' for company. Henry had left for Singapore earlier. Lappis was almost empty cos almost everyone went back for christmas and those who didn't went to tour other countries. The sun was down at 3pm and the lack of daylight really made a significant impact on one's emotions.

Sweden: (Modules)

2005-12-26T01:54:00.000-08:00

Here are the modules that I took:

EE2001 (6): Project (4f1141 Mechatronics)
EE3001 (4): Project (4d1521 Ideation)
EE2007 (4): Microprocessor (2b1446 Embedded System)
EE2011 (3): Engineering Electromagnetics (2d1274 Computational EM)
EE3204 (3): Computer Communications Networks (6b2940 Computer networks)

Jesper who so kindly taught Henry & I only even though the course wasn't available

KTH has a limited number of English courses. Such courses in Sweden are usu for Master's students, so the courses we took were for Master's students, except ideation and computer networks.

In addition, I also took one very interesting course "Swedish Society, Culture & Industry in a Historical Perspective" which basically gives me a overview of Sweden including aspects of political history, economic history and history of technology and architecture.

Besides lectures, we got excusions to skansen, suburbs(Vällingby, Alby), Pythagoras factory in Norrtälje, Nobel Museum...

pythagoras factory

Moreover, during some lectures, we could have fika(sandwich & drink) and watch Swedish movies, eg House of Angels, Show me love(Fucking Åmål) and Wild Strawberries. I feel that most of the films have a strong portrayal of the swedish society. Their characters are memorable and their stories are usu heart-warming, meaningful and has subtle humour in them.

Of course, we dealt with the famous Swedish model. Here are a few links: 1(a good one), 2, 3, 4

The course compendium even includes a section that compares Singapore to Stockholm!

-"Societies that suddenly start feeling rich, but in which a majority still feel themselves living poorly, will tend to support high egalitarian social policies, which redistribute income and provide a basic decent minimum for all; later on, as most find themselves exceeding the minimum, the consensus will fall apart. In this sense, perhaps the Swedish miracle was just an extreme example of a general phenomenon in the evolution of capitalism."

-"nations of South-East Asia enjoyed their econmic miracles a little later than those of western Europ; but to an even more extreme degree, they launched themselves from abject poverty into real affluence within the span of one generation."

-"...in Singapore, some faithful reflections of the Stockholm model. At least in the physical manifestations: the same uniform, well-designed but finally monotonous apartment blocks, developed on government-owned land; the same impeccably efficient subway system that links them; the same rebuilt high-rise city centre; the same emphasis on extraordinarily high standards of public design and public order. And underlying the superficial physical manifestations, many of the same political features: a party that identifies its own ideology with that of the nation, indeed which claims to embody the spirit of the nation; a party that remains in
power for 3 decades; a party with the same emphasis on social harmony; a party that stays in power through delivering economic performance and rapidly rising standards of living."

-"may seem at first sight an outlandish comparison...Singaporean polity has never claimed descent from the liberal tradition, on the contrary, rejecting many of its features as examples of western corruption; or the fact that in 1994, Sweden and Singapore stood at opposite poles in the percentage of GDP taken for public spending, 68 against 20 percent."

-"..further point of difference: Singapore, so far, has experienced no real crisis, no fundamental break in its remarkable economic progress...At some stage, Sweden tripped and fell; Singapore seems determined to avoid that fate....."

KTH

Kiruna: (Iron ore mine)

2005-12-24T23:39:00.000-08:00

LKAB iron ore mine in Kiruna is the world's largest underground mine. Underneath the 2 step hill is the mine.

"God Jul" lit up on the mining office means Merry Christmas

Within the mine is a huge network of roads, so many that one can get easily get lost. The bus that we took into the mine.

Due to the huge demand for iron worldwide, especially in booming China, Kiruna's iron ore mine is doing very well. In fact they are increasing the number of employees and is one of the major employer in the small Kiruna community.

The iron ore is transported by train to either Narvik in Norway or Lulea. Narvik is favoured cos the warm Gulf stream result in the Norwegian Sea not freezing up in winter.

The kiruna iron ore mine has certainly come a long way. Compared to the days in the past where miners work in dirty and dangerous environment...

Nowadays the miners work in clean and safe environments. In fact, some loading operations are now completely remote controlled from far away. Like what the guide said, the miners no longer need to subject themselves to loud drilling noises and can listen to music while they remote-control machines as if they are playing computer games.

The safety record of the mine is also very impressive. No serious injuries like loss of limbs or deaths for many many years. Most injuries they have nowadays are just bruises when the workers trip and fall on the rocky surface. It's just amazingly safe and conducive to work in Kiruna's iron ore mine.

Our hostel had a crazy Portuguese man whose mental health is seriously questionable. He had been boiling pots and pots of food for the past few nights. He used up all the pots(4-5) in the kitchen boiling food that turned out to look disgusting.

Kiruna kyrka(town church) that resemble the shape of a lappish tent.

Inside the church

A tower beside the church

Central part of town lit up by simple christmas lights

Forest near the town

Sweden: Kiruna (Snowmobile, Dogsled)

2005-12-22T12:40:00.000-08:00

Next day we went to the 2-day, 1-night "northern light" tour led by Henrik as the guide

Here we were given thicker shoes and pants

So we took turns snowmobiling...

...thru the wilderness in the arctic circle...

...until we came to a lake.

A chain of dogs nearby, belonging to Henrik. Apparently, the dogs are chained apart from one another to keep them from attacking one another. Won't they be vulnerable to predators? What predators? The bears are hibernating.

Some of us went over first to help unload the things we need for tonight's stay @ lappish hut--food, bags and wood. Henrik explained that this area's trees are protected. So he actually brought the wood all the way to the lappish hut. Wah...

A male snowman was there to welcome us :)

We heaved the stuff up the slope...

...to the lappish hut

The P corner

Dear Mr P-man...

We had our lunch...

...consisting of reindeer meat, which is well-known for its low-fat(gd for losing wt) and tender meat. Anyway all our drinking water is directly fetched from the river that we rowed our boat across. No, the water isn't boiled.

During lunch, Henrick shared w us a few interesting stories. When he was younger, he used to hike around w his friends. Once in Greenland he and his friends were chased by polar bears. For a moment, he felt that he was nothing but dinner for the polar bear. No it wasn't a humourous thought but a solemn, grim and macabre thought. Just like how we look at chicken and pig as dinner for ourselves, the polar bear looked at us this way too.

He also taught us some basic survival tips. Eg It is always impt to wear a bigger shoe rather than a one just nice in such cold environment? Why?

Basically it all boils down to what we learnt in pri. school: air is the best insulator of cold. So u can wear less layers but as long as they trap air, it's better than more layers that trap less air.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chopping up wood for the night. Well, it was kinda ODAC or rovers, except that we were in the Arctic circle. And Henrik showed us how to chop the wood with a single stroke of the axe. Note the thick layer of snow on the roof.

Dinner was barbecue pork and rice

After dinner, Tim and I went for a walk around the area. Tim is this great Aussie whom I knew from the Russia trip. He's now probably somewhere in Germany and finishing off the rest of Europe b4 his Egypt tour.

The snow is really thick and soft so the snow is up to your knees most of the time.

I feel that walking around in the Arctic Circle is quite an experience. It's just deafening silence all around u and if u close your eyes, u'd think that u've placed earplugs in your ears. It's places like this when & where u question Man's ability to survive out here. Just miles & miles of emptiness in a cold, dreamy state. Yes, u feel like lying down, but there's the question of waking up.

We saw footprints made by some animal so we followed it all the way, arguing what animal it could be...(the left footprint is the animal's while the right is mine)

...until we came to a hole. I tried digging but it was too deep. The guide later told us it could be a weasel

Tim's Angel wing

Ice Stalactites are damn hard and there have been cases of person in Sweden being killed by dropping stalactites from the roofs of houses. Hence, the govt's decree that it's the responsibility of the house owner to remove the stalactite

I didn't want to go the Sauna so I stayed back to talk with 'Alnet'.

We managed to see glimpses of Aurora Borealis or northern lights but it was quite faint. My camera wasn't able to capture it, but this pic I found on the internet more or less shows what I saw, except it was fainter and the green lights were in streaks. Not that sorta fanciful ones that danced thruout the entire sky but at least I managed to see one.

Our cabin where we slept in reindeer fur

Next morning, I tried to ski but fell down a few times. :S

Everywhere around u is blue and u feel as if in a dream. A beautiful one.

Attempting to walk near the river is suicide. You never when those ice under u is just 1mm thick.

We dogsled the way back. Dogsled is v simple. All u have to do is to nudge your sled slightly forward. The dogs will sense it and they will start moving. If u wanna stop, u just use 1 foot to step on a brake at the back of the sled. The brake should always be pressed down if u dun wanna move. Only 2 things to watch out: 1.) if the sled catch up w the sled in front too much, the dogs might attack the other sled's dogs and it will be v hard to separate the dogs. 2.) if the string is slack, it might sometimes entangle itself around one dog's legs or neck, which will lead to devastating consequences when the other dogs start pulling

The dogs are really enthusiastic whenever they see u and will start howling and jumping around, eager to go. Here is the sound they make. Link

The dog sled way back was really really cold with the wind blowing on u. Some of us started to worry abt frostbite on the feet. Even my face, which never turns red no matter how drunk I am, does so this time.

Do u know that abt half of swedes have access to a second home? A second home far away from the city and out there in the woods. Swedes simply love nature.

Sweden: Kiruna (Ice Hotel)

2005-12-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

My final vacation trip for my sep is Kiruna, which is a town in northern Sweden. Kiruna's website says: U haven't been to Sweden if u haven't been to Kiruna. (Kiruna Movie)So here I am...

Due to expensive flights during our period, we have no choice but to take an ardous 15h train from Stockholm to Kiruna.

Kiruna train station

When we reach at 11plus in the morning , it was already dark. Trekking thick snow isn't easy.

Stadhuset(City Hall)

We took a bus to the ice hotel, which is basically a hotel entirely made up of ice and snow.

In the hallway of the ice hotel

Every room's interior is different

I'm not sure how effective is the insulation layer

If u ever tried making a snowman, u'll appreciate how difficult it is to make real human faces on snow. Moreover, this is kiruna, where it's impossible to make a snow ball cos the snow is just too flaky.(cos cold)

Icebar, where even the cups are made of ice.

Ice Church

Feast back in our hostel

Poland: Warsaw (Old Town, Lazienki Park)

2005-12-13T22:26:00.000-08:00

Warsaw Insurgents' square where the insurgents began their heroic but tragic battle

Macdonald flag flying high

Palace of Cuture & Science is dubbed "The Wedding Cake" and is a 1955 "gift" from the Soviet Union.

Ice-skating @ the Parade Square

It's amazing how Warsaw could rebuild...

... its historic buildings and many skyscrapers from the ruins of WW2

One of the last remnants of the Ghetto Wall. The Nazis destroyed the entire Ghetto in 1943 after the uprising

Nozyk synagogue: the only surviving synagogue of the several hundred existing ones b4 the WW2 (much like the one in Auschwitz)

Poland has v strong Catholic faith. Passersby(usu older ones) 'll pause in front of this statue of John Paul II, pray for a while and continue their way

Warsaw Uprising Monument:
1 depicts an attack by an insurgent unit...

The other, an "exodus"-a withdrawal thru underground sewers

Barbican, entrance to the Stare Miastro(Old town)

I was quite surprised when I first saw this

Maria Curie who discovered radium & polonium(named after Poland)

Mermaid @ Old Town Square

Little Insurgent monument honouring the youngest soldiers of the 1944 uprising

Staue of Zygmut IV Waza(King) who moved Poland's capital from Krakow to Warsaw. Behind is the Royal Castle.

It's amazing how this entire old town was impeccably rebuilt & restored from the Ruins in the above pic(model from Warsaw Uprising Museum). In fact the restoration was so well-done that it was recognized as UNESCO world heritage site even though it was entirely rebuilt.

I passed by many riot police. But they were not behaving like riot police->laughing, taking photos. They explained to me that they are actually normal Poles dressed as riot police to commemorate martial Law declared in 1981. During the martial law, anti-communist Solidarity was disbanded.

Politically-active University of Warsaw

Copernicus who discovered earth revolves around the Sun

A pity that the Chopin museum was closed. I would have liked to see the tribute to a man who, in my opinion, was the greatest pianist.

Lazienki Park

Chopin monument

There are many peacocks and ducks wondering around

Gorgeous Palace on Water

This amphitheatre supposedly hosts free Chopin concerts but too bad it does so only in summer.

I really love this Park cos it's just too beautiful

Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport

Thoughts:
The poles are really helpful people and most young poles know English so asking around for direction isn't a problem

Poland: Warsaw (Ghetto, Uprising Museum)

2005-12-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

Train(3h) from Krakow Glowny to Warsaw Zachodnia train station

Facts abt Warsaw:
-Warsaw suffered terribly during WW2. 2/3 of her population was killed & 83% of the city was destroyed. The communist rule dealt her a further blow. After entry into EU, Warsaw is a city on the rise
-Had 2 major uprising: The Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising in 1944
-I have been yearning to go to Warsaw after watching Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" which depicted how Wladyslaw Szpilman lived

To me Poland has always abt this: Chopin, John Paul II and the movie "The Pianist". Other famous people include Marie-Curie and Copernicus.

Tomb of the unknown soldier

Nearby was the Saxon Gardens

Monument to the fallen & murdered in the East

Next I went to the area which was previously the Warsaw Ghetto. It was the largest Jewish ghetto during WW2 and contained Jews(1/3 of Warsaw's prewar population). But the Nazis razed the entire area in 1943 after the Ghetto Uprising(Recall the movie "The Pianist"). Soviet-era concerte block houses now fills much of the former Ghetto

This used to be a railway platform where many Jews were sent from the Ghetto to the the gas chambers. It now bears the inscription of "Oh Earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry never be laid to rest"

Every now and then, there are plaques commemorate the fallen heroes of the Warsaw Uprising at places such as this building where intense fighting occur

Command bunker of uprising leaders

Monument to heroes of the ghetto uprising
Note the Star of David

The back of the monument
Ironically this piece of stone was originally ordered by the Nazis for a 3rd Reich victory monument

Nearby was a small plaque on the floor to commemorate the efforts of the Poles who worked to rescue Polish Jews from the Holocaust

This is how most cars park in Warsaw. They drive up to the pedestrain walkway like this....

... or this

I stumbled upon the Warsaw Uprising Museum by accident. It wasn't exactly on the map. I was greeted by a very friendly old Polish lady who despite not knowing English, attempted to explain proudly what happened during the Uprising by pointing to the impt photos. Sometimes she used sign languagues to show what happened. She even gave me free postcards of various sites in Poland.

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944(note different from Ghetto uprsing in 1943) was abt the uprising agst Germans by Poles. Only abt 10% of the insurgents were properly armed and the insurgents were completely crushed by the Nazis. Though the Russian Red Army were v near Warsaw, they refrained from helping the Poles & disallowed the West to use their airfields to aid the Poles. As a result, 20k Polish forces were killed, 25k wounded & 16k captured. Moreover, 180k civilians killed . Abt 26k German soldiers were killed.

The anchor-looking sign is the sign of the Uprising and can be found on many memorials

Despite located along an expensive shopping district in the above pic...

...Bar Mleczny offers ridiculously cheap food.

I tried a few Polish cusines:

Nalesniki(pancakes) & pomldorowa(tomato soup)

U get to observe all types of locals who come to enjoy cheap food. From businessmen carrying suitcases to groups of youths to old poor people. Usu it's crowded, so U share tables w other locals and U get to chat w them if they know English. Hence I strongly recommend coming to Bar Mleczny. After all, isn't part of travelling about mingling w heartlanders?

Bigos(cabbage)

It was extremely heart-wrenching to see an old lady walking into the room trembling from the cold winter outside. She counted the coins in her cigarette box gingerly and stared at the menu on the wall for a v long time, hands still trembling. After a long while, she went to the counter to order a piece of bread & a cup of coffee w at least 7 cubes of sugar. It saddened me to think that she managed to survive WW2 but she have problems surviving modern times

Krokrety(spring roll), Barszcz(beetroot soup)

It's hard to order food in this place if U dun know exactly what Polish food U want. So I approached a young female Pole to ask her the name of the springroll she was eating, explaing that I was keen to try Polish Cusine. She kindly wrote them down on a piece of paper for me. Later her boyfriend even surprised me w a bowl of beetroot for me, explaining that they bought it specially for me since beetroot soup usu go together w what I was eating then. Poles' hospitality is just amazing!

Poland: Krakow (Wawel Castle, Jewish memorial, Schindler Factory)

2005-12-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

Wawel Castle

View of Krakow from Wawel Castle

Courtyard of the Castle. The rooms basically contains tapestries and other royal family's treasures

Wawel cathedral @ the Wawel Castle

Inside the Wawel cathedral

The priests taking turns to pray in front the altar

Fire-breathing dragon @ the foot of the Wawel Castle

Bagels which originate from Poland

Unflattering shot of Polish street baskers

The inscription says: "In memory of the Jewish martyrs of Cracow who were annihilated by the Nazi Germans in the terrible period"; "Earth do not Cover their Blood"

I am currently in Kazimierz, scene of many events in Schindler's List

Jewish Synagogue
I feel that Synagogues are generally less ostentatious and gives a warm, cosy and homely feeling whereas catholic cathedrals seem to seek to overwhelm their visitors with their ostentatious displays

Jewish Cemetery

Across the Wista river to go to the Schindler Factory

Schindler Factory

The man himself

Awarded the medal for the Righteous Among the Nations

Show @ the market square

Overall, I feel that Krakow is a lot less touristy than Prague and thus more pleasant to walk around

Poland: Krakow (Wielieczk salt mine)

2005-12-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Wielieczk salt mine is declared by UNESCO as 1 of 12 most priceless monuments in the world.

Our tour guide who is full of dry humour

Inside the salt mine, another world exists.
Salt Statues

Copernicus

Kinga, princess of Hungary

Early miners @ work

This is the most impressive place: St Kinga's Chapel, where there is the sculpture of Poland's beloved child...

Pope John Paul II...

Last Supper...

Somehow all these remind me of the Dwarven mines of Moria in LOTR

Underground salt lakes

Underground Tourist shops. Note all the grey part of the pic is salt, not rock

The Warsaw Chamber used for ball concerts, sports and fairs

One thing really interesting abt salt mines is the air inside. Salt mines not only are free from the dirty air that plaques other types of mines eg iron or coal mine, they actually have cleaner air than the air on the surface. Most salt miners live to a long age. In fact, even today, people with respiratory problems actually stay here for a few months to cure their respiratory problems!

The lift up from the mine is an experience. We are packed into this small lift that fires up quickly and U could feel the wind blasting thru the rickety lift.

Dinner @ Vega, a vegetarian restaurant. The right dish is the Polish peirogi(dumplings).

Poland: Krakow (Auschwitz)

2005-12-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

After another overnight train(8h), this time from Praha hl.n to Krakow Glowny train station, we arrived in Krakow.

Some facts abt Krakow(Crakow):
-Unlike most Polish cities, as it emerged from WW2 & communism nearly unscathed
-referred to as "Poland's beloved child now cast into international spotlight"

The Cloth Hall in the market square. To the right is the Town Hall tower.

St Mary's Church: every hour, a trumpet calls & cuts off abruptly in memory of the trumpeter who shot down by the Tarars as he attempted to warn the city of the Tartar's invasions

I came here mainly to see Auschwitz & Wieliezka salt mine. So here they are:

I took the recommended tour package that brought me to the 2 camps and the Jewish centre & synagogue in Auschwitz

Auschwitz basically have 2 concentration camps remaining(the 3rd camp was destroyed by the Nazis): the 1st & smaller Auschwitz I at Oswiecim, and the 2nd & larger Auschwitz II at Birkenau. It was the largest concentration camp in Europe during WW2.

Entrance to Auschwitz I
Arbeit Macht Freig (Work shall set you Free)-bitter ironic description on camp's gate.

The barracks that once held Jews & Roma(gypsies) now showcase the ghastly remnants of those murdered: piles of suitcases, shoes, eyeglasses, hair(the most emotional for me)

Many were shot agst this wall

This is the cell of a priest, Father Maximilian, who willingly substitued another man's place for starvation & submitted himself to a more ghastly torture. Amazingly he survived but the Nazis exectued him by lethal injection. The priest became a strong symbol of faith in the face of persecution within the Catholic Church and was canonized by Pope John Paul II.

The 1st commandant of Auschwitz was tried & hanged here after the war

Entrance to the incinerator

Human bodies were shoved into the incinerator from here

Auschwitz II: built when the massive influx of prisoners were brought to Auschwitz motivated the Nazis to pursue a more "efficient" means of killing. Nazis attempted to conceal their genocide by destroying the camps b4 it was liberated

Trains from all over Europe arrive at this place bringing Jews, Roma and political prisoners

The beds

Toilet

After the concentration camps, we went to the Auschwitz Jewish centre which depicts pre-war Jewish life in town

The only Jewish synagogue(reconstructed after the war) left in the town.
It's sad that there are no more jews in the town today though the town was a bustling Jewish centre b4 the war.
The person standing is our Polish guide.

After the Auschwitz tour, we walked around the Florianska street, which starts from the Barbican gate. (centre in pic)

Czech: Prague (Museum of communism)

2005-12-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

Most of the major sights in Prague were covered on the 1st day so the 2nd day was spent covering some other minor sights.

The Dancing house which was a controversial building(like our Esplanade). It was supposed to represent a dancing couple but was an eyesore to many.

Charles Bridge across the Vltava river

Does anybody know what this is for?

Antonin Dvorak, Czech greatest composer
Nearby was the Jan Palach square which was originally called red army square in honour of the Russians who liberated Prague in 1945. Ironically it now honours Jan Palach who burnt himself to protest the 1968 Soviet invasion

Josefov, a well preserved Jewish cemetry & synagogues after Nazis deported most of Prague's Jews to Terezin & Hitler's decision to create a "museum of an extinct race".

I saw this hooded statue reminiscent of the character in Diablo. It was actually in memory of Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" premiered in a theatre next to it.

Black theatre which Czech is famed for

Not forgetting the puppets

Museum of communism
It basically talks about: the dream(origin of communism)-->the reality(the impact of communism on Czech)-->the Nightmare(the despair that led to the Velvet revolution). There is also an emotional video about events leading to the Velvet Revolution

The museum allows u to truly understand the significance of many sights in Prague. Just as the Nobel Prize museum in Oslo(Norway) is a must-see, the museum of communism in Prague is also a must-see. Anyway, it was quite amusing to go to this Musuem of communism in Prague soon after my Russia trip.

Soviets as the Liberators of the Czech from the Nazis

The exceptionally expensive Stalin monument which was destroyed

Stalin & his Socialist world
The exhibition talks abt Soviets' space exploration developments and other technology, glorification of their status thru sports. Spying and interrogation of suspected 'enemies' of the state, devastation of Prague due to the Communists' attention on building of heavy industry are also covered.

Propaganda agst Western capitalism thru caricatures

Invasion of Prague to instil 'normalization' by the Soviets in 1968

Jan Palach who torched himself in protest

At the Jan Hus statue, 1 million peole gathered for Jan Palach's funeral procession

1989 Velvet Revolution

Wenceslas Square

This basically sums up the Velvet Revolution

Thoughts abt Prague:
Overall, I feel that most of Prague's major sight can be covered within 1-2 days. And if u give it 5-10yrs, Prague will turn out to be like any other central/Western European cities, though its buildings are not as fanciful to me

Police & ambulance sirens misused? U could hear sirens almost every now & then screaming down some roads. But dun get me wrong, Prague is as safe as any other European cities.

The little green man at some junctions only flash for an extremely short time. This means that U could get to the pt diagonically across quickly but it'll also mean that U've to walk fast across each junction. Forget abt cross some roads if U r old or disabled.

Most of Prague's sights can be covered by walking around. As such, walking tour guides r common here & everywhere U go, U can see a group of tourists following a local guide around.

Concerts common eg Dvorak, Mozart, Vivaldi.

Most pet dogs are unleashed

I must point out that holding a Singapore passport once again proves to be valuable as we do not need visa in Czech, just like previously in Estonia. Apparently like what my Taiwanese friends commented, a Singaporean passport actually grants entry to almost everywhere in the world, unlike some larger countries.

Most of Prague's tourist attractions revolve around her resentment towards communism. Eg. plaque at wencelas square commerating Jan Palach who ignited himself to protest agst 1968 Soviet invasion; John Lennon Wall; Velvet revolution memorial; Museum of communism

Czech: Prague (Wenceslas square, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle)

2005-12-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

After the overnight train(7h) from Katowice to Prague(=Praha), we reached Praha hlavni nadrazi main train station...

...which smelled of pee almost everywhere and has many loud-speaking men loitering around in groups

Some facts abt Czech:
-This landlocked country rarely resisted as armies marched thru their borders. Thus czech cities are well-preserved
-Czech Republic known as the roof of Europe as the river sources are there
-the most tourist city in Eastern Europe

St Wenceslas statue with the inscription "Do not let us and our descendents perish". The National Museum is behind.

What is more significant is a plaque nearby which commerate Jan Palach who ignited himself to protest agst the 1968 Soviet invasion

This whole lane is the Wenceslas square(boulevard) which is the commercial district of hotels and expensive dept stores. It is also the site of many historic events: Czechoslovak proclaimed in 1918; Jan Palach set himself on fire to protest the 1968 Soviet invasion; proclamation agst the communist regime in 1989

In the middle of the Old Town Square is the statue of Jan Hus who was burnt at stake for his invocation agst indulgences of catholic church. This statue subsequently became the symbol of Czech nationalism

Another highlight at the Old Town Square is the Astronomical clock

Close-up of the Astronomical Clock

where crowds gather to watch skeletal death(the skeleton at the bottom right of the pic) empties his hourglass & apostles marched by. Though it appears unimpressive to me.

Entrance to the Charles Bridge which is a must-see in Prague

The Charles bridge is decorated w baroque statues and offers a good view of the Prague Castle in the distance(top right in above pic)...

...and the wide river

This is the John Lennon Wall which is covered in graffiti and is a memorial to John Lennon. It became controversial & well-known when communist authorities attempted to suppress it by white-washing it.

An unimpressive portrait of Lennon remain

Stairs up to the Prague Castle
Note the beggar in the pic. Some beggars can be seen around Prague and they usu kneel on the floor for long hours without moving.

View from the top of the Prague Castle

Note the Petrin tower on top of the hill. It is like a small copy of the Eiffel tower.

Entrance to Prague Castle

Changing of guards ceremony

Prague caste's centrepiece: St Vitus's cathedral

Birth of Jesus

Czech Goulash

At night, the old town square was swarming with people due to the Christmas-season booths

Tyn Church at the old town square

Night View of the river from the Charles Bridge

Prague Castle at night

National Theatre

Velvet revolution memorial
This is the memorial to the Czech citizens beaten by police during communist regime in 1989 during the peaceful march to mourn the Nazi execution of 9 Czech students 50yrs earlier. The communist violent suppression of the peaceful demonstration outraged the nation and led to the Velvet revolution
Han commented it to be "pathetically small" for such a major event. We couldn't find the inscription "Our hands are empty"

We then stayed @ the absolutely fantastic Miss Sophie's hostel w stylish rooms, helpful receptionist, motion-activated lights...

Poland: Katowice(transit)

2005-12-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Wizzair(2h) from Skavsta(Sweden) to Katowice(Poland). Katowice merely served as a transit point for us.

Katowice train station. Within the train station itself, there were some homeless people taking shelter from the snow outside. A hunched-back old man up tried to lie down but was dragged up by 2 security guards. A man came into restaurant, asking for food from the customers and was immediately shoved out. There were also a few Polish soldiers off-duty (Poland has compulsory military service of 1 yr)

Took the 1st class(S$60) Katowice-Prague train cos Han heard stories from his Polish friend abt how people were cholorofoamed and handcuffed onto the beds.

Sights along the way

Stockholm: Officially Winter

2005-11-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

I woke up one day to see this view from my window.

Snow!
It's officially winter! I didn't expect it to be so early cos my Swede friends were telling me how in recent years, it always snow in December. Oh well, the blanket of snow covering Stockholm certainly brightens this otherwise gloomy and dark landscape(cos the sun sets at 3pm)

That signals the death of any possible use of my bicycle anymore. Well, so be it. It has outlasted its value. I bought it for 990SEK and used it for a few months. Considering that the 1 month's SL transport card costs 600SEK, getting the bicycle was definitely worth it. Not to mention the fact I can sell the still-new bicycle second-hand. Haha..

Christmas tree at KTH

When the snow comes, I felt a subtle difference in the mood of the people around me. Before that, the early sunset seemed to make the students & prof a bit glum & depressed. But with the arrival of the snow, everyone seemed to cheer up.

:)

Russia: St Petersburg (Russian folk dance)

2005-11-21T15:08:00.000-08:00

After 2 days in Moscow, we went back to St Petersburg.

Artilleries outside the Artillery museum

The golden spire dome of St Paul's cathedral is the symbol of St Petersburg. St Peter and St Paul fortress was originally a military fortress and later became a prison for political dissidents eg son of Peter the Great and Trotsky.

At night we went to Menshikov's Palace to catch the Russian folk dance. It was totally awesome! It is a combination of a folk show, aerobic dance, circus and gymnastics!

I've uploaded some clips:
Instrumental
Dance
Twirl
Acrobatics

After the folk dance, the 3 Taiwanese and I went to a Chinese Restaurant. Amazingly, it was actually cheaper to eat there than at other eating outlets in Russia. We were all surprised cos we expected it to be much more expensive. Damn, should have eaten there for all the meals. The Taiwanese ordered food like mad and lamented how much they missed the food in Taiwan. Yeah, nothing beats a 清淡 bowl of soup dumplings and noodles in the cold winter of Russia.

Russia Conclusion:
St Petersburg has nicer architectures, a richer history while Moscow has shorter history and less places to visit. However, St Petersburg seems a lot less happening than the capital Moscow. Quote: "St Petersburg struggles to be a ghost capital that seems frozen in time". Compared to St Petersburg, Moscow is more metropolitan but that means it is less different from other European cities.

Moreover, St Petersburg buildings cannot be higher than the Hermitage(Winter Palace) which is abt 20m. It was only recently they lifted the height limit. As such, St Petersburg has no skyscrapers and its skyline is rather horizontal.

One thing I missed was the KGB Museum in Moscow which we would have needed to pre-arrange tours. This is interesting: "notable KGB operations"

It was hard to go around w/o understanding or speaking Russian. Most do not speak English nor understand it. And all the food is labelled in Cyrillic alphabets rather than English alphabets

Polluted air, like india, except the air is filled with industrial chemical smell!

Eating out in Russia is not cheap, contrary to my inital expectation. According to the St Petersburg Times papers, which I read when I was there, the explosion of oil exports out of Russia led to inflation of prices and some critics compared the sudden wealth to the Dutch disease

Russia: Moscow (Kremlin, Red Square)

2005-11-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

Next morning we went for the Kremlin Tour

Kermlin="castle". It is the official residence & workplace of President Putin. Kremlin is the oldest part of the city and the heart of Russia. On these ancient grounds, Tsars were crowned and buried. The Kremlin was also the HQ of Soviet Union and currently, the highest administration of Russia is located there.

Russian soldiers going thru the Alexander Gate

Tomb of unknown soldier where an eternl flame burns in memory of the tremendous loss of lives of Russian soldiers in the Great Patriotic War(WW2)

Main Entrance to the Kremlin

The ever watchful police would blow whistles if U enter into forbidden zone. After all, President Putin works here. Behind the police is the Senate Building.

Cute little girl in front of Massive Tsar Cannon

The World's largest church bell

Cathedral of the Annunciation, the home church of the tsars

After the Kremlin tour, we went to join the queue to Lenin Mausoleum where Lenin has lain since his death. (strictly no cameras). But the queue was too long and the place which is only opened from 10am to 1pm closed b4 we could get in. Sigh...

Anyway, kilometre '0' lies below Lenin Mausoleum. (Kilometre '0' is the spot from which all distance from Moscow is measured)

I guessed this is like their wishing well. The people stand in the centre, wished for sth and threw coins behind them. Well, the 2 old woman at the back would quickly scoop the coins up and put into their pockets

Well the night view of Red Square is an absolute must-see in Moscow, so here they are.

Some people were snowball-fighting on the Red Square

GUM dept store

St Basil's Cathedral

Russia: Moscow (Ukraina Hotel, Metro)

2005-11-19T12:30:00.000-08:00

We finally reached Moscow 2-3hours behind the scheduled time. Apparently we were stuck in a huge traffic jam thruout the night. There is this large convoy of container trucks sharing the roads with us and they were all moving slowly. Being late means we couldn't follow the schedule to stop at the McDonald's along the way for breakfast. So we were all hungry and tired from the overnight drive when we started the guided sightseeing tour of the city.

St Basil's Cathedral built by Ivan the terrible

Red Square

Yes, it's not red. But it is called Red Square cos the Russian word for beautiful can also mean red. The fence and the ever watchful Russian police stop anyone from walking onto the forbidden zone on the Red Square. People are only allowed to step onto the Red Square after a certain time.

The red building in the pic is the Historical museum which showcases Russian history

GUM dept store. The locals refer to it as the "exhibition of prices", joking that no one could actually buy anything on display

Lake outside Novodevichy Monastery where Tchaikovsky reportedly got his inspiration for "swan lake". Notice that some ducks are swimming in the lake while others are walking on the frozen parts.

Newly-weds dancing on Sparrow hill, one of the highest points in Moscow. There were quite a number of newly-weds taking pics here and most of them celebrated the occasion by dancing(russian folk dance style).

Russian wooden dolls. Got myself one that has 10 layers.

After the city sightseeing tour ended, we checked into the Ukraina Hotel (above) which is an awesome 5-star hotel.

Awesome view from my window

The White House containing the Russian govt

Moscow's metro stations are the "underground palaces". The magnificent halls are adorned with sculptures, mosaics, paintings and stained glass panels. But I felt this oppressive and tensed atmosphere bearing down on me. Look at the above pic. There may be many people but imagine that it's totally quiet except footsteps and the loud screeching of trains. No voices, no laughters. Just everyone minding their own business. And everyone looks coldly expressionless.

Anyway one word of caution: Going up the escalator from the train station means that u have exited the train station. When we reached this train station, we wanted to find out exactly what station this was(there were little signs around), so we went up this long escalator to see whether there was a name anywhere... The top of the escalator led out of the station so we had no choice but to pay again to get back into the train station.

Completely quiet in the train except the rumbling of the train & the screeching of brakes.

Cathedral of the Christ the Saviour. Behind it is a huge statue of Alexander II.

This Cathedral has quite an interesting history. Nicholas I originally built a cathedral here for Russian's victory over Napoleon. Stalin demolished it to erect a "Palace of the Soviets" which was to be the tallest building in the world. But the ground was too soft, so the project was abandoned and changed to an outdoor swimming pool. But the vapour from the heated water damaged the paintings in a nearby building so this cathedral was built back up again.

Old Arbat street

This pedestrain-walking Road was where we had a rather cheap(finally!) meal at Marche-style Mu-Mu

Russia: St Petersburg (Catherine's Palace)

2005-11-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

Snowing!

We took the coaches to Catherine's Palace a short distance off St Petersburg. By the time we reached there, it was snowing quite heavily and we all needed to trudge gingerly thru the thick snow to get to the Palace from the buses.

Catherine's Palace and her splendour? Though it turned out to be as grand as I expected it to be for the Tsar of Russia

After the Catherine's Palace we had more free time to explore the rest of St Petersburg ourselves. Hsien & I immediately went to Yusupov Palace, the mansion of Yusupov family who conspred to kill Rasputin. In case u do not know, Rasputin, the mystic "Mad Monk" who wielded huge influence over the imperial family, was damn hard to be killed. He ate cyanide-laced pastries but didn't die. So the conspirators shot him in the liver. He fell to the floor, seemingly dead. So they carried him to the nearby Neva river to dispose of his body but he suddenly woke up again. So they shot him in the lung and his head and threw him into the ice water. Yet when the body was recovered, there was evidence that Rasputin struggled in the ice cold water.

Conned by the display board outside Yusupov Palace

So here we were in the Yusupov Palace, after being told by our sightseeing tour guide that this was the only place to find out more abt Rasputin. We finished touring the entire Palace b4 discoving that the exhibition abt Rasputin was only available some other day. Arrghh, 300roubles for nothing.

Rimsky-Korsakov who composed Flight of the Bumblebee

We then spent another 12-h overnight drive on the bus to Moscow

Anyway, I must point out that in Russia, almost all the vehicles are damn dirty. Must be due to the disgusting vehicles exhaust and polluted industrial air. At the end of the trip, our buses also turn out to be as diry as the van above in the pic. What abt my lungs?

Russia: St Petersburg (Main sights)

2005-11-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

View from our hotel window next morning. Notice the many factory chimneys doing their bit for environmental pollution.

After a marvellous buffet breakfast at the hotel, we departed for the city sightseeing tour.

St Petersburg
-formerly known as Petrograd or Leningrad
-founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 as a "window to Europe"
-capital of Russia till 1918
-in WW2, surrounded & beseiged by Germans for 21 mths, 800k out of 3m pp died
-now 2nd largest city in Russia
-city of 300 bridges
-"Venice of the North"

The Bronze Horseman, a monument to Tsar Peter the Great, the founder of St Petersburg. The statue represents Peter 'showing' the way for Russia, while his horse steps on a snake, which represents his enemies and his harsh reforms

I bought the Russian hat(SHAPKA-USHANKA) from a (illegal?) street peddler. Its ear flaps certainly helps to protect your head from the freezing cold. And it's quite a common headwear in Russia, not just a tourist must-get item or a thing of the past.

Resurrection cathedral, probably one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Russia, was built on the place where Tsar Alexander II was assainated by terrorists. It resembles the St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

St Issac's Cathedral
Mercury was used to gild its golden dome and the toxic mercury vapours killed some workers.

View from top of St Issac Cathedral
I must comment that at most road junctions, there is no separate traffic signal for pedestrains. One just have to wait for the Green light for the cars when attempting to cross. Attempting to jaywalk most streets will be suicide cos the cars speed down the slippery roads.

And I didn't see a single motorcycle thruout my stay in Russia

A monument to Nicholas I, which is the only equestrian staute in the world with merely 2 support pts(the rear feet of the horse)

The Palace Square is dominated by the unique Alexander granite Column, which is the largest Granite monolith in the world. Apparently the Column is so nicely set that no attachment to the base is needed, ie balanced and supported by its own weight

Hsien(from Taiwan) and Cecilia(from Hongkong)
Behind us is the Hermitage(in the former Winter Palace), 2nd largest art gallery in the world. We were told that if we spent 1/2 min looking at each item, we would take 9 yrs to finish the whole museum. The best part is it's free for students

Nevsky Prospekt, their 'Orchard Road'

Kazan Cathedral, modelled on St Peter's in Rome

Russia: St Petersburg (Arrival)

2005-11-16T16:29:00.000-08:00

Finally, going to Russia! I had been looking forward to this since coming to Sweden & after Texiang told me abt his bagpacking adventure in Russia. So here I was, on this Russia road trip organized by a Finnish travel agency. There were 120 particpants in all, mostly exchange students studying in various parts of Sweden.

It cost 60€ for me to get a Russia visa. Yes, everyone needs to get a visa to just enter the country. The visa prices vary noticeably with nationalities. And you can easily gauge the relationship b/w Russia and that country according to the visa prices eg Visa for Americans cost 75€ but only 10€ for Polish

We took Viking Line overnight to Turku, Finland and from there we took a 14-hours drive to St Petersburg.

It was a drowsy, long bus ride whereby all of us drifted hazily in & out of sleep. Fortunately, there were a number of stops along the way. At one of the stops, 2 strangers got up the bus offering to trade Russian roubles for euros with the exchange rates written on his palm.

At another, parked vans opened up to sell liquor and cigarettes. Apparently, these were all illegal but who cares, especially when they offer very decent rates.

At first sight, Russia doesn't seem that much different from other European countries. There were big ads displayed, including Coca-cola. But all the words were Russian Cyrillic alphabets eg. laterally inverted N and R. Upon arrival in St Petersburg, one thing that hits u immediately upon getting off the bus is how foul the air smell. It's not a problem pertaining to only St Petersburg but to all major Russian cities. Thick smoke from heavy industries, exhausts from automobiles and blatant disregard for the environment has made the air so foul-smelling that the air pollution is "ten times the accepted safety levels".

After dumping our luggage at Hotel Sovetskaya, we(Josef, Cecilia, Hsien, Rashid and I) then explored St Petersburg on foot. A mixture of rain and light snow fell from the sky. Josef our Swedish bus group leader commented that the buildings look really nice. I replied that they probably looked nicer at night than in the day cos it seems that the Russians sure know how to use lighting effect to enhance the appearance of the facade of the buildings.

Around 2am, We managed to catch the raising of bridge across the Neva river(main river in city). At the last moments there were still cars trying to zoom across the bridge but were turned away by the Russian police.

Belgium: Brussels (Mini-Europe)

2005-10-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

We spent our final day in Belgium exploring the rest of Brussels

Triumph Arch
Even though it has the same name(Arc de Triomphe) as the one in Paris, I feel that it strongly resembles the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and bears little resemblance to the one in Paris

EU Building

Atomium
A giant molecule of an iron molecule. It was a space-age leftover from the 1958 World Fair. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations.

Mini-Europe, next to the Atomium
It was rather expensive to enter but it was defintely worth it. Exact replicas of all the famous buildings in Europe are on display. All of them are scaled down to 1/25 and you can have a good feel of how big each building is in comparison to the other. Needless to say, the Eiffel tower was towering above everything else.

Compare the original Brussels' Town Hall...
[By the way, this Grand Place is the most beautiful part of Belgium with the Town Hall(+Belfry) and the House of the King which contains the famous wardrobe(600 costumes) of the Manneken Pis]

... to its replica. No wonder this replica costs 372,000 Euro.
Besides showcasing the many replicas of famous buildings all around Europe, there is a very good book given upon entrance educating the readers about the significance of each building and the significance of the EU. I definitely think that Mini-Europe has succeeded in attracting both tourists and educating the public about EU, its significance and its need to band together to face the world today.

Perhaps Singapore should also set up a Mini-Asean/Mini-SEAsia. Haha. No, serious. Singapore will then able to showcase the famous buildings in SE Asia and its diversity. What better country than Singapore, which is centrally located, to showcase this? Afterall, many tourists use Singapore to sling/hop to surrounding countries. Singaporeans, including schoolchildren, will also have good understanding of the counries around us. Not to mention the tourists flocking to Singapore just to see Mini-Asean. $$$$

Galeries Royales St-Hubert: the world's 1st shopping mall
where Han bought the high-quality, expensive Neuhaus Chocolate
The Neuhaus shop owner was evidently very happy to see a group of jap tourists, after us. She even has a jap assistant to increase sales. Why r the japs so rich & so welcomed in every part of the world?

How can u resist these waffles?

Manneken Pis-the symbol of Brussels/Belgium
It supposedly represents the "irreverent spirit" of Brussels but I dun really understand what irreverant spirt of the Belgian it is referring to.

Belgium Conclusion:
We went to 5 different cities in Belgium and covered all the essential icons in 5 nights, 4 days. Not forgetting the fact that we attended the Oasis concert in those 4 days. It was almost like an amazing race in Belgium!

Overall, I'm quite impressed that almost all of the cities in Belgium are well-developed. Each city is rich in history and has impressive architecture. The only city I would have gone if given more time is Spa, which is the famed site of healing hot springs and where the word Spa comes from. But then again, 4 days of churches & other urban architecture is a bit monotonous for me. I will prefer a variety of activties. Luckily in the upcoming Czech/Poland trip, I will be popping by Poland's Auschwitz concentration camp in the heart of winter. Haha.

Anyway, after exploring Belgium, it's easy to understand why so many international organizations are located in Belgium. It is indeed the melting point of Europe!

Belgium: Antwerp

2005-10-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Next morning, we then took the train from Leuven to Antwerp

Antwerp Central station, which has absolutely gorgeous facade & interior.

Antwerp is the world diamond centre. (70% of diamonds in world are traded here)
DiamondLand which showcases the different types of diamonds and technology to achieve the perfect 'Flanders' cut.

Courtyard of Rubenhuis (home of Rubens, Antwerp's most famous painter)

Cathedral of Our Lady, the largest & finest Gothic cathedral, which took 2 centuries to complete. It has breathtakingly beautiful interior and houses 4 early canvases by Rubens, such as...

"Raising of the Cross"
Nearby was the "Descent from the Cross" painting

Han & I in front of the Renaissance Town Hall at the Market Square

Replica at Mini-Europe

Maritime Museum

This was a super long pedestrain tunnel under the river to link both sides-1572m!

So glad we went for Antwerp instead of dismissing it as just a diamond city

Belgium: Leuven

2005-10-25T01:50:00.000-07:00

After the Oasis concert at Brussels, Han & I took the train to Leuven, which is another town about 1 hour from Brussels. Han's law friend, Alex, has kindly offered us accomodation at his studio room. :)

Leuven may be a small university town but it sure is 'happening'. We were there around 1am and the streets were filled with young people. No, not that sort of drunk, loud hooligans but just young students enjoying themselves to the dance music at the bars down the street.

Leuven's town hall totally stunned me when I chanced upon it. I was blown over by the intricate carvings on the statues covering the building from the bottom to the top

Leuven's town hall replica in MiniEurope, Brussels

This is the statue of the eternal student 'pouring science into his head'

After a good night's rest at Alex's studio, we wanted to go explore the rest of the Leuven the next morning but apparently there wasn't exactly much. Except probably the stella artois brewery. After all, stella artois is belgian beer brewed right here in Leuven. But the tourist info lady advised us agst it, so we headed to Antwerp city

Belgium: Brussels (Oasis Concert)

2005-10-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

After Ghent, Han & I then took the train back to Brussels Central to join Yunchen & Malou. We were going to catch Oasis concert at Forest National. Yes, Oasis! Alright, I must admit. I'm not exactly a rockconcert-goer. But after much persuasion by Han, I relented. After all, it's the Oasis. And how many people has a chance to catch them in action?

They were solid, as expected. Dishing out crowd's favourites such as Champagne supernova, Don't look back in anger, the impt of being idle... I managed to tape two of them too: Wonderwall and Don't look back in Anger. Enjoy :)

Overall, the energy of the crowd was evident. Everyone was jumping around. That's why u see my camera shaking. Cos the floor was shaking. The energy of the audience was definitely not sth u can find in Singapore. However, personally I'd prefer to do away with the smoke and the super high volume of the music blasting into your ears. Ok, rock concert is supposed to be loud but there must be a limit to the decibels, isn't it? It sure was slightly over the comfort level for me. And the smoke... Given a choice, I will still prefer "BBC last night of the proms" or "Yanni Live at Acropolis" over a rock concert. That's just me. But dun get the wrong idea. I had a great time and Oasis truly rocks.

As we exited the concert hall after the oasis concert, we saw police cars surrounding the exits. No doubt looking out for trouble-makers amongst the oasis fans. We ran to catch the last train. The last train was delayed for 10min for some reason. It was then we started to see posters. Posters of someone missing who was last seen in this train station. Ermmm... We started to make our way towards the centre section where there were more decent-looking people. Haha.

Belgium: Ghent

2005-10-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

After a good night's rest in Bruges, we went on to Ghent

Ghent may be a lot less 'touristic' than Bruges but it certainly feels more authentic.

Ghent has quite an interesting history. It uses a Noose as its symbol. Yes, the hangman's noose. The object that will seal a poor man's fate in a few weeks in Singapore. Anyway, the people of Ghent are known as the 'noose bearers'. This is the reason:

"In 1537, Emperor Charles V found the inhabitants of Ghent guilty of disobedience, forgery, popular uprising, rebellion and lese majesty. He sentenced them to public humiliation: they had to walk the streets barefoot, with only a shirt on and wearing a noose around their neck. Nowadays they re-enact the incident with their heads held high, as proof of their proud obstinancy"

This is the must-see view from St Michael's bridge (next to St Michael's Church)-a unique view of 3 towers: St Nicholas' church, Belfry & St Bavo's cathedral

St Bavo's Cathedral is filled with art treasures and has 22 altars! It even an underground altar below it. It is famous for the mystic lamb painting which has one of its panels stolen and which is still missing.

There is this bearded harpist who plays such heavenly harp music that I was seriously contemplating whether to buy his 20Euro Cd. I didn't in the end but I sure miss his music. He's so good that every 5 min, a person is buying his Cd... I can't find his music. Anyone can help?! His cd is called "Harp Meditation between Flowers" (Link)

Impressive Castle of the Counts showing who's the boss
There was a display room showcasing the medieval weapons. Looking at all the two-handed swords, pocket crossbow, morning star, I suddenly feel like playing Diablo 2 again. Anyway civilization 4 is out. And the review is awesome.

View of St Bavo, Belfry and St Nicholas from the top of the Castle of the Counts

The Guillotine next to the Chamber of torture. Can your head fit into the bag?

Somehow, the words "Count" & "Castle" reminds me of vampires. Maybe I should go Transylvania in Romania to see Castle Dracula. Hmmm...

Belgium: Bruges

2005-10-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

Next morning we grudgingly dragged ourselves out of bed. Definitely feeling tired after a night of fitful sleep due to the unfortunate fact that we were woken up every now and then by the opening and closing door next to us. :( Alright, but at least the breakfast was filling.

Early on a Sunday morning, Brussels city 'North' seems quite dead to us. Prob everyone went partying the previous night. It seems that this part of the city is undergoing some major development project as shown by the dozens of half-completed skyscrapers.

So we bought a 'Gold Pass' for 10 train trips, which we were 'supposed' to fill in whenever we took trains. Point is-the train conductor doesn't always check. :)

I must say that the subway is a bit tourist-unfriendly because it was quite hard to figure out which train to take. with so many trains running everywhere, even to UK, Germany, France from Blegium. Also, the spellings of the places where we were going were sometimes different from the one we know. Anyway, even the exteriors of some trains have huge graffiti pictures on it..

Bruges (Dutch: Brugge), a UNESCO city, is one of Belgium's chief tourist attractions. Medieval streets, winding canals. It is sometimes referred to as "Venice of the North". Seems like there are many cities contesting that name: Stockholm, St Petersburg....

Concertgebouw(concert building) which also houses the coolest Tourist info centre I've ever seen

St Saviour's cathedral in the background

Tintin!

Borough, aka Acropolis of the town. It is located at the Marked Place, ie the town square where there many people queuing for horse rides.

Belfry-the city's most remarkable landmark

Belfry replica in Mini-Europe, Brussels

After climbing 366 steps up, this is the panoramic view of Bruges. The tall building is Church of Our Lady which contains the white marble Madonna with Child by Michelangelo.

'Flanders Lace' Bruges is known for

Took a boat cruise along the canals

City Hall built in the Gothic style. Nearby was the Basilica of the Holy Blood

Even has some windmills on the outskirts of the town

Alright, Bruges definitely has streets of charming historic houses Surrounded by canals but it seems little too touristic, overcrowded and a little 'fake'. "In recent years, the city has turned so much towards tourism the locals sometimes complain they are living in Disney-land."

Well, but at least the Europa youth hostel was awesome!

Belgium: Brussels (Arrival)

2005-10-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Going to Belgium for 4 days, 5 nights with Han, Yunchen, and 2 filipinos, Malou & Daisy
Ok, as usual, some background knowledge 1st

Belgium:
-host to many prominent international organisations, notably NATO and EU
-'Cockpit of Europe' cos centre of many past battles in Europe
-Origin of waffles & French fries(disputed)
-Land of comics(Tintin, Smurf), architecture, beer, food(best food in Europe according to gourmets) and Chocolate!!

My virgin Ryanair trip!
It was the Ryanair flight crew's 1st day at work. Han commented that he hoped that 'crew' doesn't include the pilot. Fortunately, all went well. The plane didn't crash-landed onto the runway, unlike the filipinos' previous trip. And it wasn't as far from the city centre as expected for such ridiculously low prices. I only had to take a 1.5h bus from T-centralen to Stockholm Skavsta Airport and upon arrival in Belgium, had to take another 1h bus from Chaleroi Airport to Brussels Zuistation Midi.

Feeling adventurous, Han & I walked from Midi station to our hostel in the drizzle. Well, my theory is that while travelling, I must try to walk whenever possible to take in the different sights of the city. Turns out to be true. We walked along streets smelling of pee, under highways and through quiet, dark corners. I must admit my senses were heightened at that point of time, cos of all the bored-looking youngsters and men loitering around aimlessly. Not a single female or small child was in sight. I was mentally preparing myself how to react if anyone jumps at us. We 'fast marched' and avoided eye contact with anyone till we reached the city central where it was brightly-lit. Phew... (In retrospect, I still can't conclude whether it's dangerous there since nobody really approached us or stared at us Asians . But then again, they were all standing around in small groups around the dark, quiet streets...)

Anyway, the migrant Turkish community is quite apparent during our walk. There were many Turks and Kebab stores around. The youth hostel we checked into -Jacques Brel YMCA- was a disappointment. Actually it was more like a pensioner place with more old people than youths. The toilet stinks, the room was cramped and the facilities suck. Overall, the most horrible youth hostel I've been to so far.

Do you know?
Belgium is divided into 3 regions:
-Flemish Region(more Dutch-speaking)
-Walloon Region(more French-speaking)[contains the German-speaking community]
-Brussels-Capital Region (bilingual: Brussels-Dutch; Bruxelles-French)

(Most of the places I will be going to are in the Flemish Region)

Stockholm: (Royal Palace Visit II)

2005-10-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

Royal Guards

Riksdagshuset(Swedish Parliament building). Notice how the new portion of the building fits into the old building

State Regalia

Swedish Chivalry

Swedish Carriage

Gorgeous ceiling paintings inside the Royal Palace

Super long table in the State Apartment where gala banquets are held during state visits

Can't understand how these were done with spray cans

well, I just can't overemphasize that Stockholm has fancy cars. Such cars are just parked beside the road. And it wasn't a car exhibition.

Anyway, this is the Stadshuset replica in Mini Europ, Brussels. The city hall is used for the annual Nobel Banquet.

Estonia: Tallinn

2005-10-04T17:44:00.000-07:00

ISS(International Student Service) of my school kindly organized a trip for all exchange students to go to Tallinn. Since it was pretty cheap, decided to go for it over the weekend. For some reason, the Tallink boat ran aground so delay, but got a good deal-a gorgeous ship Victoria!

Cabaret! Ok, it was no Moulin Rouge but it was still enjoyable.
It was certainly a much better boat than the Vikingline boat I previously took to Helsinki. Better facilities and more activities.

Ok, some background knowledge first:
Estonia
-pawn in the geopolitical games of its big neighbors:Danish(1219), Swedish(1561), German(WW2), and Russian(1710 & after WW2) rule

Tallinn "village of the Danes", capital of Estonia
-undoubtedly the most modern city in the Baltics
-but managed to retain its old charm thru its Old town, which is a UNESCO World Culture Heritage Site
-Old town is an amazingly well-preserved medieval Hanseatic town

St Olav Church, the tallest & most obvious building from far

"Fat Margaret" foregate
-1 of the most remarkable fortified towers
-some parts of the walls are supposedly 6.5m thick!

Stolting Tower & Fat Margaret replica(in Minieurope, Brussels)

Town Hall Square-centre of the Tallinn downtown
Nearby was a 300-yr-old medieval pharmacy which sold not only drugs but also textile, gunpowder, precious stones...

Danish King's Garden
According to legend, a red flag with a white cross fell from the sky in a battle for Tallinn, when the Estonians were overcoming the Danes; this miracle encouraged the Danes to win the battle. The white cross on red background became the Danish national flag as well as the Tallinn coat of arms. Strange, isn't it? To have your conqueror's national flag as your coat of arms

Facade of Toompea Castle which houses the Estonian parliament
Anyway, Tallinn old town consists of 2 parts: 1.Toompea-located on a limestone elevation, belonging to nobility & state power and 2.Downtown

Tower of Tall Hermann with the Estonian flag

Ok, this is the most beautiful building in Tallinn, in my opinion.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Its interior is beautiful and different from Catholic churches, with its iconostasis. Interestingly, Christianity reached Estonia simulaneously from the West and the East-Catholicism from the West and the Russian Orthodox faith from the East

Basically Tallinn old town just reminds me of Age of Empire, with its town hall, city walls and other buildings. I feel like I'm walking in the game that I used to play. Now I'm sure there's a bell somewhere which if i "click", all the townspeople will start running into the nearest building...

Adding the medieval feel

They even got guild houses which can only be joined by certain professionals eg. merchants, handicraftsmen. The guild even has cool names like Brotherhood of the Black Heads. So D&D! Maybe they have guild of thieves. Haha. (Too bad the Brotherhood of the Black Heads actually is a guild of unmarried merchants)

This is the common pic outside shops, just like the trolls outside stores in Norway

Estonia & its Saku beer

Very filling Estonian food

Do you know?
Melodies of Estonian & Finish national anthems are the same, though the lyrics differ

Stockholm: (Life in Lappis)

2005-10-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

There is a unique tradition in Lappis(or Lappkärrsberget): Every Tue 10pm, people will shout out of their window. It's like hearing your HDB neighbours shouting goal in a football match or the "yam seng" cheer during our Chinese celebration dinners. I find it quite amusing to hear people staying above, below or even in the opposite blocks shouting in unison or after one another.

Most of the time I cook my meals with Henry. But sometimes, Minrui will join us. Eating pancakes above.

Floor party. It usu lasts till 3am. There's hell lot of cleaning to do the next morning, especially the cigarette ashes littering all over the floor.

French Celine who loves to bake all kinds of bread and Norwegian Victoria who so kindly organize a floor Taco dinner

Once in a while, we'll have a potluck dinner together with the other Chinese from Taiwan and China(including Macau & Hongkong).

Certainly heartwarming to have so many people to have dinner together

Splendid feast. Curry! (by Isabel)

Chocolate cake (by Han) for Bel's 21st b'day
Everyone's a good chef here.

In Singapore, U get to see fireworks only on National day.
But here, I've chanced upon 2 fireworks from my room. No idea what's the occasion.

Lan Gaming.
On the left is Fredrick, a friendly Swede who hopes to become a English teacher in Asia 1 day. On the right is Koohan, a real funny Korean.

Koohan's room is a blast! He basically turned the hostel room into his home room, with music CDs, 2 computers, TV, PS2, Xbox....

Anyway, this is interesting: Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm: (City Hall dinner)

2005-09-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

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)

2005-09-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

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)

2005-09-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

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

---------------------------------------------------------
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

Norway: Oslo (Nobel, Vigeland)

2005-08-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Next to the city hall was the newly opened Nobel Peace Centre

"To inform visitors abt Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize and current conflicts and international peace efforts"

The Nobel Peace Centre has quite a unique exhibition style.
After we passed by the latest nobel prize winner exhibition, we went thru a passage where many short quotes of speeches abt prejudice or conflicts were flashed:

"Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Koran its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most sublime belief"--Article 8, the Hamas Charter
"We simply believe that the United States of America was founded as a white Christian nation"--www.KKK.com
"Lebensraum"--Adolf Hitler
"The bible is the authoritative word of God and contains all truth"--Bill Clinton
"Zimbabwe is for black people not white people"--Robert Mugabe
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man"--Thomas Jefferson

It was most interesting to note the above quote by George W Bush being displayed together with them. Other quotes by him displayed include:
"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists"
"You can run but you can't hide"

After this there were other displays about the current conflicts all around the world and the glimpses of hopes by some more "politically correct" speeches in contrast to the ones above

This is an amazing place.
It's supposed to be the Nobel field of Peace Prize laureates. Each screen representing one laureate. Whenever you go near one, the LEDs below will change colours slowly, soft sounds will emit and the screen will display more info abt the laureate. And even when there were many people wondering around, there is still a strong feeling of awe, reverance and tranquility about this place

This is an absolutely awesome book about Swedish inventer and industrialist Alfred Nobel. The book is totally blank and the words are projected by the projector above this book. The projector auto sense which page you are flipping thru now and will project the corresponding content onto the blank page.

What's even more amazing is that you can actually manipulate the images, ie you can use your hand to select certain topics projected onto the pg as though it were a hyperlink. Certain topics are even linked to the surroundings of the book eg. selecting a certain option will defog an otherwise opaque window to show the view of Sweden in the far distance!

Next I went thru an exhibition on Amnesty International with graphic images like children carrying guns. Apparently gun control is one of the most pressing concern.

Another amazing technological display. You can find out abt everything you wanna know (eg. Nobel Committee, Alfred Nobel, past Nobel Laureates) by just adjusting vertically the knob at the side of the screen and the whole screen would change automatically.

Pardon me, but I've a thing abt quotes: (all are quotes from former Nobel peace prize winners)
Be happy: "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."-Dalai Lamai
Be free: "Please use your liberty to promote ours."-Aung San Suu Kyi
Take a stand: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference"-Elie Wiesel
Be brave: "It often takes more courage to change ones opinon than to keep it."-Willy Brandt
Live, and let live: "We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children"-Jimmy Carter
Communicate: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"-Nelson Mandela
Respect Others: "A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons"-Biskop Desmond
Act: "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person"-Mother Teresa
Be patient: "Let us be patient with one another. And even patient with ourselves. We have a long, long way to go."-Emily Greene Bald
Don't lose faith: "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope"-Martin Luther King

Nobel Institute-home of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, committee selected by the Norwegian Parliament(Storting)
From 1905 to 1946, peace prize awarded at the Nobel Institute
From 1990, Peace Prize Ceremony at Oslo City Hall

Beautiful statue at one of the Norwegian houses

I just love the wall creepers

Norwegian guard

Royal Palace
The statue of the man riding the horse is King Karl Johan of Sweden and Norway

Vigeland park-one of norway's main attractions with more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and cast iron

Famous angry young boy

Man playing with his son
I like the way the background fits into the pic

Man frustrated by his children?

Beautiful flowers

Fountain surrounded by so many sculptures

The monolith: a 14 meter tall column with human bodies carved out of a single block of stone.

Mum overjoyed with her newborn

Mum bullied by children

Young lovers

Old lovers

So cute

Too bad I miss the Holmenkollen ski jump(hailed as the mecca of ski jumping) and Edvard Munch's Scream painting

Conclusion:

I still can't forget the fjords of West Norway which I visited at the beginning. They are just unimaginably beautiful. Anyone who has enough of excess, unneccessary technology and pollution and who just crave to be back to nature and embrace the gift of virgin wilderness, pure water and clean air will naturally find West Norway the garden of Eden.

Some facts:
-NORWAY is the world's best place to live, according to the United Nations, which just gave it top ranking for a fifth successive year.
-Norway, a country with only 4.6 million inhabitants, is the world's third-largest exporter of oil, after Saudi Arabia and Russia. This generates a huge stream of cash for government coffers. To avoid the common traps of great natural wealth, the money is put in a petroleum fund, now worth about 1.2 trillion kroner (S$310 billion)

But you must first be loaded. Let me give you an idea. The BK meal there costs S$20. So if you extrapolate everything is abt x3-4 times more expensive than singapore. And not forgetting the incredible tax..... Sigh... <Big Mac index>

Norway: Oslo

2005-08-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.
Henry lost his camera, or rather, his camera got stolen. Gone too were all his photos for the norway trip....sigh..

What happened was that we reached Oslo Sentralstasjon around 12am on Sun morning.

We couldn't find any bus to take us to the hostel that the Jet & the girls were in. And the wooden benches in the Sentralstasjon seem too hard to sleep.

So we left the Sentralstasjon. Immediately, we felt sth was wrong. Behind us while we were taking the photo of the tiger, gangs of youths were hanging around, talking loudly and apparently looking for trouble. There were evidently some drunks around after Sat night clubbing. We felt especially uneasy and vulnerable standing out as tourists among them. And there were no sight of any security personnel or police. We quickly hurried into the nearby bus terminal.

The security person disallowed anyone from lying down on the chairs. So we had no choice but to sleep sitting upright. As we were sitting next to the automated door, throughout the night, we were woken up by the cold air rushing in whenever someone walked past the door. Sometimes, drunks also walked in and created a nuisance b4 the security chased them away. And when we finally got to sleep peacefully , we woke up to realise Henry's camera was missing!

After much frantic seearching, I helped Henry to report the loss of luggage. Henry was too distraught to travel after that so I went on alone...Sigh..

Oslo, being the oldest of the Scandinavian capitals with 1000 yrs of history, has notably many statues of famous people.

Oslo was destroyed by a fire in 17th century. It was rebuilt and renamed 'Christiania' by King Christian IV of Noway. The original name Oslo was later restored.

Old and modern ships at the harbor

Peter Tordenskjold, an eminent Norwegian naval hero in the Great Northern War.

Unlike Stockholm, Oslo still has trams

Oslo domkirke(cathedral)

Oops, they were having Sunday prayer service

Rainbow created artificially. The sun was shining from behind me on the mist generated by the fountain.

Surprised to see Roosevelt statue here

University of Oslo

Other interesting sights

Stortinget-Norway Parliament

Flags of Norway, Denmark, Finland & Sweden
Scandinavian = Norway + Sweden + Denmark
Nordic = Norway + Sweden + Denmark + Finland + Iceland

Happening Sunday

On display were fanciful cars fitted with stereo systems

This surround sound is enough to make the whole interior of the car vibrate madly

Oslo city hall, where the annual Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held.

Front of the city hall were many statues depicting different working life in the past

Back of the city hall

Wooden frieze depicting Norse mythology(recall: Odin) decorating the walls of the courtyard

Norway: (Flåmsbana)

2005-08-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Flåm may be a small town of abt 450 inhabitants, but the train station is teeming with many tourists esp japs.
Fortuanately, most are just transit tourists who arrived here by Flåmsbana and would move to other fjord towns after short while, thus preserving the serenity of the place

Flåmsbana=Flåm Railway (similar to Tunnelbana)

So here we are, going to take the Flåmsbana, supposedly to be the other highlight of norway, beside the fjord cruise.

Some impt facts for those interested:
Flåmsbana is considered to be the masterpiece of railway engineering from the bottom of the Flam Valley up the precipitous mountain sides to the Myrdal Plateau
-20 years' construction
-20 tunnels

It's renowned for its excellent scenery along its very steep climb(1hour)

Hills and mountains casting shadows on one another, providing sharp contrasts in the scenic view

Waterfalls!

..to crystal clear rapids

I sure wanna live in those houses

Distant lands shrouded mysteriously in fog

Each winter, dangerous avalanches thunder down these mountains

Notice some mountain goats or sheep on the green pastures beside the river

A glimpse of Myrdal station at the top of the mountain and the tunnel with a side opening of poles. Myrdal station may be in sight but we were not reaching there yet. This is due to the slight detours around the mountains to avoid areas of risk of avalanches

The train stopped at Kjosofossen for rail travellers to photograph the impressive waterfall

Thunderous roar of the waterfall
Thick mist formed around the bottom of the waterfall and where we stood

It was drizzling that time and it was very cold. But a short performance still carried on, whereby a lady clad in red(above in pic) danced near the waterfall

The bad thing about this ride is that it repeatedly go in and out of the 20 tunnels along its 1 hour journey, leaving you little time to react to photo nice shots. Sometimes there are these poles(above) blocking your every shot. In the pic, the river is supposedly to "resemble a silver ribbon lying on the vally floor"

Beautiful mountain lake near a stop popular with cycling and skiing

Approaching Myrdal train station which is bascially not a town but a small railway platform (photograh on my previous Oslo-Bergen NSB train ride)

Took the 629pm to 1152pm NSB train from Myrdal to Oslo

Norway: Flåm

2005-08-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

Our fjord cruise boat finally took us to our destination-Flåm where we were to spend 2 days & 1 night. The name "Flåm" means "little place between steep mountains"

Surrounded by steep mountainsides, roaring waterfalls and deep valleys, Flåm is a real paradise
(this pic was taken from a high ground which we climbed to see Brekkefossen waterfall)

Blooming sunflowers

1st time I saw black cows

Apparently, rainbows are a common phenomenon in the fjords because of Norway's high latitude and frequent, light rain in the fjords

The river water is so clear!
Prob cos it's water from the melted glaciers from the surrounding mountains
The locals all drink directly from it

The spectacular Brekkefossen waterfall after a long climb up the hill

Flåm Camping & Vandrarheim
Super good accomodation at low prices!

Even had our own kitchen

Many Caravans also used the same site

The next morning, after checking out, we made our way towards the mountain farm Otternes

How much will you give to live here?

Peering at the ancient mountains

Aurlandsfjord in the distance

Norway: (Bergen to Flam Fjord Cruise)

2005-08-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

The line of old buildings of Bryggen (mentioned previously) beside the Harbour.
Today, we are going to leave Bergen, the city of 7 mountains & 7 fjords, for the kingdom of the fjords

Some impt background knowledge on the formation of fjords:
Most of northern Europe was once covered by ice up to 3km thick. during a series of 40 ice ages this ice carved away 5400 cubic km to form the Sognefjord and its fjord arms-grinding deeper into stone at the rate of a mere half a metre into stone at the rate of a mere half a metre every thousand years.
The coast of norway and fjords were nourished by the warm currents of the Gulf Stream, which produced a far milder climate than other regions on the same latitude, thus the lush green.

So the fjord cruise that I am taking is considered to be the "dream of travllers all over the world". In fact, National Geo Traveler Magazine declared the Norwegian fjords to be the very best, unspoiled travel destination in the world.

We couldn't find any seats by the time we got on the cruise boat, so we just settle at the dining tables of the boat. Which turns to be damn good cos we had so much space to ourselves...haha

Passed a super long bridge connecting 2 islands which is considered to be an engineering feat in Sweden

These are the beautiful, idyllic islands north of Bergen that shelter the coast from Atlantic storms.
Lush green meadows

Coast pines that glow in the sunlight

At Mongstad, largest Petroleum Refinery in Norway

All of us under its spell. We know that it's probably magic.
--rainbow connection by sarah mclaughlan
Note there r double rainbows in reality. Quite faint on photo. The secondary rainbow's colours r inverted compared to the primary rainbow

After sailing past the island north of Bergen, we finally reached the Sognefjord (Norway's longest fjord).
Welcome to the Garden of Eden. Welcome to Lothlórien.
Snow-capped mountains

Lush valleys

Steep mountains with forests clinging to their sides

Cascading, glittering waterfalls

Mountains shrouded in low clouds

The enchanting magic of the fjord drew many out of the cabin to brave the freezing cold wind while taking photos

People along the fjord supposedly live a long and healthy life. Well, the air is certainly super fresh and the water is just crystal clear

Along the fjords are towns and villages, each with their own personality

Towns and villages, scattered and clustered farms, occupy a modest portion of this amazingly unspoiled landscape (note the small town in the above pic)

Leikanger, well known for its 100 000 fruit trees (mainly apples)

Mid-fjord Adventure:
Our cruise boat approaching another ferry bound for Gudvangen

Both our boat and the ferry side by side

Ladder b/w the 2 vessels for passengers to transfer from one to another in the middle of the fjord water!

Beitelen-the mouth of the Nærøyfjord, the narrowest fjord in the world
Our route thru the Sognefjord means that we have to compromise on the narrowest and most beautiful fjord in the world...Sigh.

We just sail past Beitelen but we do not enter it. I wonder how it looks on the other side?

Norway: Bergen(Mount Fløyen)

2005-08-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

About to take the renowned Funicular up Mount Fløyen
Caught up with 3 girls from Chalmers: Yulin, Zhaoxin, Kaiyun...

... and Jet

The Spectacular View of Bergen

We were lucky to catch a number of parachutists about to take off
When the parachutist is ready, he just turn the ropes in hands to open up the parachute so that it will be caught in the predicted direction of wind and he will quickly leap off the plank...

...into the beautiful city below

Contrary to my expectation, they can stay in the air for quite long.
If the wind is right, they can also ascend higher whenever they wish.

Gigantic little troll at the playground on Mount Fløyen

Bryggen-UNESCO World Heritage site
Rebuilt after 1702 fire but building pattern is from 1100s

Cute, little basker playing the mandolin

The monument saluting the brave Norsemen Bergen sent to Britain during WW2

St Mary Church-Oldest Church in Bergen from 1130

Very old graves

The exterior of the Bergen info centre

Trolls like this stand outside many of the Bryggen shops

Norway: Bergen (Grieg's Museum)

2005-08-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

We finally arrived at Bergen around 3pm after a 8h train ride from Oslo.

Bergen
-2nd largest city in Norway (big city with small-town charm)
-Gateway to the fjords (fjords' "capital city")
-city of culture(chosen to be Europe's cultural city in yr 2000)
-Scandinavia's greatest attraction

Norway is full of hills. And this is what makes it so beautiful
Imagine all the houses on this hill lit up at night

We forgot to check the weather prediction
It was raining heavily when we arrived. And it was freezing cold....

The tourist info centre was damn beautiful with huge wall paintings depicting the Norwegian industries eg. shipping and fishing
There are useful exhibitions of many tourist attractions to occupy the many tourists waiting for their queue number

Trolls originated from Scandinavian Folklore
They, together with the Vikings, seem to be the mascots of Norway. You can get these figurines as souvenirs everywhere. Just like our Merlion for S'pore.

It was too cold and wet to travel around. So we had to spend the rest of the day in
Bergen Vandrerhjem YMCA going thru all the pamphlets obtained at the info centre and planning our tour

It was still raining the next morning but at least it was smaller.
Went to the famous fish market just opposite where we stayed. The fishmongers were peddling all sorts of fish meat (even whale). The difference is that some of them sell the meat as a meal by placing them in breads or baguette.
Even for a fish mkt, the prices seem exorbitant.

Holberg, a famous Bergen dramatist, historian and essayist
Edvard Grieg composed the Holberg Suite(click to listen) to honor Holberg

Troldhaugen(the Hill of the Trolls)

Troldhaugen is where famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg(1843-1907) lived for 22 years. It is also the site of his museum, which is one of the main attractions for me in norway.

Who is Grieg? My faithful readers may ask. In order not to alienate you guys, I have placed hyperlinks to his popular songs all over this post. I'm sure you have heard some b4.

Click the above pic for a good summary of Grieg

Basically, this guy was proud of Norway and so Norway is proud of him.
It was at a time when Norwegians were greatly concerned abt finding their national identity after centuries of foreign rule (sounds familiar?). Edvard Grieg was the utmost ambassador for Norway and Norwegian culture. Through his music, other countries got to know Norway's cultural treasures.

Eg. Grieg explored Scandinavian folklore and wrote several pieces abt troll: In the Hall of the Mountain King (a bit soft)

Grieg with Nina, his wife. His wife is also a celebrated figure. She was not merely the famous composer's wife, she sing beautifully, was fluent in several languages and had a pleasant unpretentious manner.

Piano Concerto in A minor (Grieg's groundbreaking piece)-I remembered our Orchestra played this during Sec School

Believe it or not, Grieg's dying moment was special according to the words in the above pic

30-40 thousand people lined up the streets to pay their last respects; condolences came from kings and emperors; all the flags in Bergen were half-mast; church bells were chiming and an enormous funeral procession occured

His house is now a museum...

...filled with memoentos of the composer's life

"Troldsalen", a concert hall opened near his house 80 years after his death

Procession of the Trolls

This little hut is the composer's hut for him to compose songs drawing inspirations from...

...the Lake Nordas

Morning (popular piece)

Edvard and his wife Nina are buried in a cliff-hewn tomb in the grounds looking out to the Lake...
It's carved "Edvard & Nina Grieg" on the surface of the rock.
The surrounding is Very Beautiful and serene with the sound of trickling water down rocks.

Norway: Oslo to Bergen NSB train ride

2005-08-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

Swebus Express-the bus that took us from Stockholm to Oslo

It was a freaking 7h overnight ride in the bus with little leg room

Woke up repeatedly throughout the night
Once, saw this ticket inspector boarding the bus at one of the stops and forced a lady off the bus for not having a proper ticket.

The bus was scheduled to reach Oslo Sentralstasjon at 5.40am yet it arrived at 6.20am
We were all so panicky that we ran madly with our 70l bags bouncing on our backs, like Amazing Race contestants, to catch our 6.39am NSB train ride

Ha, we made it
Alway choose a travelling partner who can run
The seats are comfortable with ample leg room space for us to catch up our lost sleep

The NSB train ride from Oslo to Bergen is reportedly to be "one of the most beautiful train routes in the world"

It is
Afterall, it travels across the 'roof' of norway ie. on top of hills and mountains

The best part is: You dun really get bored of the scenery thruout the 8h train ride
The type of scenery just keep changing. The trees, the water, the contours of the land...
Eg. The water: From cascading waterfall...

to a tranquil, large lake...

to gushing rapids...

to lush white snow capping the mountains
Note that behind the lake in the photo are hills capped with snow, not water

Stockholm: Gamla Stan, Skeppsholmen

2005-08-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Been cooped up in my room for few days cos busying planning for my 1 wk trip to Norway, so it's good to come out and breathe some fresh air

Gamla Stan, literally "Old Town"--a small island in the middle of Stockholm
Flooded with pp queueing to take cruises

Got our hostelling international card finally

Other interesting shots

Stockholm: (Mac, Cars, dinner w Roger)

2005-08-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is a trival blog post, but i just feel that i need to declare that Sweden's McDonald's has beautiful interior designs

Why does Singapore Mac not have such beautiful interior?

2 possible answers
1.) S'pore Mac hire Singaporean architects who design our HDB
2.) Swede Mac really need to make the dining ambience much more 'class' to attract the more discerning Swedes to consume their Macshit. In S'pore u dun care abt the ambience. U just give more free coupons...

Coloured pp are quite a norm and they are treated like normal pp

BMW, Volvo, Merc and convertibles are such a norm in the town
Sigh...
And there are always the eye-catching ones..

View at the park near my accomodation

Invited Roger for dinner at our place
Learnt many things abt Sweden from our long dinner talk
Do you know?
In Sweden, everyone has the "right to public access" or Allemansrätten. This gives everyone equal opportunity to enjoy countryside or nature. As long as you do not disturb the owners or destroy the property, you are entitled to enter anyone's backyard (even if their gates are closed) or even camp overnight!
For more info: Allemansrätten

Stockholm: Skarholmen(IKEA), (Bicycle)

2005-08-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

IKEA at Skarholmen, Stockholm
The iconic large blue box with yellow words--colours of sweden flag

Huge, as expected

Even got user-friendly computers to plan the layout of the furniture in your homes

Cheapest meal we ever had in Sweden!!
10Kr (S$2.20) for a slice of pizza and free flow drinks!!!
All these available after the counter at IKEA... What better ways to thank the customer?

Bought a bicycle for 990Kr
So impromptu. 1.) We saw an ad featuring the sale 2.) Within an hour, we went to get it 3.) The man said need 2 wks to assemble 4.) So we said, nvm, we'll assemble them ourselves!!

Well, it took us a long time to figure out.... From afternoon to night...
We were out there in the open, cold and hungry, doing problem-based learning
But, it was worth it

Especially when the cold wind blows on your face as you cycle on the beautiful Stockholm streets....

Stockholm: (KTH), (Stadion)

2005-08-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

Early in the morning...

The clouds strutting their stuff

Went to KTH again to settle admin issues

Explored other parts of the campus

Nymble-A place for students to chill out

Henry deciding whether to take up the gym membership at KTH Hallen

Most walkways and roads have a place for bicycles in Stockholm
This is one of the roads leading out of KTH to the city

Tennis Stadium

Like a Disneyland House

RV(recreational vehicle) park
-equivalent of a hotel for people with recreational vehicles.

Many of such statues encircle Stockholm Stadium

Stockholm: (Farm behind Lappis)

2005-08-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Parade of hot-air balloons in the evening sky outside my window. Stockholm is supposedly to be the fantasy destination for balloonists each summer...

Decided to go for an evening run with Henry after lack of physical activity for a few days and being cooped up in the room for the whole day settling module mapping....

Awed by the view

It was dark, cold and creepy
Enough to make one run faster and faster

Burst out into the open onto a beautiful field of flowers
Too beautiful.
Busy taking pics
Can't run anymore

So decided to keep some lonely farm animals company

One day, I'll get a house like this here when i retire
Haha

Even the power supply tower stood majestically

Uppsala

2005-08-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Enjoying the scenic views...

...from the SJ train journeying towards Uppsala, Sweden's 4th largest municipality.
Uppsala, the university city, is located 70km above Stockholm, in Uppland.

The largest bicycle parking lot I've seen so far in Sweden

Uppsala seems to be not much different from Stockholm, with its typical cobblestoned roads...

...till we saw the famed Uppsala Cathedral (Domkyrkan) looming majestically over everything else

Uppsala Cathedral
-built in the 13th century
-took more than 175 years to complete
-Swedish national shrine

The carvings of the statues are ever so beautiful

Utterly awsome interiors

Even me, a non-religious person, is beginning to feel spritual in such a holy place

Can anyone tell me why the person is headless?

Nice carvings again, but a bit creepy

Sweden's 15th century university

Sweden's oldest Botanical garden (350 yrs old)

What a view!

Note the interesting-looking pyramid-shaped bushes

This giant bench is so comfortable after all that walking....

Gustaf II Adolf the Great, King of Sweden, famous for employing mobile artillery. Idolized by Napoleon.

Do U wanna eat in this restaurant overlooking the choppy canal water?

Or this classy restaraunt overlooking the calm waters?

I've no money for both so I can only afford this shot

Stockholm: Odenplan, (Capoeira)

2005-08-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

Lappis or Lappkarrsberget

My uni KTH "Kungliga Tekniska högskolan" even has a train station named after it ie "Tekniska högskolan"

The train driver coming out of the train to ensure nobody else is near the doors before he closes them

Graffiti as avante-garde Art

Graffiti as vandalism....

Scandinavia's largest instituition of higher education in technology

Do you know? Bill Gates was conferred honorary doctorate by KTH?

Changjie was complaining about why my school(above) seems to have so many other buildings beside it whereas his, Linkoping(below), looks like some warehouses surrounded by an ominious large forest....

How do you parallel park your car so near to the kerb?
You drive one wheel up the kerb and then down...

Behind me is Handelshögskolan

Handelshögskolan is the one with the arrow pointing to the dome
So who's the garden city or city garden?

We saw this Greenpeace guy approaching people on the streets but people were avoiding him like how we avoid charity solictors on Orchard road

Turns out that he is asking people to donate $ to the Greenpeace organization too...

Stockholm library ie. Stadsbiblioteket

Hans Christian Andersen, who we will come across again when we go Denmark

Even the library toilet requires 5 Kr..

NETTO-the cheapest supermarket in Stockholm

One of Stockholm Capoeira classes at Roslagsgatan 21

Alright, Sirui, i know it's a bad handstand.
Derrick, I hope you guys are still training! :)

Jacob, the other NOC guys in Sweden

Stockholm: (Stockholm uni), T-centralen

2005-08-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Accomdation Instructions for recycling glass, plastics, cardboards, paper and metals. Pp here really follow. And one automatically feel obliged to do so

Impossible to have underground power cables thruout such a big country, unlike S'pore.

There are no carparks around and most pp just park along the side of the road
This is my long path from my place to the nearest train station, Universitetet

Fortunately, there are always these animals to observe
Sorry, deprived childhood on an urban island

Monster slugs all over the place.
Supposedly killing each other, so i'm witnessing a slug-fight fest
Too bad there's no gore, it's just wet and wetter.
So it's PG, not NC-16.

Deprived childhood again
You dun see such bright flowers growing everywhere and plants scaling the wall back home

A monument to their glorious Viking days (top of the monument)

Stockholm uni, which is along the way
Beautiful architecture it has
Simple yet elegant

Bicycles are expensive here, yet it's in high demand and found everywhere

Minrui, my hc junior, one of 4 NUS overseas college based in Stockholm
Bloody busy they are, yet he was kind enuff to bring us around

Is it the splendid-looking plants or

artistic, simple structures dotting the landscape,
that made me feel as if every journey is a special, unique one?

There's no "Bicycle parking lot"
Nor white lines on the floor to indicate how u should park your bike

Somehow, things in Sweden run in an orderly quiet manner. Everybody seems to know what is the correct thing to do. It's just respect for the unspoken practices, not fear of getting caught for breaking certain rules

Is S'pore ever ready to do that? Or will it never be able to shake off the image of a "fine' city?

Ahlens City, their equivalent of our Orchard Road
This is supposedly the most crowdy street in Stockholm

A plaza outside T-centralen

A monument or ?

More statues

It's funny why a country with 9 million population

can produce so much more art works than us

Henry finally got to meet Daniel, his Swedish "fadder"

These snacks are everywhere
Dun understand why any kid will fancy the gum-lookalike

Stockholm: (Arrival), (City Terminalen), (Lappis)

2005-08-10T03:45:00.000-07:00

Stockholm Arlanda airport

Roger Fredriksson--my Swedish "fadder' (Godfather)--who so kindly brought us around Stockholm
Behind is Pressbryan, the Swedish convenience store found everywhere

Hmm.. The taxis drivers kept a respectful distance, not like in Delhi airport
Everything you want to do and get in the airport is pretty accessible and convenient, yet it isn't pushy, thus giving everyone his own personal space

Arlanda to Stockholm Bus (59Kr)

Rays of light piercing through cumulonimbus clouds

They have 2 types of trains:
1.)Pendeltag = Commuter train
2.)Tunnelbana (T-bana) = Underground train

Almost all gates in Stockholm are auto, including the above revolving door

Above is T-Centralen, a T-bana stataion
Spacious and beautiful, with sky light shining thru the top

Many pp at the station seem to be going for hiking trips
I will too, if I were born here
Where can I hike in S'pore w/o fearing mosquito or stinky clothes?

Viking line to take you to neighboring Scandivanian countries
We'll be back here again

Left:Rabattkuponger-A strip of 20 coupons for usage on transport(buses, trains) within Stockholm
Right: Arlanda to Stockholm bus ticket

Hiss = Lift
Yes, it smells like somebody piss in there too
Why? Cos there's no public toilets in the train stations

All their "hiss" operate with a door to be opened outwards (requires quite a lot of strength) rather than our sliding lift doors
So can I dare say I've finally found sth Singapore is better at?

Inside their train
Comfortable seats, subtle advertisments, relatively quiet--no hp ringing from calls or sms, no voice that repeatedly says "Watch out for suspicious objects" in 4 different languges, "door closing", door closing warning sounds...

It's just more peacful, even in the main city, Stockholm

Cute little boys and girls wearing the bright yellow jacket waiting to cross the wet road
Supposedly to be from a kindergarten or child-care centre

Everything in Sweden is beautiful
Every corner, every angle you take is just so picturesque
Though they sometimes have objects on the streets that make you wonder what they are for, like the big ball up there

All their public toilets require 5Kr (S$1.11 to enter)

Waiting for the bus 40 to take us to Lappis(below)

Horrendous to drag your 30kg luggage, even on wheels

Finally reached Forskarbacken

Even the spiderweb looks picturesque

My room in the day

After Sun sets at 8pm

Where I'm writing this now

There's no min age to start hitting the tobacco

S'pore: (Farewell)

2005-08-09T03:07:00.000-07:00

While the little red nation was preoccupied with its 40th independence celebration...

my beloved family...

band of brothers...

were seeing me off to the promised land--Sweden

Henry, who will be studying with me at Kungliga Tekniska högskolan [Royal Institute of Technology]

The little Swedish princess who behaved so aristocratically on our 10 h flight from Bangkok to Stockholm--calm, confident and well-mannered

Never cease to marvel the beautiful seas of cirrus clouds, whenever I am 5000m up in the air

Thai airways riding high

Sweden peering shyly through the wispy stratus clouds...
A land of cities

rivers

farms

and large patches of lush pine forests