19/09/09 - Boarded the 10:35 am Ryanair flight from Stansted and touched down Aarhus 20 minutes ahead of schedule at around 13:30pm. It was a really small airport. Immigration was simply just a lil counter along a narrow corridor where everyone pass through after getting off the plane. And then directly after immigration is the baggage collection area. Only waited for abt 10 minutes before I collected my red trolley and headed out to the bus station, right outside the arrival hall - literally a few steps away(just trying to describe how small it is :)). Miss CLZ gave me the bus stop's name but was still quite worried if I'll got off the wrong stop and so double checked with the bus driver and a guy sitting in front of me. Managed to get off the at Randersvej/Noddre Ringgade, i.e. the University stop. Miss LZ smsed me to say she's stuck in the woods and can't get back in time. While waiting, I wandered around the area. It was a bit sparse, not many shops around but managed to venture down Tordenskjolos-gade where there are more shops and cafes. Went into one and ordered a salmon sandwich. It was quite nice. Miss CLZ came back to me 2 hours later to say she's back and so I wandered back to the bus stop where we walked back to her apartment. It was quite a cosy, contemporary apartment - just the sort I hope I can get in England for 600 euros! There is this a thing abt houses in denmark and sweden: a lot of them have the same lamp shades. Walked into the city center later the day and had dinner at Ziggy - an italian place.
20/09/09 - Woke up super early to catch the 7 am train to Copenhagen. It was quite a comfy train journey, big seats, quite nice views occassionally, but I didn't get much sleep on the train, I think mainly because I had a cup of very strong coffee freshly brewed frm LZ's coffee machine. MN picked me up at the station and lead me to the hostel she booked a few days earlier - Hotel Loven - abt 10 mins walk frm the station - convenient indeed. Bought the Copenhagen card where MN thinks is a better deal if we want to go places out of the center. First dest - set off to Lousiana Museum of Modern Art at Humlebæk. A very nice museum indeed, with the park overlooking the Øresund. We spent quite a fair amount of quality time in there. Exhibitions on were "The World is Yours" - international contemporary art and "Green Architecture for the Future" - new modern architecture. We continued our journey to Helsingør and tried to find things to do there.
After considering a few things like the aquarium (ahem), some random castles, we finally decided to go and have ice cream instead! Yes, it was apparently the best ice cream in town - Brostraede Ice Cream. We then head towards the Hamlet castle by the sea. Got back to Copenhagen city center just before dinner time and decided to make a visit to the Round Tower to get a sunset view - view from up there was a bit dissapointing due to the so-so weather. But the random design exhibitions on the way up the tower was pretty interesting. Had Greek Buffet for dinner - tasty dessert surprisingly! Stuffed ourselves with quite a lot of food. Walking to Tivoli after that doesn't help much since it was too near a distance to walk off the calories! Although, we did wander around Tivoli for a bit to wait for the Light show and Fireworks.21/09/09 - To maximise our use of the Copenhagen card, we were left with very few interesting places to visit. Choosing between the zoo and aquarium, we ended up going to the latter. There was supposed to be a giant squid on display but I think we were too early - the squid was still sleeping - hidding in one corner of the aquarium. One of the guys working there were nice enough to wake the squid up for us to see - but the squid just refused - was quite funny how the guy tried so hard to wake it up LOL. Next was Rosenborg Castle - nothing much there - just another castle - but since it's free, why not :). At lunch time, we set off from CPH to Helsingør and took the Scandiline ferry to Helsingborg, Sweden. It was only a 20 min journey for 18 SEK with the CPH card. The ride itself was another amusing experience. It doesn't look like a ferry at all - it was like a mall - with a few shops and cafes and very little seats - all seats are like restaurant seats - with tables and chairs! Anyway, after the ferry, it was a 2 and a half hours train ride from Helsingborg to Gothenburg. On the train, there were two super uber friendly "uncles"(i.e. middle aged men) who started chatting with almost everyone sitting around them - including us. They were quite funny and gave us some rather "useful" recommendations on where to go in Gothenburg and Stockholm. Arrived Gothenburg around 7 in the evening and weather wasn't that good - didn't really help when we were trying to find our way to the hostel.
22/09/09 - Explored Gothenburg - a moderate sized city - very easy to go around. Woke up bright early and went hunting for breakfast - cinnamon buns. Went to 7 Eleven initially (there were loads in Denmark and Sweden!) and saw something like it, but wasn't sure since the tag was in Swedish and so asked the cashier there. Poor cashier, she was trying so hard to describe to us it's cinnamon! Finally when she did a long stick hand gesture and said its a spice, we understood. We then recalled that we saw some cinnamon buns - has the same name - kanelbullar - in the bakery opposite. MN bought hers from 7-E. I went back in to the bakery opposite - Dahl's Bakery and asked for one. It looks moderate sized sitting in the oven rack from the counter but when she took it out, it was massive! I still can't believe I actually bought it. But there you go...really yummy cinnamon and apple bun. We couldn't finish it and so had the other half the next morn. Stumbled across a shop with a lot of cool design stuff - it was actually DesignTorget - a quite famous design shop in Sweden - and bought an inflatable foot bath. So what's in Gothenburg...there is the harbour, the opera house, Nordstand mall, Da Matteo latte (recommended by Lonely Planet - I was so excited to get my cuppa and take a pic of it that I almost forgot to pay for it!), Kronhuset - oldest secular building in the city, Gothenburg's Choklad & Karamelfabrik (choc factory), Feskekorka - the fish church they call it, which is simply a fish market - loads of salmon, crabs, lobsters, crayfish - seafood heaven, Kungsportsavenyn - supposedly the main high street - but we were quite disappointed with the shops there - only bought my HRC t-shirt, Haga Nygata - old cobbled street with loads of lil boutique shops - loved it there - randomly discovered a vey nice cafe - Le Petit - with very "girly" and comfy interior - loved the cafe too! Highlight of the day must be the massive cinnamon with apple bun I bought from Dahl's Bakery. Didn't expect it to be such a massive bun, since it looks small from the counter - 49 SEK for such a big bun, I'd say pretty good :) - aww quite miss it now, although I think MN must be quite sick of it by now.
23/09/09 - Woke up uber early AGAIN to catch the morning train to Stockholm. Apparently faster trains costs more and the earlier you book, the cheaper it is - 40 quid is the cheapest we can get for a decent 5 hours journey - without seat reservation. Checked in to our Red Boat Maleran Hostel in Soldermalm - it is really a boat itself - and set off to explore Gamla Stan (old town) for the rest of the afternoon. Had lunch - salmon quiche at one of the cafes - Old Street Cafe. The cafes there do Dagens Lunch (Specials Lunch) at a pretty good deal.
24/09/09 - Explored the City part of Stockholm - went to Hortoget and Ostermalm markets - such good markets!!! Ostermalm Saluhall was packed with working folks in suits having lunch and it was only 12...hmm they do have a very early lunch break indeed! Had a hard time deciding where to eat - too many food stalls around and ended up having husmankost at Willy Ohlsson - MN had the Kottbullar (meat balls with mashed potato - pickled cucumber and lingonberry sauce self serviced) while I had the pork schnitzel with peas and sliced potatoes. The sauce was really very yummy - it tasted like "dong guai"!!! It actually gave me some inspiration to make the dish myself!!! - Dong guai pork fillets - hmmm...
Other hightlights of the city - Culture house, Dottingham street - high street, Ahlens department store, NK, Armemuseum, Music museum etc etc. We even walked all the way to Vasastaden - Northwest of the city to check out Vurma and Melquist cafe. But the biggest discovery was Ritorno Konditori (bakery) where we have a strawberry cake for half price and budapest cake. It was a cafe with a lot of chandeliers - but then again, most of the bakeries/cafes do! - That's the lovely thing abt Sweden - really nice cafes! And yea...buns and cakes are sold for half the price between 5 and 6 weirdly - maybe they just want to get rid of them by the end of the day! Dinner was at Kungsholmen - an upclass modern food court with 6 open kitchens. A must go if your in Stockholm!! Loved the place! One of the waiter even shared his photography experience with us - it was brilliant - friendly waiters and good service.25/09/09 - Was meant to go on archipelago but woke up too late and missed the morning departures - there were less ferries after the summer. And so went to Skansen at Djurgarden instead. It was quite a huge open air museum - a lot of animals to see too - just like a zoo! But of course there are other interesting stuff like the old Swedish houses and shops - glass making, bakery, pharmacy etc etc. Explored the Djurgarden island for a bit after that and managed to take quite a fair bit of sunset pics as we walked back to gamla stan. Had dinner at Valvet - some random restaurant we bumped into - I think it was the lobster soup that lured us in! We shared the lobster soup + pork with chantarell sauce, herring cooked 3 ways - original, mustard and garlic sauce and for dessert - blue cheese with cloudberry and lingonberry sauce. Food was so-so but the only bonus is...haha...hmm c*** waiters :).
26/09/09 - Relaxing final day at Stockholm. Took the ferry archipelago trip to Vaxholm - abt an hour from Stockholm. It was a really small but nice lil island town. All we did there was walk around the harbour - with views of the fortress, loads of ships, yachts, stopped by a really cosy rooftop (only two storey high) cafe, had apple cake and pie with vanilla sauce at Café Silltruten, lingered around the "main" street where there were some stalls set up (supposedly to be a weekend market or so, but there aren't many stalls) and took the afternoon ferry back to Stockholm. Flight back to London was at night, but by around 4pm, we were already on our way to the airport since it'll take us one and a half hours to get from central to Skavasta airport. Took the Ryanair airport bus with a very cheap deal - 2 for 1 - 75 SEK for two person, it normally cost 89 SEK with the other bus company. At the airport, we tried to finish up our Swedish Krona coins and I ended up buying a massive Curry Chicken sandwich with Roasted Onions (the ones I normally find back home in Msia!!!). Oh and aslo bumped into a colleague who was in Stockholm for the past week! What a coincidence!
I think Ryanair has surely did good job in repairing their reputation - at least that is what I experienced this time - no problems at all and in fact, up to the standards - cheap and efficient. I have to give them some credits here - and probably shot down a lot of other bad experiences I've heard. The only fault is that the cheap bus to the airport was full initially and they had to arrange another bus to take the rest of the 11 people (including us) - and we did waited for about 15 minutes like they promised.
Nico's thoughts on Sweden:
- People are really nice. Most of the time there are people coming up to us and ask if we need help. I think we just look too blur looking at our maps.
- Shopkeepers don't shout at you taking pictures of their store
- Most people speak good english (quite strong American slang I think), i.e. won't get lost in translation
- Food are so much lighter - which makes you feel less guilty eating more :) - that's why I like Scandi food!
- I still feel the land there is about 15 degrees inclined on the left. Just as I felt my left foot starts aching hours before my right foot does, MN brought up the same discussion!
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