i used to rule the world

Every now and then I will get a little ambush of melancholy that washes over me. The fact that I don't have many days left in this beautiful city creeps up on me every time I'm on the tram at night back home from somewhere, from school, from a project meeting in some cafe in town, anywhere. I see the lights flashing by, blurred by the raindrops still plastered on the windows even after the rain has stopped. The Christmas lights here are not fantastic, but it must be the European architecture of Gothenburg that makes the lights, and the city, look beautiful.

How is it that the months that I've hoped for so long came so slowly, yet pass so quickly now that they're here?

Xmas Fair @ Tjolöholm Slott

Yesterday we went to a Christmas fair at Tjolöholm Castle. It was designed in Tudor Style and built between 1898 and 1904 and originally owned by a rich Englishman who owned many things in Gothenburg at that time.

The castle is situated just next to the sea, and thankfully there was a clear sky yesterday so everything looks very pretty. It felt so good to be near nature after so many weeks of urbanity. It wasn't very cold as I said fall became warmer, but the wind was super strong.

(love the blue and the green)

(love the hair, it's so dramatic)

(who's the faceless one?!)

(can't see where i'm going)

(edible gingerbread houses!)

(traditional Swedish ceramic Santa Claus)

(these cute little guys are sitting on my desk now ^^)

Many souvenirs that the stalls were selling were super pricey! Like, one bar of chocolate can be SGD10.00! But there were many locals there who were happily buying away anyway. More photos on Facebook soon :) We tried the traditional drink during Christmas called glögg, and it was nice! I thought it was some alcoholic drink (which did taste a bit of alcohol), but it's actually made of four different types of berries.

three (wo)men in black

Tonight as I was on my way home on the tram from class something amusing happened in the usually uneventful Gothenburg life. At one stop two men and one lady boarded and stood near the door, decked out in black attire - black jacket and black pants. At first they looked normal, since many locals dress the way they do - black windbreaker and trackpants with beanies. But the lady was so tall she drew my attention, then I started to focus on her height, then the brand of her jacket. There was something strange about the three of them. I don't know if it was the age combination - one man was in his mid-40 to 50s? The lady was mid-20s, and the other guy was mid-30s --- Or the fact that they dressed so similarly, or something. For a while they just stood there chatting (dunno about what of course) and the lady was looking at her cellphone, then I saw something bulging out of her pocket - at that time I just dismissed it as some kind of gadget --- a very fleeting thought. Then when the tram started moving, the three of them suddenly



Pulled out their guns and pointed at the passengers.



Yeah right, you think what, drama ah. Heehee. Anyway, they pulled out their Vastraffik (Gothenburg equivalent of SBS Transit) IDs and flashed them at us and proceeded to check our cards. I was stunned a bit --- dunno why also hahaha, thinking to myself, no wonder that gadget that was bulging in the lady's pocket look somewhat familiar, like those handheld devices conductors always use, but then that thought was just fleeting. Yeah then I was thinking, 9.10pm on a Wednesday night?! And when my monthly pass just expired two days ago and I had it renewed just yesterday when originally I wanted to cheat and not pay for a few days hahaha. "Heng ga lao sai" was the first thought that came to my mind. Of course there were a few who didn't pay, and they couldn't run anywhere because the three of them were so discreet about it and the tram had started moving already! So they hovered over them and the tall lady spread her arms and "cordoned" the seats by putting her hands on the handles (if you can imagine, I'm bad at describing) and she looked rather intimidating, with her height and attire and all.

Yeah so after the fiasco I notice that the guy in his mid-20s to 30s actually looked quite cute, like some Swedish ah beng, and when all of them alighted, (they will nod to the others in the other carriage when they're done), I saw that there are like 7-8 of them! On one tram. At 9.10pm. On a Wednesday night.

Moral of the story is:

1. never let down your guard, because they could be terrorists carrying guns, because contrary to popular belief, Swedes actually do work beyond 4pm (I'm serious, 3plus 4pm is like their rush hour, and school administrative offices are only open from 9am-12noon) so don't think conductors don't come flashing their IDs at you when night falls.

2. they are always wearing black, not all of them are old men, and they never carry bags.

a few random thoughts

(1) Booking my return flight home (zzzomg SIA!) makes me slightly home-sick for the first time ever HAHA. And feel like going home :(

(2) Can't wait till I finish the 2nd essay so that I can go back to whatever I need to do --- tidy up the incredibly messy room (which always happen when I just come back from a trip and/or there're assignments to rush), magic-clean the floor and toilet floor, clean kitchenette, tidy up accounts, book the rest of the trips, watch dramassss, and start packing to ship stuff back, and figuring out how to do it --- that's the big question.

(3) Love it when it's raining outside and I'm indoors, dry and cozy (though not so warm 'cos the heater is useless).

Czech it out - Prague

Recently autumn is turning warmer, like around 10-12degrees in the day, which is good, and sometimes you can feel the increase in temperature, and you tell yourself okay, this is actually a bit de warm, because you have already acclimatised to 4degrees days, and it reminds you of how you're going to just die when you go back to Singapore. Anyway, with this kind of weather, I can wear only 3 layers and still not shiver and can even go without gloves sometimes, which is a very comfortable temperature.


Anyway, I love the title. I stole the phrase from the walking-tour guide, who was quite funny. I'm back from a two-week trip with a one-day break in between, and I figure I should start from the beginning, which is Prague. (I should be rushing my take-home essay now, but I find no motivation or whatsoever to start it AHHH).

First of all, the hostel/hotel we stayed in is the BEST out of all that we've stayed so far, which is around 8-10 places? I would strongly recommend Miss Sophie's if you're going to Prague. The location isn't fantastic like you can walk to the city center, but it's near to the metro, there are many cafes/restaurants nearby, and most of all the place itself is gorgeous, like the design and facilities etc. It has the nicest bed and pillow and shower and everything. Just what you need after a long day of walking.

Anyway, the trip started with us taking a train to Lund because there is no budget flight from Gothenburg to Prague, and WizzAir flies from Malmö, and Malmö is close to Lund, so we stayed one night at Lionel's place. G, JS and L were kind enough to cook dinner for us, which included G's signature sambal fish (nice!), and L's something-went-wrong curry chicken but yummy stir-fried pork with his own recipe and a neighbour's self-baked kanelbulle (cinnamon roll).


Woke up at 4am next morning and braved the cold and walked a long distance to the airport bus bus-stop, it was fortunate that the airport bus actually stops at a bus stop near their place. Boarded the bus thinking to ourselves that this is one of the things that backpackers do (waking up at ungodly hours to catch cheap flights) and that we can only do it while we're young).

The bathroom - looks so modern and like a hotel! It's like a hostel/hotel I think.

At the Prague Castle overlooking the city with a hint of rainbow at the other end

The Golden Lane inside Prague Castle - where marksmen and later craftsmen used to live; doors are much shorter than the modern doors, and now converted to little shops which I would've loved to visit but couldn't 'cos we were on a walking tour

It was around 4 plus 5pm when the tour ended so this is Prague at night.

We had KFC for dinner, which is the first time since forever, and it was oh-so-good despite the not juicy and oily and big enough part.

In between Prague we went to Vienna for a day and a half, and after that we went back to the same hostel that we stayed in, and this time they gave us an apartment which was even nicer! ^^

Hot chocolate during breakfast - it wasn't fantastic, but it was definitely the densest and thickest hot chocolate I've ever drunk

Fried cheese, which was not bad, and I think it's easy to cook! Just cheese and dip it in batter and fry
Never give New Europe Tours a miss in the major cities

The famous astronomical clock - they have 365 name days, which the clock below shows, and everyone in Prague must have a name from these 365 names

In the evening around 4 plus, the old town square was bustling with people

Stalls selling food and souvenirs, like pasar malam - just that the food never repeats, except for the sausage buns

Something like cinnamon rolls, with sugar, vanilla, toffee, almonds etc

Potato croquettes that tasted nicer than usual, because of some herb inside that we couldn't decipher

I liked the market in the old town square, it's like my kind of thing, food stalls and stalls selling nice stuff and atmosphere etc.

midnight bus from Stockholm to Gothenburg

I'm now on the midnight bus from Stockholm back to Gothenburg, which includes a change somewhere in between, so the entire journey will take around 7h :( And this happened because we initially planned to buy last-minute train tickets because we thought it would be cheaper but no! It was even more exorbitant for some reason. So for this trip, there are a few critical things that we learnt, which are as follows:


1. Never count on SJ (Swedish Rail) last minute train tickets - Initially we thought that to pay around 300-400SEK was too pricey so we decided to buy last-minute (within 24hours) tickets which are usually cheaper, but to find out that the prices had risen to 900SEK! Madness! So the only other way is to take this midnight bus back home :(

2. If you're in any Sweden airport, just get the Flybussarna airport bus to the city center and not some WizzAir bus because the WizzAir bus is actually under another bus company which we didn't know so we missed the bus and were nearly stranded at the airport for 2h (luckily the bus company was kind enough to dispatch another bus just for the 6 of us who missed the bus), and Flybuss coaches are always reliable.


The thought of going back to doing the essay feels me dread, but at least I'll be in the comfort of my own place again. The hostel we stayed in Krakow was horrid :/ Will elaborate more another time; shall attempt to go to sleep now.

vienna for a day

One of the things that you must do as a true-blue backpacker is to sleep in the airport/train station at least once because the cheapest flights are always either super late or super early = no public transport or not worth paying for one night in the hostel. So yup, that's what we're going to do tonight :S

Went to Vienna for a day and a half yesterday, and it was a fruitful one! But then again, so far all our trips had been very fruitful :) There are a lot of museums, especially cultural related ones if you are one for museums, but since we are not, we sought other ways to soak in the musical and cultural atmosphere of the city :)

We caught a concert at Mozart House by the Mozart Ensemble! Mozart House is the actual apartment where Mozart stayed before, and is the oldest concert hall in the world now. As it is part of an apartment, it's not really the size of a normal concert hall, but rather a cozy room that can fit five rows of audience, and the performers are a string quartet. The room is really pretty, with paintings on the walls like the kind you see in cathedrals/palaces, and the structure of the room is made to enhance the acoustics. More about the room and the performance when I upload the photos next time!

The next day was coincidentally the premiere of the 12th International Acapella Festival! Was flipping through the events magazine of Vienna and saw it ^^ As it was the premiere, different acapella groups performed at balconies throughout the city, and we managed to catch one group's performance, which was really good, atmosphere-wise and technique-wise, considering that they were singing on a balcony to audience below with passers-by walking here and there (it was along a busy shopping street) and random noise here and there.

Yup, so everywhere in Vienna there are shops selling music-related items, museums, posters about art/musical events, that add to the overall atmosphere of the city, and the two events we caught really encapsulate the entire experience of the city, albeit it being a short trip.

The cafe that we went to for our last meal there was also yummy! We had the traditional Viennese beef goulash soup, breaded mushrooms, Parisian egg-coated schnitzel, and pork cordon bleu. Totally delicious, especially the first two items.

halfway in Prague.

The best thing about this trip so far is that the hotel room is really pretty and I'm going to model my future toilet after their design, and that I got to eat KFC for dinner just now! ^^ Have been craving for that fat, juicy, oily drumstick recently, and although the chicken in Prague doesn't quite make the mark (smaller, not that juicy and tasty as Singapore's), but it will suffice for now :)

The worse thing about this trip is that I lost the hotel room card! Terribly careless of me; I hate to admit this stupidity of mine :/

Woke up at 4.15am this morning to catch the airport bus and it was freaking cold. Reminded us of the times in Berlin when we also woke up at 4am to catch the train to the airport for our morning flight to Munich. Crazy things like this you can only do when you're young. When I'm old next time I will resume to following tour groups HAHA.

Going to Vienna tomorrow, will try to soak up its cultural and musical atmosphere and see if it lives up to its title of being a 音乐之都.

globalization

I should stop getting stressed up about the fact that I have no way of getting my hands on the textbook needed to do my take-home exam before the submission deadline.

The issue is, the textbook will only be available next Monday, but on that Monday morning, I will be happily flying off to the much look-forwarded Poland trip (because of meat dumplings that I heard were deliciously good and they're the closest I can get to 小龙包 or whatever dumplings that I love).

I was planning to go get the textbook today after school so that I can bring it on my trip this week, but alas the professor said that students had informed him that it'll only be available next week :( I'll only be back on Saturday, and the essays are due on Monday noon, and I can only get the textbook on Monday at 10am. AHHH.

I should just ask for an extension, which the professor said students can email him about and see what they can do, or just rely on the Internet, Google Books (limited preview) and complementary readings, which he said he'll give extra credit for. HA.

Prague and Vienna awaits.