Spinning: Jem - Keep on Walking

My room-mate and the other Singaporeans are off to Kiruna this weekend so I'm pretty much alone in Uppsala (apart from one other Singaporean I think). It's a tad more quiet, but it's strangely liberating having time to myself to rest and recharge and to just do my own stuff. And my friends who blog *cough* don't update often enough *cough* so I'll guess I'll update for lack of blogs to read! I'm waaaaaay behind in terms of updating this blog (so much for one photo a day huh?) but I'm trying :) This one's going to be long so you're in for a ride!



Well for those of you who don't already know, I'm on exchange in Sweden, but the University I am in is not in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Instead it's in this little University Town called Uppsala, and it's about a 40 min train ride away from Stockholm. A bit like going to Orchard Road if you ask me :)



There we have our little ticket, we're on board the train bound for STOCKHOLM! Whoo!



And this is what greets you when you step off the platform. No, seriously, this is what we saw. HORDES of people. Clarice (my room-mate) and I were thinking, "Gosh, is it usually this crowded?!" Turns out we were in for a little surprise... We were just kinda walking around and minding our own business, trying to kill a little time before Clarice's friend Isaac who was studying in Stockholm met up with us, and all of a sudden, whilst walking through the busy station...



We were greeted with this. And...





...this. Now this snapshot, and video, is EXACTLY what we saw. People mid-action, frozen to the ground. They just stopped moving. And my room-mate and I were kind of freaked for awhile, because people everywhere were not moving (save for a few, who were taking pictures/videos), and then, suddenly, I remembered this video I'd watched of a little something called the New York Freeze and the London Freeze @ Trafalgar Square, and suddenly the realization hit me. We were in the middle of the STOCKHOLM Freeze! It's a pre-arranged event where people congregate and agree to simultaneously freeze mid-action, whatever they're doing at the time, for just a couple of minutes as the world goes by around them.

And to think I used to laugh at the people who had no knowledge of the freeze and were caught in the middle of them. Heheh. But it was mighty fun being in the middle of it :) I mean, what were the chances? First time in Stockholm and we witness something like that. Amazing.



We stepped out of the train station for a bit, to orientate ourselves. Stockholm's really different from Uppsala. Big City, moving all the time.



We finally got to meet Isaac, and this was taken near his hostel. It was snowing quite hard the past few days, and there was a patch of woods nearby so we couldn't resist taking it just to show how minute we were next to the trees!



There's Isaac! And Clarice and I, we cooked some egg omelette thing for dinner.


So it was late at night, but we didn't want to waste the night there, so what do we do? Go to the casino, of course! Yeah, Stockholm has a casino. Complete with blackjack, roulette, poker tables, and slot machines. It was crazy in there, but no cameras allowed in there (the bouncer actually glared at my friend when she took a shot of the EXTERIOR... seriously, take a chill pill already!) I didn't play, but I think it was realllly eye-opening (especially when you observe a high-rollers poker game, exciting!) and the sound of chips being swept into the banker's till when roulette goes wrong...







So late at night and we were still full of energy (must've been all the stupid carbos I've been eating non-stop), so what to do? Photowhore of course. Heh. And I like this one particularly:



Haha!



So it was back to Isaac's for the night, but before that who could forget a bottle of julmust? Acquired taste, that one.



The next morning we set off for Slussen, an area near Gamla Stan (Old City). The surroundings were quite beautiful, but I've been told that Slussen is known more for its vibrant nightlife. Unfortunately we had plans already for the night so we didn't hang around that long.



This is the Stockholm Museum. CLOSED, when we went. Dahhh.



I saw this in there (we went to pee 'cos toilets in Sweden are not free and this one was free. Hahaha Cheap thrills), and if you guys know how in love I am with stencils you would understand why this is on my blog!





We took the Katarina lift up (apparently, it had historical significance because it was constructed way back in 1881 (!!!) so that people had access to the higher parts of town. The view from there was quite decent, so we didn't regret going up :)

Plus we met a HUGE dog, no, bear. No, dog. No. Yeah I'm trying to convince myself it's a dog.





We saw Gamla Stan from across the river, and it was captivating. By the way, notice the massive cracks in the frozen river? It was that cold... So anyway, we decided to hop over to Gamla Stan, which was just 10 minutes away on foot.





Now Gamla Stan is, how should I put it? Completely Charming. I have this thing with old buildings; I love it when old buildings with history are preserved (which explains why I love the peranakan houses in Katong) so imagine my delight when there was not just ONE street but an entire AREA of the old city in Stockholm preserved for all to see.



Looking down the street was beautiful. And something hanging up there caught my eye. I looked down and...



I could only drool and stare through the window from outside. Boutique chocolates, obviously very expensive.



Anyways. Near the chocolate shoppe was a church named the German Church. Now it's strange yeah, why it's called the German church when we're in Sweden? Time for a little wiki-lesson on that, saves me the trouble of typing out the entire explanation, haha.





And the church was really pretty. On the inside and out. Cathedrals are breathtaking. Everytime you enter, you feel a sense of peace and awe swirling around you. There's no other way to describe it really, for myself.



Then we stopped by a 7 Eleven to eat our kanelbulle (cinammon roll) and drink our hot chocolate! It was a modest lunch but I really relished it, sitting and watching the world go by Gamla Stan.



Then we spotted some palace guards. Out come the cameras!







Those are pictures of the parliament house...



Then we went up to the palace and struck a pose with the straight-faced guard! This guard was particularly nice though, he allowed us to take photographs and even gave us a courtly little bow when we waved goodbye! It's so weird to bow in this day and age...



Then we walked and brought ourselves back to T-centralen, where all the shopping was at...



Craaazy crowded...



Where all the shopping action's at...



And back to the subway for the night. OK the reason why I posted this weird pic is because I wanted to show how Stockholm has all these art in their subway stations.



This was another one as well... at another station.



The next day we went to Kungstragarden, supposedly to ice-skate on a LAKE, but when we got there we found a rink, and when we asked Isaac again about it we realized everyone had some misunderstanding about what the 'lake' was referring to. Hahha. So the change of plans was to walk back to Gamla Stan...



But on the way there were so many pretty distractions...





And in the late afternoon it was off to one of the biggest IKEAs in the world!





They even have lingon-berry (the ones they serve as meatball dip), as a drink!







Too full, fell asleep in IKEA!



The nxt morning though we discovered a pizza/pasta/kebab place which was yummmmmmmmmm. Large, tasty pizzas filled with toppings!

And soon it was time to go back to Uppsala, but before that we had a trip to St Clara's church. It's so beautiful!

And back at the train station, I was bored... and randomly taking pictures, when suddenly this guy sits across from me.



Quite adorable. Hehhehehehe.

OK my eyes are drooping now... I'd come back with Copenhagen, Daily life in Uppsala updates (we should make a list!)

Labels: exchange, photolog, sweden, travel

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