Duly Noted

So i’d written before about my visit Drottningholms Slott in the mid Autumn, but not in very much detail. Here i’ll try to write a bit more about our walk in Engelska Parkdelen.

One of things i remember most distinctly about that first visit were the ducks. It was extraordinary. There must be a thousand of them at least. What you see pictured here are just about half of them. The other half flew off when a dog ran at some of them and sparked off a chain reaction in which in seemed the entire field lifted up into the air. They were making a huge noise as well. It was quite spectacular. We imagined they were probably stopping by at the park on their southward migration.

We saw some swans as well. Most of them had sort of hidden themselves behind some bushes on a island on the pond, but this one was swimming about quite happily, and even swam right up to us, perhaps thinking we would feed it. Unfortunately, i’d already finished the sandwiches i’d prepared for lunch, and all my friend had were sweets, which i didn’t think we should feed to animals. It was really cool, though. The swan swam right up to the edge of the lake, where we were. We managed to get so close. The wind was blowing and we could see the swan’s feathers gently rustling. I know it sounds corny, but it really was a magical moment.

Anyway, like i’d said before, we visited at a really nice time. The leaves were all slowly turning orange. I suppose it would have been even nicer if we’d come back just a little bit later, but ah well. It was pretty peaceful and quiet too. I imagine the park gets pretty busy during the tourist season, in the summer, but the day we visited it was only us, a Chinese businessman working in Stockholm and taking a break for the weekend, and another presumably Swedish man walking his dog.

We’d heard wonderful things about the Flåm Railway, and indeed it was the main reason we had for visiting that part of Norway. The idea was the take the Bergen Line from Oslo but alight at Myrdal, where it connects with the Flåm Railway. This would take us through the mountains to Flåm, where after lunch we would hope on a ferry through the Nærøyfjord to Gudvangen. From there we’d hop on another train to complete our journey to Bergen.

The Flåm Railway train ride was as good as we’d imagined. Gave us some stunning views of the mountains as it ran along the valley between them. My only complaint was that it was a little too short, and also, being a train ride, you mostly just zoom pass the mountains, and don’t get a lot of time to dwell on any particular spot you may find especially beautiful. Perhaps one day if i have the chance (and the money), i’ll go back again and make the trip on foot or on bike. That would be really cool.

During my stay in Stockholm i very often went for walks in the city. My memories of these walks have all blended together such that it’s difficult, almost impossible, to tease them apart. Only very few walks can i remember distinctly. This particular walk was one of them. Not because it was particularly impactful, but simply because this was one of the very few walks i had planned for in some detail beforehand.

The idea was that i’d go looking for Mojang AB, the company responsible for Minecraft, that game i so enjoy. This was not too difficult. It’s street address was a matter of public record. And there was Google Maps to help me. I drew up a very rough map of Södermalm and the street’s i’d had to cross, the number of blocks i’d have to pass by, to get from Slussen to Åsögatan 140. I also included in the map the locations of a few inexpensive restaurants i’d found recommended on various websites that might want to try.

I never went to any of those restaurants, but i did find Mojang’s offices. They were very unassuming. Would not have recognised them at all from the outside. But there you go. Kind of silly, but well.

Afterwards the rest of the walk was of the kind that simply blended together with the rest of my memories, although i do have some photos taken on Centralbron of pendeltågen zooming by, so i suppose i must have headed there right after. I remember taking those photos. I was crazy about trains, and these trains had special meaning to me since i took them every day. So i stood on the bridge feeling slightly sheepish and waited for a pendeltåg to pass by on its way to or from Centralstation, and then i quickly snapped a photo.

The Vienna State Opera. Took this picture from the Starbucks across the street, where we took shelter when it started pouring. Ordered the cheapest item on the menu, which was still expensive by Singaporean standards, but well. We had umbrellas, but mine was broken and my jacket wasn’t waterproof. Wanted very much to see the inside of the Opera, but unfortunately it was off-season.

After my trip to Sigtuna got cancelled the first time and we went to Uppsala instead, i was determined to make the trip, even if i had to do it on my own. And i did. On my own. Took the pendeltåg to Märsta, and then transferred to a bus from there.

The bus journey was pretty nice. Can’t remember how long it took. Couldn’t have been too long. Maybe half an hour. But i got to see a lot of open countryside, fields with patches of forest here and there. Idyllic scenes like the ones i’d glanced from the window of my plane arriving at Arlanda and from the Arlanda Express as it zoomed towards Stockholm, and like the ones i would glance again from my plane as i left Stockholm finally in December.

Sigtuna was a lot smaller than i’d imagined, but i ended up spending more than half a day there. I suspect i’ll post more pictures some other time. I enjoyed myself just strolling around the place, exploring the down and hunting for rune stones. Spent a bit of time on the shores of Lake Mälaren, taking in the view while munching on the sandwiches i’d prepared for lunch. It was wonderful. And i mean, it was just a simple quiet place with not much to do, but i fell in love with it, and i’d come to visit it again at least two more times that i remember, including one time during my final days in Stockholm, when the entire town was blanketed in a [thin] layer of snow.

If i ever visit Stockholm again, Sigtuna is high on the list of places i definitely want to go back to.

It was a funny feeling stepping out of our shuttle bus from the airport onto the street in front of our hostel in Reykjavík. I’d been yearning to visit Iceland so much and for so long. It wasn’t so much that i was disappointed by how normal it was, but that i felt excited in spite of how normal it was, and then realising this and feeling slightly amused at the fact.

The flight had been pleasant enough. It was a pretty long flight. Probably the longest flight i’d been on within Europe. The airport at Keflavik was slightly bigger than i’d expected. Finding our way to the shuttle buses to Reykjavik wasn’t hard either. Leaving the airport we got our first glimpse of the Icelandic landscape, which was exactly as i’d imagine. Black and mossy for as far as the eye could see, with some mountains in the distance, some snow-capped and others not. Arriving at Reykjavík we transferred onto a smaller bus that would be able to navigate some of the narrower streets in the city. It was this bus that eventually brought us to the doorstep of our hostel, Reykjavík Backpackers, of which more later.

Yet another picture of Flemingsberg station. Kind’a miss waiting for the train every morning here.

I always stood up at the platform to try to spot the train turning the corner and zooming into view as it arrived, although in the late autumn and early winter, when it started getting colder, i sometimes found myself hiding in those red boxes, to at least get out of the wind. But i never waited inside the sheltered part of the station if i was alone. Even when it got a bit chilly. I liked it. Call me crazy. I guess i knew i only had a few months in Stockholm, and so i wanted just to savour the differentness of it. And anyway it was never really that bad. I dressed properly.

As i’m typing this, it’s the 29th minute of the hour, which means in all likelihood, a train bound for the city is arriving at Flemingsberg station right now. I can be fairly sure about this, because except for when it started getting cold, the trains were almost always punctual, and arrived on the dot. What a funny feeling, knowing with such certainty something happening halfway across the world.

This is again from way back in the beginning of my roundabout Europe trip. Our second day, in fact. We left Amstel House fairly early in the morning and started walking towards the Hauptbahnhof. It wasn’t particularly near by, but it was walkable for sure, and i just didn’t think it was worth spending money on public transport.

Passed by a bakery where we bought sandwiches for lunch on the train later on. I got this very nice sandwich with ham and eggs between two buns coated in poppy seeds, which you can never get in Singapore. Lady behind the counter couldn’t understand English very well, so i had to subject her to some of my German. When i thanked her, though, she replied in English, saying “please” when she ought to have said “you’re welcome”. If you speak German you know why.

Anyway, we got to the station soon enough. Had to look for the ticketing office to have our Eurail Pass validated. That didn’t take very long at all, because ours was a 1st class pass, and so we got to go on the express queue. Didn’t get much of a chance to explore the station, since our train was due to leave soon, but i don’t suppose there would have been much to see anyway.

So this was our room, the day we arrived in Stockholm. We were exhausted, but far too excited to care. At least i was. All of this was still so new, but by the end of our stay it’d become like home.

The table by the balcony was mine. My room mate got the round dining table by the window. Spent so many hours at that table working, researching trips out of Sweden, or just mucking about watching videos on Youtube and playing Minecraft.

And speaking of the balcony, i was so glad that we had one. I imagined going out on the balcony once in a while and just people watching. Of course, it got cold really quick so that never really happened more than a few times. Also, the balcony door was kind of broken for most of the year, until some guys came and fixed it. It refused to close properly, and let in a lot of cold air. So the area around my table was always kind of chilly. Which was fine by me actually. I like dressing warm anyway.

That little corner by my table and next to the balcony door is also where i kept my slow cooker. Used it mostly for rice in the beginning, until i realised it was easier and quicker to make rice in a pot. Then i used to slow cooker for soups. That was so much fun, preparing the ingredient the day before, sticking the entire pot in the fridge, and then the next morning taking the pot out again, putting it on the cooker, turning it on, and then going out, to school or whatever. I was always a little bit worried that there’d be a short circuit or something and the cooker would catch fire and burn the room down or something. But it never happened. I remember in December i actually went to Uppsala on my own for a little goodbye trip, and left the slow cooker running the entire day. The result was amazing. The meat was just falling off the bone. Gosh that was so much fun.

The red table i gave my room mate, while i kept the night stand. That became filled up pretty quick with all sorts of junk. Coins everywhere, from all over Europe. Kept a lot of stuff under my bed too, just because i was too lazy to back them properly.

I forgot to take pictures of the kitchen, which is a pity, because i spent so much time there fixing food. Daily, rituals, you know? Every morning i’d wake up, go to the bathroom and wash up. Usually my room mate would still be asleep so i’d have to be really quiet. I’d open up the fridge, and get out the milk and cereal. I ate cereal for breakfast every morning. I used to get the really cheap, house brand stuff. Corn flakes, essentially. Not complaining. Pretty good. I’m not picky. Later on in the year there was a promotion in the supermarket downstairs. There was always some promotion or other going on. They were selling muesli. Very, very cheap. Like, 10kr a box. That’s 2sgd! I bought 10. Or maybe 20 i can’t remember. Anyway, that lasted me all the way till the day i left, i remember. Even left half a box in the fridge for the next guy. Cooking lunch, cooking dinner. Those were the days. Really.

Remembering all this now makes me so sad. These are the things i miss most. Not the travelling, though that was fun too. All the average, ordinary, everyday stuff. Those are what i miss most. I miss my life in Stockholm. Because you can always visit a city again one day, but that part of your life you spent there is gone and you’re never going to get it back. When you visit again you’ll be a different person, and it won’t be quite the same.

Our stay in Copenhagen was pretty messy. We didn’t really plan it very well, and a lot of things didn’t go quite so smoothly. I’m not complaining, though. Figuring things out as we went along was really part of the fun. The first evening, for example, we ended up in Christianshavn, having crossed the bridge from Indre By, without any dinner, and all the shops around us closing. And so we were scrambling around looking for food to eat. Some of us went into a supermarket near the Christianshavn Metro station. I got a sandwich at a nearby bakery. Took this photo somewhere near by, looking down a random canal.

After that we just strolled along Prinsessegade, passing by Vor Frelsers Kirke, which we would climb the next day, heading towards Freetown Christiania. That was quite fun. Freetown Christiania, i mean. Lots of stores selling interesting stuff. Also, i’m pretty sure i saw a marijuana plant growing in a pot. Too bad pictures weren’t allowed in the place. Later on we walked back to Indre By, where we spent a bit of time outside Det Kongelige Bibliotek, the Royal Danish Library, housed in a pretty cool building called Den Sorte Diamant, the Black Diamond. Just chilling a bit. Ended the evening with ice cream along Nyhavn, and then a rather long walk back to our hostel, making a brief stop at an outdoor photography exhibition.