Cruise to Tallinn + a little bit of Stockholm
2 days after we came back from our really long 2 weeks trip that i took so long to blog about, we went on a cruise to Tallinn. It's really cheap! like 100sgd but without food included. Anyway, we had to take a bus to stockholm to catch the cruise, so we decided to earlier and see abit more of stockholm before boarding..
It was still easter mood then and the strange circular cages outside the Linköping train station had yellow feathers sticking out of them and surrounded by a bed of yellow pouty flowers..quite pretty compared to the way it looked in summer..
After our regular 19sek Kebab brunch, we headed to Djurgården, one of the islands of Stockholm with some parks and museums on it. On the way, we saw a tram converted into a tram and an old tram..all moving! I like trams 'coz they're something special that singapore doesn't have..LRT doesn't quite measure up..
More of the very typical postcard stockholm images, houses with the cones on top that you hardly see in other European countries so they're quite special..not really pretty but characteristic of the place. 
It's not really clear in this photo, but spring brought really pretty pink blooms to all the trees in this square and it's a very pretty sight, kind of like cherry blossoms in Japan although i have never seen them..just an impression..that's one thing about spring..trees are stuffed with flowers and no leaves..and all so colourful, just like paintings! 
This is one part of Djurgården. The weather was perfect that day and that means tonnes of people suntanning on any patch of grass or land you can find. Not just in stockholm, but in Linköping too, esp in school! 
This is the themepark on the island. Called Gröna Lund, which means green grove i think..i like the silver four leaved clovers in the top right corner..looks great gleaming in the sun..very disney land like.
Some where near Gröna Lund was this cute antique volvo. I have since seen a blue version of it i think but there are really alot of vintage cars here on the roads..citroens, peugeots, jaguars, esp volvos. its cool! 
Somewhere near Gröna Lund was this cute building. Its actually a circus, which explains the Big Top at the middle. I wanna watch a real circus act there if theres a chance to but knowing this place, its probably royally expensive! But i think there was a rauchy act going on at the time were were there..thus the After Dark posters plastered everywhere..
And this is Skänsen, another open air museum. The first in sweden i think..the biggest too..it has turned into a theme park kind of thing too. It being a Saturday, there were great long queues of people even though admission was about 20sgd. Too rich people..too rich! and that huge chunk of helium balloons reminded me of dilys and her love for them..haha..
Just look at how blue the sky is! the weather really was perfect. you never see such clear blue skies in Singapore..there is always a huge piece of cloud hanging around somewhere. and we never take note of the skies since the buildings block out most of it. i will definitely make the effort to observe when i get home! 
And here is the ferry terminal for the cruise. There are a couple more ferry terminals on stockholm for other cruises. So this one was quite small and simple..hardly a cruise centre..
The cruise we took was called romantika and its actually quite big..like the size of the star aquarius of the star cruise line in Singapore..not as big as Virgo though..but it was value for money i think.. 
we had to wait quite awhile for boarding and got bored..and observed that our shadows were really loooooong..haha..yes..we were that bored..
this is the cabin that we stayed in..it's 4 beds and has a little toilet and a tv which shows weird old chinese movies dubbed in estonian..quite funny actually..and we went to the cruise with other 2 singaporean boys, alan and rongwei..our first singporean outing! haha..
that night, we decided to splurge on the buffet which had smoked salmon and alot of those cold seafood stuff..the buffet costs 45sgd..but it's good entertainment for the otherwise boring night..the food was pretty good too..we all got so full we couldn't really move..so we just watched some silly movies and slept while the rest of the students and people got really drunk on the taxfree alcohol..i don't understand why they like to drink so much! liver cancer? hello? 
we arrived in tallinn the next morning and this is the view of the old town from far. quite picturesque with the old fortifications and towers..nicer than riga definitely..
more views of the old towers and walls..all medieval and well preserved..kind of like a storybook town..
here's the street leading into old town, just after the 2 towers in one of the little pictures in the previous collage..it's mainly a shopping street..
we then climbed up those stairs for a good view from the top of the town..it's like the from afar view, with the towers and stuff.. 
like this..
and atop the little hill was this huge orthodox church..it was a sunday and there was service going on..there were these old ladies who look like the russian ladies they show in the history textbooks asking for money outside and almost everyone coming out of the church gave..they must be feeling good after the service..anyway..the building was ornately decorated..a pity we didn't get to go in to take a look..should be pretty interesting..
and here's the world's most expensive toilet..a few millions or something if i'm not wrong..all 'coz of corruption..and i think it's spoilt..haha..
somewhere along the line were these 3 buildings, the 3 sisters..remember in riga we saw the 3 brothers? maybe they're related..but 3 sisters' a hotel now at which the queen..i can't remember which queen stays when she's in tallinn..
and here are the happy singaporeans + a happy turk in the town square..the one of the leftmost is Lina, our da jie da who's doing her masters course here..i love talking to her 'coz we get to bitch in Singlish! feels really good..haha..and next to her is barsha, a really hyperactive and happy turkish girl..
and tallinn has the cutest dragon water spout so far! this one's sticking out of the town hall and it has a little crown on it! haha..
and that's the jetty behind us, with 2 huge cruises from the same company i think..one's going to riga and one to stockholm..
and riga is probably one of the few countries with a 25 dollar note! we would have kept it for keepsake but we had better things to spend it on..so no 25 dollar note for ahboy! 
and here's the beautiful beautiful sunset i caught that evening, with the sun going down and disappearing..my fingers almost fell off from the cold wind standing out there for like half an hour! but it's worth it..
we eventually got back to stockholm at about 10am the next day and everyone getting off the cruise had some alcohol with them! the students had like 1 carton of beer but it's the oldies who are amazing..they brought their own little trolleys to carry like wat..7 cartons of wine or whatever alcohol it is? see on the left of the 2 men! madness! 
since our bus ride home was at 5 or something like that in the afternoon, we decided to continue our stockholm tour, after a kebab lunch of course..we caught the change of guards at the palace.. their uniforms are so cute and their helmet has the spear head on it..
and since we were in the area, we walked to the old town too to see how different is it in spring.. very different..in winter, it was like a ghost town but come spring, out sprouts the benches and the old men drinking coffee on them..
and somewhere in the old town was this girl with the best smelling job! waffle cone making! the smell is so heavenly! haha..and looks like fun too..the batter is dispensed from the tube and then she spins it to the next waffle toaster and after one round of dispense, close and turn, and..WAFFLES CONES! better with ice cream in them of course..
and not far from the waffle making girl, there was a shop selling these adorable eggs with a family of little ducks in them! too cute! and too much sugar..
and another dragon water spout atop one of the churches..this one looks like a cross between a crow and a dragon..and a snake..
and a view of another island of stockholm archipelago..the buildings look like lego stacked and crammed together..
and at some point of time, i got so bored i tried to balance half a bottle of juice on my head..
but i'm hardly an attraction compared to sleeping men growing out of flowerbeds! he's probably drunk or really really tired...luv, jL!
posted by jL-yZ @ 2:12 PM
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anyway, bratislava was better than we expected it to be. the town is generally quite run down and dead, maybe 'coz it was easter and easter monday when we were there but the old town is a charming and pretty. afterall, bratislava was the capital of czechoslovakia before they split. it does look a little bit like prague, just not as happening. 
we arrived in bratislava by bus from budapest. it's the cheapest journey of our trip, at only 15sgd for a eurolines ride. thanx for the 50% student discount + some internet reservation discount! yep..and SAD is written all over the station. it's actually the name of their local bus company. how sad..
after getting to the hostel, we spent a pretty long time getting the tickets for our next journey settled 'coz of some dispute in the prices quoted. bleah. it was tough trying to get our idea across to the ticket ladies who didn't really understand english. thank god for their patience. after the tickets were settled, we were all starving and got ourselves some chicken cutlet burgers at the roadside stalls just outside the station. it's yummy..kind of like the old fongseng western. and it's quite cheap too i remember..about 2sgd. easily the cheapest food we've had in months! 
we set out to search for the old town. along the way, we noticed that the buildings in bratislava are actually quite nice and big. 
along the way to the old town, we stumbled upon a nice big park. oh ya! the weather was superb that day, nice blue skies with little specks of clouds, kind of like wallpaper. so cheerful!
and we found a fountain rainbow in a fountain in the park! now everytime i pass a fountain, i am tempted to circle around it in search for the rainbow. haha. 
this is the old town square in bratislava. it's really quite pretty, just a little on the small side. 
we visited a palace in the old town and were gladly surprised that admission is free for students! but no photo taking in the palace, which obviously didn't stop us. we still sneaked a couple of shots of the luxurious furnishing of the palace. it's beautiful. 
and i found roasted chestnuts! gao lak!! it's not too much different from the ones we have in singapore, but they crack the shell here so it's easy to peel. but it's not as fragrant. but really nice for a cold day. 
and here are some of the nicer buildings around the old town. 
we heard music and singing along the streets and went to see where it came from. we found this family at the street corner. they were there the next day too. i think they're middle eastern 'coz the song they were singing sounds malay. but they sing pretty well actually. and the 2 boys are twins which makes it adorable. 
around the corner, we also found really cheap gelato! which we went back for more like at least 3 times and even bb who doesn't even like ice cream that much asked for it! it's like 80 cents a scoop for good gelato. yummy. 
and the kids in Bratislava were the friendliest lot we met on the trip! there was this cute little boy kicking a ball around and he kicked it to us. there are alot of soccer stars in the making there. everywhere, there are toddlers kicking soccer balls. and the top right photo, the little boy was playing on the statue and then a little girl went to join him and he started flirting with her and when his parents carried him away, he screamed and fought to go back! haha. 
there were alot of strange statues around the old town too, apart from the man in the manhole. i like the papparazi at the street corner and the man on the bench. really cute. 
and outside their huge church, there was this wall with the windows filled with van gogh paintings which puzzles us since van gogh isn't from slovakia but from holland. hm hm..
this is the huge church. St.Martin's Cathedral. it was used in the past for the coronation of kings and there's still a festival each year to celebrate that. should be nice to watch. the interior's really grand and there's an excavation at the corner in which the boys were spotting the skulls. and top right corner was the tomb of a guy whose name i can't remember but his head is gone from the statue. eeks. 
more strange stuff around town. the witch in the window is quite freaky 'coz it looks quite real and it's above a.......watch shop! and the man popping out of the window is quite comical. 
dinner that night was at a student pub called Slovak pub. the food's cheap and pretty good. if you're going to bratislava, check out the place. we had some slovakian dumplings which are really different from the polish ones. it's really small..like small balls of dough. and everything's in goat cheese which has a taste a tad too strong for me but apart from that, the food's tasty. 
but at the back, we found this huge bird mama statue and had fun taking photos and sitting in her lap. haha. quite comfortable really. 
we headed back to old town for another ice cream break. haha. 
while we were shopping for souveniors in the old town square, i noticed this woman dressed really really oddly. 
a closer look! she had like flowery stuff, huge butterflies in her hair, i don't even know how to describe her! it's no wonder why people think asians are weird! 
we had hot chocolate at a speciality shop on the town square too. they had like 20 different kinds of hot chocolate! mint, nuts, fruits, you name it, you get it. even white hot chocolate. it's quite yummy. the inside of the shop had a huge chooclate fountain and the wall was panelled with shelfs of chocolates and biscuits! arh!
and we eventually found nothing more to do. we decided to head over to tesco, one of the very few places open to buy food and had an impromtu picnic along river danube which stretches from vienna to budapest to bratislava. look at the boys happy faces outside tesco! haha. 
and that's the river danube behind me. the opposite shore looks like it has some park but we didn't go there 'coz we were too lazy after almost 2 weeks of walking. but yea..pple were looking at us really strangely when we were eating peanuts and chips on the benches. there was even this lady who was tsk tsking at us for the few peanut shells we dropped which we picked up of course, even without her tsk tsking. irritating. 
and that's it for bratislava! we boarded the train at night for krakow. it's a long overnight ride and we got a sleeper cabin. quite cool. we had free water and croissants and small towels and soap! 
we stayed at Flamingo Hostel at Krakow. it has the best location! it's right smack in the old town which made going out and getting around much easier. the hostel's really homey and the staff's great. when we were leaving, we even met the boss who's really young and friendly. he was changing the mattresses of the beds 'coz they're quite old. the hostel deserves all the praises and awards is has gotten and we highly recommend staying there! 
there are 2 famous tours in Krakow. one's the wieliczka salt mine and another's the auschwitz concentration camp. we decided to go for the salt mine since it's indoors and the bad weather wouldn't affect us. we would have went for both if not for the high cost. i really want to see what's auschwitz like but i guess it's quite morbid and depressing. 
here's the outside of the salt mine. it's about a half an hour drive away from town. and for those who are going there to visit, don't buy tickets from the one that's posting advertisements everywhere. there's another one that's cheaper for students right on the spot of the meeting point of the more advertised one. ask me for the street! i'm lazy to find it now. 
the salt mine was quite disappointing 'coz its a little too manmade and touristy. instead of seeing the mining process, we were visiting more salt sculptures and cathedrals. but the main cathedral's really beautiful. and the fact that everything is carved out of salt is quite amazing. there really is salt along the walls and it's really salty. haha. the lift we took to get back from the bottom of the mine to the top was scary and the most exciting part of the trip. but it's a good thing we went for it 'coz the weather got even worse when we got out. 
its a good thing Krakow has a huge shopping mall! the first and last time i've been in such a huge one since i came to europe. it's just like the Singapore ones. i miss vivo! we spent some time having lunch and shopping around before heading back to the hostel. i got some pull n bear t-shirts and a skirt for 50sgd. much cheaper than in Singapore. i would have bought more if not for the long queues for the changing room! 
we went to an Irish pub that night to catch the man u vs roma match. it's really fun 'coz the crowd is crazy. there were men dressed in irish kilts and cheering and singing just like in the stadium. and it was a crazy match too! trashing! totally worth our money and walking in the rain! 
the next morning when we set out from the hostel, there was this man just outside dribbling a soccer ball and doing tricks. he's really good at it. it's a good thing these people actually do something to get the money instead of just holding a cup begging for some. 
we visited another cemetary which was neater and less destroyed. this is 'coz it was buried during world war 2 which helped it to escape destruction. oh..when visiting jewish places of worship, men have to cover their heads, so remember it if you're visiting any. 
we all had a nice long zapiekanka for lunch. we really should open a zapiekanka shop in Singapore. it's delicious and filling. 
after visiting the Jewish quarters, we visited the Wawel Castle, a storybook like castle which was too expensive to go into the interior! but the flowers were beautiful there and there was a wawel dragon dungeon. haha. 
we managed to walk into the cathedral without paying and were caught only on our way out but the man couldn't really be bothered. just told us to get a ticket at the building 50m from there. hah. the cathedral's really grand and had multiple chapels with the tombs of royalties and bishops. there's even a piece of dragon bone hanging at the door. the whole cathedral's a little too luxuriously decorated for me. the entire altar's made of gold. the whole building looks really interesting with all the chapels of different styles sticking out of its sides. 
on our way to the next stop, we saw these cutely dressed men along the park and snapped a shot of them. i didn't realize that one of them waved until i saw this photo. haha. cute. 
the next stop is the pope window from which the late pope sang and talked to the people during a visit to krakow. the portrait of him makes it look as if he's really in the window. 
back to the town square. the town square is the largest in europe during medieval times. and it really is huge! and a part of it is filled in to make the whole square level. the church at the bottom right was much larger and only the top of it is left now. the town hall only has its tower left sticking out and the marketplace too. i wonder what made them do such a strange thing. would have been nice to see the entire square as it was. 
here's the square when it was rainy and gloomy. doesn't look as nice as it did when it was sunny. there was also much more activity when it was sunny. oh ya..souveniors in Krakow are really cheap. buy more if you go there! haha. 
the Krakow theatre's facade's really interesting. the art noveau faces all had different expressions. totally fitting for a theatre. 
and we boarded the overnight train that night to Gdansk to catch our flight back to Sweden finally. it was a really cool trip which got us addicted to backpacking. haha. and YAY! i'm finally done blogging about this trip!! after so long. haha. hope you guys have enjoyed reading about it! there are more photos uploaded 
