Linkopi @ Linköping

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!