TravelStream™ news feed for member jolenewee on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jolenewee en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:50:19 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/sweden2007/1181501100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/sweden2007/1181501100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/sweden2007/1181501100/tpod.html Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:50:19 -0400 To the land of midnight sun. May the sun never sleeps.

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Gothenburg, Sweden

On my train ride back to Stockholm, I had to stop over in Gothenburg. Since I was already there, I decided to take a later train and explore the city. My 3 hour layover turned out to be really fun. I walked on the Avenyn, which is known to have the coolest shops in town and the trendiest restaurants. On my way there, I saw a sign for Paddan boat tour. I recall that Frommer highly recommended it. So I hopped on the next tour.

The boat ride was amazing. The canals around the city were narrow and the birdges were low. At some bridges, everyone had to squat on the floor when we passed the bridge (The Cheese Grater Bridge). The tour showed us everything from islands to old buildings. I feel like I have been to every part of the city on foot.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/norwa2007/1181413560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/norwa2007/1181413560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/norwa2007/1181413560/tpod.html Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:43:53 -0400 Noway, the most expensive Nordic country that exists.

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Oslo, Norway

Day 1:

I woke up this morning half-heartedly. Ellen, my American grandmother, passed away last week and today is her funeral. What kills me is that I am not there. Instead I will be going to Oslo. But it is too late. I already planned my accomodation, tickets, etc. I have to go. Besides, it is useful for me to stay in my room and mope around.

The train ride from Stockholm to Oslo took me 6 hours. I did not realize that there were assigned seats and I had to move to another seat because I sat in the wrong one. How unfortunate. I really liked my first seat. My assigned seating was in the uglier part of the train, the part that is undergoing improvements. Though ugly, my view was great. I sat right across this rather cute guy and the view outside was amazing too. I was sad to see the guy leave at an earlier stop.

I finally got to Oslo and quickly got myself a map and headed for my housing. I got my housing late and found most places fully booked. I found this vacant apartment by chance and took it. But it is a little far away from the central city. Luckily it is close to a train station. The apartment is really cute though I had to climbs lots of stairs.

The city itself was attacked by a heat wave. It was so hot. I could not wear my jeans to walk around and had to change. The city itself is small and expensive. I wanted to get myself some good Norwegain food but could not find any nice Norwegian restaurants. Since I was starving, I decided to eat at Burger King. I paid 85 kr ($15 for a burger, fries, and a drink). I wanted a large menu but they gave me XL. It was confusing but I was hungry.

I decided to walk randomly in the city. I started at the Central Station and walked around. Carl Johan's Gate road had plenty to see. It was filled with shops, restaurants, and if you walk long enough, the palace is towards the end of the road. The lady I met on the train told me to visit the Vigelund Park and I was instantly glad I met her. The park is adorned with beautiful sculptures--mostly naked ones. So don't bring your kids there (though there were lots of families there).

Day 2:

I woke up really early in the morning because I wanted to hit the town again. Well I soon found out that unlike other Nordic countries, Norway is the most religious. Almost everything is closed on Sundays. The trains ran on a less frequent schedule. It took me a while before I got to visit the Aker's Brygge and catch the ferry to visit the Boydoy island. I just wanted to take the ferry ride. The island houses all the famous museums--Viking ship, Kon tiki, etc, which I had no desire or time to see.

I took another walk in the city center before I had to head back to catch my 1:00pm train.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/findland2007/1180985880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/findland2007/1180985880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/findland2007/1180985880/tpod.html Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:27:49 -0400 Findland, the land of the lapps and fierce sun that really never sleeps.

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Helsinki, Finland

Day 1:

Two days ago I felt excited when I bought my Viking Line tickets. I am going to Finland! I did complain a little about the fare. It was more expensive than I thought for a ferry ride. But what I did not realize was that it is a cruise ship too. How stupid of me.

I came to work ready with my small luggage so that I can go straight to the terminal after work. Several people have commented to me that I was going on a party cruise. Whatever that means...

I soon found out what they meant by party ship. I will tell you all about it later. Right now, let me comment on the cool cabin that I had all to myself. The nice view from my cabin room. The rather comfortable bed and sofa. My nice meal--a steak that I bought to go because I could not wait to enjoy my cabin. The cute little bathroom. But its shower room is larger than the one I have in my hotel apartment. How odd is that?

OK now to the party part of the adventure. Well if you know me, party means a whole lot different to me than to most people. My kind of party do not involve drinking, smoking or super loud music (ok maybe the loud music is debatable). So it was only about 7pm and I was getting dinner when I was hit on by a throng of loud drunk men. Hhhmmm... they were convincing me that hanging out with them would be much more fun than hanging out in my room alone. I did detect a slight jealousy when I told them I had the whole room to myself with a great view. I politely declined. Then later some drunk old man came and grabbed me. I quickly glared at him. He got the message and left me alone.

I got my hot steak (recommended by the waiter) and quickly retreated back to the sanctity of my room. Whoa, that was interesting! But I was determined to not let anything spoil my first cruise ship experience. I took my time to eat up my dinner while watching tiny islands disappear and reappear from my sight. I felt a little hyper active and decided to get myself some wine to put me to bed. I felt bad for ignoring the no drinking sign in my room but figured that meant excessive alcohol. All I got myself was this super tiny bottle of wine. After drinking up some aweful tasting wine I quickly fell asleep.

Day 2:

I woke up and found that I have a roommate. I forgot that I did buy a shared cabin. The sofa turns into a bed. How cool is that? Anyway, Lisa is Finnish and speaks good English. She is a pharmacist and lives in another Finnish island. Regardless I am glad to have such a cool roommate. We ended up having breakfast together. I learned a couple of things from her:

1. It is true that Finnish people drinks the most coffee in the world. She herself drinks about 5 cups.

2. She explained that Finnish dating culture is like the Swedish one. It is not like the US where it is more a dating culture. I seriously do not know how come I ended up talking about this topic with so many people. People seem to always convince me that I should marry someone here. Hhmmm...

3. Every Finnish students are required to learn Swedish. Even though it is so, they can't speak it very well because they don't use it on a daily basis.

4. Every pharmacist in Finland has to be educated in Finland. It only takes 3 years (I think) of education. You can opt to choose to study more and be certified to do more. Sort of like nurses and doctors in the States.

Needless to say, I was sad to see Lisa leave. She was very nice and funny. Her husband works for the Viking Line so she knows the boat inside out.

The ship embarked and I was suddenly anxious to get off the ship. Perhaps the sight of the pretty archipelago as the ship cruised into Helsinki triggered it. It took me a while to find my way to the hostel. The hostel was just a 5 mins walk from the terminal had I gotten my directions right. Oh well. But everyone that I have talked to told me that the hostel is famous and is very good. I am looking forward to that.

I got to the hostel before check in time. I decided to store away my luggage and begin my tour of the city. After all I should not waste precious time there. The truth is this trip was more of a spur of the moment for me. I had originally planned to visit Oslo this weekend but the weather forecast convinced me otherwise. So I don't know a thing about Helsinki. Lucky for me, Frommer has outlined a detailed walking tour in his travel guide. Following his map and directions, I was able to visit all the important buildings in the city. My top fav is the church. I love it. It is so white and pretty.

I am feeling old. It is only 3pm and I am tired. I have only been walking for about 4 hours. Geez... I took the tram to get back to the Market Square and bought me some good Finnish food. I probably won't recommend most Americans to eat at street food stalls but I grew up with such food. So I know that my tummy can take it. I bought myself some fried fish from Lappland. It came with rice and all sorts of fishes. :) It was a little more expensive than I had expected for some food at the market though. (10 euros)

I went back to my room content with my lunch and ready for a nap. I needed to get some rest anyway. Since the sun does not set till way past 11pm here, I have plenty of time to explore later when I wake up. Sure enough, the sun met me at 8pm and we went on another journey. This time on a tram. Since I bought an all day pass I figure I should use it.

I looked at the map and decided to take a tram from my hostel. My room was great by the way. Sparkling clean and the bed was comfy. Nice. For what I paid, this is much better than I thought. Most importantly, I had the whole room to myself.

The tram took me across the city. The tram is like the subway but travels on normal roads so I get the view of the city without having to walk everywhere. How nice. I think my feet is enjoying it too. :) I changed tram at the Opera House station and it loopped back to the city center. A little over an hour later, I got back to the Market Square. I was still full from the lunch I had. I took a nice stroll in the park in front of the Market Square and walked around the area. Then I noticed that the crowd on the streets have changed--they were mostly drunk. I was told by the girl I met at the train station an hour ago that it was graduation day. Now that explains all the drunks and people wearing sailor hats (graduation caps in Finland). I quickly headed home.

Day 3:

The girl at the train station was very friendly too. Very much like Lisa. She suggested that I visit Suomenlinna island. She was certain that I would like it there. Since I am convinced that I have looked under every rock in the city and painted the city red, I decided to try the island out.

For 5.50 euros, I had the bargain of my life. It was great! If you visit Helsinki, never leave without visiting this island. Of course, I will always have a different story to tell compared to most tourists because I usually get lost a lot and accidently visit places that I am not supposed to. Take for example, I saw this crack in the fence on the island. It had no sign and the beautiful ocean was calling out to me. So I decided to climb through the fence not knowing that the other end of the fence had a sign saying "Private property." About an hour later, I found out. I did take some beautiful pictures though. But I suddenly had to walk pass a bunch of men sunbathing. They were sprawled everywhere and they were all watching me. At first I thought that they were looking at me because I look Asian and foreign. Then I noticed that no other tourists were in this part of the island. After seeing trailer homes later, I soon realized that this is private property. I am so glad that I am in Sweden where they care about world peace and won't shoot a trespasser like me. Phew! I quickly crossed the fence and went on my way.

I ended up spending almost the entire day there. I did not get back till after 1pm and I left for the island at 10am. When I got back to the Market Square (this is where the ferry arrives and departs), I got myself some of that yummy fish food again. This time they gave me a smaller portion but I paid less. I got what I paid for I guess.

I boarded on my ferry about 45 mins early. This time I did not get the whole cabin to myself and the room was sort of depressing. I spent most of my time outside of the cabin. I decided spur of the moment to treat myself to the dinner buffet on the ship. A little more expensive than I was willing to pay for but rather tasty. They had a whole range of food from smogasboard (all kinds of fish) to free wine and drinks. To spice up my dinner, I had interesting company--a older Finnish man sitting across the table from me, a Finnish couple to my right and an American couple sitting across of the Finnish couple.

The Finnish man across from me did not give me a good vibe. I think he was sort of hitting on me. We talked a little and he was nice. But then he was very excited that I am from Malaysia and asked if I am a Buddhist. He was disappointed when I replied no. We then moved on to talk about religion. He explained that he gave up on the Christian God when his wife died of breast cancer a few years ago. He could not understand why a God would take away lives. I sort of frowned at him and explained what the Bible had to say about that--how sin and death entered the world. He was surprised that I read the Bible. He tried to tell me about Sodom and Gomorrah and asked me an odd question about whether we will all burn in hell now. My reply was please read the book of Revelations. He told me that he is like most Christians in Europe. No one believes in Christianity. It is all tradition to them, which made me feel even more sad. European countries house the most beautiful churches in the world. It made me recall a Bible verse regarding the temple of God. God's temple is not really the church building but the holy spirit that inhibits Christians. So basically, these buildings are like any normal buildings without the spirit. I asked him why he was so interested in Buddhism and he told me that Buddhists seem so happy. Whatever they needed they could ask Buddha for. Hhmmm... I have never heard of any kind of Buddhism that preached happiness always! I bet he does not know many Buddhists. Ironically, most Buddhist countries are poor and poverty-stricken--people die of hunger every day--and he is complaining about his situation. He is eating at a fancy buffet and drinking wine. After dinner he invited me to join him and continue talking. I of course declined. I was more interested in joining the conversation between the Finnish and American couples.

In over an hour, I learned so much about the Finnish government, business, technology, etc. The man sitting next to me is a mechanical engineer from Finland and knows a lot about a lot of things. The American man sitting across the table from him is in real estate from the Bay area. I think he was getting a little drunk--I could sense it from his voice. But here is what I learned that night.

1. Finland does not have a market place that is pure competition--the government owns a lot of entities and tries to protect Finnish businesses. That is why businesses suffered so badly when the country faced an economic crisis a few years ago.

2. Fayed, the owner of the famous shopping store in England, married a Finnish woman and wanted to build an extravagant mansion with a private port for her. It took years and years and the project ended in a disaster. The Finnish developing company went bankrupt and the owner lost everything he owned.

3. Finland does not have the same kind of bankruptcy laws as in the US. Private companies' owners will lose everything they own--home, etc--if their companies went bankrupt.

4. Technology is moving slower in Finland due to governmental intervention, especially television broadcasting. HD televisions have yet to get popular in Finland. I also noticed that cell phones in Finland are not as high tech as the ones in Sweden. Actually, most of them look rather old fashioned compared to mine.

5. The Finnish interior design is still based on designs from the 17th century.

6. Due to inclement weather, homes have to be triple layered. Two vacuum sealed panels and one panel with ventilated air to allow for the extreme temperatures. Some walls have four layers now.

7. Flat roof tops are bad in Finland because of the extreme weathers.

8. Most Finnish people seem to prefer the old fashion--wooden houses, etc.--with the exception of the younger generation who is greatly influenced by American culture.

From my own observation...

1. Finnish people seem to look up to Swedish people. I asked a Finnish girl how can you tell Finnish and Swedish people apart and she said that Swedish women look like models whereas Finnish girls don't. I may have to agree with her though. But I do think Finnish people are friendlier.

2. Finland seems to be a step behind Sweden when it comes to fashion, etc. The fashion in Finland is not as fancy or as high fashion as Swedish fashion designs.

3. I see Russian influence. People here seem to Russian features.

4. I don't think Finnish people like Russians very much. Perhaps it is because Russia used to conquer Finland.

5. The sun shines brighter in Helsinki than in Stockholm. I am so glad that I bought some super shades. But I got darker quickly.

6. The days are longer than Stockholm too.



]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180600140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180600140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180600140/tpod.html Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:35:11 -0400 My life as a DHL intern, in Sweden.

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Stockholm, Sweden

Today was more exciting than usual. I finally got hold of some people that are willing to help out. Maybe Pete is right about the whole Asian chic thing. I can't believe I am actually agreeing with him about it. But the men are very nice to me--some of them even go out of their way to help me out. The women, though I have had to talk to very few of them, are not so helpful. Oh well... whatever works I guess. I don't really care.

So we may have ourselves a trip to the Arlanda airport. We will be meeting with the biggest retailer there. Yippeee.... the guy seems really nice over the phone. I am excited that we are going somewhere. The airport was going to charge us a boat load of money--~$300.

The airport in Copenhagen will be a little tricky. I am sure it will work out. We are trying to get into it. At least we got hold of some people.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180558080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180558080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180558080/tpod.html Wed, 30 May 2007 16:53:50 -0400 My life as a DHL intern, in Sweden.

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Stockholm, Sweden

Kim's flight to Stockholm was delayed. There was some problems with SAS's radar system. Our morning was more relaxed and we got some grunt work done--emails, research, etc.

Kim met with us after our yummy lunch and suddenly our project scope expanded again. He obviously wants us to give him more than we have time for. I really wish we did have time though. Our results would have been so cool if we came up with the results he wanted. But he would like us to outline exactly what we think the airports should do to proceed with consolidating the retail centers. Geezzz... where do we start? I think it will be great if I have some supply chain expertise. Right now none of us really do. Looks like long nights ahead of us.

Tom suggested we ask Kim to help initiate some of our contacts. He will be helping us with the Copenhagen airport. Since Oslo is almost taken cared of, we have Arlanda and Helsinki to crank out. Looks like we will be visiting Copenhagen next week! Can't wait. Jun 6 is a holiday for us. I might venture to visit Gotenborg... We shall see.




]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/sweden2007/1179994620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/sweden2007/1179994620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/sweden2007/1179994620/tpod.html Wed, 30 May 2007 04:28:15 -0400 To the land of midnight sun. May the sun never sleeps.

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Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla Stan, Old Town, is really pretty especially when it is closer to sunset. I decided to continue my walk tour--the one that I did not finish a few days ago.

I continued the walk by walking around the shops in Old Town. I wanted to start scoping out some good souvenirs to purchase. But first on my shopping list is a pari of sunglasses. I broke mine and it hurts to wear them. I saw this sunglasses shop with 50% sale tags all over the shop. Looks very interesting. The shop owners sort of ignored me at first until I opened my mouth. "This girl is American," they thought to themselves. They started being more friendly to me. I guess once again, the American dollars rocks! I bought my new pair of sunglasses and headed for my next shop.

I ended up buying a magnet for Mitzie. Things here are sort of expensive. But I saw some stuff animals that I liked. I may end up buying a stuff animal with a Swedish flag on it.

I ended up in front of the Nobel Museum an hour later. Just where I stopped the other day. So I followed my travel guide's instructions and headed for the palace. I was supposed to see the palace again, though a different view. This palace wing is supposed to be next to a church and in front of the harbor. It is so pretty just standing there admiring the architecture of the palace. I think the royal emblem for the Swedish royal family is two angels holding on to the crown. The angels represents peace. Sweden is known for a peaceful stance on all matters politics. That is why they dislike the American government so much.

I quickly realized that I have covered all of Gamla Stan without knowing it. Buildings and places are looking familliar to me. I wanted to get some dinner but decided against it. I don't know how much my other travels are going to cost me yet.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180378860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180378860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1180378860/tpod.html Wed, 30 May 2007 04:14:05 -0400 My life as a DHL intern, in Sweden.

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Stockholm, Sweden

I wanted to continue contacting people, but no one was at the office. It seems like I was in the wrong country at the wrong time. Even people in the US were having the day off. Oh well. Who ever said that Europeans were lazy? At least not the ones in Sweden! I guess it is no wonder the country is ranked 2nd after London when it comes to long work hours in Europe.

I was confined to contacting on the people at Arlanda airport, the main airport in Stockholm. I emailed, telephoned, and left messages. Still no luck with Arlanda. For those that I got hold of, I was being handed off to another person. Hopefully they call us back.

Besides contacting people, I had not much else to do. Another short day at work. We decied to take some picture of the DHL building. Enjoy...






]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1179754560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1179754560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/swedish_intern/1179754560/tpod.html Wed, 30 May 2007 04:11:56 -0400 My life as a DHL intern, in Sweden.

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Stockholm, Sweden

My first day of work was quite exciting. I got off at a different train station--a completely different route from the one I took yesterday when I was scoping out the place. I was late and I knew that I could not do anything about it. Got there 15 minutes late. :( Bummer! It took me a little over an hour to get there.

DHL office is pretty neat. Security is tight and I quickly learned that it was necessary due to the nature of the logistics industry. Everyone I have met so far has been nice and laid back. I even saw people wearing jeans. Yaye, I might do that sometime!

We started the day off with Kim telling us more about the project. Not too long later, we got some lunch. Whoa, the food is so good here and it is on the house! They drink a lot of coffee here. Practically every floor has a coffee machine. I already chowed down two cups today.

Nothing much happened today besides our grand tour of the facility. We were stuck in the conference room without internet connection and Kim did not send us the PP slide yet. Oh well, the dreary weather certainly fits our work. Typical first day of work I guess.

Getting our security cards was quite a hassle. We had to wait almost the entire day to get our cards--they were printed in limited editions. I still have to get mine and it is already 4pm.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/frankfurt2007/1180382220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/frankfurt2007/1180382220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/frankfurt2007/1180382220/tpod.html Tue, 29 May 2007 16:15:23 -0400 My visit to Franfurt, Germany, the city filled with banks and good restaurants.

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Frankfurt, Germany

We slept late last night because we watched Borat till way past midnight. I was glad that I watched the movie. I laughed till I cried. Borat is so funny. I did not like the wrestling scene though. I am glad that Jaki fast forwarded the scene for me.

It looks like the weather has not recovered. The sky is still covered with rain clouds and it soon poured again. We were lucky that we were almost at the Goethe museum, which is indoors. Goethe is the German version of Shakespeare. I quickly learned that he was a translator and could understand many languages. His house was huge. I enjoyed my visit to Goethe's home. Adjoining the home is a separate museum. It housed artwork that is mostly related to Goethe's history and life. I left the museum anxious to read Foust, Goethe's famous work.

We wanted to try to visit the garden that we planned on visiting last night but the weather prevented us again. We ended up having lunch at a local German restaurant. I got to have some German apple cider, which is alcoholic. Jaki was nice to order a dilluted version for me because she was afraid that I would feel sick again. I got some good ole German food and it was hearty and good.

It was about time for me to go. I had to catch the 6:00pm bus to get to the airport in time for my flight. Another 1.5 hour later I got to the airport and boarded my plane. This flight was about the same. Towards the end of the flight, one lady passed out. I think she drank too much. She sat on my row and I witnessed everything. They had to call every doctor on board and fed her oxygen. She was OK but I was again shocked. Two emergency calls in 2 Ryanair flights. I think one too many emergency incidences, don't you think?

From my observations and Jaki's and Jorge's input, here are what I learned about Germans and Germany:

1. Germans like to stare at you. It is very uncomfortable and rude.

2. They will eavesdrop when you speak English.

3. Foreigners will always be foreigners even though you become a German citizen.

4. Germans are not too friendly. They are mostly brash.

5. German men like asian women. There are lots of German men who married asian women.

6. Renting an apartment is a chore and you will be discriminated if you don't speak German and is foreign. Germans do not generally invest in buying a home. Most of them rent for the rest of their lives. So an apartment for rent does not come with everything. Sometimes you will have to paint the apartment, fix the plumbing, etc. when you rent.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/frankfurt2007/1180207140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/frankfurt2007/1180207140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jolenewee/frankfurt2007/1180207140/tpod.html Tue, 29 May 2007 15:55:52 -0400 My visit to Franfurt, Germany, the city filled with banks and good restaurants.

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Frankfurt, Germany

I flew with Ryanair and absolutely hated the experience. I had to leave my apartment at 3:00 am because it takes almost 2 hours to get Skavsta airport from Central Station. The last metro leaves at 3:06am and I had no other choice but to take that one. The bus ride from Central station was long. I had to take the 4:00am bus because there were no other buses that left later that would reach the airport in time for my 7am flight.

Luckily I sat next to this cool Swedish girl. She is part Italian, part Swedish. We started talking when we boarded the bus. We talked about politics, Swedish culture, etc. till the bus got to the airport. Her flight was only 15 mins before mine. So we hung out at the airport together too. She explained to me the history of Swedish culture. These are what I learned from her:

1. Sweden does not have a dating culture. People don't ask people out--it is mostly through friend recommendations that people meet. Men only ask girls out when they are very drunk. Sounds like asian culture to me.

2. Swedish men and women are treated equally. That means men here do not usually pay for meals--it is on dutch. They are not usually gentlemanly either, so no opening doors for women, etc.

3. Swedish women like sex (a lot). They are very forward and would ask men out, especially foreign men, but never call them back. Some men have commented on this, which is why Swedish women are known to be easy. But American women are not perceived to be any better.

4. Although things are normally expensive in Sweden, necessities are usually cheap. Eating out was never apart of the Swedish culture till recently, which explains why restaurants are pricier. The newer generation, however, are eating out more and more. Since Swedish food is generally not easy to make (like a hamburger), that explains why most "fast" food restaurants are foreign.

My new friend left and my flight soon came after hers. I can't get over the fact that Skavsta airport is the tinniest airport I have ever seen. It is so ugly but adorable.

The plane was moderate in size and there was free seating arrangement. I had no problem with that. The seats, however, could not recline. I was frustrated. Since this is a low cost airline, we were not served food. I read the menu and decided that I was not hungry enough to pay at least a premium of 2-3 euros for anything on the menu. Off I went to sleep.

We landed and it was a bumpy ride. Suddenly I heard the emergency bell ringing. A lady was in need of help. I think she was sick. I don't blame her for the bumpy landing. If I ate anything, I would have puked too. But the airline's policy required her to be examined by a doctor before she left the plane. When the doctor arrived (this is after we landed), the aisle was filled with passengers. He was angry and screamed at all of us. "Get out!" he yelled and almost at once all of us headed for the exits. I guess customer service is a foreign concept to Ryanair.

From Frankfurt Hanh's airport, I had to take another bus to the city center. This flight is getting more expensive by the minute. I don't see the savings at all. I may have spent more flying with this airline. It took me another 1.5 hour to get to the city center.

Jaki and Jorge were waiting for me when my bus arrived. I was so glad to see them. We went by subway to their apartment. Their apartment is so cute. I love it. I would be happy if my future apartment in NYC would be as big.

We left to walk around the city. I got some yummy street food--bratwurst with bread and steak with bread. I did not realize that I was famished. I also got to eat some Greek (?) food. It was good. I am amazed at how much food I can put away; Jorge did too. :)

The weather in Frankfurt was very warm. We were sweating soon after we left the apartment. We got ourselves some good German ice-cream, Haagen Daz. Expensive and yummy. They also brought me to see the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Center. I took a picture of the boar and the bull statues in front of the building. How funny!

We went back to the apartment and rested. Jaki and Jorge were planning to meet up with some of their physicist friends for dinner later that night. We sat around and talked while waiting for dinner time.

Dinner was at a great Argentinian restaurant. I got myself some beef; I had to cook my own food on a hot stone. On our way to the restaurant, Jorge bought me some Brazilian drink. It had 40% alcohol and I was not feeling too good when I was at the restaurant. To my relief, Jorge felt the same too, maybe not as bad as I felt. It took me more than 2 horus to recover.

It poured right in the middle of our dinner and we were dining outside. We toughed it out because the rain was off and on anyways. We wanted to visit a garden that night but the weather was not too cooperative. We ending up chilling out at a local cafe. Jorge's and Jaki's friend pulled out his pipe and smoked. Whoa, I have never seen someone smoke one of those before! I quickly learned that unlike Sweden, people can smoke indoors. I got some yummy German dessert, apple pie, with hot tea. The cafe was packed with people. But I still have yet to see any hot German guys.







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