Hi there, this is lachlan and i’ve comandeered the blog. Seb’s reign of terror is over!!! I am your new benevolent dictator! This is a long entry! Go to the toilet now if you have to! I’ll try to divide it into paragraphs so its easier to read! Yes the exclamation marks mean i’m shouting!
So picking up from seb dropping us off at the station on the 26th… me and hedda successfully got in to stockholm and got on our train for Malmö. Because we were going for just the one night we were able to pack light so werent lugging around our 15 kilo mammoth packs which was a great change.
Because our planning for the trip had taken place in the couple of days before we left, the trains that we’d worked out were the best travel options all said fully booked on the internet when we were checking them out, but we thought they couldn’t ACTUALLY be fully booked, i mean the trains up north had been practically empty. It turns out a lot more people are interested in heading south for the winter than north. While the train wasnt ACTUALLY full, all the seats were full at some stage or another, we just had to do seat hopping every now and then when people who had booked the seats we were in came and said that we were in their seats. It was either that or they were asking if we had the time, it doesnt matter anyway we just said, sure, and moved.
But the key thing to get from that is that they all had booked seats. It turns out to travel on this train, you have to have booked a seat. You also have to pay an extra fee because it's a superduper XJ2000 ultra fine deluxe fast train. You are also required to fill in the date of your travel for any train journey on these boxes on the scanrail ticket before the ticket inspector comes around or else you get fined. All these revelations were shared with us by the ticket inspector when he came to check our tickets. So we did the only thing that seemed like it would work at the time, pointed down the aisle and shouted LOOK! A BIG SNAKE! With the intention of sprinting off when the inspector turned his back. It didn’t really work though, the inspectors english wasnt that crash hot so he just kind of got confused and angry. But it did seem to freak out a british couple sitting near where i pointed. The inspector got over his angry confusedness pretty quickly though, so we just paid the fee to book a seat, except our seat just happened to move around the train every couple of hours.
We had thought earlier in the trip that we were really brilliant and tricky and that the ticket inspectors didn’t know what was going on because they didnt fill in the date on our scanrail pass which we thought they were supposed to do. Turns out that we were just stupid and lucky not to get fined, and the ticket inspectors didnt know what was going on because they didnt fine us or tell us what we were doing wrong. Until this guy. I should have known he was better than the others when he didnt fall for the snake line. He made me fill in the boxes and was nice enough not to fine us. He also told us that all the stuff he just told us was actually written on the scanrail passes. I had thought that seb had read all the stuff on the tickets, so was sceptical… as if seb would ever not bother reading the terms and conditions thats in really small writing. The stuff was written on the ticket.
So we got to Malmö, got on a different train and crossed the bridge over to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a little bit drizzly, but noticibly warmer than södertalje (it was between +5 and +10 basically the whole time we were there! wow). We arrived at about 2, the plan for the afternoon was to cruise along Strǿget (apparently the worlds longest pedestrian shopping strip), take advantage of the boxing day sales to get some presents to take home plus anything else that caught the eye. It turns out they weren’t having boxing day in denmark, they were having second christmas. No joke. The even actually call it second christmas. As if you could pick something like that, they don’t mention it on any of the websites. So there wasnt a whole lot of stuff open. There were quite a lot of people out walking along the strip, just not shops for them to go into. So we walked the length and went into everything that was open, ate a belgian waffle and got some choc croissants for breakfast the next day.
I think this is about halftime for the entry, if you feel having a break, go for it. I did, i watched the episode of the amazing race with jonathon and victoria where jonothan hits victoria and she has a nervous breakdown. Probably the most memorable amazing race episode ever, and there have been many great episodes so thats saying something.
We took the metro and made our way to the B&B we were staying at, about the only accomodation that was open other than hotels – not because of the second christmas thing, but backpackers places just arent open in winter there. We just dropped our bags off then went out to find some dinner. We stopped in at a fruit shop on the way and bought 2 pieces of fruit each, which was funny, going to the counter with a banana and a mandarin (hedda got an apple and mandarin). Had dinner at a pizza/pasta place, then we went back to the room and watched lord of the rings – which was shown the whole movie no ads. After the movie we just went to bed. The room only had one bed so we slept with our heads at the long edge which was fine except for my being tall. From about my knees down was dangling off the edge of the bed which was not the ideal set up for a good nights sleep (although it must be said its quite a bit better than just having a corner and no bed), however i had a stroke of genius and put the 2 dining chairs in the room seat against the bed to create an extension and a proper sized bed. You can work out for yourselves that Hedda didnt have the same height problems.
So the morning of second boxing day dawned (or first boxing day if you are in denmark) and we had our choccy crossies and fruit then headed back into town. We went back to the Strǿget and had a walk along there again just checking out the shops, Hedda got some cds of danish music. Then we went to find the Ny Glypotek Carlsberg which is the new carlsberg gallery with art collected by the carlsberg family, and also (i thought) brewery type tasting place. Turns out the place with the brewery type tasting area is at the old carlsberg gallery, which was still in copenhagen, but too far away to be worth going to with the time we had.
So we got on a train and left the city, heading north towards Kronberg Castle, which is the castle from hamlet in Helsingbǿr. It turned out to be a great castle, nice town, all round winning place. The castle had everything you could ask for in a castle, moat, walls, great big courtyard with a well in it surrounded imposingly big, very high castle buildings. The weather aswell was appropriate for the Hamlet mood – overcast and a little windy. And there were crows flying around croaking, so i was like, wow it really is the perfect hamlet mood, all sort of gloomy and troubled like hamlet because he was having all his issues and going mad and stuff. Then hedda told me that i was thinking of macbeth. Turns out hamlet wasnt crazy at all. And he wasnt even that troubled. He was troubled, yes, but not to the same macbeth extent.
So the weather wasn’t actually as appropriate as i first thought. But while i was in my macbeth belief stage i became inspired by the setting and how well it matched the castle and the story, so i fell under the illusion that i was some kind of artistic genius photographer and i tried to take all these artsy photos of the castle. There was this craggy bush and i was like, this represents the craggy descent of hamlet into madness, so i put it artistically in the photo with the castle. And then there were these crows circling around the castle tower so i was like, this represents crows, i’ll try and put them in the picture as well. Anyways, we’ll see how they turn out.
So after the castle we went back into town and walked around, stopped in at a local pub – but they didnt have carlsberg, so i had some other danish? beer called wiiborg or something like that. Then we caught the ferry back over to sweden and got the train back to södertalje. This was another train that we were meant to have booked and paid extra, so we just acted innocent when the inspector came around and got moving seats again. Except this time, when they said the train was full, they ACTUALLY meant it was full. We were in our first seats for a little while, then we moved, then we moved and had nowhere to go because all the seats were full, so we spent the remaining few hours in the restaurant carriage. Then seb picked us up from the station and we went home.
That was last night, today we went in to södertalje centrum for the afternoon.
And i see australia have gone 4-0 up, what happened to the people that had bought tickets for day 4 of the test?
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
HI HELLO,
Seb here, not too much has happened since last post. We got up the next day and went to see the sunrise in viksberg which was nice. Didnt see too much cause the cliff face faced the wrong way kinda. Then we came back home before grandad even knew we had been out. then we did something, cant quite remember what until 1700 and then we went to my uncle Per's house. Nice newly built place with a really nice view out in the more rural bit of town where we used to live. Had dinner with him and his family, baked salmon (my grandma's old recipe). Then we went for a walk because oskar said he would show us where there neighbours had some horses. Then he asked me to pick a road so i picked one thinking they both went to the horses... but no, the one we chose took us to their mailboxes which were ofcourse very interesting. As we then walked back to where the horses were he remembered that the horses go to sleep at 6(now 8).Came back and had dessert which was yum icecream with cream and berries or swedish cheesecake with cream and jam. Then we played some table tennis with oskar and then watched a home movie he had made about their trip to switzerland and slovenia(i think). It was really funny humour even spanned the language barrier and lachy was laughing quite a bit. Their cats didnt like me i tried to pick them up so that they would sit in my lap as i patted them but the second i did they looked for a way to get out. then we published all those photos that are now up. WHICH TOOK HOURS! Then we went home.
Next day we went to centrum to get some presents for christmas. Lachy realised his debit mastercard wasnt working which is a bit weird. Bought some stuff then went to pick up my sister. Then we went to my aunts place to see my cousins anton and linda. driving there wasnt as big a problem as i thought it would be cause they live a bit further out, but it was pretty easy to find. Got there and had a bit of dinner. Anton my youngest cousin whos 11 i think, in the middle of a conversation burst out ''damn you've gotten old!'' Which was funny. Then we played with their 7 cats and a laser pointer. so funny seeing cats run straight into doors. Then we played with their two dogs mimmi and dimma and played fetch with lumps of ice. Then we played with a glow in the dark boomerang that we gave anton. After a while we went to say goodnight to the horse which they have. Such a nice horse. it would lift its hoof which meant ''please give me carrots'' just like pepsi does when he lifts his paw to get us to give him food. Just a heavier kind of dog. then we went home.
Next day we went to stockholm to see my friend jesper perform at the castle as part of a military parade. We thought it was at 1300 but it was actually at 1200 so when we got there he had already packed up and were getting onto the bus, but we'll see it some other day. Then we walked back through gamla stan to a shop where we had lunch. And hedda and lachy did some souvenier shopping. Then we went to what we thought was södermalm but it ended up beign the wrong way and we got to kungsträdgården(north of gamla stan instead of south) before we realised. Since we were there we decided to go look at the shopping centers that are there. Didnt buy anything cause everything was really expensive. We looked at stuff thought cause we are gonna buy some brightly coloured björn borg boxers cause they are really popular here. then we decided not to go to the night club in södermalm which is the place which we got free tickets too from the train conductor going to åre. We were too tired and had spent the whole day in stockholm so decided to go home soon after dinner. We saw a sign with dinner prices for a restaurant called SOFT KÖK AND BAR..... just letting it sink in..... get it... soft cock HAHAHAHAHA anyway we decided that was as good a name as any so we went there for dinner. Had Plank steak which is (yet another) swedish meal where a steak is prepared on an oak plank with potato and bearnaise sauce so that it tasted like oak. Pretty nice and pretty cheap. Also me and lachy had cider which is really good. more alcoholic than beer(not that that matters-mum) and tastes better cause its fruity. Lachy thinks it might even be nicer than beer. Then we went home.
Next day was christmas eve. 24th dec is the big celebrated day in sweden. So we started the day by going to my mums dad and saying merry christmas. funny Odd little man but probably the nicest person you can ever meet. Then we left to go to my mums mum (they're divorced) for the festivities. Got there and had problems finding a spot to park. then finally got one and went inside to watch donald duck on tv which is a disney christmas episode which is rerun every year as a traditional symbol to start celebrating christmas. Lachy and hedda had more glögg(traditional swedish christmas spiced wine). Then we had christmas dinner. Lots of traditional swedish food. Herring, gravad salmon, boiled potatoes, mushroom sauce, christmas ham, meatballs, garlic cloves?(not so traditional), janssons temptation(name of potatoe dish), ribs, grandmas salmon, bread etc. Ate till i was about to explode. Then there was dessert. first christmas porridge then fruit punch(which was awesome), chocolate cake, etc. So nice. Oh this time hedda had cider and now shes hooked. Then we talked for a while and mingled. Lachy looked bewildered as my grandma's man friend Erik asked lachy in and aggressive tone ''WHAT is your name?'' uhh lachlan ''YES WHY IS IT SO?'' ..... uhh same reason you are called erik... ''oh yes''
Then came the part where everyone tried to pronounce eachothers names. Soon came time to open the presents. Lachy went away and got dressed up as santa. He appeared decked out in santa gear with a pillow shoved under the jacket and a belt held on with a bit of tape. So funny seeing him do the santa thing with just a few lines of swedish and then as he switched over to french every now and then as most of my relatives didnt even realise. He was a lazy santa cause he sat down half way through the job and i had to keep on doing his job as he opened the presents for himself. But my aunt lena thought he was very cute. Everyone got heaps of presents which was fun. I got a viking coin pendant for a necklace, some sweden socks, a book about tomtar, a cd about swedish history, a tshirt, two funny dvds, some glögg, and a little wooden christmas tree, oh and a lot of money. Thankyou everyone for everything. Not sure what hedda and lachy got really. oh but lachy got some moose slippers which were very cool. and a rapper type bling bling necklace with an S on it for södertälje, but its funny cause people in australia will be like ''S is for Lachlan?''. Hedda got a teddy bear which kept stripping and doing a sexy dance for her which was awkward. After the opening of presents we decided to play a boardgame. game was called 20th century and hedda joked that it took 100 years to finish it. So yeah that took until the time to go home. Just me and my cousin niklas translating the questions into english and everyone swearing when they had to answer a question about sweden. I did pretty well considering im near retarded, maybe just luck. Lachy had a funny question where the answer was orgasm... insert your own question and imagine how red lachy's face can get. Hilarious. Again were surprised as to how good niklas's english is. Then got home and lachy and hedda finished planning their trip to denmark. so in bed at 3am probably
Next morning nothing much happened. got up late had bacon and eggs for lunch then started defrosting yabbies. Watched one of my movies from my presents. Lachy and hedda did more planning for denmark and future scandinavia trip. Then had yabbies. They were nice. Lachy and hedda thought so too but they think its too much work for so little food as you have to shell the yabbies. and they looked pretty disgusted and shocked as grandad ate the stuff in their heads. the yabbies heads that is... not lachy and hedda's(just calrifying so we dont get any angry calls). Then planning continued and we watched lord of the rings the two towers on tv until 2345.
Lachy and Hedda woke me up at 0630 this morning and got me to drive them to the train station. Hedda almost forgot her credit card at home but remembered before we left. They left and i heard they got to denmark later today when they smsd me to send them the list of things they were meant to do in denmark which they forgot to take with them. As for me i spent most of the day at my uncle Per's place. Went to see what the place looks like when you can actually see outside with daylight. Very nice views of a golfcourse, lake, and forested cliff. Had some lunch and watched some home movies of me flying and of our travels so far. then we went for a walk to see the area which is really nice even this time of year. apparently they have problems with wild boars(odd kind of pest). Anyway very nice house, then me and grandad went shopping and now we are home. got home just in time to see top gun on tv. AWESOMEST MOVIE... must be the 300th time ive seen it but still cool since it was like 2 years since last time. I have a jacket like him now so obviously that means i am as cool if not better than him. i think better cause i dont jump on couches.....on public television. so yeah i should get his money and the planes he flies in that movie. has anyone else noticed the trend in stories in tom cruise movies. they all start with him being an awesome .......(bartender/fighterpilot/spy etc) then he falls in love, then someone dies, he cracks and cant be a good...(bartender/fighterpilot/spy etc) then his lover person teaches him to once again BELIEVE and so once again he becomes a good.....(bartender/fighterpilot/spy/lawyer? etc)and somehow he saves the day. STORY OF SUCCESS. anyway now im getting hungry and i better go make some dinner. Goodbye
Seb here, not too much has happened since last post. We got up the next day and went to see the sunrise in viksberg which was nice. Didnt see too much cause the cliff face faced the wrong way kinda. Then we came back home before grandad even knew we had been out. then we did something, cant quite remember what until 1700 and then we went to my uncle Per's house. Nice newly built place with a really nice view out in the more rural bit of town where we used to live. Had dinner with him and his family, baked salmon (my grandma's old recipe). Then we went for a walk because oskar said he would show us where there neighbours had some horses. Then he asked me to pick a road so i picked one thinking they both went to the horses... but no, the one we chose took us to their mailboxes which were ofcourse very interesting. As we then walked back to where the horses were he remembered that the horses go to sleep at 6(now 8).Came back and had dessert which was yum icecream with cream and berries or swedish cheesecake with cream and jam. Then we played some table tennis with oskar and then watched a home movie he had made about their trip to switzerland and slovenia(i think). It was really funny humour even spanned the language barrier and lachy was laughing quite a bit. Their cats didnt like me i tried to pick them up so that they would sit in my lap as i patted them but the second i did they looked for a way to get out. then we published all those photos that are now up. WHICH TOOK HOURS! Then we went home.
Next day we went to centrum to get some presents for christmas. Lachy realised his debit mastercard wasnt working which is a bit weird. Bought some stuff then went to pick up my sister. Then we went to my aunts place to see my cousins anton and linda. driving there wasnt as big a problem as i thought it would be cause they live a bit further out, but it was pretty easy to find. Got there and had a bit of dinner. Anton my youngest cousin whos 11 i think, in the middle of a conversation burst out ''damn you've gotten old!'' Which was funny. Then we played with their 7 cats and a laser pointer. so funny seeing cats run straight into doors. Then we played with their two dogs mimmi and dimma and played fetch with lumps of ice. Then we played with a glow in the dark boomerang that we gave anton. After a while we went to say goodnight to the horse which they have. Such a nice horse. it would lift its hoof which meant ''please give me carrots'' just like pepsi does when he lifts his paw to get us to give him food. Just a heavier kind of dog. then we went home.
Next day we went to stockholm to see my friend jesper perform at the castle as part of a military parade. We thought it was at 1300 but it was actually at 1200 so when we got there he had already packed up and were getting onto the bus, but we'll see it some other day. Then we walked back through gamla stan to a shop where we had lunch. And hedda and lachy did some souvenier shopping. Then we went to what we thought was södermalm but it ended up beign the wrong way and we got to kungsträdgården(north of gamla stan instead of south) before we realised. Since we were there we decided to go look at the shopping centers that are there. Didnt buy anything cause everything was really expensive. We looked at stuff thought cause we are gonna buy some brightly coloured björn borg boxers cause they are really popular here. then we decided not to go to the night club in södermalm which is the place which we got free tickets too from the train conductor going to åre. We were too tired and had spent the whole day in stockholm so decided to go home soon after dinner. We saw a sign with dinner prices for a restaurant called SOFT KÖK AND BAR..... just letting it sink in..... get it... soft cock HAHAHAHAHA anyway we decided that was as good a name as any so we went there for dinner. Had Plank steak which is (yet another) swedish meal where a steak is prepared on an oak plank with potato and bearnaise sauce so that it tasted like oak. Pretty nice and pretty cheap. Also me and lachy had cider which is really good. more alcoholic than beer(not that that matters-mum) and tastes better cause its fruity. Lachy thinks it might even be nicer than beer. Then we went home.
Next day was christmas eve. 24th dec is the big celebrated day in sweden. So we started the day by going to my mums dad and saying merry christmas. funny Odd little man but probably the nicest person you can ever meet. Then we left to go to my mums mum (they're divorced) for the festivities. Got there and had problems finding a spot to park. then finally got one and went inside to watch donald duck on tv which is a disney christmas episode which is rerun every year as a traditional symbol to start celebrating christmas. Lachy and hedda had more glögg(traditional swedish christmas spiced wine). Then we had christmas dinner. Lots of traditional swedish food. Herring, gravad salmon, boiled potatoes, mushroom sauce, christmas ham, meatballs, garlic cloves?(not so traditional), janssons temptation(name of potatoe dish), ribs, grandmas salmon, bread etc. Ate till i was about to explode. Then there was dessert. first christmas porridge then fruit punch(which was awesome), chocolate cake, etc. So nice. Oh this time hedda had cider and now shes hooked. Then we talked for a while and mingled. Lachy looked bewildered as my grandma's man friend Erik asked lachy in and aggressive tone ''WHAT is your name?'' uhh lachlan ''YES WHY IS IT SO?'' ..... uhh same reason you are called erik... ''oh yes''
Then came the part where everyone tried to pronounce eachothers names. Soon came time to open the presents. Lachy went away and got dressed up as santa. He appeared decked out in santa gear with a pillow shoved under the jacket and a belt held on with a bit of tape. So funny seeing him do the santa thing with just a few lines of swedish and then as he switched over to french every now and then as most of my relatives didnt even realise. He was a lazy santa cause he sat down half way through the job and i had to keep on doing his job as he opened the presents for himself. But my aunt lena thought he was very cute. Everyone got heaps of presents which was fun. I got a viking coin pendant for a necklace, some sweden socks, a book about tomtar, a cd about swedish history, a tshirt, two funny dvds, some glögg, and a little wooden christmas tree, oh and a lot of money. Thankyou everyone for everything. Not sure what hedda and lachy got really. oh but lachy got some moose slippers which were very cool. and a rapper type bling bling necklace with an S on it for södertälje, but its funny cause people in australia will be like ''S is for Lachlan?''. Hedda got a teddy bear which kept stripping and doing a sexy dance for her which was awkward. After the opening of presents we decided to play a boardgame. game was called 20th century and hedda joked that it took 100 years to finish it. So yeah that took until the time to go home. Just me and my cousin niklas translating the questions into english and everyone swearing when they had to answer a question about sweden. I did pretty well considering im near retarded, maybe just luck. Lachy had a funny question where the answer was orgasm... insert your own question and imagine how red lachy's face can get. Hilarious. Again were surprised as to how good niklas's english is. Then got home and lachy and hedda finished planning their trip to denmark. so in bed at 3am probably
Next morning nothing much happened. got up late had bacon and eggs for lunch then started defrosting yabbies. Watched one of my movies from my presents. Lachy and hedda did more planning for denmark and future scandinavia trip. Then had yabbies. They were nice. Lachy and hedda thought so too but they think its too much work for so little food as you have to shell the yabbies. and they looked pretty disgusted and shocked as grandad ate the stuff in their heads. the yabbies heads that is... not lachy and hedda's(just calrifying so we dont get any angry calls). Then planning continued and we watched lord of the rings the two towers on tv until 2345.
Lachy and Hedda woke me up at 0630 this morning and got me to drive them to the train station. Hedda almost forgot her credit card at home but remembered before we left. They left and i heard they got to denmark later today when they smsd me to send them the list of things they were meant to do in denmark which they forgot to take with them. As for me i spent most of the day at my uncle Per's place. Went to see what the place looks like when you can actually see outside with daylight. Very nice views of a golfcourse, lake, and forested cliff. Had some lunch and watched some home movies of me flying and of our travels so far. then we went for a walk to see the area which is really nice even this time of year. apparently they have problems with wild boars(odd kind of pest). Anyway very nice house, then me and grandad went shopping and now we are home. got home just in time to see top gun on tv. AWESOMEST MOVIE... must be the 300th time ive seen it but still cool since it was like 2 years since last time. I have a jacket like him now so obviously that means i am as cool if not better than him. i think better cause i dont jump on couches.....on public television. so yeah i should get his money and the planes he flies in that movie. has anyone else noticed the trend in stories in tom cruise movies. they all start with him being an awesome .......(bartender/fighterpilot/spy etc) then he falls in love, then someone dies, he cracks and cant be a good...(bartender/fighterpilot/spy etc) then his lover person teaches him to once again BELIEVE and so once again he becomes a good.....(bartender/fighterpilot/spy/lawyer? etc)and somehow he saves the day. STORY OF SUCCESS. anyway now im getting hungry and i better go make some dinner. Goodbye
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
end of åre and Kiruna the awesomeland
HOWDIE!(have to find interesting ways to open)
So since last post much has happened. We didnt snowboard the last day cause we were so good so it was just embarrassing showing everyone else on the mountain how to do it. so we cleaned up our appartment and ate all the left overs that we hadnt eaten (nice mix we call it eggy-cheesy-beer-moose) Then with full stomachs we went ice skating on the lake in åre. got some cross country skates which was a bit different as the heel actually lifts. Lachy got the hang of it pretty quick but hedda had a bit of trouble(as she does with most things). she finally learnt how to get anywhere by just basically walking. So after much screaming and tired legs we left and went back to the room and had spagbol. after dinner we jumped on the train for the long ride up to kiruna. Had to get off at 10ish in bräcke which was yet another shithole. nothing open and the petrol stations were too far away for my lazy legs to walk there. So got on the next train and tried to get some sleep. Here is a tip to connex peopel if they happen to read this. GET RID OF THE STUPID SEAT SEPERATOR. We had two seats each to spread out over but the stupid thing poked you in the ribs so that you couldnt sleep. and the heater is set WAY TO HIGH. lachy woke up and thought he was on fire and his arm skin had melted. Luckily he was fine no third degree burn but dangerous still. Ok now more crazy people. First some people our age decided to occupy the seats opposite us. They were trying to get drunk which was great for them but they didnt need to wake me up to ask me for grog. and then they started playing swedish reggae which was weird. But they got kicked off the train which was cool. Then in morning this guy and his kid sat down opposite me. WORST BEHAVED KID EVER. He hit his dad with a glass bottle like really hard and 6 or 7 times before his dad just told him camly ''nej Marcus nej'' and he kept pretending it was a gun and he'd shoot me and then kick because i didnt play dead. And i could hardly understand a word the dad said cause he had a tromsö accent. so got to kiruna and stepped into -10 degree weather. didnt seem to bother lachy or hedda that much which was good. Nice town kiruna. Got to our hostel and found out the reception didnt open till 1400. so went and had some lunch and looked in some shops. Then checked in nice room with three beds, pretty cheap. Place was called yellowhouse, guy wasnt too nice but it might have been cause he was speaking english. Anyway got a couple hours sleep to catch up from the train ride. then at 1800 we were up and standing outside waiting for some people to pick us up for dogsledding. A shabby looking minibus drove up with two people inside. after some brief english words ''dogsledding, only three?'' we got in trusting they wouldnt kill us. They drove us to their home a 15 or so min away. Got shown into a room where we put on overalls and boots and furry hats and gloves. Then got shown to the kennels where the dogs were waiting eagerly. We helped take the dogs to the sled and get them attatched. I had to keep one of the leader dogs Kira from turning around and getting tangled. And lachy had to stop booster from biting his harness and barking at the dog infront called erik. After a while we took our places on the sled and we took off. It was awesome. Very cold so fingers and toes froze but so much fun being pulled that fast by dogs and it was down a squiggly track that was part downhill and had bumps so it felt like we were going 120km/h though it was probably more like 35km/h. Was a bit sad that we could take any video of it because it was so dark. We saw some reindeer.. well we saw the reflections from their eyes. Then we saw some northern lights, wasnt as clear as it is in some photos but it was visible like a bright greenish cloudy type thing. eventually we made it to the kåta which is like a sami version of the native american teepee. Crowded around the open fire and had some tea and chocolate cake. Talked with the musher and his wife lindsay who drove a snowscooter. Found out they were belgian and thats why they didnt speak swedish. They looked shocked when i told them i had a siberian husky in australia. Oh they didnt have siberian huskies, they had alaskan huskies that dont really look like siberians at all. more like shorthaired sheepdog but looking slightly more arctic. then we headed back to their house. Saw more of the northen lights. When we got back we helped put the dogs back in their kennels. Hedda in taking the dogs to their kennels her gloves came off and two dogs ran off with one each. So tried to find them, one was returned the other was swallowed. Then we went and saw the puppies. they had two puppies. Very cute. They were 8 weeks and when you barked at them they would bark back. after a good half hour atleast we went back inside and got changed back into our clothes and got driven home. AWESOME EXPERIENCE, if you can do at some point in your lifetime.
Went to sleep when we got home.
Next day we had to go venturing for breakfast which is hard cause nothing opens till 12. Then got a taxi to jukkasjärvi approx 20min drive. Icehotel is awesome, Again an experience to fit in at some point in your lives. The whole building is made entirely of ice and snice(mixture of man made snow and ice)taken from the lake nearby. Artist from around the world are invited to come and design a room. Then come april it all melts away and the water returns to the lake to be used the next winter in the same way. So we had a guided tour of the hotel and the church. Hard to say much without pictures. anyway it was awesome. Then we stepped into the icebar and had some drinks. I had a absolut jukkasjärvi with absolut vodka and blueberry liquere , elderberry and lingonberry juice and blue curacao. SO GOOD. Drinks were served in glasses made of ice which was awesome so i got a replica thats made of glass to show you when we get back. It was -25 outside but slightly warmer even inside the icehotel. Then we went back home. We got in our sauna gear and had a sauna this time properly. Well no pine tree branches but we saunad and then me and lachy jumped into big heaps of snow outside. As we alternated the hot and cold asian tourists looked in confusion out of their dining room windows at the crazy white boys. When that was done we went to sleep. Next day we got up and went to the tourist office to find out what we could do, pereerably with samis. Oh by the way the samis are the aboriginal people of northern sweden. they are nomadic like many aboriginal races and live with and off their herd of reindeer. Found out there was a museum so we went to that. VERY small museum like 2 rooms of some ladies house pretty much. But interesting reading about their struggle cause people are wrecking their reindeer grazing lands. Left that and saw some awesome clouds as the northern light reflect and are projected onto the clouds so they were like glittery rainbow clouds..very cool. Then we went to kiruna church which was very beautiful. Massive church made mid 1700 i think made entirely of dark oak and iron. and there was miniature which was ridiculously accurate. MADE ME FEEL LIKE A GOD. left there and went back to our hotel to get our bags and then got on the train to go home departing 1845. nothing much happend on the way back here. Got back to södertälje yesterday at like 1o clock. Went out shopping for food and got a christmas tree cause hedda was like crying cause she so desperately wanted one. shes like a 5 year old i swear. then we made dinner. We had Deer(Hjort) and Moose(älg) roast with herb sauce and potatoes. Very nice lachy and hedda really liked it. Then we had icecream vanilla and chocolate chip with frozen raspberries and blueberries. Lachy and hedda went to bed after that and i stayed up with gramps till like 0130 then had a cough attack and eventually vomited. Then it got better and got to sleep at 0230.
so now we are up to today. felt much better. Had bfast and left to go to ikea. Hedda desperately wanted to see the first and biggest ikea in the world so walked around that WHICH WAS GREAT FUN.... NOT. i havnt done a not joke in years wow they still work. didnt buy anything what with it being a furniture store that exists in every country of the world. then we went to heron city again which is the entertainment complex. and got a massive bag of lollies 1.9kg and some music cds. and we had maccas something called Big and tasty tell us if its out in aus yet. Then we saw a dejavu with denzel washington and val kilmer and the big strong guy from d2 the mighty ducks but now hes old. Good movie! dont let the plot brief of some guy going back in time to stop a crime let it stop you from going. it was very smart and as always denzel is awesome. then we came home. Ok good night got to get up early tomorrow.
So since last post much has happened. We didnt snowboard the last day cause we were so good so it was just embarrassing showing everyone else on the mountain how to do it. so we cleaned up our appartment and ate all the left overs that we hadnt eaten (nice mix we call it eggy-cheesy-beer-moose) Then with full stomachs we went ice skating on the lake in åre. got some cross country skates which was a bit different as the heel actually lifts. Lachy got the hang of it pretty quick but hedda had a bit of trouble(as she does with most things). she finally learnt how to get anywhere by just basically walking. So after much screaming and tired legs we left and went back to the room and had spagbol. after dinner we jumped on the train for the long ride up to kiruna. Had to get off at 10ish in bräcke which was yet another shithole. nothing open and the petrol stations were too far away for my lazy legs to walk there. So got on the next train and tried to get some sleep. Here is a tip to connex peopel if they happen to read this. GET RID OF THE STUPID SEAT SEPERATOR. We had two seats each to spread out over but the stupid thing poked you in the ribs so that you couldnt sleep. and the heater is set WAY TO HIGH. lachy woke up and thought he was on fire and his arm skin had melted. Luckily he was fine no third degree burn but dangerous still. Ok now more crazy people. First some people our age decided to occupy the seats opposite us. They were trying to get drunk which was great for them but they didnt need to wake me up to ask me for grog. and then they started playing swedish reggae which was weird. But they got kicked off the train which was cool. Then in morning this guy and his kid sat down opposite me. WORST BEHAVED KID EVER. He hit his dad with a glass bottle like really hard and 6 or 7 times before his dad just told him camly ''nej Marcus nej'' and he kept pretending it was a gun and he'd shoot me and then kick because i didnt play dead. And i could hardly understand a word the dad said cause he had a tromsö accent. so got to kiruna and stepped into -10 degree weather. didnt seem to bother lachy or hedda that much which was good. Nice town kiruna. Got to our hostel and found out the reception didnt open till 1400. so went and had some lunch and looked in some shops. Then checked in nice room with three beds, pretty cheap. Place was called yellowhouse, guy wasnt too nice but it might have been cause he was speaking english. Anyway got a couple hours sleep to catch up from the train ride. then at 1800 we were up and standing outside waiting for some people to pick us up for dogsledding. A shabby looking minibus drove up with two people inside. after some brief english words ''dogsledding, only three?'' we got in trusting they wouldnt kill us. They drove us to their home a 15 or so min away. Got shown into a room where we put on overalls and boots and furry hats and gloves. Then got shown to the kennels where the dogs were waiting eagerly. We helped take the dogs to the sled and get them attatched. I had to keep one of the leader dogs Kira from turning around and getting tangled. And lachy had to stop booster from biting his harness and barking at the dog infront called erik. After a while we took our places on the sled and we took off. It was awesome. Very cold so fingers and toes froze but so much fun being pulled that fast by dogs and it was down a squiggly track that was part downhill and had bumps so it felt like we were going 120km/h though it was probably more like 35km/h. Was a bit sad that we could take any video of it because it was so dark. We saw some reindeer.. well we saw the reflections from their eyes. Then we saw some northern lights, wasnt as clear as it is in some photos but it was visible like a bright greenish cloudy type thing. eventually we made it to the kåta which is like a sami version of the native american teepee. Crowded around the open fire and had some tea and chocolate cake. Talked with the musher and his wife lindsay who drove a snowscooter. Found out they were belgian and thats why they didnt speak swedish. They looked shocked when i told them i had a siberian husky in australia. Oh they didnt have siberian huskies, they had alaskan huskies that dont really look like siberians at all. more like shorthaired sheepdog but looking slightly more arctic. then we headed back to their house. Saw more of the northen lights. When we got back we helped put the dogs back in their kennels. Hedda in taking the dogs to their kennels her gloves came off and two dogs ran off with one each. So tried to find them, one was returned the other was swallowed. Then we went and saw the puppies. they had two puppies. Very cute. They were 8 weeks and when you barked at them they would bark back. after a good half hour atleast we went back inside and got changed back into our clothes and got driven home. AWESOME EXPERIENCE, if you can do at some point in your lifetime.
Went to sleep when we got home.
Next day we had to go venturing for breakfast which is hard cause nothing opens till 12. Then got a taxi to jukkasjärvi approx 20min drive. Icehotel is awesome, Again an experience to fit in at some point in your lives. The whole building is made entirely of ice and snice(mixture of man made snow and ice)taken from the lake nearby. Artist from around the world are invited to come and design a room. Then come april it all melts away and the water returns to the lake to be used the next winter in the same way. So we had a guided tour of the hotel and the church. Hard to say much without pictures. anyway it was awesome. Then we stepped into the icebar and had some drinks. I had a absolut jukkasjärvi with absolut vodka and blueberry liquere , elderberry and lingonberry juice and blue curacao. SO GOOD. Drinks were served in glasses made of ice which was awesome so i got a replica thats made of glass to show you when we get back. It was -25 outside but slightly warmer even inside the icehotel. Then we went back home. We got in our sauna gear and had a sauna this time properly. Well no pine tree branches but we saunad and then me and lachy jumped into big heaps of snow outside. As we alternated the hot and cold asian tourists looked in confusion out of their dining room windows at the crazy white boys. When that was done we went to sleep. Next day we got up and went to the tourist office to find out what we could do, pereerably with samis. Oh by the way the samis are the aboriginal people of northern sweden. they are nomadic like many aboriginal races and live with and off their herd of reindeer. Found out there was a museum so we went to that. VERY small museum like 2 rooms of some ladies house pretty much. But interesting reading about their struggle cause people are wrecking their reindeer grazing lands. Left that and saw some awesome clouds as the northern light reflect and are projected onto the clouds so they were like glittery rainbow clouds..very cool. Then we went to kiruna church which was very beautiful. Massive church made mid 1700 i think made entirely of dark oak and iron. and there was miniature which was ridiculously accurate. MADE ME FEEL LIKE A GOD. left there and went back to our hotel to get our bags and then got on the train to go home departing 1845. nothing much happend on the way back here. Got back to södertälje yesterday at like 1o clock. Went out shopping for food and got a christmas tree cause hedda was like crying cause she so desperately wanted one. shes like a 5 year old i swear. then we made dinner. We had Deer(Hjort) and Moose(älg) roast with herb sauce and potatoes. Very nice lachy and hedda really liked it. Then we had icecream vanilla and chocolate chip with frozen raspberries and blueberries. Lachy and hedda went to bed after that and i stayed up with gramps till like 0130 then had a cough attack and eventually vomited. Then it got better and got to sleep at 0230.
so now we are up to today. felt much better. Had bfast and left to go to ikea. Hedda desperately wanted to see the first and biggest ikea in the world so walked around that WHICH WAS GREAT FUN.... NOT. i havnt done a not joke in years wow they still work. didnt buy anything what with it being a furniture store that exists in every country of the world. then we went to heron city again which is the entertainment complex. and got a massive bag of lollies 1.9kg and some music cds. and we had maccas something called Big and tasty tell us if its out in aus yet. Then we saw a dejavu with denzel washington and val kilmer and the big strong guy from d2 the mighty ducks but now hes old. Good movie! dont let the plot brief of some guy going back in time to stop a crime let it stop you from going. it was very smart and as always denzel is awesome. then we came home. Ok good night got to get up early tomorrow.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Mora and Åre
Ok so since we last left you hanging much has happened.
We got on the train and went up to mora. SUCH A SHITHOLE, well not really but nothing was open due to it being sunday so pretty boring time. Well no thats not true we spent a sufficient amount of time investigating the different petrol stations they have in mora because they were open and were our only option for food basically.
so theres statoil: good service but price was a bit steep
Shell was the most accessible but prices again were pretty high and service was awesome funny guy commented on how we bought icecream and julmust(we shared a chuckle)
Q8 close to our other food option the hotdog place and pretty good in terms of variety.
so we bummed the first night as it was pretty late when we got there. by late we mean 3oclock but its dark like midnight. Next day we got up and checked out mora where everything was closed. GREAT PLANNING! then we asked the receptionists at the hotel what we should do. she looked at lachy confused and then said basically ... uh theres nothing. so we got on a train and went to a christmaas market in tällby which is like 2 stops from mora. but hedda packed our scanrail tickets in our bags back at the hotel so we had to pay which was pretty expenive for the little enjoyment we got. Anyway got to tällby and saw that the next train back left at 3oclock so we kept that in mind as we made our way to the other side of tällby. i had greenhotel in my head so we went there which ended up being the wrong place because they had had the xmas market the day before, so we had to go even further to get to where it was. got there just in time for it to finish damn walking speed. But we had waffles with hjortron sauce and cream which was awesome and hedda got to buy some tourist crap. Then we realised were gonna miss our 3 oclock if we didnt hurry. By hurry i mean RUN! so we started off walking fast cause hedda was really against running. then we forced her to run (she made funny sounds) then she (thought she) couldnt run anymore so we had to carry her. First i slung her over my shoulder and sprinted up a hill (SHE MADE EVEN FUNNIER NOISES LIKE VOMITING!) then my legs died and i was wow that really takes it out of you. So the man lachy stepped in and piggy backed hedda the rest of the way like steed. Safe to say i felt pretty emasculated. He ran like three times further than me. anyway we got to the station and the train was 10 min late so we could have walked probably. Anyway got back to mora and got our bags and got on the train to go to åre. On the train we met tony the frinedly Fat controller(not really fat but thomas the tank engine joke for those of you out there with any culture) He was nice. gave us free tickets to his nightclub and let hedda and lachy see the train drivers cockpit and rode between two stops. We went back to stockholm cause otherwise we would have been locked out of the station at uppsala. Got on the train in stockholm and went all the way up to åre. Nothing much happend on the rifde here. We got here and went shopping fixed rental gear and found our awesome house. $20 for and awesome 54msquared appartment. next day we went to åre björnen cause the lift like 100m from our door isnt open cause snow cover here is kinda crap. Björnen is open though and is pretty good for beginners so we tried snowboarding. we are all beginners so it was good though it was really icy first day so falling over was REALLY painful. I have problems sitting on chairs anymore. hedda gives up a few hours into it and goes inside to read. but me and lachy seem to be improving dramatically although we havnt had lessons. They even invited us back for the world championships which will be held here next year. but we told them we had to go to uni. So last two days have been much of the same just improving and its been snowing yesterday and today so falling isnt quite as painful though falling on previous bruises kind of counters that. Gonna go have dinner now. Oh in åre we met another crazy guy who works the lift. He talks a lot and tells really unfunny jokes ''what do the birds over stockholm say'' ''piip piip piip... hahahaha'''
its hedda _ krishna glad you got my postcard already and thanks for standing up for me yay. and brad happy birthday in about a week. in case i dont write
done
btw krishna is a poo head
We got on the train and went up to mora. SUCH A SHITHOLE, well not really but nothing was open due to it being sunday so pretty boring time. Well no thats not true we spent a sufficient amount of time investigating the different petrol stations they have in mora because they were open and were our only option for food basically.
so theres statoil: good service but price was a bit steep
Shell was the most accessible but prices again were pretty high and service was awesome funny guy commented on how we bought icecream and julmust(we shared a chuckle)
Q8 close to our other food option the hotdog place and pretty good in terms of variety.
so we bummed the first night as it was pretty late when we got there. by late we mean 3oclock but its dark like midnight. Next day we got up and checked out mora where everything was closed. GREAT PLANNING! then we asked the receptionists at the hotel what we should do. she looked at lachy confused and then said basically ... uh theres nothing. so we got on a train and went to a christmaas market in tällby which is like 2 stops from mora. but hedda packed our scanrail tickets in our bags back at the hotel so we had to pay which was pretty expenive for the little enjoyment we got. Anyway got to tällby and saw that the next train back left at 3oclock so we kept that in mind as we made our way to the other side of tällby. i had greenhotel in my head so we went there which ended up being the wrong place because they had had the xmas market the day before, so we had to go even further to get to where it was. got there just in time for it to finish damn walking speed. But we had waffles with hjortron sauce and cream which was awesome and hedda got to buy some tourist crap. Then we realised were gonna miss our 3 oclock if we didnt hurry. By hurry i mean RUN! so we started off walking fast cause hedda was really against running. then we forced her to run (she made funny sounds) then she (thought she) couldnt run anymore so we had to carry her. First i slung her over my shoulder and sprinted up a hill (SHE MADE EVEN FUNNIER NOISES LIKE VOMITING!) then my legs died and i was wow that really takes it out of you. So the man lachy stepped in and piggy backed hedda the rest of the way like steed. Safe to say i felt pretty emasculated. He ran like three times further than me. anyway we got to the station and the train was 10 min late so we could have walked probably. Anyway got back to mora and got our bags and got on the train to go to åre. On the train we met tony the frinedly Fat controller(not really fat but thomas the tank engine joke for those of you out there with any culture) He was nice. gave us free tickets to his nightclub and let hedda and lachy see the train drivers cockpit and rode between two stops. We went back to stockholm cause otherwise we would have been locked out of the station at uppsala. Got on the train in stockholm and went all the way up to åre. Nothing much happend on the rifde here. We got here and went shopping fixed rental gear and found our awesome house. $20 for and awesome 54msquared appartment. next day we went to åre björnen cause the lift like 100m from our door isnt open cause snow cover here is kinda crap. Björnen is open though and is pretty good for beginners so we tried snowboarding. we are all beginners so it was good though it was really icy first day so falling over was REALLY painful. I have problems sitting on chairs anymore. hedda gives up a few hours into it and goes inside to read. but me and lachy seem to be improving dramatically although we havnt had lessons. They even invited us back for the world championships which will be held here next year. but we told them we had to go to uni. So last two days have been much of the same just improving and its been snowing yesterday and today so falling isnt quite as painful though falling on previous bruises kind of counters that. Gonna go have dinner now. Oh in åre we met another crazy guy who works the lift. He talks a lot and tells really unfunny jokes ''what do the birds over stockholm say'' ''piip piip piip... hahahaha'''
its hedda _ krishna glad you got my postcard already and thanks for standing up for me yay. and brad happy birthday in about a week. in case i dont write
done
btw krishna is a poo head
Friday, December 08, 2006
Hello Hello,
Seb here again
So two days since last post, so time for the update.
So yesterday we got up early and got ready to go meet my mate jesper. ended up running a bit late so we took the car instead of taking the train. First time since we got here i think that we didnt get lost. We got there pretty much exactly on time which was good. So met jesper, played on his xbox 360 some halo type game and table tennis which was cooooooooooolan!. Oh and we got our photos uploaded. so happy time for you guys. Then we went to huddinge centrum to get some lunch. They have some stupid parking sticker you need which essentially is just a piece of plastic that you put in the time you got there. thats fine but apparently if you just write the time you got there on a piece of paper you still get a fine. Then we had kebabs which was yumm. slightly different to aussie kebabs in that there was no bread. but i thought the meat was awesome. then we went to älvsjö to go gokarting. Jesper was reading the map and he was ridiculously crap. like 8 times id go ''so we turning off here?'' and id get a ''no........ umm.... yes...sorry''
funny but well kinda annoying. finally got there and did some gokarting which was awesome. I did shit 1st lachy 2nd jesper 3rd seb 4th hedda. hedda was funny she was driving REALLY slow, i think she thought there were speed limits. anyway after that we went to heron city and went bowling. Again i did shit this time hedda did really well. Again funny because of her.... umm.....unorthodox bowling technique. for those who have been bowling with her you might be able to describe it better but i would say of the energy she gathers for her bowling 80% of it is translated into a vertical motion straight down hard onto the lane. and yeah 20% goes into pushing the pink weight 7 ball down the lane so that it just touches the pins. And although i would normally say such a bowling style is just crap, she did awesome she got like 4 strikes or something where i got none or one. After that we went to the arcade section and played some games. they had an airline game i remembered from last time i was in the country. SO FUN! i did quite a bit better this time. Then we went and rented some videos and got some icecream. Went home to jesper and had swedish meatballs and macaroni and then watched inside man(denzel washinton, clive owen), the new world(colin farell, jesus man from passion of the christ) oh and some of date movie. Inside man was awesome, very smart. new world was SOOOOOOOOO BORING and date movie was funny but it broke down half way so i was sad. So then we watched movies and ate icecream till midnight. then we went home cause we were tired. got home 1:30am. Then
(HEDDA SAYS: chen and ash i need ur adress. well more so your numbers of ur hus) ok that was like an interlude
So today. got up and went to pickup my sister. then went to stockholm and went to the vasa museum which is a really cool museum. Essentially a giant ship that was built in 1625-28 for king gustav adolf XII. ok its hedda again takin over. seb has to go pick up his granddad from his party night with the guys & he says that i hvae to finish it because we wont be able to update for awhile cos we´re on the big trip (tho i rekon he´ll somehow sniff a computer out because he loves u guys so much). so here i am. vasa museum, definitly the best one we've been to and will go to this whole trip. the ship looks awesome. most of it that was showing was originial so thats pretty cool. after that, we went to get sebs long anticipated pilot jacket. it was like $500AU at first but he could get it tax free thank goodness so its like $300AU now. he loves it. and then we walked around a christmas market type thing for a bit before heading home. we went out pretty late during the day so by this time it was already like 6-7 so we got back, originaly was meant to have delicious yabbies but the supermarkets were closed so they had pizza again instead. and now we've just been packing, getting ready for our big trip. the guys are a little disheartened because snow hasnt really set in yet so our skiing plans seem to be not as good as thought to be. not all the slopes are open. in fact not many are.
alex! that was really good to hear from you! i was just about to send you an email to REMIND YOU to send me postcards =) hope youre doing everything you had planned to do, email me or something if you can
oh and ashraf, that is the grandpa we're stayin with. and hes really nice. on the first day we went to the supermarket & we saw that the bananas were really cheap so we got some & now hes been gettin me bananas ever since and he says 'i got you some bananas that you like' which is very cute. how hot is it in aust now??
ok really sleepy, and i think we've covered everything,
good night =) xxx h
Seb here again
So two days since last post, so time for the update.
So yesterday we got up early and got ready to go meet my mate jesper. ended up running a bit late so we took the car instead of taking the train. First time since we got here i think that we didnt get lost. We got there pretty much exactly on time which was good. So met jesper, played on his xbox 360 some halo type game and table tennis which was cooooooooooolan!. Oh and we got our photos uploaded. so happy time for you guys. Then we went to huddinge centrum to get some lunch. They have some stupid parking sticker you need which essentially is just a piece of plastic that you put in the time you got there. thats fine but apparently if you just write the time you got there on a piece of paper you still get a fine. Then we had kebabs which was yumm. slightly different to aussie kebabs in that there was no bread. but i thought the meat was awesome. then we went to älvsjö to go gokarting. Jesper was reading the map and he was ridiculously crap. like 8 times id go ''so we turning off here?'' and id get a ''no........ umm.... yes...sorry''
funny but well kinda annoying. finally got there and did some gokarting which was awesome. I did shit 1st lachy 2nd jesper 3rd seb 4th hedda. hedda was funny she was driving REALLY slow, i think she thought there were speed limits. anyway after that we went to heron city and went bowling. Again i did shit this time hedda did really well. Again funny because of her.... umm.....unorthodox bowling technique. for those who have been bowling with her you might be able to describe it better but i would say of the energy she gathers for her bowling 80% of it is translated into a vertical motion straight down hard onto the lane. and yeah 20% goes into pushing the pink weight 7 ball down the lane so that it just touches the pins. And although i would normally say such a bowling style is just crap, she did awesome she got like 4 strikes or something where i got none or one. After that we went to the arcade section and played some games. they had an airline game i remembered from last time i was in the country. SO FUN! i did quite a bit better this time. Then we went and rented some videos and got some icecream. Went home to jesper and had swedish meatballs and macaroni and then watched inside man(denzel washinton, clive owen), the new world(colin farell, jesus man from passion of the christ) oh and some of date movie. Inside man was awesome, very smart. new world was SOOOOOOOOO BORING and date movie was funny but it broke down half way so i was sad. So then we watched movies and ate icecream till midnight. then we went home cause we were tired. got home 1:30am. Then
(HEDDA SAYS: chen and ash i need ur adress. well more so your numbers of ur hus) ok that was like an interlude
So today. got up and went to pickup my sister. then went to stockholm and went to the vasa museum which is a really cool museum. Essentially a giant ship that was built in 1625-28 for king gustav adolf XII. ok its hedda again takin over. seb has to go pick up his granddad from his party night with the guys & he says that i hvae to finish it because we wont be able to update for awhile cos we´re on the big trip (tho i rekon he´ll somehow sniff a computer out because he loves u guys so much). so here i am. vasa museum, definitly the best one we've been to and will go to this whole trip. the ship looks awesome. most of it that was showing was originial so thats pretty cool. after that, we went to get sebs long anticipated pilot jacket. it was like $500AU at first but he could get it tax free thank goodness so its like $300AU now. he loves it. and then we walked around a christmas market type thing for a bit before heading home. we went out pretty late during the day so by this time it was already like 6-7 so we got back, originaly was meant to have delicious yabbies but the supermarkets were closed so they had pizza again instead. and now we've just been packing, getting ready for our big trip. the guys are a little disheartened because snow hasnt really set in yet so our skiing plans seem to be not as good as thought to be. not all the slopes are open. in fact not many are.
alex! that was really good to hear from you! i was just about to send you an email to REMIND YOU to send me postcards =) hope youre doing everything you had planned to do, email me or something if you can
oh and ashraf, that is the grandpa we're stayin with. and hes really nice. on the first day we went to the supermarket & we saw that the bananas were really cheap so we got some & now hes been gettin me bananas ever since and he says 'i got you some bananas that you like' which is very cute. how hot is it in aust now??
ok really sleepy, and i think we've covered everything,
good night =) xxx h
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
hello again
so today we split up and did seperate things ill tell you first what i did and then maybe lachy or hedda will post on the happenings of their day. so i got up and waited till hedda and lachy left to go to stockholm. Then i made a few calls that i needed to do to organise some stuff, ie what we/I am doing tomorrow. Then i went and picked up my sister from centrum and we went to see my other grandad. Again i trusted my sister when she said ''oh yeah i know how to get to his place'' .... Which actually ended up meaning i know what the house next to his house looks like. oh i think i forgot to tell you about how we got lost a couple of days ago when we were trying to get to my cousins place. anyway i blame both these incidents on my sister. I might not know how to get to anyones place but it was 3 years since i was here last and i didnt drive then and most importantly i dont claim to find my way around. anyway we had to call him cause she didnt have a clue and then he came and guided us back to his place. then i went and stopped off at the cemetary. Lots of fun to be had there. Then back home for dinner. Made the foreigners dinner, falu korv(sausage) and macaroni (equivalent of spaghetti bolognese in terms of cheapness and frequency of serving).
seb just finished off there. great ending seb. this is hedda by the way. hey brad, glad you appreciate my sexy bathers-butt paper story. its a great story. anywho, yeh so me and lach went to skansen today cos seb divorced us. he dint really wanna go cos hes probly been enough times in his life oh right and the fact that he didnt want to talk to me probly played into it. anywho, skansen was coolan. its like sovereign hill minus the gold ie there is olden life imitations. the place looked cool AND I SAW MY FIRST MOOSE. DO YOU KNOW HOW BIG THOSE THINGS ARE!!??? omg it was scary, but i dont think theyre harmful, wen we get on a good computer, oh there will be pictures. oh & we saw a wolverine which i thought were female wolves, but theyäre not, in fact they look nothing LIKE wolves. theyre like furry black things (tho i also saw a wolf) so yeah, skansen is cool.
OH by the way, i havent told you guys about Lennart, sebs grandpa who we're staying with. HE IS VERY CUTE. OMG. he says funny things and hes a very nice man.
hows indoor going btw? whos filling in?
what are u guys doing?? been out? TELL ME WHAT IVE MISSED OUT ON. oh and can someone email me nolans home address. And chens?
ok, i think thats it for now, see you in 2mths
hedda
so today we split up and did seperate things ill tell you first what i did and then maybe lachy or hedda will post on the happenings of their day. so i got up and waited till hedda and lachy left to go to stockholm. Then i made a few calls that i needed to do to organise some stuff, ie what we/I am doing tomorrow. Then i went and picked up my sister from centrum and we went to see my other grandad. Again i trusted my sister when she said ''oh yeah i know how to get to his place'' .... Which actually ended up meaning i know what the house next to his house looks like. oh i think i forgot to tell you about how we got lost a couple of days ago when we were trying to get to my cousins place. anyway i blame both these incidents on my sister. I might not know how to get to anyones place but it was 3 years since i was here last and i didnt drive then and most importantly i dont claim to find my way around. anyway we had to call him cause she didnt have a clue and then he came and guided us back to his place. then i went and stopped off at the cemetary. Lots of fun to be had there. Then back home for dinner. Made the foreigners dinner, falu korv(sausage) and macaroni (equivalent of spaghetti bolognese in terms of cheapness and frequency of serving).
seb just finished off there. great ending seb. this is hedda by the way. hey brad, glad you appreciate my sexy bathers-butt paper story. its a great story. anywho, yeh so me and lach went to skansen today cos seb divorced us. he dint really wanna go cos hes probly been enough times in his life oh right and the fact that he didnt want to talk to me probly played into it. anywho, skansen was coolan. its like sovereign hill minus the gold ie there is olden life imitations. the place looked cool AND I SAW MY FIRST MOOSE. DO YOU KNOW HOW BIG THOSE THINGS ARE!!??? omg it was scary, but i dont think theyre harmful, wen we get on a good computer, oh there will be pictures. oh & we saw a wolverine which i thought were female wolves, but theyäre not, in fact they look nothing LIKE wolves. theyre like furry black things (tho i also saw a wolf) so yeah, skansen is cool.
OH by the way, i havent told you guys about Lennart, sebs grandpa who we're staying with. HE IS VERY CUTE. OMG. he says funny things and hes a very nice man.
hows indoor going btw? whos filling in?
what are u guys doing?? been out? TELL ME WHAT IVE MISSED OUT ON. oh and can someone email me nolans home address. And chens?
ok, i think thats it for now, see you in 2mths
hedda
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Hej Hej,
So after hedda signed off we went to centrum to get some food. We then went home again and made isterband which is a swedish spiced sausage served with dill potatoes. Didnt have a recipe really so i had to wing it but it turned out good. Hedda and lachy seemed to like it which was good cause its my favourite food so i would have killed them otherwise. then we raced to centrum again and saw casino royale as per nolans reccomendation. I like the new bond, the action scenes especially the fighting coreography was awesome, but what the hell was with that romance novel shit. the whole bit after the torture scene was just crap. come one another baddy with eye problems. anyway back to sweden, then we went back home and played cards with grandad. a game coincidentally called casino. Then we we got ready to go to sleep
Funny part #1
lachy had taken a shower at lunchtime and before that asked for a towel. I thought sure i can find a towel, so we went searching and found one. it must have been marinated in like poison ivy juice(if that even exists) because he realised after the shower that he had gotten an allergic reaction and had a massive rash all over his back and chest. HAHAHAHAHA I LAUGHED AND LAUGHED!! Then we fell asleep
Funny part #2
the next morning lachy found out his rash had moved to his feet and his face. His eyes were all swollen so he looked more asian than hedda. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA again i laughed and laughed!!!! then lachy punched me and i rubbed my arm for a bit. as i regained my compusure and wiped the happy tears from my eyes and lachy struggled to keep his swollen eyelids from closing completely we started planning the days activities. We dedcided to go to stockholm and then planning halted as we had to race to catch the buss. planning continued on the train and we decided to go to the church and gamla stan(old town). We got off the train and walked towards gamla stan. Sadly by this time lachy's face had regained a somewhat normal appearance. on the way we went into an old church and made numerous jokes about lachy being the swedish quasimodo. he didnt laugh. the priest didnt agree to take him in as he didnt see anything to abnormal about lachy face. so we continued on to gamla stan. as we walked down the cobblestone paths between the 17th century buildings hedda AGAIN decided to look in EVERY SINGLE store at EVERY piece of touristy "!¤"%!. I was getting quite annoyed and stressed as an hour and a half had passed and we were still not near the castle. We finally dragged Heddasaurus away and continued on to the castle. We looked at the musseum parts and then saw the changing of the guards all of which was pretty cool. i was looking forward to looking at the armoury but it doesnt open till late jan so that wont happen :( then we walked back throgh gamla stan and hedda and lachy found a bakery type place to get some lunch. i starved myself for 25 min to get cheaper and yummier ''korv i tunnbrödrulle''(shown in picture below somewhere)then we tried to get home but more heddasaurus interruptions occured. then i saw a leather jacket store with a pilot jacket i could get for AUD$305 which I want. hedda ran off and then backtracked and we had to go get her and pry her from the bookshelves. As we dragged the angry dragongirl along the street she yelled at me and angry words were shared. We continued the travel home in silence. and still havnt spoken. I am avoiding any confrontation with the devil lady so that there will be no blood spillage. Ok not much else to write. now we are home gonna have late dinner soon. I miss pepsi he doesnt get mad at me, but there is some blood spillage sometimes though its minimal. ok gonna go now
regards
SEB
So after hedda signed off we went to centrum to get some food. We then went home again and made isterband which is a swedish spiced sausage served with dill potatoes. Didnt have a recipe really so i had to wing it but it turned out good. Hedda and lachy seemed to like it which was good cause its my favourite food so i would have killed them otherwise. then we raced to centrum again and saw casino royale as per nolans reccomendation. I like the new bond, the action scenes especially the fighting coreography was awesome, but what the hell was with that romance novel shit. the whole bit after the torture scene was just crap. come one another baddy with eye problems. anyway back to sweden, then we went back home and played cards with grandad. a game coincidentally called casino. Then we we got ready to go to sleep
Funny part #1
lachy had taken a shower at lunchtime and before that asked for a towel. I thought sure i can find a towel, so we went searching and found one. it must have been marinated in like poison ivy juice(if that even exists) because he realised after the shower that he had gotten an allergic reaction and had a massive rash all over his back and chest. HAHAHAHAHA I LAUGHED AND LAUGHED!! Then we fell asleep
Funny part #2
the next morning lachy found out his rash had moved to his feet and his face. His eyes were all swollen so he looked more asian than hedda. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA again i laughed and laughed!!!! then lachy punched me and i rubbed my arm for a bit. as i regained my compusure and wiped the happy tears from my eyes and lachy struggled to keep his swollen eyelids from closing completely we started planning the days activities. We dedcided to go to stockholm and then planning halted as we had to race to catch the buss. planning continued on the train and we decided to go to the church and gamla stan(old town). We got off the train and walked towards gamla stan. Sadly by this time lachy's face had regained a somewhat normal appearance. on the way we went into an old church and made numerous jokes about lachy being the swedish quasimodo. he didnt laugh. the priest didnt agree to take him in as he didnt see anything to abnormal about lachy face. so we continued on to gamla stan. as we walked down the cobblestone paths between the 17th century buildings hedda AGAIN decided to look in EVERY SINGLE store at EVERY piece of touristy "!¤"%!. I was getting quite annoyed and stressed as an hour and a half had passed and we were still not near the castle. We finally dragged Heddasaurus away and continued on to the castle. We looked at the musseum parts and then saw the changing of the guards all of which was pretty cool. i was looking forward to looking at the armoury but it doesnt open till late jan so that wont happen :( then we walked back throgh gamla stan and hedda and lachy found a bakery type place to get some lunch. i starved myself for 25 min to get cheaper and yummier ''korv i tunnbrödrulle''(shown in picture below somewhere)then we tried to get home but more heddasaurus interruptions occured. then i saw a leather jacket store with a pilot jacket i could get for AUD$305 which I want. hedda ran off and then backtracked and we had to go get her and pry her from the bookshelves. As we dragged the angry dragongirl along the street she yelled at me and angry words were shared. We continued the travel home in silence. and still havnt spoken. I am avoiding any confrontation with the devil lady so that there will be no blood spillage. Ok not much else to write. now we are home gonna have late dinner soon. I miss pepsi he doesnt get mad at me, but there is some blood spillage sometimes though its minimal. ok gonna go now
regards
SEB
Monday, December 04, 2006
Hi again,
just got back to sweden. good to see you are all keeping up with reading what is going on. Sorry that the last post was a bit rushed we were on free internet which you are only allowed to stay on for like 15min each and well it took me atlest 30min to type that post and check my email so yeah felt a bit bad. anyway as i said we left the hostel and went and climbed the olympic tower which is 13 stories high, pretty good view from the top, we(well I) wanted to take the stairs cause they were cool steps that come out of the wall with no visible means of supporting each other(other than the wall from which they extrude)but you had to take the crappy elevator that screeched and was rusty .. you know for safety reasons ofcourse. ok hedda wants to write now so get ready for crapness.. no just kidding(not really)
hey thats mean. i write good. i am english student
after olympic tower we basically just walked around helsinki which has one main road that you should all learn - Mannerheimkatu. so if ever in helsinki, know that all roads lead here.
we had hot choc wich was 52% choc it was yumm and i tried to go 2 shops 2 buy stuff and seb was like you are crap man always buying stuff and groaning and crying and kicking and screaming. so if i come back to australia and i dont have gifts for all of you, youll know why.
oh and about serena. i was reading pretty much the whole time, i didnt join in the festivities because of monthly cycle (for those not familiar with the female anatomy ie chen, that means my period). anyway, that was fine since i had some 12/13 year old boys said hi to me. yep, i bring my A game even without wearing my sexy bathers
oh butt paper by the way is this piece of paper u have to sit on in the sauna that the guys didnt know about.
so we got back on the boat and actually got a cabin this time. yes i know seb keeps saying hut, i think its like a swedish translation thing but he ment cabin. i slept for most of it but seb & lachy went to party but ended up just gambling and losing money on the pokies (lachs words - actually winning money but then losing money (not that much money dont worry, like 4 euros)). we were very proud of our cabin too by the way, it was cheap, on the bottomest floor even below the cars so we woulda been the first to go if titanic happend.
oh krish, its not actully that cold yet. and the branch thing IS actually a common thing but they didnt do that
ok weäre gonna try 2 figure out what weäre doing tonight so we will talk 2 you guys later
take care all
h
just got back to sweden. good to see you are all keeping up with reading what is going on. Sorry that the last post was a bit rushed we were on free internet which you are only allowed to stay on for like 15min each and well it took me atlest 30min to type that post and check my email so yeah felt a bit bad. anyway as i said we left the hostel and went and climbed the olympic tower which is 13 stories high, pretty good view from the top, we(well I) wanted to take the stairs cause they were cool steps that come out of the wall with no visible means of supporting each other(other than the wall from which they extrude)but you had to take the crappy elevator that screeched and was rusty .. you know for safety reasons ofcourse. ok hedda wants to write now so get ready for crapness.. no just kidding(not really)
hey thats mean. i write good. i am english student
after olympic tower we basically just walked around helsinki which has one main road that you should all learn - Mannerheimkatu. so if ever in helsinki, know that all roads lead here.
we had hot choc wich was 52% choc it was yumm and i tried to go 2 shops 2 buy stuff and seb was like you are crap man always buying stuff and groaning and crying and kicking and screaming. so if i come back to australia and i dont have gifts for all of you, youll know why.
oh and about serena. i was reading pretty much the whole time, i didnt join in the festivities because of monthly cycle (for those not familiar with the female anatomy ie chen, that means my period). anyway, that was fine since i had some 12/13 year old boys said hi to me. yep, i bring my A game even without wearing my sexy bathers
oh butt paper by the way is this piece of paper u have to sit on in the sauna that the guys didnt know about.
so we got back on the boat and actually got a cabin this time. yes i know seb keeps saying hut, i think its like a swedish translation thing but he ment cabin. i slept for most of it but seb & lachy went to party but ended up just gambling and losing money on the pokies (lachs words - actually winning money but then losing money (not that much money dont worry, like 4 euros)). we were very proud of our cabin too by the way, it was cheap, on the bottomest floor even below the cars so we woulda been the first to go if titanic happend.
oh krish, its not actully that cold yet. and the branch thing IS actually a common thing but they didnt do that
ok weäre gonna try 2 figure out what weäre doing tonight so we will talk 2 you guys later
take care all
h
Sunday, December 03, 2006
greetings from finland
Sorry for the delay in letting you know whats been happening the last few days.
This is seb by the way.
Ok so we left for finland on the thursday nothing much happened that day before we got on the boat. i got sprayed with car wax at the car wash and we had swedish pizza again oh and hedda was feeling really ill so she decided to throw up as you do. Then we went to the boat called the Mariella part of the viking line fleet that takes people between sweden finland åland and talinn. we went from stockholm stopped off in åland and then went on to helsinki. Boat ride was so funny. we didnt get a hut because everyone i had spoken to said there were armchairs you could use for free. well there werent we searched every inch of that boat then we asked two different information people and well they just dont exist so then we went and ate at the buffet even though none of use were very hungry(waste of money really). were pretty bored and decided to make a very short version of the titanic using the movie clip version of our digital cameras, lachy was rose and i was umm that other guy john maybe. oh then we found a nice corner on the floor to sleep in. It was just outside some guys hut so we felt a bit weird but he didnt seem to mind. Anyway we slept there till about 1oclock when i woke up from a guy saying ''wake up!'' ''why are you sleeping here?'' Lach-cause we havnt got a hut ''dont you know someone could kill you?.... do you want me to kick you. L-no.. ''why not'' L-because it would hurt ''have you seen james bond?... i am the evil russian guy i just want to hurt you..... im from the russaian government'' stare off.... ''wake up... do you want me to kick you'' and then eventually he left. funniest thing ever. anyways eventually we left so that he wouldnt come back and actually kick us. so then we went and found these round sofa type things that were quite comfortable were we spent the rest of the night. we bumped into these two drunk girls who talked a lot about stuff we didnt understand and they saw that hedda was chinese and was like ''chi chi.. chi chi.. it means hello'' and hedda was nice and was just like no its che che and its thankyou but they ignored her and when they left were still saying chi chi.
anyway next drunk person i met was when lachy and hedda were sleeping. it was this finish guy who was just saundering around at 4 in the morning and then walked up to a locked closet with no handle and pressed the keyhole with his finger and waited cause he thought it was an elevator. then he came and sat down next to me and spoke finish to me for half an hour and i kept saying sorry i dont understand you and the only word he understood was sorry. so he repeated sorry like 40 times. anyway eventually he left and we slept till the morning and got off the boat. Lachy got stopped by the cops here because the sniffer dog thought he smoked drugs but he got off cause he answered no to all the questions he got asked mainly ''do you smoke anything illegal'' ok so we were in finland and decided to walk from the harbour to our hostel. saw a few sights on the way two cathedrals and parliament square etc. then got to our hostel which is at the olympic stadium where the olympics were in 1952 we actually live where some of the athletes lived. and theres soccer training most nights like outside our window. anyway we left our bags and went back out to see the national museum(pretty boring) and the mountain/cave church(called something else but essentially is a church built inside a mountain. the church was awesome really beautiful. then we bought some souvenirs and food and went to kampii which is the main shopping centre. walked back home and went to sleep. ok so now we are up to yesterday. We woke up and got ready to catch the bus 30 min to espoo slightly outside helsinki to go to the serena waterpark. hedda didnt swim but me and lach did. basically its a complex with 4 slides and river stream thing. oh and theres skiing and outside swimming but they werent open. It was pretty good. lachy had his first taste of sauna and he was shocked how hot it was. for those of you who have no clue its basically a room filled with really hot steam and you get completely naked, get your butt paper(vital step we forgot first time in) and then you go in and sweat out all the bad stuff inside you. then you go outside and jump in cold water and then repeat over and over again. Its good it makes you feel really clean and relaxed. so yeah we left there at like 4ish and came back to helsinki and ate at an american restaurant called chicos (anyone else reckon its weird that an american restaurant has a spanish/mexican name.) food was awesome and not too expensive. then we went home cause it was raining and was kinda cold. still only 5 degrees celsius and no snow anywhere so they havnt seen nothing yet. today we plan to buy some stuff and climb the olympic tower just 20m from our hostel. ok ill write more later see ya
This is seb by the way.
Ok so we left for finland on the thursday nothing much happened that day before we got on the boat. i got sprayed with car wax at the car wash and we had swedish pizza again oh and hedda was feeling really ill so she decided to throw up as you do. Then we went to the boat called the Mariella part of the viking line fleet that takes people between sweden finland åland and talinn. we went from stockholm stopped off in åland and then went on to helsinki. Boat ride was so funny. we didnt get a hut because everyone i had spoken to said there were armchairs you could use for free. well there werent we searched every inch of that boat then we asked two different information people and well they just dont exist so then we went and ate at the buffet even though none of use were very hungry(waste of money really). were pretty bored and decided to make a very short version of the titanic using the movie clip version of our digital cameras, lachy was rose and i was umm that other guy john maybe. oh then we found a nice corner on the floor to sleep in. It was just outside some guys hut so we felt a bit weird but he didnt seem to mind. Anyway we slept there till about 1oclock when i woke up from a guy saying ''wake up!'' ''why are you sleeping here?'' Lach-cause we havnt got a hut ''dont you know someone could kill you?.... do you want me to kick you. L-no.. ''why not'' L-because it would hurt ''have you seen james bond?... i am the evil russian guy i just want to hurt you..... im from the russaian government'' stare off.... ''wake up... do you want me to kick you'' and then eventually he left. funniest thing ever. anyways eventually we left so that he wouldnt come back and actually kick us. so then we went and found these round sofa type things that were quite comfortable were we spent the rest of the night. we bumped into these two drunk girls who talked a lot about stuff we didnt understand and they saw that hedda was chinese and was like ''chi chi.. chi chi.. it means hello'' and hedda was nice and was just like no its che che and its thankyou but they ignored her and when they left were still saying chi chi.
anyway next drunk person i met was when lachy and hedda were sleeping. it was this finish guy who was just saundering around at 4 in the morning and then walked up to a locked closet with no handle and pressed the keyhole with his finger and waited cause he thought it was an elevator. then he came and sat down next to me and spoke finish to me for half an hour and i kept saying sorry i dont understand you and the only word he understood was sorry. so he repeated sorry like 40 times. anyway eventually he left and we slept till the morning and got off the boat. Lachy got stopped by the cops here because the sniffer dog thought he smoked drugs but he got off cause he answered no to all the questions he got asked mainly ''do you smoke anything illegal'' ok so we were in finland and decided to walk from the harbour to our hostel. saw a few sights on the way two cathedrals and parliament square etc. then got to our hostel which is at the olympic stadium where the olympics were in 1952 we actually live where some of the athletes lived. and theres soccer training most nights like outside our window. anyway we left our bags and went back out to see the national museum(pretty boring) and the mountain/cave church(called something else but essentially is a church built inside a mountain. the church was awesome really beautiful. then we bought some souvenirs and food and went to kampii which is the main shopping centre. walked back home and went to sleep. ok so now we are up to yesterday. We woke up and got ready to catch the bus 30 min to espoo slightly outside helsinki to go to the serena waterpark. hedda didnt swim but me and lach did. basically its a complex with 4 slides and river stream thing. oh and theres skiing and outside swimming but they werent open. It was pretty good. lachy had his first taste of sauna and he was shocked how hot it was. for those of you who have no clue its basically a room filled with really hot steam and you get completely naked, get your butt paper(vital step we forgot first time in) and then you go in and sweat out all the bad stuff inside you. then you go outside and jump in cold water and then repeat over and over again. Its good it makes you feel really clean and relaxed. so yeah we left there at like 4ish and came back to helsinki and ate at an american restaurant called chicos (anyone else reckon its weird that an american restaurant has a spanish/mexican name.) food was awesome and not too expensive. then we went home cause it was raining and was kinda cold. still only 5 degrees celsius and no snow anywhere so they havnt seen nothing yet. today we plan to buy some stuff and climb the olympic tower just 20m from our hostel. ok ill write more later see ya
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)