omfg.

hey hey!
well maine's dad got a wireless card from his office so now we have wireless at home! (: cool bananas. cause otherwise it would have been expensive to get wireless outside and it's kinda hard to mooch off others too. heh.

so 've been here for almost a week now and it's been so cool. i feel like i've already seen so much but there's still so much more to explore! i reached copenhagen
in the morning where maine picked me up.

we took a train to malmo, sweden, where her dad lived. the apartment's really cool. furnished by ikea of course. haha.
we had lunch at la empanada's. a mexican place just 2mins from the apartment. the servings are hugee and yummy (: i had kyckling enchiladas. i think that's how you spell them. haha. oh and kyckling's chicken. like almost everything here is in swedish so we kinda have to figure out what is what on our own. i'd like to think we're gettin pretty good at it. sometimes the locals speak to us in swedish and we'd be like, "what...?" haha. then they realise we're tourists and switch to engelska (:
after that we walked around a little. one thing bout malmo is that you can walk everywhere. we've walked from like one end of the map to the other and sometimes we even walk off the map. haha. we walk soooo much. it's good though, burning all the calories! and even though we've walked so much, we haven't covered the entire city yet. lol. that'll take awhile i think.

anyway, we left for stockholm that very evening. was roughly a 6hour drive. stockholm's gorgeous (: we arrived just in time for their midsommer celebrations. midsommer is the only day in the year when it never gets dark. it was way cool. like at 12am, it was still bright out. actually, during the summer in sweden, they have really long days. the sun usually sets only around 9pm (: i love long days!
so on midsommer day, most of the shops are closed except for like cafes and probably a few tourist shops. everyone else goes to the different gardens and parks around stockholm to have picnics, or just hang and chill with their friends/family/etc.
most people head to skansen which is an open air museum. so that was where we headed. it's like botanic gardens but way larger and nicer. people were just sitting in the tall grass, picnicking or simply lying there and enjoying the sun. skansen has real models of the different kind of housings that used to occupy stockholm. oh and during midsummer, they do the traditional maypole dance.

reminded me of the return of the native and i was like thinking, mann 'm actually experiencing a pagan celebration in the flesh! lol (: they were trying to get everyone to participate in the maypole dance but we were too shy so we just stood by the side to watch. heh.
we also made our own little wreaths! pretty ones of course, to wear on our heads (:

we also visited the royal palace. and once again, were lucky enough to catch the changing of the guards just in time (:
hot swedish guys AND girls in uniforms, dudeeee. haha. nice (: the palace was.... well, grand for lack of a better word. i mean, duh. it's a palace. lol. but it was so beautifully done. seriously, now i know why they say europe has the best architecture. it really is pretty darn amazing how they carve such intricate designs into the marble and the painted ceilings? pffft. fucking gorgeous. maine was saying elaborately painted ceilings are THE sign of wealth. haha.
we also went down to the treasury where they kept all the crowns/ jewels/ swords and basically everything expensive. lol. oh and the guard there told us that those crowns (with hundreds of jewels encrusted on them) were actually never worn on the heads of the royals, but rather, merely placed on a pillow next to them. he said they were never meant to be worn. interesting fact huh (: or maybe it's just me. haha. we also saw a crown made specifically for occasions like funerals.
oh the hotel we stayed in was sweeett!! haha. room was pretty big and there was a japanese door which opened up into another little master room. so the room actually housed 6 separate beds. buffet kinda breakfast where we made our own waffles (: cereal and yoghurt is my favourite breakfast now! and the counter guy was so nice. helped us with so many things and he was so friendly (:
we also took a boat tour which basically brought us around stockholm and showed us the good/interesting/historic spots (:

then we visited drottningholm palace. which was the summer house of the royal family. they were living in the northern part of the palace so we could only access the south and the gardens. likewise, it was gorgeous (: the family's a good looking bunch. lol. the princesses are so beautiful, just like the queen. and the prince looks like orlando bloom! especially in his recent pictures.
oh and the guards are so funny. at the guard post where they stand, they actually have a semi circle of sorts drawn around them. so we're not supposed to cross that line when we wanna take pictures with them. lol. we even saw one time, where this guard who was standing at attention, suddenly just marched away when some people were about to take a picture. they were all like, "hey where's he going...." hahahaha. we decided to play with this cute guard and started imitating him, making funny comments and taking funny pictures. but he just didn't respond! so we got kinda tired and decided to take out some m&m's to eat. then suddenly we saw him turn his head and he looked at us! hahaha. then he grinned before turning back. was cute (:


the best thing i liked about stockholm was old town. it's this small town where the little streets are all lined up with quaint little stores. they sell all sorta stuff and it's really lovely (: they have really good glass too. ice cream is called glass here (: they eat glass alllll the time even though it's so cold. they have so many flavours too! after having glass here you'd think b&j's are overrated. haha.
one thing i realise bout sweden though is that everything is kinda expensive. i mean, sure, their portions can be rather filling and it's worth the price but it's not cheap. kinda like singapore cafe prices.

we also visited the city hall where all the political stuff takes place. it's also where the nobel prize ceremony and dinner happens. oh in the picture, there's a shot of the ceiling of the parliament chambers. really beautiful (: anyway, it has rectangular vents in them. they're a symbol of how there are no secrets being discussed in those chambers and everything said can be heard on the outside by the swedish people.
there's also another picture of a painting on the walls. they were painted by prince eugene and it was an exact reflection of what can be seen from the windows on the opposite side. that room's called the reflection room (: there were even half-chandeliers on the left side of the wall cause they were supposed to be reflections of the chandeliers hanging down the middle of the room. so that was kinda cool.
then there was the golden hall where everything was well, gold. the paintings on the wall were done by a 28 year old relatively unknown artist who took 10 months to paint the entire room, which would have actually taken 7 years. so imagine how much work went into it. but because they were rushing, the artist was chosen as he already had a plan of how the room was going to be painted. he had alot of side helpers to speed things up but still, he made quite a few mistakes in the paintings. however he managed to justify them with witty reasonings. haha. one of them was sweden's national symbol, there were 3 crowns but he only drew in 2. and the head of a horseman got cut off because the measurements were miscalculated and he ran out of space for the head. lol.

okay and we did lots more and the past 2 days back in malmo we've done so much too but 'm gettin kinda lazy. 've written SOO MUCH! lol. 'll just put up pictures and write little commentaries tmr or something since we have wireless now. (:
going to the skatepark and a concert by the beach in a few hours! (: