Snowfall

Been snowing in dribs and drabs here lately, and its quite hard to feel warm and fuzzy like they seem to do in movies when I'm actually shivering inside with no desire to leave the warm shelter my room.

Maybe I'll take some nice pictures of the University Lake tomorrow when I'm actually forced to go out for class.

Edit: View from the outside. Open door straight up is my room/apartment/lejlighed.

Hamburg = Reeperbahn?!

Reeperbahn being the Red Light District of Hamburg, one nice S-train stop away from our hostel.

From my German friend Dirk: You can have a whopper at Burger King and at the same time take a look out of the window and see hookers at work contacting every passerby. How cool is that?

More on that later. I made a short trip to Hamburg to join up with Longjin, Khelvin and Weihan for a few days. After checking out the hostel and not finding them, I went out to sightsee on my own. It's straight out of Lonely Planet, but hey, I have PHOTOS!

St Pauli Fischmarkt. But no real fish market since I was there on a weekday. According to Dirk, they fence off their lousier grade fish to drunks who were out all night and on their way home. I guess they deserve to wake up to a crappy fish to remind them that drinking is bad (yes this is hypocritical).

Rathus (Town Hall)



St Michael's Church

Kiao ka tua lam pa

Me and Dirk. I look damn gross in the photo - thanks to a whole day of junk food (KFC CRISPY CHICKEN), beer and cola.

We checked out the DOM Fun Fair on our first night after an uneventful walk down Reeperbahn. Left our cameras behind because we probably thought we were gonna get mugged or something. Food tents, roller coasters, games tents - we combed the whole area and ate all sorts of stuff like curry wurst, candy apples and steak. Amusement parks are just great fun.

THOSE UNDER 18 PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER.

Righto.. What to expect at Reeperbahn? Pimp daddies along Reeperbahn luring you to enter the live sex shows, hookers grabbing your jacket if you're a single male walking along their territory looking remotely interested. On the 2nd night Dirk showed us a small alley which had more high class hookers wearing lingerie sitting behind windows. Feel free to knock on the windows and have a nice chat with them. We agreed that the girls did look quite fine and could speak decent English, plus they had a certain level of class and charm (what I would call X-factor) about them. I guess this Window thing operates on a much larger scale in Amsterdam, but people told me the quality control in Amsterdam just isn't there :P

Estonia! Okay Just Tallinn

This post is dedicated to Larry Leong Bingxun

After getting back to Stockholm from Uppsala, slack for a bit, we packed for our trip to ESTONIA! On board a Tax-Free Cruise Ship no less, not unlike Superstar Virgo/Gemini/whatever of Star Cruise Singapore.

Khel's friend came to pick us up and we basically crashed at his place for the few days we were there. He goes by the name of Wayne in some circles...

We got to enjoy a traditional estonian sauna at his place while we were there, after watching Arsenal thump AC Milan.

Step 1: Get naked

Step 2: Proceed into sauna room with cold beer and towel

Step 3: Start pouring water onto hot coals to get on with it

Step 4: Sit tight, talk shit, chug beer

Step 5: When sitting tight is no longer an option, dash out of sauna room with your new best friends, burst through the front door and start rolling about in the snow outside

Step 6: Get back in for more pain and pleasure



I told Larry that the girls in Estonia were more beautiful than the ones in Sweden, to which he replied that he knew not of any Estonian supermodel.

So here's a lovely photo of Carmen Kass, recommended by Lonely Planet, courtesy of whichever website I 'borrowed' it off.



Raekoja Plats (Town Hall Square). As you wander around, you can't help but notice that the old historic buildings are being converted into swanky restaurants, designer shops, cafes .. and it's all quite jarring sometimes, especially when taking a photo. But I suppose it breathes new life into the buildings, giving them a purpose, fueling the economy.

Let's play Tower Defense!

Good view from Toompea. I just love such areas where you can have a good view below. We also tried throwing snowballs down at passer-bys but we kept missing :(



Kyle and the Great Coast Gate. Contrast, I say.

It was a very great trip, although I fell a little ill at the end of it (could definitely be the hazardous sauna experience). Have to thank my two great friends for persuading me to stay longer, which I was very hesitant to. And of course they made the trip really enjoyable.

Some People Call Me Maurice

One week Easter Break Holiday coming right up! I actually miss the constantly-having-no-time-to-study lifestyle back home. Beats the constantly-having-no-money-to-get-out-of-here lifestyle here. Ah, well, grass is always greener.

The past week was not bad. Attended Sydbank Shareholder Meeting on Monday night, giving me access to both the Radisson Conference Hall area, and a very delicious Danish buffet to eat up the losses that my ONE share in Sydbank has suffered due to the stinkin US economy.

Looking forward to meeting up with some of the guys in Hamburg :)

Stag Party Woooo!

Executive Summary: 9 days, 2 countries with arguably the most beautiful women, great food, great company, loads of gambling and alcohol.

Let's start from the very beginning...

Sergels Torv

Landed in Stockholm after a really scary Sterling flight - both the take-off and landing were really bad. It was very 感动 max! to see Kyle and Longjin, who was decked out in a damn nice CK leather jacket. Khel should have a photo or two; it was just too gay for me to start whipping out the camera and firing away, so we did what guys do best - eat.

Photo above is the square every tourist will keep seeing in Stockholm, where the main train station is, along with stretches of shops, cafes etc.



Entrance to Gamla Stan, or Old Town. Not very sure what I was supposed to admire in there, in any case it was quite dark by the time Kyle brought us there.



DesignTorget shop - it looks very beautiful from outside because of the layout, colours and collective attraction of the designs. But I didn't get anything because I wasn't sure if I should get something pretty to just sit there and collect dust, or something functional that costs a bomb and won't be so pretty after wear-and-tear sets in.

And finally there was MAHJONG. OMG. After all the many months of Mahjong Withdrawal Symptoms, I actually gave up the nightlife of Stockholm for this. Ho Ho Ho. Ok more on Stockholm later, chronologically we went to Uppsala on Day 3.



And in Uppsala we had the famous Swedish tradition of... Fika! Or Coffee Break. I am obviously a strong supporter of traditions like coffee breaks and naps (siesta). There was a traditional Swedish pastry called Samla in there.

Pay attention to Khel's lovely long locks as well, because you won't see it for much longer.



Ah yes the mask party. This is... us. Obviously I'm not putting up a photo of me in a mask I'm not in the photo because, well, somebody has to take the photo, right?!



The masks of the two Swedes + one german seated across me. It was a very good party, with enough alcohol, plenty of bad rowdy singing, and very delicious food prepared by lovely ladies.



And Kyle donning the Jester mask-hat, which won the Best Mask Competition. Whole day steal other people's glory/mask/food.

It was a nice cozy party, with the Swedes making an effort to talk to us the foreigners, and happily condemning Denmark, my place of exchange. Hahaha. No love between neighbours. After the party we walked back to Yue En's toasty place in Flogsta.



Presenting.. Yue En's labour of love in the morning. Pseudo-char kway teow, teh, and blood orange. THANKS YUE EN. It was such a good sight and smell to wake up to.

And for now I shall leave you, but rest assured I will write of the next leg soon.