Gothenburg, Sweden

Central bus and railway station

I went to Gothenburg, or better known as Göteborg in Sweden last last weekend. Its was a great place with lots of pretty things to see, museums to go to and many cultural sights! A much friendlier and atmospheric place as compared to Oslo..quite worth the SG$250 i spent there altogether. The Swebus Express there costs about $78 and is a 4 hrs trip. And i'd reccomend getting the Gothenburg pass.. it has all your transportation taken care of and free entry into musuems and many other attractions.

The best thing was, 4 of us squeezed into a double room in Apple hotel for 320SEK ($73) for 2 nights, including buffet breakfast and dinner!
Initially, we thought that only 2 people could have the buffet, but it turned out that they didn't check or demand any proof of who eats! So we went in batches to eat our fill. *evil laughter*
I haven't been so filled up since i came to Norway! Yum.

The stupid thing was, we were all so guilt-ridden at the end of the 2nd day that we started imagining that the receptionist was staring at us suspiciously ( it was rather obvious considering that there were 16 of us asians with a grand total of 4 rooms..haha). So we were so nervous when we had to check out, afraid that the hotel will charge us more for each extra person.

Here's the big plan:
We move out in batches. Only 2 will stay back for each room to check out.
We decided to act blur and tell the person we didn't know about the '2 persons only in a double room' rule in the unfortunate event that we were interrogated. Duh.

And, it really didn't help that the receptionist jumped up from his sofa seat in front of the tv and brisk walked to the reception to check us out (we were totally hoping to just drop our keys and go).

Well in the end, as you might have guessed, nothing happened. *WHEW*
Cheers to Apple (budget?) hotel for not exposing us!


View from city centre, tram lines and all


The effervescent streets of the Gothenburg


They have really nice street lights in Europe, why can't Singapore be more creative with our designs?


Hard Rock Cafe in Gothenburg, where Hoobastank performed before!


Hard Rock T-shirt, which i was tempted to buy


The old town, Haga





View of the city from the fortress, with my beloved Da Jie


The Poseidon statue presides imposingly over Götaplatsen square, the city's cultural hub.


Sightseeing on the Paddan boat ride


Simin going into the submarine at the Maritiman, the world
s largest floating ship museum! Its consists of many ships, including this submarine and a destroyer!


The Universeum, a place rather like the science centre except bigger and definitely much more interesting! This is a huge tank where you can see sharks as well


The Liseberg themepark, Europe's largest. Look at that HUGE pack of potato chips you can win!



The world's biggest (or only?) wooden roller-coaster.
I was too chicken to go on it though almost all my other friends went!


The musuem of the world's natural history. Filled with the preserved bodies of the various species of animals! This is the African Elephant, it's ENORMOUS!



Giraffe!

.
That is a whale preserved from a looonngg time ago. It has a funny odour.
Honestly you can't really gauge how HUGE these animals are till you see it up close!

Sightseeing in Oslo

Wow I've been here almost a month already! Cheers to a month of bread for lunch everyday. Sigh. And since my lessons are only 8.30 - 11.15 am Mon to Thur (muahaha), i've no excuse not to go around town for some exploration. I don't go out everyday after school, but often enough..haha. I'm going to run out of places to go pretty soon.

Let me introduce you to some of the pretty places in Oslo. It's a refreshing change from the Singapore landscape of boring flats and tall buildings. The architecture is beautiful, the weather is great, though its been getting progressively colder lately ( i would say it's about 16-18 degrees avg.).

Marie, here comes your request of pictures of buildings!
Kavi, there certainly are lots of cute guys here, esp in my school, but it'll be too obvious for me to take pictures of them! The girls here are not bad looking either! People here generally dress very well..while all i brought are t-shirts and jeans..oops.


This is the entrance to Karls Johans Gate, the most happening alley full of shops and cafes in Oslo


Inside Karls Johans Gate


Night view of Karls Johans Gate


Oslo Central
The tower with red flashy lights is the Trafikanten, a very convenient meeting place


This is the building where Hard Rock Cafe is, and standing there is my friend, pretty mun!

There are also lots of open spaces and parks where people just sit on the grass and relax, have a picnic, and make out! haha.

They love sculptures and fountains as well.. you find them almost everywhere! But it gives a cultural feel to the place, and certainly beautifies the city! I shall leave the sculpture park to another time coz they don't allow me to upload anymore pictures!