2nd day in Sweden - Going Downtown and IKEA - Part 2

Ok, I have to admit I am a little slow in uploading the pictures, but this half of the semester has been pretty hectic so I will try to upload bit by bit whenever possible. Anyway, the previous post "2nd day in Sweden - Going Downtown and IKEA - Part 1" has some new pictures added near the end of the post.

So anyway, after sight-seeing around downtown, we got our first taste of Swedish meal at a little alley restaurant called Von Duvfa- set us back 85 Kr (S$17) but the food was pretty good and well worth it imo. I am not sure if this is the European style of eating, but a meal almost always consists of free-flow salad, a wide selection of bread with butter/cookies (not necessarily free-flow), a main course (chicken/fish/meat) and coffee/tea/drink. And the ladies will be delighted to hear that there is a wide selection of salads and breads here (for those who want to diet).

Well, And we saw another smaller cathedral in Linköping as well, although I am not sure what is its exact name and history.

And below is the main Train Station in Linköping - Linköping Central Station













And I saw something pretty interesting inside...

You have to pay $1 to use the toilet!!! So stop complaining about the $0.10 the poor toilet auntie charges for certain toilets! Btw, most public toilets in Sweden charge a fee for usage and this ranges from 3-5Kr.

And finally, our destination for the day...

We have reached IKEA! Finally, the chance to see the furniture giant in its hometown. We did not take any pictures inside because it looks just like the IKEA in Singapore. When you are inside, you won't be able to tell the difference, except perhaps for the Swedish signs here. It was a little disappointing as I was expecting IKEA in its homeland to look well, different, but it is also good to know that they maintain their standards throughout the world. =)

That more or less concludes our second day!

2nd day in Sweden - Going Downtown and IKEA - Part 1

Our second day of Sweden started with lots of photo-taking from outside my accomodation (haha, typical Singapore tourists)...





















Well, and it is not only the outside that is nice. The insides of the room are really nice too. I feel like it looks like a typical IKEA room, not sure if you share my sentiments. (By the way you can click on the picture to enlarge it to its original size. I am not sure why Blogspot compresses the picture for a certain dimension)
























Anyway, our program for the second day was to go downtown and IKEA on the second day to get personal necessities and to get certain administration (like opening bank account) done. Bus ride costs a flat 10Kr (S$2) here whatever the distance...although it is free for subsequent rides in the first hour...means any buses u take within the hour is free. Downtown is just like 15 minutes bus ride away from the university. You could cycle there in less than double the time. Below are some pictures taken downtown...









































The Linköping Cathedral in downtown is one of the most impressive pieces of architecture here in Linköping. It has a history of 800 years and has been preserved remarkably such that the remnants of the very first church building built 800 years ago can still be seen in the current cathedral. Its story reminds one of the creativity and determination of man.

The cathedral began as a small wooden house which functioned as a church for the people in the vicinity. As more people attended church and the church became overcrowded, they decided that they needed to expand the church. However, they could not afford to rebuild a new building from scratch, and they did not want to stop church service for the people during the re-building as well. Hence they expanded by building expansions around the church. This was a cheaper alternative, and the people did not have to stop attending church. The church was expanded various times during its history and one can walk through time by observing the architecture in the cathedral, as the architecture style changes with each expansion in a different period. More pictures of the church can be found below as well as in Wikipedia.

First Impressions of Sweden

Before I came to Sweden, I read on the Internet that the cost of living in Sweden was very high, and that it was one of the most expensive countries to stay in in the world. However, this fact still did not stop me from being totally bewildered when I had to pay 18Kr (S$3.60) for a small bottle of sparkling mineral water. And it is only S$3.60 because the exchange rate has dropped considerably. Which means that half a year ago, you will probably be paying like close to S$4.50 for that same bottle of water! And having been here for more than 1 week, I have realised that there are certain things which I have grown to appreciate in Singapore which I did not appreciate before. But more on that later.

My first impression of Sweden (from the train journey) was that it was a very scenic country, with much vegetation preserved. I guess this is partly that despite it being the largest Nordic country, it has just twice the population of Singpore at 9 million +, hence there is plenty of space for everyone without having to develop built-up areas at the expense of Mother Nature

The school is pretty nice, mainly made up of 2-storey buildings, where each building houses a certain combination of faculties. The houses in Linköping (pronounced Lin-sho-pin) are designed mainly cottage style, which is very different from the numerous skyscrapers u see in Singapore, although this should not be accepted as a representation of Sweden, as Linköping is more of a little town off the main city centre (It is 3 hours away from Stockholm).




















The Swedes I have met so far are very warm people, and not inherently racist which is sometimes prevalent in certain places in Europe.They speak excellent English as well (at least for the post-war generation), which is really good. At least I know I can always count a little help effortlessly when needed.

Finally, My First Post about Sweden

Finally, in my room and having the time to upload my pictures...I will start from the first moments when we left Changi Airport :) More photos will be added from time to time as not all the photos are in my camera.






I don't know why, but I can't get rid of the white border on the picture at the moment. Anyone has any ideas?

Anyway here are the pictures for our journey from Singapore to Linköping University in Sweden

Busy, Busy, Busy

It is first week of school and there are so much things to do! Pay fees, attend lessons, get course literature, looking for professors, matching courses. It is the stuff that no one likes to do but has to be done. Currently, I am still grappling if I should take an extra course, however, this might make my first half of the semester a bit heavy. Well I will decide in due course.

Still unable to find the time to upload the pictures I have taken so far. Technically, I was free yesterday, but it was International Students night at HG yesterday and I went there for a little while, so by the time I came back I just showered and went to bed. HG is a student pub which is like 3 minutes walk from my corridor room, and International Students night meant admission was free, you just had to pay a "wardrobe fee" of 20Kr (S$4) to hang your coat. Originally they charge a 50Kr entrance fee, which does not include drinks. Yeah, there was really A LOT of people yesterday, as this is the first official International Students Night of the year/semester.

Going for lessons in an hours' time...Ciao

Internet is finally up!

It is 0915 hours now in Sweden! And daylight is just breaking...After 7 days in Sweden, my internet is finally up! Hahaha, finally I can blog! Well, at least after my lesson which starts in an hour's time. But in a nutshell, these 7 days have been pretty fascinating!

Geek Learning The Ropes

This is like the umpteenth time that I have attempted to start a long lasting blog, and I sure hope that this one will finally succeed where all its former predecessors have failed - to be a long lasting blog. Part of my motivation comes from the fact that I believe I would be blogging more because of my half year stint in Sweden, and I hope this energy and desire to blog will continue well beyond my return. I also thought it would be nice if I could share some of my experiences there, as I believe it is going to be a real EXCITING trip, and perhaps introduce some good holiday tips should anybody decide to visit the Scandinavian region anytime. And of course, readers, you can motivate me by POSTING MORE COMMENTS! These will be greatly appreciated and will further fuel the energy in me to make the blog better. =)

As to why this blog is named "Geek Learning the Ropes", I would like to think that I am an enthusiast wanting to learn many things (in particular to my university trade - Computer Engineering). Of course, I must clarify the definition of the word "geek", however, as I take slight offense at the definition given in Dictionary.com:

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geek

  Slang. –noun

1.	a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.

2.	a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)

3.	a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

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1. : let's just say I think a geek may be peculiar and intellectual but not necessarily dislikeable.
2. : I do not know why a geek must be a COMPUTER expert or enthusiast. If there was a person who was over-enthusiastic and over-intellectual in art, I would call him an art geek too, so I believe geek should not be limited to just people whose lives are more involved in IT.
3. :Let's just ignore this definition as it is not relevant.

Lastly, there are some goals I would like to set for this blog:
1) Have my own design template - Blogspot templates are OK per se, but I think a blog should be designed to reflect the writer. Also, this was hastily set up in an hour so it really looks bad now. I give myself a time frame of 3-4months.
2) I should ramble as much as possible on this blog as regularly as possible-That is what a blog should be for.

Got a flight to catch in 9 hours' time. Adios!