Yup everyone, I'm finally in the right mood to start blogging again, haha. Everybody's been asking about my Scandinavian trip and its so sad cos I really cannot find anything REAL good to answer the question! For the price I paid, I can only say it was a so-so trip. Still think my Hokkaido tour was so much more fun. Guess I'm not really a nature person lah, cos that's basically what you see EVERYDAY and EVERYWHERE while in countries like Norway and Denmark. A million lakes, mountains, glaciers, trees, etc. But one thing I gotta admit, the air's real fresh over there lah. Things were expensive (as expected), and I much preferred the city tours as compared to the cruises along the fjords and glaciers. Hah.

Things which were particularly memorable (and which are sadly not a lot) were:
1) Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was a disappointment. We weren't expecting dirty streets, piercing heat, pet dogs peeing everywhere, 7-11 cashiers who cheat money (my friend lost about S$20 there. Not a lot of money lah, but it was our first day and after 2 flights lasting about 14 hours together, we were not an extremely happy lot to start with) and a hotel room with no air-con. Sigh!
2) The sun almost never sets there. We slept at 11pm, when the sun was still shining brightly and birds singing away and when we woke, it was the exact same scenario we see. Quite interesting actually. It was as if we were taking our afternoon naps.
3) My favourite city tours were in Denmark (tour guide (Taiwanese!) was good there, even if the place was dirty) and Norway, where I got to visit the home of Edvard Grieg, one of the world's great composers (on par with Beethoven and Mozart). Its so cool, looking at the piano which he had played before, and the house which he designed.
4) In Sweden, we visited the City Hall, which was where the Nobel winners dined after the annual prize presentation. Didn't know Mr. Nobel was Swedish..heh. The City Hall itself is a real marvel, cos EVERY room and corner of the place was designed with a particular intention in mind...and not 随随便便 one ok! I couldn't take enough pictures there!
5) The National Park at Oslo, Norway was quite spectacular too, cos it housed the creations of one of their most famous sculptors (whose name I forgot, but will update in my next post). I myself am not a very arty person lah, but I must the admit it was quite interesting to listen to the stories behind each sculpture and appreciate the 心思 of the artist.

During the 2nd last day of the tour, I got quite a bad case food poisoning at Stockholm and then had a fever at Finland, all the way back to Singapore. Which is why I don't remember much of the time I spend in Helsinki, think I was sleeping most of the time there. It was quite terok lah, cos we were in Santa Claus Village and you know, its such a quaint place I bet I could have taken more pictures and buy more Christmassy stuffs if I wasn't sick lah. When we reached there, all I did was half-heartedly take some pictures, and then write postcards (which were to be sent from the Village), and finally, plonked myself down at the nearest sofa I could find and sleep away. Didn't really care what the other visitors would say lah....even the staff there did not dare ask me anything.....haha. I was really pale throughout that period and it felt so so cold there! My fever subsided only when the plane reached Bangkok (our transit point), where I was 2 hours away from home. God, it was HORRIBLE!!!

But I've really got to thank my travel pal Sam. She really took care of me during this crazy period, buying me fish porridge (there was a Chinese restaurant nearby our hotel in Rovaniemi, Finland), helping me with my luggage, taking photos for me, forcing me to keep drinking water (when all I wanted was to puke). I felt so paiseh lor. And my other tour mates (mainly uncles and aunties) were also a real nice bunch. They kept asking about my illness, and one of the uncles also gave me lots of medicine to eat. The good thing was the medicine worked lah, cos my diarrohea and vomiting stopped after a while. And because I didn't dare to eat anything heavy, all I had during my 14 hours flight were 2 small cups of diluted cereal and water. Lost 2 kilos when I returned leh. TEROK!!!

I'll put photos up in my next post so stay tuned ok? Meanwhile, my eyes are glued to my laptop's screen almost every night, cos me in the midst of watching Kim Sam Soon now. Must finish before our local screens start showing it, so that I can watch it a 2nd time when its here. Haha!

Sam Soon is so lucky leh...she gets to study at Le Cordon Bleu at Paris!!! That's like a heaven for aspiring bakers lor!!! I was actually boh liao enough to go check out their school fees and though the school originated from France, they now also have branches in Korea, Japan, Australia and Canada. A basic pastry making course, which lasts about 10 weeks, will set you back by AUS$4700.

And that's not even including accomodation and food expenses. =(

My local uni fees only cost me $5000 per year back in 2000.