Week 1: Longest day ever and settling in

It was really one of the longest days I have ever experienced.  After taking off from Singapore at 1155, we landed safely in Amsterdam at 0630 after approximately 13 hours. I gained about six hours extra on the 14 of January.  Haha. Talk about cheating time. :>

The plane ride was pretty interesting. I was fortunate because I had an empty seat beside me even though the plane was pretty much full. One seat away from me sat this old lady. After exchanging a few awkward smiles, I decided to say hi to her. It turned out that she was a Dutch and she was returning home from Melbourne.  It must have been a even longer day for her. Her son moved to Australia in the 1980s.  In order to visit her son, she has to take a plane to Singapore for 13 hours and then spent another 6 hours on another plane to Australia.  That is really no easy feat for an old lady. Considering the fact that her grandson is 22 years old, she must be approximately my grandma's age.

After touching down at Amsterdam, Vanessa and I proceeded on to collecting our luggage. All was going on smoothly till then. I got stopped by the customs officer at the exit. I asked if I had anything to declare.  I gave him this puzzled look. Why would I have anything to declare? Of course I said name so and he decided that he wanted to check my luggage. I felt this sense of dread, not because I had illegal stuff in my luggage, but I was worried that they would mess up my luggage. Or even worse, make me remove everything from my backpack. The thought of moving everything out from the countless compartment so was terrifying. In the end, he only very briefly flipped my belongings and asked if I brought food. Since I only had a bottle of soba sauce, I knew I was pretty much safe. He cleared me, and I let out a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, my friend was not as lucky as me. It turned out that she brought a box of bo chai wan (the diarrhea medicine) and she got stuck at the customs for over one hour. She also got fined 320 euros because it apparently contained an endangered plant. So for those going into Amsterdam, please bring western medicine.

We proceeded on to Sweden without much mishaps. In order to save time, we decided to take the Arlanda Express, which costed us 130 sek for youth tickets. It was worth the money because the train was very fast and they had wifi on the train. However, if I was not in a rush for time, I would probably choose to take a commuter train because it is cheaper and it would be an experience. We got our tickets over the counter at the visitor's centre. It was really fast and no fuss.

At stockholm, we checked into our hostel. We stayed at the City Backpacker's Hostel. It was really nice. We got the ensuite room for six even though we paid the money for four. I decided against getting breakfast there because I know that cooking your own food will definitely be cheaper. Hehe.

Alright, I will post all the pictures down below and let them tell the rest of the story.

Apphia and Lynette came to see me off. Thank you so much dearies, it meant a lot! <3

I feel like a ku-ku taking pictures of the aeroplane food, but I want to remember every single moment. So I did. I ordered the indonesian cuisine for the supper, but I was too full to stomach everything. It was not my type anyway,

This, I super love. Poached eggs with hash brown and spinach with a sausage. Served with yoghurt. Everything was gooood. But I did not managed to finish the bread.

We finally reached Stockholm! By the way, the pictures are not in order, and I am too lazy to arrange them. Heh heh! 

The streets of stockholm. This was in one of the shopping areas on a Monday. I do not like rolling my luggage on the ground. The cobblestones scratch my luggage (brand new!) and killed my arms. >.<

First meal in sweden! I think it is Brie (or some other cheese) with salami. It was good, even though it was a little hard. 58 sek.

Beef Goulash, the only soup of the day, so we took it and shared our soup. It was very very nice, and very very salty. 78 sek.

The only picture of us at Amsterdam. It was 2 degrees and we ran out just to snap a picture before we checked in again. 

The sun rose at Amsterdam at 9 plus. Also known as the sunset in Singapore.

We finally reached the hostel and we went to chill downstairs after a trip to the supermarket. I realised that they like comedies. I do not find them funny. Hmmm.

My breakfast, which was yoghurt and juice and an apple. Okay, that's half my breakfast. We decided to use their free pasta and a bottle of sauce we saw to make a quick pasta breakfast. Some random guy walked passed us and said "Pasta for breakfast?" -____-||| Hello, why cannot?

The view on the bus. We took Bus4you, which costed us 149 sek. But it is totally worth it, because the bus was really nice.

Their train.

Train and some snow.

Breakfast on the first day! Juice, cheese, apple and bread.

IKEA! <3

My dish. Cooked smoked salmon with veggies and potato. 55 sek.

Dinner on the first day! Eggs with xiao bai cai and meatballs! Not very nice, but we had no ingredients. I did the best we could. With oyster sauce and vinegar for me.

My breakfast the next day! I think this might become my default breakfast. Bread, juice and bacon. Nom nom!

The place near the school!

Breakfast with Vanessa the next day. Told you I will eat the same thing! Haha.

A beautiful cathedral in Linkoping.

One more! Apparently this is the highest building in Linkoping!

Inside the cathedral.

High ceilings.

The place where the pastor stands. I recognised it as St. Andrew's cathedral has one too. I know its name now. Pulpit! Haha, looks like the name of a petpet.

Near a high place in the city centre, I saw the coniferous forest. So pretty.

The place I got lost with Fion. Thank god the people here are nice and they showed me the way!

The thrift shop where I bought my sweater. It looks really nice and it costed me 65 sek (S$13)

Some quaint little cafe in the city centre.

Some art piece in the middle of the square. I cannot figure out what it is. Looks like the nativity play, but somehow, the clothing looks too modern for it. :/

The onion, which I adopted as my own. I call it ion. It is an ion. HAHAHA.

Breakfast on the third day with Fion. It is almost the same thing. :) Hahah. But I like.

Fion, myself and 2 photobombing girls behind us. Haha.

On Sunday, we went back to Willy's and IKEA to buy the rest of the stuff that we might need. The precious time when I went to IKEA, I bought seeds from IKEA to plant my own herbs. Thyme, basil and coriander respectively. When I went back, they were germinating nicely! What a pleasant surprise. :)

Basil has less sprouts, but I can see them growing nicely!

Looks like I will have quite a lot of thyme. :)

The coriander had the biggest seeds. No sign of greens yet even though I saw some roots from a seed. :)

I have this feeling that I will become surprised every day when I come back because my little plants will be there to greet me. :)