edinburgh, gosh i dont really have alot of words for the place

i mean i love the ale’s at 3 pounds and below per pint

i loved that its the capital of scotch whiskey

the views were great

mmmm

 

going for a literary pub tour turned out to be one of the better decisions of my life?

even though i dont know any burns scott or woodsworth

it was really a treat, hearing old poems in scotts

 

climbing up arthurs seat was…

im not gonna say it wasnt worth it? cos i guess it was? but of me was cursing and sweating all the way up and down. I think carlton hill has an equally awesome view? not as craigy but  get a better view of the city…. and its not as steep

 

i guess it was nice not seeing of the inside of art museums for a while too

and im sorry eeli, as much as belhavens best is a decent lager, how can u beat innis & gunn, a beer aged in an oak cask? gosh scotch experience applied to beer… wads next?

 

Stockholm

Ahhh….

Stockholm, the capital of Scandinavia, i havent been to Oslo or Copehagen, but from what I experienced, i think it is quite safe to concur, (actually ive been in the transfer lounge in oslo, but that doesnt really count)

Clean, efficient, beautiful, classy, artsy…. well expensive but probably deservingly so

Probably boasting the most well-curated museusms ive ever been to, with amazing guided tours

and so so scenic…

i shall let the photos speak for themselves…

 

anyways, the random photos, that seem to be of tape, are of an art installation at the fargfarbriken (all the a’s have umlaut but im lazy to type them in) which was made totally out of tape, and the picture with a shadow inside the tape is actually that of kids climbing inside. I could have had my turn, but i didnt want to queue up behind those darn kids

anyways, im kinda rushing this post, and not doing stockholm justice because, well because i guess im lazy,

so here are the pictures

paris!!!!

ok, ive got to slog through this backlog so i can bump in my aurora pics….

decided to upload them to fb anyways, so no rush for here i guess…. considering uploading my stockholm pics to fb too, cos imo, stockholm is my fav capital, and i feel like sharing that with the world…

hahahah

anyways on to paris, the city of romance (in my case bromance)

mmmmm

well the effiel tower was the effiel tower, and the louvre the louvre, but i dont know, the magic was kinda lost on me

 

the public gardens were kinda awesome though, maybe id have appreciated it more if I had a picnic out there….

mmmmm

oh wells

id have to admit though that the history (and the hubris) of paris is quite interesting…

though i still dont get what parisians are so proud about…

 

oh wells maybe its just lost on my uncouth asian mind…

 

mmmm wad else wad else….

oh yeah, kinda not really about paris, but the mc cafes in paris are AWESOME

i mean they have lemon tarts, and macaroons…. (check out the gallery at the end of this post)

i dont get how the more expensive macaroons can cost up to 20 euro for a handful,

but i think if mac cafe in singapore were to introduce macaroons, id happily swear off starbucks

ICE HOCKEY

ok, before i forget, and since im in no mood to do my finnish homework yet, i figured i must as well make a short post.

Well, the ice hockey match was between TAMPARRA and ILVES, not sure if i spelt the names correctly, but anyways it happened on 23rd feb..

Possibly one of the most exciting sports ive seen up close; fast paced and violent, its suprising how much contact is allowed (u can shoulder check opponents and slam them against the glass)

wads really suprising is how fast the game is. The rink isnt very big, and the players skate really fast and posession at a blinding rate

even though i didnt know any of the rules, i enjoyed myself alot, and i guess the cheerleaders helped =p

the final score was 5-3 in tamparra’s favour, although it was really close down the stretch.

it was actually 4-3 like with a minute left, then ilves subbed in a normal player for their goalie in a desperation attempt, and tamparra capitalised on the open goal to seal the lead

and after that me and ryan celebrated the victory with kebab

so london

mmmmmmmmmmmm

i think the problem to going to reknown capitals like this one is that you expect to be blown away but instead of a symphony you get a sonata…. lols

but london was great, if for anything, the amount of free museums alone…

 

the first few days involved seeing the outside of all the great sights

london eye, tower bridge, tower of london, was quite disappointed with london bridge

aside from appearing in a song, it seems that its not that special

 

the buckingham guards were hard to see from so far away and all

did get a nighttime tour of soho by a “native” though, which was quite quite cool and eye opening….

hahaha

altogether, it was quite a ride, although i think 5 days is a bit much even for such a big city

still it was good to catch up with fong, and to find a great tidbit about ho chi minh

tallin-estonia

the next big event, and trust me when i say i didnt much in between, cos ive just been hibernating, was a cruise trip to tallin, which is the capital of estonia…

its a nice little seaside town, pretty awesome…

anyways, i first took a train to helsinki, again,

checked out some nice cafes etc….

went to the kiasma which is a really nice contemporary art museum

then together with lian took a night cruise to tallin where we stayed a night on board.

 

the cruises to estonia from finland are really cheap, and the ships are pretty awesome

apparently the ships to stockholm are even better but oh well….

anyways tallin is nice city, quite scenic with alot of old buildings still intact…

unfortunatley when we went there it seems that we chose the wrong day to go cos the temp hit a low of -28 degrees there…..

so we spent most of our time huddling inside buildings…

 

oh yeah and my camera ran out of battery within the first our we were in tallin, so there arent much photos

 

what i do have alot of photos of however, is london…. WOOT

yeah anyways, i’ll get around to that post soon… if at all

Turku

a week after cny i visited turku, which is just 1 hrs away from tampere..

its the old capital of finland and is supposed to have more swedish influence and such

that being said i think i have to agree with my roomate who says if uve seen one finnish city, uve seen them all.

anyways, it has a nice castle, some old church amongst other things…. like any other old euripean city…. lols