Helsinki Day 3

It's a wetter and gloomier Day 3 in Helsinki. We were really glad that we came prepared with our new jackets which kept us dry and warm in this bad weather.

We explored the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site today. Founded in 1748, Suomenlinna is a bastion fortress of irregular shape that is built on uneven terrain and on separate islands.



Most of the museums and cafes are only opened in Summer and since it was all rainy and cold there, we only visited a few outdoor attractions. The courtyard on the Susisaari island was the main square of the fortress since 1760s. There's an impressive tomb in the middle of the courtyard and it belongs to Augustin Ehrensvärd the military officer, military architect, artist, creator of the Suomenlinna sea fortress.





The Dry Dock is just beside and below the courtyard. it is one of the world's oldest dry docks still in use. Nowadays the dock is used to restore old wooden ships.



Despite our short stay at Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, we thought that it's really beautiful and undeniably a great place to go to learn more about the Finnish history.



Tomorrow, we'll be leaving Helsinki and heading to Oulu. I'm really very excited about all the visits to the Finnish schools in Oulu!

Helsinki Day 2

Day 2 was still very cold and gloomy. The wind is so strong that for a couple of times, we were blown a few steps off our track. Fortunately for us, it didn't rain or snow till evening and we already back in the hotel. Armed with just a paper map, we explored Helsinki on foot today. Honestly, I never knew I could read maps until this trip! lol, of course with me as the navigator, we took more time, walked more steps but, but, but we still got to our destinations eventually!

Helsinki Cathedral was our first destination. Completed in 1852, this prominent landmark overlooks the Senate Square. In addition to serving its own congregation, it also hosts major state and university events.

Right opposite the cathedral is the Senate Square and it is the main central square in Helsinki. A St. Thomas Christmas Market is being held at the square now. There are many interesting stalls selling local handmade products like jewelry, breads and wood crafts.



There is an enormous real Christmas tree erected in the middle of the square. I love how the star at the top seemed to be shining brightly against the dark, looming sky.

It probably sounds really unbelievable but these were all the photos I took today. =/ My fingers were too numb from the cold to want to operate the camera. On our way back to the hotel, we took refuge from the cold wind in different shopping centres.

We'll be heading to the Suomenlinna island tomorrow so stay tune for more updates!

Blekingeleden hiking trip

Over the weekend, we went for another hiking trip with 3 other friends! This time, we attempted part of the Blekingeleden, which is a 240km trail winding through the countryside of Blekinge province. 

We covered a comfortable 32km over the two days, hiking through farmlands and forests.



Twice, we walked into large deforested areas and lost sight of the poles which marked the trail. The poles might had been removed when the trees were cut down or they were buried under all the fallen trees. The sun was setting, so we would need to find our way out quickly. Thank God for technology, we had compasses and GPS in our phones which gave us a general direction to follow.



We had to bash through the forests and dense vegetations. It wasn't so fun bashing through Christmas trees aka fir trees because their needle-like leaves are really prickly!



At 8 plus, we made it out of the land of christmas trees and reached our campsite Alljungen Lake. I only realized then that I have been here before on a Science field trip with my school! We camped by the lake, ate dinner and retreated into our tents at 10pm.

Just 5 minutes later, it started pouring heavily. We were really lucky to be in the tent already. The rain was accompanied by flashes of lightning and peals of thunders and we swore this must be the worst thunderstorm we have ever experienced in Sweden and possibly in Singapore. And we have to be out camping at this time. *!%^#* Do you recall during Science lessons in school, we learnt about using the time lapse between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder to estimate the how far the lightning was from our location? I was pretty sure one of the lightnings was really near us because 1) we could 'see' the extremely bright flash of lightning even with our eyes closed, 2) the thunder was the loudest I ever heard and it sounded more like an explosion and 3) there was NO time lapse between light and sound. I finally fell asleep at 3 plus in the morning when the thunderstorm stopped.

At 7plus the next morning, we left the campsite. When we were halfway through the return journey, it started pouring heavily again. There wasn't any shelters along the trail so we put on our rain jackets and continued walking. Within 10 minutes, our shoes were totally soaked. Walking in drenched shoes definitely topped my list of factors which add to discomfort in the outdoors, okay, maybe second to mosquitoes.



In such heavy rain, everyone walks really quickly so we managed to reach our end-point almost an hour and a half earlier than expected. Hooray to warm showers and dry clothes at home!

I must have made this hiking experience sounded really terrible. Haha. But it's such terrible lost-in-forests+camped-through-thunderstorms+wet-shoes experiences that make a trip extremely memorable and toughen us.



The company was really great though we are not sure how many will sign up for another hiking trip with us. Hehe.

2D1N Röstånga to Åstorp hike - We made it out!

We started the hike at 10am from Röstånga town and walked through Söderåsen National Park. This section of the hike provided rewarding views of the Skärån valley and the gorge at Skäralid.



We exited the national park in the late afternoon and it began to drizzle. At 8pm, we finally saw the sign which pointed towards the Kirka Skog campsite. I'm sure we would have jump for joy if we weren't that tired. Still, we gathered out last bit of energy and half-skipped and half-dragged ourselves to the campsite! We were so hungry, we cooked three packets of 出前一丁 instant noodles for dinner.



On day two, we almost walked 23 km non-stop. Haha this wasn't intentional! We left the campsite at 8am and aimed to reach Hålebäck (15km away) for lunch. But we walked past our lunch point unknowingly. Since we weren't too far from the next picnic spot, we decided to walk further and have lunch later. And somehow, we missed the next lunch point too! By that time, we were just 4km away from the end point and knowing that the end is near probably made us forget how hungry we were. And at 3.45pm, we reached the end point Tingvalla, Åstorp.

The main highlight of day two must be this beautiful sunflower field.



The 45 km route travelled over extremely varied terrains which made the whole hiking experience really interesting: wood chips, grass, tree stumps and roots, streams, bridges, muddy soil, gravel roads, rocky paths and well-worn footpaths.



We survived the hike! For a comfortable pace, most websites recommended doing this hike in three days and we decided to do it in two days. We really shouldn't be in denial and think that we are still young and fit. Haha.



Eventually, we did finish the 45 km hike in two days but my legs were aching badly and I could barely walk properly towards the end of the hike. Our shoulders were aching too from carrying the backpacks. At the end of day one, we were contemplating whether to shorten the hike but I'm glad we didn't. We felt a great sense of accomplishment from completing the journey and not giving up halfway.



These awesome feelings make persisting through tough journeys totally worthwhile, don't you agree? Lastly, here are more photos from the hike to share:

2D1N Röstånga to Åstorp hike – Pre-trip post

Skåneleden is a network of food paths that stretches throughout the province Skåne and comes up to approximately 1000 km. It is divided into 4 main hiking trails and you can read more about them here. We are attempting part of the As-Åsleden or the ridge-ridge trail. It will be a 45 km hike from Röstånga, passing through Söderåsen which is Skåne's largest national park and finally ending in Astorp.

We are rather nervous about the trip because 1) we haven't been trekking for some time and 2) we haven't camp in the wild in Sweden before. I have checked with my Swedish friend, no bears, tigers, lions in Skåne. Haha, I felt so much better hearing that.

The bags are packed and time to get some sleep. We have a 6.38am train to catch tomorrow!

Away from 1st to 15th July!

And finally, our summer vacation is here! It has been a crazy month for SH and he's really looking forward to a break from work. We will be visiting Austria, Czech and Slovenia. See you guys in 2 weeks' time!

VTMH: Aspö

SH and I visited Aspö today! Aspö is an island in the Blekinge archipelago of southeast Sweden and around 30 minutes ferry ride away from Karlskrona. This ferry runs hourly, free of charge, between Aspö and Karlskrona.

The island has about 460 permanent residents, with many more visitors staying in summer. Aspö kind of reminded us of Pulau Ubin, minus the hot weather and mosquitoes. Think Pulau Ubin with aircon! Haha. There are several cycling trails around the island and we decided to explore the place by bike.

The most famous attraction on the island is the Queen citadel. An exceptionally preserved fortress, it is one of Sweden's most important works from the seventeenth century. Most of the fort was built in 1680-1700, but it was not completely finished until mid-1700's. It remained unchanged and undamaged as it has never in its 300 years been attacked. Unfortunately, our camera battery died on us when we were at the castle so there aren't a lot of photos to share here. Here are the few photos we took.

And here are more photos of the island (and us) to share!

And my favourite photo of the day!

Hey friends, have a great weekend! =D

Family Cohesion Camp 2011

I'm glad that this family camp did take place eventually. During the planning phase, some expressed concerns about the cost, effort and time to put this camp together and the accommodation. It wasn't easy to please everyone in the group and the event was almost cancelled. Though some did not join us in the end, most went and had a great 3D2N together.

The chalet is 3 hours drive away from Karlskrona. I really like the place. It had an awesome sea view, large fields for the children to run about, fully equipped kitchen and a large common room for meals and indoor activities.

Day 1

SH and I spent the afternoon playing with (and babysitting) all the children outside the chalet. We gathered all the children for some games. And it was really fun for both the children and us playing games from the good old days like "老鹰抓小鸡", "What time is it, Mr Wolf?" and "Crocodile, crocodile can we cross the river?".

And dinner was awesome, because I wasn't the one preparing it! The husbands decided to give the wives a break from cooking and volunteered to prepare most of the meals. After dinner, we had a mini campfire behind the chalet. The children had fun barbecuing marshmallows and collecting twigs for the fire. For the adults, it was really relaxing sitting by the fire, listening to music and enjoying the sunset. The sun sets really slowly now. It's probably 8.30 pm when I took these photos of the campfire but look how bright it is! After wash up, some of us stayed up for KTV till 1am!

Day 2

I had dim sum for breakfast! Omg, I was just dreaming about having dim sum the other day. Two of the wives woke up early and they prepared 猪肠粉 with char siew and prawns. We bought frozen siew mai and har gao from an Asian shop. After the satisfying breakfast, we went out for some team-bonding games. Everyone was really good sport and simple games like dog and bone, pass the pingpong balls became really fun!l Even my friend who's 6 months pregnant joined in some games!

After the games, I conducted an art and craft lesson for the children. They decorated photo frames and when they are done, we inserted the group photo and they brought the frames home as mementos.

In the afternoon, the group went for a short hike at a nature park. It reminded me and SH of our ODAC days and gosh, we missed trekking!

The day ended with a BBQ and KTV session (again!) till 1am.

Two of the families are returning to SG for good in June. We are really glad we had this camp and had so much fun together. This 3D2N stay together is definitely something we will remember for the years to come!

16 hours to Amsterdam!

We are setting off to Amsterdam tomorrow night...by car! Yes, we are driving to Amsterdam with 3 other friends and it is estimated that we should reach in 16 hours with some stopovers for meals along the way. The plan is to set off at 9pm tomorrow night and hopefully we will reach Amsterdam by 1pm on Thursday.

The main attraction that we are visiting is Keukenhof, also known as the Garden of Europe. It's the tulip season now and it's the best time to visit this world's largest flower garden.

But first, wish me luck for the 16 hours on the road. I really hope I can survive that without getting too carsick. =/

Spain & Portugal 101210 - 191210

I guess it's time to blog about my Spain trip in December or I will never going do it when I gather more backlogs. =D

The reason why we  decided on Spain & Portugal: to travel south and possibly enjoy some warmth. We diligently checked the weather forecast for the cities we were visiting before our trip. Great! Day temperatures were well above 10deg celsius. But the moment we reached Barcelona, the temperature dropped quite drastically. Temperature was below 10 deg celsius in Barcelona and almost 0 deg celsius at Madrid and Lisbon. Well we didn't bring along much warm clothing and that's why I'm in my same black jacket most of the time. So much for trying to escape the cold!

We love the bustling night life of these Barcelona and Madrid. Most of the shops (except the supermarkets) in my town closed at 6pm and the streets are almost empty at night so we kind of miss walking along crowded streets and/or just being around people. The cities at the outskirts like Segovia & Sintra were more charming in our opinion. We didn't quite like the people we met in Spain though, many of them were rather arrogant and didn't speak English at all (or maybe they just refuse to speak English).

These are what I loved most from the 2 countries:

SPAIN

Row 1:

1. Catching a Flamenco performance - a Spanish native dance & music

2. La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona's most famous building & Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece. The details on the facade are stunning.

3. Casa Batllo - Another building designed by Gaudi. The attention to details (e.g varying the window size according to how high the window was to ensure uniform lighting) around the building is astonishing.

Row 2:

4. Taking a cable car across Port Olimpic for breathtaking bird's eye view of Barcelona City

5. Montjuic Castle - An old military fortress which sits on a cliff 170m high and offers magnificent views on the city and harbour

6. Palacio Real - Madrid's largest & possibly most beautiful building. The rooms in the palace are furnished with exquisite furnitures, tapestries, paintings and ceramics and they are just stunning.

Row 3:

7. Segovia Aqueduct - The symbol of Segovia city and our favorite from the whole trip. One of the greatest surviving Roman engineering works built out of granite blocks (728m long, 9m high) without any use of mortar! It carries water 18 km from the Frío River to the Segovia.

8. Alcazar - A fairytale-like castle sitting on the edge of the fortified city. It used to be one of the favorite residences of the Castillian Monarchs.

9. Dinner at Botin - Listed as the world's oldest restaurant in Guinness Book of Records (1725). The firewood oven is said to be original from the 18th century.

PORTUGAL

Row 1:

1. Eating a Portugese Tart in one of the many pastry shops in Portugal!

2. Castelo de Sao Jorge - An enchanting hilltop castle which offers panoramic view of the city.

3. Hopping on one of the traditional Lisbon tram - A great way to get about the city!

Row 2:

1. Mosteiro dos Jeronimos - This impressive monastery is located at Belem, which is around 6km away from Lisbon city centre.

2. Torre de Belem - A beautiful monument which is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is built to guard the entrance into Lisbon harbour.

3. Sintra - Around an hour train ride away from Lisbon city centre, this small town is definitely worth the visit. Surrounded by lush green countryside, Sintra used to be a popular summer retreat for the Portugese Kings.

All in all, the trip was awesome! SH and I haven't travelled since our honeymoon to Japan. And so this trip marks the start of our Europe Grand Tour which is really a dream coming true for both of us. We were planning to quit our jobs at the age of 30 to travel the world. Next destination: Eastern Europe!

Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal

Yay! Finally, there's free wifi at our hotel! Without the Internet, I was feeling rather disconnected for the past few days.

Anyway, we are at the last stop of our trip, Lisbon. More updates about the trip when I'm back in Karlskrona.

Hey how's everyone in Singapore and Karlskrona? I'm kinda feeling homesick and out of touch with everyone.

It's a long day tomorrow so time to sleep!