My Journey to see the Northern Lights

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

London, England 28/10/2011 - 30/10/2011

London, England

The flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The flag of England which is part of the United Kingdom

London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. It is located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile medieval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core.

London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence.It is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world.

In July 2010 London's metropolitan area is the largest in the EU with an estimated total population of between 12 millionand 14 million.

London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory marks the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) and GMT). Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus,30 St Mary Axe ("The Gherkin"), St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium.

On this trip I went to several of this World Heritage Sites. I will give a more detailed description of each later.

London is home to numerous museums, galleries, libraries, sporting events and other cultural institutions, including the British Museum, National Gallery, British Library, Wimbledon and 40 theatres. London's Chinatown is the largest in Europe. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world and the second-most extensive (after the Shanghai Metro).

I will write about my experience at the National Gallery and Chinatown. As you will learn later, the London Underground played a crucial role in our trip.

Brussels, Belgium 21/10/2011 - 23/10/2011

Brussels, Belgium (or Bruxelles in French)

Brussels (Bruxelles in French) is the capital of Belgium and hosts the headquarters of the European Union (EU). The metropolitan area has a population of over 1.8 million, making it the largest in Belgium.

Since the end of WWII, Brussels has been a main centre for international politics. Brussels is the home of principal EU institutionsas well as the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Although historically Dutch-speaking, Brussels became increasingly French-speaking over the 19th and 20th centuries. Today a majority of inhabitants are native French-speakers, and both languages have official status.

Dublin, Ireland 14/10/2011 - 16/10/2011

Dublin, Ireland!

Politically, Ireland is divided into the Republic of Ireland, which covers just under five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, the remaining part of Ireland. The population of Ireland is approximately 6.4 million.

In addition, Ireland uses Euros instead of Pounds. Interesting huh? I always thought they used pounds.

Monday, 17 October 2011

Stockholm, Sweden 30/09/2011 - 02/10/2011

Stockholm Sweden!

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden. Stockholm has a population of about 4.32 million people. Sweden has both a parliament and monarchy.

Our journey to Stockholm begins in Bergen where we took the train to Oslo S and then from Oslo S to Stockholm C. (green line)

Our journey was a distance of more than 1,000km.

Stockholm Sights

City Hall

Stockholm City Hall (Swedish: Stadshuset) is the building of the Municipal Council for the City of Stockholm. It is the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet. (The Nobel Prize is given out in Oslo)

source: http://www.cvent.com/en/destination-guide/stockholm/images-historic-venues-01.shtml

Royal Palace
The Stockholm Palace (Swedish: Kungliga slottet) is the official residence and royal palace of the Swedish monarch. The private residence of the royal family is Drottningholm Palace. The Palace is located on Stadsholmen (City Island) in Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm.

The offices of King Carl XVI Gustaf and other members of the Swedish Royal Family as well as the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located here. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst he performs his royal duties as the head of state.

Palace Guards...

Changing of Guards

Military Band!

There was this soldier playing the saxophone! He was really good and they didn't just play military music. They played hip hop and jazz as well. =)

Gamla Stan (Old Town)

The Old Town is here the Royal Palace. It has a certain rusty charm to it. Quiet and peaceful place. There are lots of people drinking coffee and having pastries in the cafes lining the streets.

Vasa Museum

The Vasa Museum (Swedish: Vasamuseet) is a maritime museum in Stockholm. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century warship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa sank because the base of the ship was not wide and deep enough to hold enough ballast (rocks that weighs the ship down). As a result, the ship tipped over to her side and sank. She was eventually salvaged and preserved and moved to her current home, the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. (for more info please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship))

I loved the Vasa Museum! It was fascinating and enriching. I learnt lots about ship building, engineering, ancient Sweden people and Swedish history. The museum is like one big classroom with knowledge waiting to be discovered. The process of preserving the ship intrigued me the most. =) The museum was 7 storeys high including a basement. You can just imagine how huge this prehistoric ship is. It was unfortunate that they don't let anyone on board the actual ship. I would have liked to explore the ship's interior.

The Vasa Museum from across the harbor.

The Vasa Museum...

And... Finally... The VASA!!!

That's pretty much the end of my Swedish adventure... And a long train ride back to Bergen...

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Oktoberfest & the Loch Ness Monster! 20/09/2011-25/09/2011

As you would have probably guessed from the title that there were two destinations in this journey; Germany & Scotland. Let me begin by summarizing our entire journey then I will describe each part in greater detail.

Itinerary

Map View

Train from Bergen to Oslo S
That was the first time that I was taking a train in Norway. The train was really nice. Much better than the Malaysia trains that we are so familiar with. It was spacious, clean and even had a dining car. Before we boarded the train, we peeked into a 1st class cabin and it was awesome! The cabins have 2 beds inside and a personal wash basin to freshen up. Despite the longer journey, I prefer taking the train to airplanes. (I blogged this in real time on the train. Yes! it has free wifi!)

By the way, they allow dogs on board! There was a dog in the seat in front of me. The dog belonged to a crazy guy. I think he was drunk or on drugs. Anyways, the conductor told him to move to another cabin, he didn't have a ticket and had to purchase one on board (i heard thats really expensive).

Train from Oslo to Rygge
We reached Oslo S in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It was really cold... We waited for a connecting train from Oslo S to Rygge station. Rygge station is near Rygge airport which is the small airport that Ryanair operates out of. The train from Oslo to Rygge is somewhat different from the train from Bergen to Oslo. It looked like a bullet train and the interior looks more elegant. It had red cushion seat and wooden tables.

Next we took a 5mins bus ride from Rygge station to Moss Airport in Rygge. The bus ride was included in the train ticket.

Rygge Airport
It was a small budget airport with 2 airlines operating out of it. Norwegian Airlines and Ryanair. It had free wifi though. And it's very good for a budget airport. It has a few cafes, shops, DFS and its full air-conditioned.

Ryanair

We had to walk down a flight of stairs and out of the terminal building, onto the tarmac and up the plane!

Despite lots of horror stories about flying with Ryanair, my experience thus far have be satisfying. For the price, I wouldn't expect great service. Hence their minimal service met my expectations. And I was really impressed by their marketing and sales effort. When you operate a budget carrier and sell tickets at such low prices, you have to find all possible ways to get other sources of revenue. Ryanair does it very well. Firstly, from check-in, to boarding to the interior, they use their corporate colours; blue and yellow. I would instantly associate these two colours with Ryanair. Next, their luggage compartments had advertisements. These were mostly from the various countries' tourism boards. Thirdly, they sold all kinds of items on board the plane. From food, drinks, smokeless cigarettes (ingenious, all their flights were non-smoking), lottery scratch cards (some money goes to children's charity) and International calling cards. Finally, after landing, they would play a recording flaunting their reputation as the cheapest and most on-time carrier in Europe. When the budget airline industry is this competitive, you have to do anything and everything to survive. Ryanair has done it well and that's probably why they are the number 1 budget carrier in Europe.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind taking budget carriers in the future. They are cheap and fuss free. However, I doubt that I would take budget carriers for long haul flights. The seats are far too cramp for long distance travel and I can't imagine paying for all my meals on board. No to mention free seating. You might be seating beside some annoying person throughout the flight.

Memmingen Airport

There are two words that can fully describe Memmingen Airport in West Munich. Small & Smelly. Its really a very small airport. We alighted from the plane, walked into the terminal and out into the arrival hall. It was also really smelly. I have a hunch that it's because the airport is surrounded by farms. It smelt of cow dung. We took a bus from the airport to the city centre.

Munich - Germany

Oktoberfest!
It was awesome! I will let the photos speak for themselves!

Oktoberfest Hats!

Drinking with Yin Hao!

We tried two brands of beer.

1. Hacker-Pschorr

And 2. Augustiner

Personal preference: no. 1

Pork Knuckles! It was Delicious...

Just a point to note. Pork Knuckles is special to the Bavaria region in Germany (Munich) not the the rest of Germany. Some of my German friends have never heard of pork knuckles before. Hahaha... And they have never been to oktoberfest!

Next up... We had Curry wurst (German sausage with curry sauce). Well... I didn't really like it. The sauce was mainly tomato sauce with a sprinkle of curry... hahaha... no at all as I expected it to be. But it was worth a try.

Chocolate coated apples... Yumm... And healthy too!

More beer pictures...

Sight-Seeing

1. München Hauptbahnhof (Munich Central train station)

2. Rathaus (the new town hall)

Built from 1867 - 1909 in Flanders Gothic style this is one of the most famous buidlings in Munich; its facade, over 300 feet in length, features strikingly elaborate stone ornamentation. Its 260-foot tower with carillon is, with St. Peter's Church and the twin towers of the Cathedral, one of the most distinctive features of the city's skyline.