Next Stop... Stockholm!

My first trip out of London!

Yep, you read right, 6:05am was our flight! I had to wake up at 2am to get ready! I must admit, although you have to get up at a ridiculous hour, it did mean that you had a lot more time to explore once you arrived - rather than getting there mid afternoon and wasting a day.

My travelling buddies - trying to look somewhat awake!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Welcome to Stockholm

From above, I could see these yellow patches and wondered what they could be...

As we rode the bus shuttle into town we passed...

... a field of rapeseed?

I'm not actually sure and I never remembered to ask anyone. So if someone does know what flowers they are, please let me know! :)

Toto, we're not in London anymore...
This is Stockholm's pesdestrian crossing button (is there a name for it?). You didn't actually have to press it but it was more like a sensor. When you put your finger close to the dot it would beep. I was very fascinated by it that I tried to activate as many as I could while I was there! haha.

The entrance to Old Town

Our first meal: Salad and salami roll... with strawberries?

Ham and cheese quiche with salad.

They seem to always add a piece of fruit with your meal which I think is great!

In the streets, a man plays music using wine glasses. He was so good!

You could buy your ice cream and watch your waffle cone being made!

My artistic shot of the alley ways. I love the cobblestone!

Magnificent views of Stockholm

Big Ben's cousin :)

They had a lot of these old drinking fountains scattered around

Found this in one of the alleyways... so cute!

What better way to explore Stockholm than on bikes!

The hostel had bikes for hire and seeing as we had such beautiful weather, we couldn't pass up the opportunity!

Dinner was at Tennstopet where we ate traditional Swedish food :) (see photos below).

They were very big on herring. Can't remember what these three starters were but I know all three had herring in them and surprisingly tasted amazing!

Swedish hash - a dish usually made from leftover roast dinner. Ingredients include potato, meat, onions, usually an egg (cooked or raw) on top, served with a side of pickled beetroot.

Salmon - nothing special

I had the famous Swedish meatballs. They were nice, again nothing special, a little salty. Actually, all their foods were a little salty. Lucky for me, I had the little red berries are called lingonberries to balance the taste. Similar to cranberries, the lingonberries are smaller and juicier. It's a common ingredient in Scandinavian dishes.

Dessert - rhubarb pie... disappointment :(

Day 1 complete.

Stay tuned for more photos when I get them off Wern Yi. My camera died halfway through day 2 :(

Catch Up In London

As we get older, we seem to get busier. But coming over here and having to build my own support network again really shows how important it is to make time for friends. So I'm trying to make more of an effort to catch up with people... even if that means meeting up with them in another country!

Travis and his lovely girlfriend, Sandy, took time out of their busy Europe trip to meet up with me for breakfast. It's been nearly three years, or more, since my dear kindergarten friend and I have seen each other but it was just like old old times. Travis is, and always has been, such an easy person to get along with and this morning's catch up proved he hadn't changed. As well as getting to know Sandy and realising we have a lot in common (such as needing to plan out important 'hair care' time when travelling) the three of us discussed and laughed over family, work and important future plans that just proved how fast we are all growing up.

Travis & Sandy: Thanks for a great day! Have a safe trip back home... remember to send back my shoes :)

Our day continued with a walk up and down Oxford Street, including going into all three Zara stores to find a pair of shoes Sandy recommended but was unsuccessful, and then onto a visit to an English pub to watch the nail biting soccer match between Australia and Ghana.

I've never watched a whole professional soccer match in my entire life, but out of the two I have watched, this definitely made me change my mind about 'boring' soccer. There were at least three times in today's game where Australia could have scored but we just couldn't get that ball into the net. I was squealing, screaming when it was so close. I was aw-ing, and ah-ing when we lost control of the ball. I jumped up and down whenever the ball got near the oppositions net, somehow thinking that my jumping would stop the ball from going in. I buried my head in my hands when Australia demonstrated sloppy passes or handed the ball to Ghana. I got angry when one of the good looking Australian players got a red card, not because I actually knew the reason of why he got the red card but judging from the reactions of everyone else in the pub, I knew it was unfair.

If soccer was this exciting all the time, I'd definitely be in the pubs more often! Bring on Australia vs Serbia! :D

London BBQ

As soon as the sun is out, Londeners bring out the shorts, mini skirts, singlets and sandles... even if it's only 17 degrees!

But lately the weather has been warming up with the temperature in the mid 20's which is great for BBQ's! But who would bother to buy a barbeque when it is only appropriate for 3-4months of the year? Well someone cleaverly designed the...

... instant barbeque! :)

Our starters while we waited for Jake to start the barbeque.

Step 1: Remove outer packaging and light paper

Step 2: Wait for paper to burn leaving heat beads visible

Step 3: Burn for another 20mins

Step 4: Place meat on barbeque and leave to cook :)

The only problem with it was that it only burns for about an hour and a half so you can't cook a lot of food, otherwise you'll end up doing what we did and cook the rest of the food in the oven.

Anderson Tours

Anderson Tours are great for day trips around England. It's reasonably priced and although they squeeze a lot in and therefore don't have much time to explore, it gives you a taste of what is outside London. It's also fairly easy to get there by yourself later if you want to visit again.

Our tour started off with Oxford, famous for Oxford University

Martyr's Memorial:

commemorates three bishops who were burned at the stake for being found guilty of heresay.

Mum loves these olden, timbered, black and white, shakespearean buildings.

If you walk down Broad Street you can see the cross on the ground that marks the spot of where the bishops were executed.

Balliol College, one of thirty eight colleges part of Oxford University

Sheldonian Theatre:

Can you see the interesting stone heads of Roman emperors surrounding it?

If you stand here during exam results time, you can here the students screaming with joy... or crying with sadness.

A secret pub that only locals know about... well not anymore!

For the next part of our tour, I was disappointed that I wasn't more of a Harry Potter fan as we got to visit...

... Christ Church College or better known as Hogwarts! :)

Hogwarts dining hall

But Harry Potter isn't the only famous icon at Christ Church.

A girl called Alice Liddel also attended this college. Charles Dodgson, a keen writer and mathematician who taught at the college became close friends with the Liddel family. He often took Alice and her siblings out on outings. Dodgson would often tell them stories that he had written and Alice loved them so much that he asked him to write down one particular story that Dodgson called 'Alice's Adventures Underground'. Can you guess who Charles Dodgson is better known as? :)

Can you spot the secret door that was the inspiration of the small door in 'Alice in Wonderland'?

Tom Quad Tower: largest quadrangle in all of Oxford's colleges

'Look at me!'

On to Shakespeare's birth place: Straford-Upon-Avon.

Shakespeare's house:

Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures inside the house but they had the rooms set up for you to explore. You learnt about what Shakespeare's dad did for a living, when famous writers like Charles Dickens visited, and where sayings such as 'Good night, sleep tight' came about.

This was our landmark for meeting up with the rest of the tour group.

And I liked this quote below it :)

Part 3 of the tour and so far my favourite place in all of England:

The Cotswold region!

This is where I would like to retire. These photos don't do it justice. I high recommend you visit the Cotswold region if you're in the UK. :)

Quaint cottages: my future home

This photo is of my new, but now lost, friend who I met on the tour. She's a teacher as well, from South Africa. She was lovely and great to talk to about 'teacher stuff'. I wrote down her name to add her to facebook but there are too many names that are similar :( She was going to be my travel buddy too! :(

A Famous Old Mill?

Our tour ended with traditional afternoon tea: Cream Tea (scones and tea)