Took a morning 8.50am flight this morning with MAS Airline. Was at the airport as early as 6am. you've got to give it to my dad for saying "It is never bad to be earlier and more careful". Since there were sometime before boarding, the dad decided to give us a treat at the Eden Restaurant for nice dim sum breakfast. Somehow halal dim sum just don't taste right after all.
But you know what, after this meal, it then turned up to be that we have not eaten a long long time out in a nice restaurant during our trip here. I was foreseeing that coming, where by loads and loads of "homecooked" food in the hostel every night you know.And then yada yada yada for 12 hours flight, mostly just past with me sleeping like a log in the plane, waking up occassionally for in flight food that I no longer able to recall, then we finally see something interesting through the plane window outside!
Aww... Good morning Stockholm!
For this trip, my father and I was like preparing almost every details, up till practicing Swedish language on a CD and printing regularly used phrases. I was quite afraid that we might eventually get into trouble since we cannot understand the language here.
I guess that was just us worrying too much, as the moment we touched down at Arlanda airport we found everyone speak fluent American English almost everywhere! We never had to worry for once how to ask for direction, information since our first encounter with the helpful staffs at the information counter.
Before we came here, I did an extensive search around on the net where to stay around in Stockholm. Eventually we managed to check ourselves into this nice cozy little hostel right smack in the middle of Gamla Stan (Old Town), known as Castenea Old Town Hostel. What's better than this when the Swedish Royal Palace is your neighbour? Har har har!
Everything is too small in European countries, eventhough their people seemed to be so big size with loads of cheese feeding. That is why it becomes a headache when we to travel with so many bags and be squeezed into small lifts (since the 1900 era), tiny staircase, rooms.
But it is all fine, because for the beautiful Gamla Stan, I am willing to put up with all sort of inconviniences for now.
This small little courtyard right outside our window seemed to be one of those romantic spots, always seeing a lot of lovey durvey couples here.
Dinner was quite pathetic, as we didn't have enough time to prepare. Castenea really look like a IKEA showroom, everything here has clean sleek lines, therefore even the kitchen are all stuffs with pots pans cutlery from IKEA too.
Even the double bed bunkers are from IKEA, which brought the attention that after sleeping too many nights on IKEA beds at various hostels throughout our trip, I have decided that IKEA's furniture is really too flimsy and hideous to my taste. Eventually I started to miss my bed of, hmm... 10 years back in SS2 after many days being away from it.
Coming back to the dinner, we managed to look around at the Coop round the corner for supplies, GOSH! Two bananas for USD2, bags of chips for USD3.50, a can of sardine for USD4. And for that, we decided to buy neccessities like bread and milk while we continue to survey a bit more.
It was nice to walk around the Gamla Stan a night too! Located on a small island, all the old buildings are well perserved here and away from the hectic business district.
Also a lot here are fancy dining restaurant. Consist of cramped tables and stool like chair, with people purposefully dress up to get pushed around at the corner, with warm candelights and wines, then they eat up a fortune (litterally, try USD100 for a piece of steak, wine and appetizer, and GST not included yet)
Phew... I am going to get some rest after this long long day. Forget bad beds, just gonna rest.
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