Sunday, May 31, 2015 @ 1:22 PM 0 stares
So I combined day 6 and day 7 because it is test day and travel day so not much happened. Test day first thing in the morning we decided that we missed Asian food so we headed off to have some Japanese food. Christy got a beef dish with rice, whereas I got a large serving of sushi. The salmon was fresh, but the roll was just okay. The shrimp was good too, the beef dish however was a little bit overly sauce-y and salty.
Then for most of the day we chilled at ilcaffe for most of the day, we were mainly tired from travelling and decided to study for a bit before the exam at night. We had their cappuccino and latte, which were pretty good. Actually most of the cafes in Europe are pretty great in general. We watched the barista do latte art and I'm determined to do it during my work at Starbucks during when it's not busy!!
After the exam at night in our hotel lobby (which was super chill), we decided we were super hungry because we ditched dinner because too much caffeine, so we had a late dinner in the Italian restaurant called Tutto Bello. We had a shrimp risotto and a Italian pepperoni pizza, the shrimp risotto was just enough sour from the tomato sauce, and the shrimp was good, the rice was just right. I also liked the arugula on the top of it. The pizza was really interesting in that it was so thin that it was actually really flimsy. TIL: Italian people eat pizza with knife and fork. No thanks, I'm a savage. I tried eating it with my hands, but it was extremely floppy. I actually ceded in my last slice and just ate with silverware. The struggle was real. The tomato sauce was really good though and the pizza itself. But I'm about that super deep-dish, thick, square-cut Chicago pizza life.
Afterward we went to the bar and met up with Betty's Delta Sigma Pi brothers. It was pretty chill since it wasn't a weekend, probably a bit too chill which is the European way in a lot of bars (or maybe cause they keep going to bars with an older crowd). There I had an appletini that's not pictured (did I forget to take picture or accidentally delete, dunno). But there was all this cinnamon on it, not a fan, the appletini itself was good though, but I just hate cinnamon. Other people said it was good and like an apple pie though. Reason why I ordered it was cause it was called "apeltini ORGASM" I thought it'd come with a fun condom or something. (Lol yes, the important things in life LOL) Next the other girls got what I'm just gonna call a yellow European fishbowl (yes I know it's not blue so it defeats the purpose). It tasted a lot like orange juice was pretty good in my opinion and was served in a mason jar (yay cute! again the important things in life LOL~)
We went to the famed muffin place that the other girls had been going to I got fresh squeezed orange juice and a cheesecake brownie... Omg so freaking good, but so freaking sweet so I could only eat half. The brownie muffin had fudge inside and was so chocolate-y and good, wish it had more cheese cake though. I also ate the muffin thing with pudding inside from the coffee shop yesterday for pre-breakfast snack.
It was travel day so we left around 4 pm and had a pretty interesting run in at the airport. Something I learned, so the show of individualistic and collectivism culture really showed. In the airport, one of our fellow travelers had an overweight luggage and so we said to ask this other person if they would be so kind since their luggage was under 9kg (10 kg is the max for carry on, and 20 kg is max for check in luggage) to have it as carry on, the person that had the overweight luggage even offered to carry it for her if it was a bother.
As people who travel know, carry on is actually more safe than check in luggage, and in general I think it is important to help others in general if you can. If in the scenario that we had wanted the overweight luggage traveler would just move some luggage into the other luggage whereas in the situation that actually happened they had to move a lot of luggage into other people's carry-ons and it was difficult to spread their stuff out in everyone's luggage. Just shows the difference between western and eastern culture. Not saying which one is better... but that's for you guys to decide. (note: one of the people that offered to carry more luggage though was of western culture as well though, so it's not everyone I guess it's just the other person is young? Grew up in individualistic society? Who knows. Anyways a learning point that was pretty important to my thoughts).
When we landed in Oslo we had this super overpriced bacon hot dog. (Stuff in Norway hella expensive, even more expensive than Stockholm that I keep complaining about) I had it with fried onions and potato salad since that's how the local people suggested I eat it. I also had chili ketchup. Was pretty good, it felt like a heart attack though. My favorite type of feeling when it comes to food LOL. Finally we landed in Munich~ Yaaay! Leg 2 of 3!!! Lower prices here we come~
Labels: Munich, Stockholm, Travel day
Monday, May 25, 2015 @ 5:44 PM 0 stares
And there they are. Day 3 was the last day of class in Stockholm and our first day trip to Copenhagen! Class ended relatively early at 12 pm and my whole class had 4 pm tickets to Copenhagen we had a bit of time so we decided to pass some time before leaving. Originally we were going to go to Vasa Museum but decided transit would take too long and didn't want to risk missing the train. Instead we went to a farmer's market outdoors next to a seafood market. And at every stall there were these tiny strawberries (and big ones too!). They were super sweet~
We then went down to the seafood market~ There were so many types of seafood there and it was extremely fresh! There were so many types of fish, shrimp, lobster, crab - you name it, they have it! We decided to eat lunch there. We ate raw oyster! 6 for 95 kroner (that's like... a little under 12 dollars :D What steal~~~) We also had 3 tapas, a cold smoked salmon, tuna tataki and a quiche-esque tart thing. Was pretty good! I really enjoyed the oyster~ We also had some raw scallop, but it's not pictured here because we had it as take out.
Next we had afternoon tea/ dessert at this place we had passed by earlier that morning called Vete-Katten. I had a latte with a dome with mousse on it and Christy had a cappuccino and some sort of I think Turkish (?) dessert. Both were pretty good, but nothing spectacular, kind of too sweet for my taste. The decor was pretty, but food was lackluster.
We then wandered around some more to pass time, visited some type of cathedral (hella cathedrals here in Europe. That and palaces...) Went to a shopping district and saw a little boy dancing Michael Jackson (so cute!). Then went to the train station and bought this really strange ice cream... Lemon & Cola. Not a bad mix, but froze my teeth and gave me lasting brain freeze. Fun fact: Out of all the ice creams in the entire store somehow me and a classmate bought the exact same one without knowing... Telepathy OP.
Got there pretty late at night, but apparently restaurants in Copenhagen open much later than restaurants in Stockholm (it's like extremely difficult to even eat after 8:30/9 pm in Stockholm...) On the train ride there we got a mini tour on the train from this nice old lady that travels to Denmark often to bring people on tours. Apparently Copenhagen is like the half way point between Amsterdam and Stockholm in location as well as culture. The west (?) side of the train station, the further that direction you go the more shady it is. Lots of druggies and pornographic stuff. I mean... I did look up this club that parties in a prison... Wat. But we walked to a nice restaurant we looked up earlier called Tight.
And voila! Here's the food! We started off with two drinks, Tight's Frozen Cocktail and the Australian Side Crash. I forgot to mention, but Tight was a really interesting restaurant! It's an Australian, Danish and Canadian restaurant. Literally the most random countries ever...? But I guess it was pretty interesting because there was so much variety~ Anyway, back to the cocktails. The frozen cocktail was interesting, kinda like a slushy - peach flavored and the rum taste was pretty strong. Was good though, the cocktails there had a decent amount of alcohol content so we got what we paid for essentially. The Australian Side Crash was a nice surprise! Some dark rum, lychee liqueur (forever convinced this is my love) and some ginger beer. Was relatively light (but again you could taste that it had good alcohol) and fresh tasting. Really liked the aftertaste as well - just barely sweet.
Next we got Charcoal Bread came free with the meal. Yum, delicious butter and a delicious bun even without the butter. Super soft and interesting! And we also had a Mussels in some typa Wine Sauce for appetizer. Wasn't a huge fan of the bread with mayonnaise that came with it, but the wine sauce/ wine sauce soup was delicious, drank it all up after eating the mussels. Not as fresh or good quality as the mussels we ate in the seafood soup from yesterday - but maybe it was just cooked differently so they shrank (?).
Our two entrees were the Surf n' Turf (haha I get it! Prawns and steak! So in the water and in the turfffff... like land! You get it? Sorry. I thought it was hilarious...) and the Tight Burger both were highly recommended on Yelp! (shameless plug, cause in Yelp! we trust....). Wasn't a huge fan of the burger to be honest. It was a big heavy and there was just way too much cheese... The Europeans must really like their dairy - much to my discontent :(. Make things lactose intolerant friendly please! I enjoyed the Surf n' Turf a lot though. I enjoyed the potatoes on the side too, soft and mushy and well seasoned~ but still very potato-y as well. I liked the prawn although there was literally only 2, well grilled. The steak was good too, I wish we asked for it medium rare though because mine was okay but the piece Christy had was a little overcooked from how we like it.
Finally we had an Australian dessert. I completely forgot what it was called, but I remember we were debating between the Canadian and Australian one... but the Australian one sounded more fresh and less heavy (we were still both recovering from the Tight Burger...). Oh it's the Pavlova. I don't eat kiwi and Christy doesn't eat strawberry so we traded (yay we're super cute!). I really liked the crumble and ate it by sticking it on my spoon with the raspberry sauce... LOL inventive way to eat it. I don't actually exactly remember what the cake part of the desert tasted like, I don't think it was too sweet. It was good but not really memorable I guess. The crumble though, was good.
After dinner we passed by an ongoing festival of some sort on our way to our hotel. There were performances going on as well as some street food stalls and of course beer! We stayed briefly to watch the performances and asked a bartender what festival it was, but she struggled to explain what it was, and I already forget what she called the festival... However this comes back to bite us in the butt... which you will hear about later tomorrow. Then finally we end up at our hotel! And we just pass out. Lol. Travelling is exhausting guys... I'm so many train rides in and my back feels like it'll die from backpacking (which means you just bring your life around in a backpack everywhere...) It sounds like that'd be something I'm good at considering that's my life in college... But in Europe "nomadic life" consists of bringing a lot more than just a toothbrush everywhere.
My back... pls.
Labels: Copenhagen, Stockholm
Sunday, May 24, 2015 @ 5:34 PM 0 stares
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| Since we don't have a picture yet this is my travelling mate, Christy~ |
So day 2 was seemingly uneventful, I'm actually still terribly jetlagged, so after class yesterday (we have class everyday from 9 am to 1 pm) we involuntarily passed out till 4 pm. Wouldn't be a problem except that everything in Stockholm starts closing at like 6 or 7 pm. It's like even earlier than Champaign in terms of all the normal stores (bars here go till 4 to 5 am WOO~)
Finally bought lactose pills! Now I don't have to die cause everything here in Europe has whole milk. I don't even know if it's effective enough... After that we walked in one direction for a very long time, where we saw the pavilion pictured and then somehow randomly visited Gamla Stan (Old Town) without meaning to. The town was very quaint and had a lot of little shops that were fun to visit. Apparently lots of good food, and lots of souvenir stores.
We walked through Gamla Stan to the neighboring town to a photography exhibit/ museum called Fotograficka. We originally wanted to eat at the restaurant in it, but it was super packed because there was an event/conference going on and the restaurant was fully booked for the night! :( Sad.
At least we got to see a great view of the city from the other side of the river~ Worth the walk? Not sure. (We also walked up many flights of stairs for this view, so tiring).
We ended up eating at a random restaurant in the town by the sea, we missed lunch so we figured to eat even BETTER for dinner. We ordered a Swedish Ale and a darker German (?) brew that the server suggested. They were both pretty good, very smooth. I'm not exactly a beer person (even though I should sooner or later develop adult taste buds) but I actually really liked the after taste of the Swedish Ale, not sure how to describe it. Maybe nutty?
We also ordered a Seafood Soup with Prawns and Mussels it's actually pretty much the same dish we had the day prior (on accident). The other one was called "casserole" but ended up being soup. Much confusion. But... this one was so much better. The mussels were really large and tasted extremely fresh. The salmon was soft and tasteful. And there was a jumbo shrimp in the soup that was so unbelievably sweet. I didn't like that there was a cream in the soup (not huge on cream in general because as aforementioned I'm lactose intolerant). The soup base otherwise without the cream mixed in was good though.
Next we had a Beef Cheek Poultine really good, really tender. The sauce tasted like some sort of red wine sauce. The flavor was complex and the beef basically broke apart without even using a knife. Melt in your mouth good. Yum. Not pictured was a tray of mash potatoes, also good, ate a lot of it with the sauce. Potatoes in Sweden are so good... They always taste like actual potato. But sometimes there's kind of too much of it. Sides of potatoes with every dish. (There was potatoes in the soup too lol.)
Finally we had a Chocolate Cake in caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. Really basic and traditional, but pretty good! I liked it all. I had it also with a latte, it was quite light. So far the best coffee I've had was the first day we randomly happened upon to duck out of the rain. Best coffee yet and it's actually currently Day 4 (sorry for being so behind guys... but rarely ever have internet). Been passing out without much time at night. It's so tiring! But rather rewarding :) If you guys ever have the chance definitely visit Europe! It's so quaint and if you're a coffee addict like me... you could almost live here forever... just for the coffee. Yumyum~
Labels: Stockholm