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
Wednesday, May 27, 2015 @ 6:32 PM 0 stares
First thing we did in the morning for our first day at Gothenburg was eat breakfast! Their powdered sugar croissant and fresh squeezed orange juice was delicious! Then we went and took some pictures of their decor (it looks far less scary in the morning). They have Christian Louboutin shoes in the hotel for decoration! (In case you're wondering why I took pictures of a random pair of heels...) Ugh, my first big girl purchase!! So far away ):
We first wandered around Gothenburg after our leisure morning. We visited the Universeum, which is also right next to Liseberg which similar to Tivoli is also an amusement park with some gardens, but since we already went to Tivoli we passed on going to Liseberg as well. We found Universeum to be quite expensive and most likely not worth the price, so we took a picture with the huge dinosaur and a robot and then just left. We visited a pavilion with a statue of Poseidon, which was cool. Like I said I enjoy Greek and Roman myth things we've been seeing here.
We then walked in one direction for a long time and then finally got to Haga which is kind of like the Gamla Stan of Gothenburg, or maybe it's just a little street of shops for the college students at Gothenburg. Gothenburg has a huge university in the middle of it so for once in Sweden we saw a lot of our age kids. We visited some pretty interesting stores, like this one store with all these cute mottos I really liked or this heart-shaped themed store. Liked those quirky little shops.
We also stopped for lunch in Haga, at a restaurant that I forgot its name... But we had a piece of salmon in butter sauce, it was seasoned pretty well, sour and sweet with the pickled vegetable bed. A combination I really like. There was also a piece of cod. It was breaded and slightly crispy on the outside. It was however, less flavorful and less tender than the salmon. It was served with a shrimp salad, which was okay, but felt too creamy for me.
Next we visited Da Matteo which is supposedly the best coffee shop in Sweden! I guess it makes the coffee shop not hipster though... too mainstream haha. Christy got a cappuccino, whereas I got a chemex of an Ethiopian bean. Overall the flavor was very sour (it was supposed to have tropical fruit notes I think, like passion fruit). The coffee was very smooth and hot! I kept kidding about how I wanted to steal their chemex since they serve it right to your table in the chemex... I'm kidding, but I'm not... I really liked the coffee! I wish they had a brew that was more sweet though, that's more up my alley... Flying Machine Rwandan... ugh I miss you. Sweds seem to enjoy really sour coffee though...
Finally we ate a very simple dinner at a place called Cafe Du Nord. Christy FINALLY ordered the famed Sweedish Meatballs! And I ordered a fillet of salmon with potatoes on the side. Food was really filling, especially with the potatoes. I enjoyed the Swedish meatballs, much better than the stuff you get at Ikea. It's much larger and softer and more flavorful. I enjoyed eating the meatballs with the sauce, the potatoes and the strawberry sauce. It was good. The salmon was good too, but nothing special, I've eaten a lot of salmon here, and it's always fresh, but this one wasn't prepared particularly in a special way.
That was pretty much it, a real chill day. We were tired to be honest from all of the travelling and it was a lot more slow paced than our day in Copenhagen. I'm pretty disappointed we didn't get to stay in Gothenburg for the night, cause I hear the nightlife scene is bumpin'. I really wanted to go to the Port du Soleil thing (it's a circus themed dance club! Reals cool and reals fun lookin') but it's only open Friday and Saturday nights and by the time I found out we couldn't return our tickets anymore. It's okay, I hear there's something similar in Portugal. Although I don't know if partying with clowns is going to scare the shit out of me...
Labels: Gothenburg
@ 4:10 PM 0 stares
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| Day pass in Copenhagen~ |
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| Small model of the central station~ |
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| Waow dat perfect lighting and photo |
First thing we did was go meet the Little Mermaid!!! :) There were hella tourists there, especially a lot of Taiwanese and Cantonese ones. It was really difficult getting a clear picture of the little mermaid ): My best picture still has some lady's head in it... sad. But Christy got some pictures with us right next to the mermaid! Yaaaay! Haha it was a nice view~ very touristy.
Afterwards we played the walk in one direction until we find other stuff to see game again. (this has been the general theme of our trip LOL, that and Yelp! or google mapping "attractions") On the way we saw a cathedral again (hella cathedrals) and a fountain of Europa and the Bull. I actually really enjoy seeing the Roman and Greek myth statues/busts after having taken CLCV 115 since I know the stories behind them! TL;DR of Europa and Bull story, Zeus is infatuated by Europa a beautiful maiden, and to avoid the prying eyes of Hera (his wife) he transforms into a bull and Europa is enchanted by the bull. He reveals his true form and rapes her after carrying her to Crete and she gets preggos and has Minos (also a bull later). It's supposed to represent the creation of the new European Union? (thus the prevalence in places not Rome/Greece?). Yup. Interesting stuff. Love myth. /nerd.
We also had a banana and nutella crepe! There were tons of stalls here, was good even though I hate banana. Love nutella, love crepe, hate banana.
At Nyhavn we decided to eat at this place called Capt. Horn it had pretty good reviews on Yelp! (my blog is slowly becoming a Yelp! worshipping shrine... LOL). We had brunch there~ I think the Sweds aren't big on brunch (they do breakfast and lunch, separately) whereas the Danish seem to be! They had a brunch combo platter composed of a slice of watermelon, a salad, a wedge of cheese, eggs and sausage, some yogurt with raisins and granola, and some smoked salmon with sour cream. Actually a really interesting composition. We mistakenly heard that there were pancakes so we were confused when they didn't come. I think the maple syrup was supposed to either be eaten with sausage or yogurt? Not sure. I ate it with the yogurt though. Was good. Salmon was good too, salmon always fresh in Europe yay! Not a fan of the sour cream so I scraped it off. Sausages good, eggs good. Did not like the cheese... never a fan of cheese. It was really dry. I have child taste buds so I like pretty much only particularly like Gouda or Munster cheese.
The real MVP of this meal though was the cappuccino! At first we got the latte and I finished it all before the brunch platter even came, and since I saw the cappuccino on the chalkboard after the fact I decided to order it~ It comes embellished with a line of chocolate shavings... yum. Was real good, the latte was just good, but the cappuccino was wonderful! And when you're in Europe pretty much standards on coffee are heightened. I think I'll have withdrawal once I get back to the US :'( Need Flying Machine everyday to even compare...
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| Ayyy, there's Taipei 101. REPPIN' |
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| Harry Potter :D |
Next we went to the World Guinness Record Museum I actually have a question... Is that the beer company? Kinda like how Michelin does the tires and the Michelin stars? Anyway, I digress. I think there should be ones elsewhere not just Sweden, but we saw it and it was interesting and very interactive anyway. What sold us was when we went in there was this moving statue (of the tallest man in the world) I was terrified when it stood up by itself. It's shocking how tall he was. He's just under 9ft. Imagine living like that, life is so inconvenient. Heaviest guy in the world 1400 lbs, smallest waist in the world... something like 15 inch waist... terrifying. To put that into perspective the smallest sold pants in a normal store is like 22 inch... There were some other interesting records too but those were the only ones I remember.
We also visited a horror museum after it. Don't have any pictures from it though :( sad. I don't think it was meant to be as scary as we found it to be. But we like legitimately screamed a couple of times (actually we screamed in the World Guinness Record Museum too when the snakes in the jungle portion randomly rattled as we walked over it... so scary). But things in the horror museum like randomly move and make loud noises. Do not like. S'okay was fun though haha.
Next we visited the Church of Our Savior it was really quiet and melancholic. They have this organ structure on the wall that constantly plays a song. We just sat and rested and took it all in (at this point we've walked a crazy amount). It was a nice stop~ The detail was gorgeous.
Then we visited the Queen's Palace more specifically her winter palace I believe. Saw a bust of her majesty on a horse. Saw a nice fountain and saw the palace guards change shifts! Was fun :) Hahaha I think they must've thought we were so silly when we kept trying to take pics with them, but like... they can't interact with us. Hahaha. Must be such a tiring job...
Finally we visited Tivoli Gardens which was highly recommended by the little tour guide lady we met on the train ride to Copenhagen yesterday. Tivoli was primarily an amusement park for children/adults of all ages, but to go on the rides you have to pay extra money so we decided to mainly just go look at the gardens. There were some other interesting things to see as well such as a fake "Chinatown", Peacock theater, various specialty stores.
However, my favorite thing in Tivoli was ice cream at Vaffelbageriet which is rated the #9 best ice cream in the world! :) Yum~ What a treat. I got the strawberry soft serve (even though it was white and not pink - Europeans don't believe in food coloring...) covered with chocolate powder (they call it sprinkles). The soft serve was so soft and delicious~ Definitely one of the best ice creams I've ever eaten! So worth!
Finally after Tivoli, we ate a quick dinner at a Thai place because the ramen place we had wanted to go to was closed ):. Then we made our way to Gothenburg. It was raining and late when we arrived so we just went to our hotel at Hotel Pigalle. My first impression of it was that it reminded me of a murder hotel. I felt as though I'd step in the shower and be murdered by a H.H Holmes... never to be seen again...
Labels: Copenhagen, Gothenburg