M & D’s Blog

I went to Helsingborg with my friend Mint on Saturday, 8/27/05. We took a train leaving from Lund in the morning, and it only took us about 30 or 40 min to get there. As you can see from one of the pictures, the Swedish city is very close to the Danish city. We went to the culture museum, the Karnan Tower, and the Sofiero Castle.

We got ripped off at the Sofiero Castle, totally not our fault. On the day we went to visit the castle, there was a “Garden Festival”, so visitors have to pay 100 kronas to get in (usually it’s 60 skr). However, the so call “Garden Festival” is basically a bunch of flowers/plants/food vendors setting up booths all over the property which the castle is on, and try to sell you stuff. As you can see from the pictures, the natural view of the castle is somewhat polluted by all these white booths around it. I can’t believe the management actually make the visitors pay more to get into the castle property, so the vendors can try to sell the visitors more stuff. Swedish logic…doesn’t make sense.

Anyway, after the castle, we went to the downtown area and found this little store named “China Town”. Mint and I went into the store, and found all kinds of goodies at a very reasonable price (see picture of me in the store). The Karnan Tower is the only remaining building from the Danish-Swedish war period (so I was told). The tower itself looks like a big rectangular brown box (please excuse my lack of architectural sense/genes), but it sits on top of the city with a very pretty park next to it. The park next to the tower had a great view of Helsingborg and the Sound between Sweden and Denmark. We rested in the park for a while and listened to some elderly intoxicated Swedes singing some kind of celebration song.

To conclude our trip, we also visited the cultural museum, which really wasn’t that exciting. We didn’t really see anyone in the museum, it was very empty, and it was so quiet that it almost seemed a little scary. We left the city at around 5 p.m. to join some other friends for dinner, and I didn’t go to bed until 3 or 4 in the morning. I wasn’t drunk, but can’t really remember what happened.

I’m writing this because michelle is complaining that i’m not writing anything. I’ve been doing all the hard work of making this page work and listening to michelle complaining that it doesn’t make sense the way works.

Here’s a picture I drew. Look how good I am at drawing! My friend says it should be in a museum.

Man, no one told me it rains in Sweden!!! The weather was absolutely beautiful in the first week. However, most unfortunately, it started to rained today. According to the Swedes, the rain marks the end of summer time. This, truly saddens my heart. It’s going to rain for a couple more days according to the weather forcast, and I’ll try to take more pictures when the weather gets better.

Also, I just saw Alyssa’s blog, and I’m now totally pissed off about all the good deals she’s getting. But that’s ok, I’m with the hot Swedes, she’s not. This is pretty much the only way I can comfort myself at this point. Also, I have pictures of funny people, and you don’t, Alyssa.

I’ve been biking everyday, and my butt is getting togher and tougher as the day goes by.

It has almost been a week since my arrival in Sweden. I have been meeting a lot of new people, but that doesn’t help as I still miss David, my parents and friends a whole lot. Couple days ago, David and I found out that calling internationally is not as cheap as we thought, making our communicaiton less pleasant. Also, David doesn’t have a webcam yet, so I haven’t seen him in a week, and this makes me very very sad. I hope everyone is doing well at home =)

Also, I have to bike to everywhere everyday and this sucks. I got my bike really cheap, so the break doesn’t really work, but I will get used to it. Food is expensive in Sweden.

hey everybody, i took some pictures!! click on the link over to the right to see them. it’s really complicated to upload them and put them in the blog. you can blame david for this.

yarrrr….I’m in Sweden now, with the Vikings…cool, totally…

Anyway, seriously, it 8/16 was my arrival day in Sweden, and it was absolutely depressing, disastrous, lonely, and tiring. When I got to my room, I just sat on the floor and ask, “what the hell am I doing here, I should home and enjoying the rest of my summer vacation.” The first day involved a lot of crying (being away from David and frustrated with carrying 80 lbs luggages in long waits everywhere) As things are settling down, I’m feeling much better now, especially having a cellphone and access to internet, it just makes things better. However, I’m continously getting lost around the area. I hate the curvy streets here.

Hey look I made a blog. And it has pirates. Yarrrr.