Sweden pt 1 Stockholm, Goteborg & Malmö

Hej!

 

I'm currently in Malmö, in the south of Sweden. I am staying with Ben King for a couple of nights and having a look around.

I have spent the morning in Lund, a small university city and am about to head out and see the sights of Malmö for the afternoon.

 

When I got to Sweden I spent a couple of days in Stockholm where I stayed with Nathan, we went out for a of drinks which soon turned into a 4am bender! good fun. Unfortunately I did not see too much of Stockholm on that trip, I'll be back for a few days in a month so I'll get a better look around then, it seems like an amazing city.

 

On Friday I caught the train down to Goteborg where Rebecca lives, I was lucky to get through actually, there was an airport strike which meant the trains were packed, and then a train crashed a couple of hours after I came through, shutting the line. I was of course blissfully unaware!

 

On Saturday I went touring around Goteborg with my parents and other sister Megan in the afternoon and then we had the wedding reception party on Saturday night. This was another big bender, we got home about 4am!

 

I head back to Goteborg tomorrow and spend the next couple of days are just going to be poking around the Goteborg area with the olds. On the weeekend we head to the summer house (everyone has one) and then on to Stockholm. I ditch the family at this point and head to Helsinki with Nathan.

 

Sorry there is no pictures in this entry, i might add some when I get back to Goteborg.

 

hej dä

 

p.s. to all those interested, it's not a myth - the woman here really are as beautiful as you think, and they love the kiwi accent!

Japan - Kyoto & Osaka

Well, the Japan leg of the trip is over. I'm currently in Stockholm at Nathan's flat (more on Stockholm later). Japan was a cool stopover, I found the language barrier a bit of an issue, but in general you could get the message across.

Kyoto was great - I arrived via train from Kansai Monday night about 8pm, I found my Hostel with pretty easily. The hostel was sweet as, they hooked me up with good maps which made finding my around really easy. I went out for dinner and had a bit of a wander around town - a couple of things that really took me by surprise was the number of cigarette vending machines and "slots" (gambling establishments, hundreds of machines each).

Tuesday morning I headed out sight seeing, I had a list of 3 temples I planned on visiting before heading back to Osaka for the night. First up was Nanzen-Ji temple, see photo's and comments.

This is a snake I saw on my way up to the temple, I didn't even soil myself!

This is me posing with a group of school girls on top of the Sanmon Gate at Nanzen-ji.

Next on the list was Kinkaku Temple, otherwise known as the Golden Pavilion. The top 2 levels of the pavilion are coated in gold leaf - the place really does glow!

The golden Pavilion

Another posing shot with schoolgirls. It was like I was a celebrity or something!

My final tourist stop was the Kiyomizu Temple, the temple buildings did not seem to be too amazing or anything, but the view was fantastic - it overlooks the whole city. There were literally thousands of people at this place, a bit overpowering for a simple country boy like me!

The gate building at Kiyomizu Temple

After the day's sightseeing, I busted off back to Osaka (which i travelled through on the way to Kyoto). My intention was to find a capsule hotel (New Japan Sauna and Capsule Hotel to be precise) and stay there for the night. things didn't quite go to plan...

I arrived in Osaka about 7pm, the information desk was closed, i didn't have a map. long story short, I walked around town for ~ 4 hours trying to find someone to give me directions/an internet cafe/somewhere to stay/... Eventually after getting some good directions I found the Hotel, only to be shoo'ed away (aparently it was full). I ended up sleeping in some bushes outside a train station...

So, in summary, Japan is pretty cool - go to Kyoto, it's awesome and friendly. Skip Osaka if you're short on time it's not quite so tourist friendly...
Overall - worth the experience, I'll go back!

BYO - Welly

Friday night was my big farewell BYO dinner for my Wellington mates (despite still being around for a week - not lost on some people!).
We dominated Masala for a few hours, Shorty gave a rather long-winded (but entertaining!) speech recounting the last few years he's known me, Carlos & Bennetts chipped in, and I tried to save a bit of face with a reply.
The majority of us went left dinner and hit the upstairs dancefloor at Establishment, here is a sample of the fine moves being put on:

Shake it!

Later in the evening we headed out looking for greener pastures, but ended up at Electric Avenue (as we always seem to do!). Things were a little more subdued by this stage of the night, Bennetts tried his usual "what's something silly i can drink out of a glass?" trick, this time with a flower.

Probably tasted a bit better than that time you drank the candle though, aye!

Last stop for the night was BK (of course) and then home content after a great night out.

Thanks to all who came out and I hope you all had as good a night as I did.
I'm looking forward to heading off on my trip, but nights like this one really make me realise how good I have it here in Wellington, with so many good mates around.

Travel Itinerary

I don't think I have actually said what I am doing on my travels...

 

I leave Wellington in a couple of Monday's (21st), final destination London (who would have guessed?!!) in July.

 

In between I am stopping over in Japan - Kyoto/Osaka - for 2 nights, then onwards to Sweden for 6 weeks or so.

While in Sweden I'm going to go to the second reception for Rebecca's wedding (see previous post) and do a bit of travelling around Scandinavia. My mate Nathan from the halls is going to travel through Finland with me for a while and then I'm going to solo it up through Finland and back down through Norway and Denmark.

Finished Work!

Well, yesterday was my last day of work with Beca in Wellington, so I am officially unemployed for the next couple of months. It feels good!

I was given a greenstone "adze" necklace for my going away present which was pretty cool and good for travelling (especially good for getting into the Walkabout pubs in London!)

I've got a few admin things to do before I leave and a bit more of my trip to sort out, but I'm all set to jet off.
I'm having a massive BYO dinner with 35-odd mates tomorrow night - it's going to be huge!