Lapkook

Day 8 

Swedish massage is like Mysore Masala Dosa! Anyone who has gone to a dosa wala in Mumbai, he would get a concoction called Mysore Masala Dosa, which is not a bad thing to eat, but there is one problem with it. It's origins are not from Mysore. Imagine my surprise when I didn't find any Swedish Massage parlors in a place that it was supposed to have originated from! I would have thought there would be one on every street corner (ala Thai Massage in Thailand). Obviously I was wrong!!! 

First things first, we had to finish packing as the train to Narvik was later today. After cramming all the photography equipment we had carried between the 2 bags, we headed down for the same crappy free breakfast the hotel had to offer. We took the time to wash a few of the essentials in the common use Washer and Dryer the hotel had in the basement. And then it was time for the massage...which was ok ok at best. Nothing like the Swedish Massage I was expecting when I landed in Sweden.

Post checkout we headed to Centraalen where we realized that there was a storage locker crisis...we couldn't get a single decent free one. So while Praveen went to get our seats confirmed, I waited like a stalker to see if a locker opens up...which it did after about 30 minutes. We piled our stuff into that lone locker and then headed for some inner glove shopping at new intersport store. There was some sort of promotion happening in the store next to it, so there was a long queue that had formed with people just waiting to get in, despite the face that it was it's snowing outside, but that's normal for them I guess.

Around the back of the Pizza hut (where veggie lunch was possible for my partner in crime) we went, searching for Naturkompaniet which makes awesome cold weather gear, but the wind trousers were way too expensive, so I decided to ignore buying them and take my chances. Pizza take away was the only option for food in the train journey as we had to get going, but we were distracted by the Candy store bang opposite the Pizza Hut. So tons of candy shopping was done for the kids. Now the only thing left to buy was a few bottles of beer, so we would have to head to System Bolagade, knowing that we had to rush back to empty our locker locker. We realized that apparently u can buy booze & carry it on the train, but u can't drink it on the train...very different from our experience between Amsterdam & Copenhagen. Decide to ignore.

It was time to call my little princess to tell her that it's snowing & that I'm leaving for Narvik. After a lot of running around trying to get in time for the train, we reached Platform 4, bogey 14, seats 83 & 84. This time we didn't have the entire bogey to ourselves. We were seated with a gentleman from Kiruna, this huge guy who was a management executive, but who in his past life used to have snow mobile tours. It was an interesting series of conversations with him which ranged from his visits around the country, his hilarity at me being cold even in the train and finally his description of Raindeer blood soup (lapkook). That somehow didn't kill my appetite and I decided to dig into the take away pizza around 9ish

The next day, we would be at out destination. Spirits were high and it took me a while to drop off. But eventually, it was time to say good night!

Sambo

Day 7

The early morning brought me in touch with an old college buddy. Spoke to Dr. Dang and agreed to meet somewhere in the evening. Realized that there was a Thai massage place right opposite to the hotel, wo went there to check it out. They accepted only cash (which was a little bit of a problem cause neither of us was carrying too much of currency). So that was something we had to push to the back of our heads for now. 

After a relatively crappy breakfast at the hotel (it was included in the price, so we didn't want to spend outside for food), we headed to Slansen. As we walked from the train station, it was difficult to think of anything else other than how COLD the place was. We decided to take the ferry ride around the place and bought a couple tickets from the self help vending machine, only to realize that we paid for ferry by mistake...it was already covered in our train pass :(

The ferry ride was nothing to write home about and the sky was too overcast to shoot anything, so we decided to head back to Gamla Staan and walk around the place where the King's palace stands. Had it not been for the really dull grey sky, the pix might even have been nice! But all the walking around only got us feeling colder which meant we had to get into train station just for warmth. The good part about that was that the station we did get into was themed like a green grotto, so it was interesting to see how they had made up the place.

Now we had decided that we would visit every single Hard Rock Cafe (both of us have a penchant of collecting T-shirts with the logo and the place which has a HRC), so we headed to Centralen and asked for directions to HRC. We were told to go to the Rat station (Seriously!), but lo and behold, we actually were a short walk from the station to HRC. After a hearty meal and quite a few Euros spent on memorabilia (I got my John Lennon caricature charity band there as well), we headed back to Gamla Staan hoping that the skies would have mercifully relented.

What happened next was unbelievable! We walked along the side of the cathedral where the Royal couple had gotten married and onto the water reservoir behind it. As we were walking there, another lady (a tourist) was also walking around the same place. There was a lot of ice on the steps and in a tiny clearing, she was standing looking out towards the setting Sun. And as she stood there for some time, her shadow fell into the spot where the snow had melted a bit and so you could see it. This resulted in what I consider my best shot of the trip so far (and probably of my short photography career, if career is even the right word). 

Super elated with this achievement, but still cognizant of the super cold around us, we decide to head back, mainly cause Dr Dang hadn't called me yet on when to meet. Thinking that the meeting is off, we got into a train to head back only to get a call from Dang suggesting we meet him at Centralen. Supreme confusion reigned on where to meet as Centralen has way too many exits. So finally we met near the Ice Bar at the Nordic hotel. They told us that the slot is only available in 25min at 1915, so we waited around  discussing Dr Dang's Tromso visit and how he took great pictures of the Aurora.

When our turn was called, we were ushered into a place where we were given warm parkas which had gloves hanging off them and then asked to walk into this super cold refrigerator. Of course taking our cameras out and shooting meant that the gloves would have to come off. So after trying to take a few pix of a place where the entire room is made up of ice (a truly awesome place), we gave up and decided to just enjoy our drink out of the ice glass.

We couldn't stay there for long, plus the cold sure drove up the hunger. So we scouted around to find Sala Thai which sounded great for dinner. The conversation over dinner was pretty surreal, what with us discussing  Swedish relationships, Food habits, cross cultural interactions. Dr Dang sure livened it up for us.

Then it was the Tunnelbana back to Midsommerkransen and the long walk back to the hotel. The debate before we left the train station was whether we need to go for a massage tomorrow or not, cause that would decide whether we needed to withdraw money or not. Finally the decision was to go for it and so we wanted to avoid the long walk back just to draw cash. 

I was super excited to get back to the hotel to upload today's pix, mainly to see how my "greatest yet" pic had come out. It sure didn't disappoint!!!

On that high, it was a good day today and time to say good night!

Train Conversations

Day 6

The day started with the obviously first thing to do. The iPhone 4 was unlocked so that we could use it while in Copenhagen (the phone had come with a prepaid number with a bit of value). The net was down, then came up again and then wend down again, so activation of the phone was turning out to be a bit of a challenge. So we used the time it took for the net to stabilize to pack our stuff.

Once the net was a bit stable, the iphone was activated and we proceeded for checkout. Naturally, now the iPhone was acquired, it needed a cover and a screen protector, so back we were to the Apple store for some iPhone cover shopping. Now we had a train journey to look forward to, heading to Stockholm, so we made a beeline for Central Station, stopping only briefly at the McD to get a lunch to go. We catch the 11:39am train (as we had planned) with connection at 12:37pm from Lund and the plan was to eat lunch in the train. That's when the plan went off the tracks.

The train stopped at Hyllie and then just stayed there for a while. At first, it sounded like a great thing for smokers as they could enjoy a couple of smokes on the platform, but later it was announced that the train was having electric problems and that there was no way forward. We had to get out of the station to catch a bus to Lund, an additional unwarranted expenses of SEK 24 per head just so bus #170 would take us thro the city streets of Hyllie, the expressway connecting Hyllie and Lund & finally Lund station. 

We got confirmed space for the train leaving at 1445. All thoughts of food had been lost due to the train mixup, so we stepped into the coffee shop across from the train station. After a wonderful coffee and a banana muffin, we made our way to the train which left at 1500...wow a delay of 15mins. On the platform, we met Catherine and struck up a tiny conversation, mainly about her being a local and we so unbelievably not local. When the train arrived, we ended up sitting in same space as Catherine, joined by another older lady. The lady was going on and on talking to Catherine, something about Beatrice Potter. I slept for a bit and then woke up to find Praveen in conversation with the two ladies. All of us had a nice conversation with the older lady giving me a few recommendations for books that are traditionally Swedish that I can carry back for my little princess. The scenery rushing by the window was gorgeous as we saw snowed out landscapes bathed in sunlight.

We reached Stockholm at 19:45pm, said our goodbyes, exchanged numbers with Catherine and then parted ways. Our first priority was to book seat reservations for the train to Narvik...since the whole trip had been planned around that part and it would be a shame if we came all this way to find out there were no seats for us on the train. We also bought the Stockholm metro tickets, called our hotel and figured out that we had to take Fruengen line and get out at Midsommerkransen (I called it the Mid-Summer-Nights-Dream) station. After we landed at our designated station, we still had to call the hotel as there were no signs. We were told to take a left out of station and then continue a long walk under two expressway flyovers to reach the hotel. This looked more like a B&B rather than a hotel and so obviously there was no one at the counter and we had to ring the bell. After we checked in, we figured out that the place had no food. Lucky we carrying some, but just to make sure, we bought chocolate bars and coke and then proceeded to the room. It's a small room with tiny beds, but when we're on a shoe string budget, you take what you get! 

A couple of shots of the Absolut left over from the earlier train journey to sooth the snooze button and we were at the end of a relatively unproductive day, the first since we got on the trip. Hoping for tomorrow to make up for today. 

Good night. 

Thanx to the Mermaid

Day 5

I woke up with my phone ringing. I can write about this now, but could not have had I posted this earlier. The call was to let me know that Cisco had just sent me my offer letter post all the interviews that had been conducted. Yippee! The day had started in the right fashion. All I was hoping was that the offer was a good one. Now I couldn't wait for this blasted train to get to Copenhagen.

We were really going through Germany now. The train was rushing past signs announcing Dusseldorf, Bremen, Hamburg, Rutborg. That's when the Danish Immigration folks got on the train...and boy did my passport throw them off.

Firstly, my passport (having been issued outside of India) does not have the markings that are usually found on the bottom of the main ID page. Secondly, it was an Indian passport which was issued in another country. And thirdly, the Dutch embassy in India had given me a 2 year multiple entry tourist visa. It was this final point that had the Immigration folks completely baffled! They kept checking the passport and wondering how I had gotten a VISA with that kind of validity. My passport went up and down the aisles of the train bogey (with me following it dutifully) until they finally decided I was legit and they let us be. It is only after that did I go for my morning dump in peace!

We landed at Copenhagen 2 minutes ahead of schedule rather than the 6 minutes we were supposed to be behind. Despite the rerouting, the train had made up time somewhere and got us where we wanted on time. First order of business was to call the hotel and check where it was. That was Praveen's task. My job was to get some currency converted. After a little local currency had found it's way into our pockets, we took a train to Vesterport and walked the small distance to the Best Western and checked in.

My first order of business was to get onto the WiFi and check my mail for my offer letter. So Praveen was deputed to the bathroom for a shower while I perused the document. All was well, so I had a smile on my face which I was certain would follow me the whole day :) The hot shower only made the day better!

Leaving the hotel, we were greeted with a gorgeous site! The weather was perfect for photography and immediately the cameras came out. Here are a few that we snapped right away.

This last one is an HDR shot of the Centraal Station with the Sun setting behind it

Praveen wanted to pick up gloves for the cold, so we went glove shopping. That was right next to an Apple store where we found out that another store would be able to sell Praveen the iPhone 4 without a contract. The price sounded right for him, so we called up that place from the Apple store itself, took directions and then realized we had to hurry. That meant it was going to be a quick lunch, so we headed into HRC - which was right across the street - to grab a bite and we left the shopping at HRC for later.


Then we headed to the Central Station to catch a train to Islev where the store was. It was quite a long walk, but the weather was a gorgeous blend of cold air and harsh Sun, so I didn't exactly mind it. Got some nice pix along the way. Here are a few:

As is prevalent everywhere in Europe, Graffiti at the Islev Railway Station

After taking possession of the iPhone 4 (Praveen grinning from ear to ear and seriously resisting the temptation to take the phone out of the box), we headed for Nyhavn so that we could take a canal tour ride. A few more pix on the way:

After we landed at Nyhavn, we discovered the tours were not operating and that the harbour was frozen. That felt convenient as it felt like the time was right for a drink. A lovely bar right by the harbour provided both the external and internal warmth we so longed!

Across the harbour from the Bar where we were warming ourselves up a bit

HDR Shot of the bar with the Bar Maid :)

Sunset on a frozen harbour

We decided that Ameliaborg was right behind us and so a visit to the Little Mermaid seemed like an obvious decision to make. It would be cold tho. We would have to brace ourselves! Ameliaborg provided some nice pix, one of which is right below.

But we still had a long way to go and we were losing light pretty quickly. So on we went...and stumbled into some of best pictures of the trip! The colours were so good that we didn't mind the fact that we were having trouble pressing the shutter...it was that cold! And boy, was the wind blowing cold air from the Arctic circle. But at the end of the day, I got some gorgeous pix and wasn't that the intent of the trip in the first place? So no complaints.

It looks like the Chimneys are colouring the sky

The water is frozen!

Finally as we ran out of light and body warmth, we decided that it was better for our survival if we took a cab. It was going to be the most expensive cab rides we had ever taken, but at least we would survive to tell the story. After clicking pictures in sub zero temperatures for close to an hour, I would need to put my hands in a microwave oven for a few minutes to thaw them. The 95 Danish Kroner spent on the cab were a small price to pay to avoid frost bite!

So back to the hotel, a warm water soak to bring my core body temperature back to normal and then we were off to the Hard Rock Cafe for a beer (Tuborg Gould) and some food (onion rings). The guy waiting on us at the the HRC store (Wally) kept on talking about his time in India and how much he enjoyed staying there and how he dreams of going back. He kept going right up to the point where we had finished our shopping and were about to sit down for food. Nonetheless, it was a great conversation.

Now we had to hunt for an Indian restaurant as Praveen was fed up of eating bread based food for the last few days. A walk that led us all the way around the Tivoli Gardens perimeter and brought us right back to the HRC then led us to a street close to Vesterport station where we did find an Indian restaurant with fairly intricate decor. We were so pooped, we decided to take away the food to the hotel and eat there. Praveen wanted the Dal to be made extra hot, a decision he would later regret after he started eating when we got back.

Today had been a tiring, but good day. A lot of walking, very very cold, but some good pix. Tomorrow would be another great day (hopefully).

Good night!