on the way to somewhere
..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Snowboarding Hammarbybacken in Stockholm
6723 days
Imagine how cool it would be if you could finish work at 4pm, catch a tram 5 minutes down the road and go snowboarding (or skiing).
It’s doable for sure – lots of people live in a ski village or in the Swiss Alps, but for those in Stockholm, they are able to do so in their capital city.
Today Jess and I walked from our hostel (in Östermalm, Stockholm) to Hammarbybacken, which is just across the river. It’s about a 30 minute walk, but it’s through quite a nice trendy area full of new apartments. We could have caught the tram or the bus but we had the time and the money saved on transport bought us some varm choklads at the end of the day.
Hammarbybacken is a basic snowfield, for sure. It has three runs, plus a training area and a small skills park. There are two lifts, but no chairs – just T-bars.
Jess and I opted for snowboarding, because we had done it before and enjoyed it. For a 3 hour hire of a snowboarding kit (board, bindings, boots) it was 225SEK each. A 3 hour session was 140SEK, plus 45SEK for the SkiPass-kort, which is essentially a card that you use to swipe through to get on the chairlift. If you were staying for multiple days you’d only have to pay the 45SEK once.
As it turns out we met a fellow Aussie, Ross, in the rentals room. He’d never been snowboarding before so the three of us kind of kept together and laughed at each other stacking it. I think all of us had at least one decent stack at speed.
It was the first time either of us had used a T-bar lift; at Fall Creek we used a chairlift and a poma. As it turns out, T-bars are easier to use than a poma, but for newbies like us it still required a bit of concentration.
Unless you’re both experienced and fit, 3 hours is plenty of time to tire yourself out. We probably got around 12 runs in, with the first three runs taking the first hour or so. It’s been almost three years since we’ve been on a board so it took a while to pick up where we left off. The runs are quick, but the lines at the lift are short and it only takes about a minute to get back to the top.
It’s no ski resort, but to break up the monotony of sightseeing it was just what we needed, even if the top of the “mountain” (hill) was an excellent place to view the city of Stockholm. We had an absolute blast, and we’ll have the memories for days to come by way of bruises.
For 410SEK each (AUD$64) it must have to be the cheapest snowboarding in the world. You can find more information on the SkiStar website.
Lost in Stockholm
3We landed in Sweden last night at 10:50pm after an hour and a half bus ride and around two hours on a plane. After we landed there was to be another bus ride to Stockholm. (Read: Ryanair may be cheap but there are hassles involved).
As we were landing there was a lot of cloud to fly through, so I pretty much gave up on looking through the window and just waited to land. You know how you can hear the engines changing speed and the wind resistance on the plane before it lands? I was sure we must be landing soon, but with every quick glance I made through the window I saw the same thing – clouds.
Then I realised. The last glance wasn’t clouds! We were close to the ground, and that was snow! Snow like I’ve never seen it before! Houses were covered (literally) with snow – on the roof and banked up against the walls.
We landed at a little airport in a town called Nyköping, around 100km South-West of Stockholm. It was an interesting landing.. Safe I’m sure, but certainly more “urgent” than usual. While the ensuing bus ride seemed like a major inconvenience, it gave us time to see the suburbs and outer Stockholm. Well, I saw the lot, in typical Jess style she saw some in between naps. I wish I could sleep like her!
Although it was dark at the time, the forests looked amazing – pure white snow on the ground and on the branches. It is the sort of thing you see on a postcard or (for us computer addicts) a “nature” screensaver.
We arrived at the Stockholm Cityterminalen bus station at 12:50am. Our hostel was only around 1km away, so we had made the decision earlier to walk. I’d studied the map multiple times so I was sure where to go. Of course I didn’t count on the names on the signs being different.
We shuffled around in the snow up and back down the same road. Jess was freezing despite wearing her snowboarding jacket, beanie and gloves. Did I mention it was minus 8 degrees?
Standing at an intersection I saw the toughest family sedan around – an Audi RS6. It sounded so awesome even just taking off slowly. While I was bouncing off the walls on the inside, on the outside I was trying not to look interested at all so Jess knew I was using 100% of my attention to get us to the hostel. Seriously though, this is what I was hoping to see in Stockholm (rare European cars), and since then I’ve spotted an RS6 Avant too (the wagon version).
Another blank stare at the map and a “stuff it let’s just walk this way” and I got my bearings. We were on the right track and Jess was able to enjoy herself again.
I have to say – being lost at 1am in a freezing cold city with a backpack on looking like a completely vulnerable tourist you’d think you would be scared, but I really felt very safe for the both of us.
We walked across the bridge that was meant to be crossing a river but there was no river. For a few seconds we thought we were lost again, only to realise that it was a river, just a little more frozen than those back home in Australia.
We buzzed in, dumped out backpacks, quietly sorted our beds and had a drink. After a slow few days in Paris, I think the adventure has began for the both of us again, certainly for me anyway.
Today we took it easy, and actually did a bit of shopping. I bought a jacket that is perfect for “casual wear/fricken cold”, and Jess found a pair of jeans that will hopefully alleviate the “I’m sick of wearing the same damn clothes” feeling that she is having.
We have met a nice fellow from Finland, who has just found work in Stockholm. He’s staying at the hostel until he sorts out permanent accommodation. As it turns out, his mate is living in Whistler as a mountain bike tour guide. I thought it was just Adelaide that is this small?
Anyway, that will do for now. Adjö´ så lä´nge!
Au revoir Paris
2I entitled my post “Goodbye Paris” because I was reasonably happy to be moving on to Stockholm, where I am sitting in my hostel writing this. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the City of Lights and Love, I do look back with fond memories, but felt it just wasn’t the city for me. Jase and I discussed this while sitting in a cafe watching Parisians walk by. You either are a Paris person, or you aren’t. If you are the type who loves to sit around, chat and watch the world go by then Paris seems the place to be. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy doing that from time to time too, but for me Paris was really just another big city. Maybe it would have been different in the summer…
We arrived at the Orly airport early evening before using the trains to head to our first accommodation venue, A Room in Paris. This was a quaint bed and breakfast managed by Peet Verrest. It was a nice room to stay in, in a beautiful old apartment. Peet and his partner Thierry made us feel very welcome and we enjoyed chatting to Peet over breakfast. The apartment was located in the 10th Arrondissement, which I think is meant to be trendy… but didn’t feel very comfortable for us. While down that side of town we saw the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, both impressive.
A change in location brought about a whole new outlook for us. I certainly noticed the difference in Jase after finding our bearings in the 12th Arrondissement (right near the Bastille), the area our hotel was located. The Hotel des Trois Gares was neat and the staff were very helpful. Actually, I have to admit that over our whole stay we really did not encounter the cliché rude Parisian that you hear so much about. Perhaps it was our persistence in starting all our communication with French (albeit pronounced poorly). “Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?”
Ice skating (see Jase’s post here) kicked off the fun times in Paris. It was a nice walk from our accommodation, down rue St-Antoine and rue de Rivoli, to the rink. We did this walk many times over our last four days in Paris, which I really enjoyed, as it lead us to the various sites, eateries and shopping district. Becoming familiar with the walk made me feel at home and gave me more of a sense of belonging in Paris. The walk also led me past all my favourite things in Paris, which included:
- Looking up (to see the long lines of gorgeous old balconies on the apartment blocks)
- A beautiful florist shop (with the cutest floral arrangements)
- Windows full of pastries (although we tried to avoid eating them)
- Nutella crepes (which we only had on the last day but wish we’d had more of as they were so filling for the bargain price of 3€)
- Ice skating (a whole lot of fun)
So, all up, my views of Paris? It was definitely worth it to see all the major attractions. Notre Dame and the Louvre were purely amazing (and as a bonus the Louvre was free since it was the first Sunday of the month!) You can’t take away from the sheer magnificence of such old buildings that are so detailed and ornate.
Would I go back there? Maybe, but probably not.
So au revoir Paris, thanks for the memories.
Ice Skating in Paris
2728 days
“Don’t go to Europe in Winter” everyone said, “it will be freezing and nothing will be open”.
It’s cold, sure, but it’s not that bad. On the flip side, aside from the obvious perks of having plentiful amounts of accommodation available, and not having to stand wall to wall with other tourists to see the good spots, between the start of December and the end of February every year, two large ice-rinks are created in the middle of Paris.
One rink is in Montparnasse, while the other is at Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. Since we are staying down in the 12th arrondisement (near the Bastille), we headed to Hôtel de Ville which was only about 10 minutes walk.
The skating itself is free. If you have a pair of skates, head down and do some laps. For Jess and I, it cost 5EUR each for the rental of skates – pretty cheap really.
Even if you aren’t game enough to skate, it’s worthwhile heading down for a watch. Some of the local kids are very impressive. There seems to be two very distinct styles of skating – more traditional figure skating, and the now much more popular “street” style.
It’s a great place – it brings happiness to kids and adults, experts and amateurs. Everyone there had a smile on their face!
Here is a map for anyone thinking of taking a look:
[mappress]
Our Athens Adventure
4It’s been a short stay, but we’ve achieved what we wanted to. We landed in Athens two days ago at 7am local time after sitting on a 12 hour flight from Singapore. Weary from the predominantly sleepless night we just had, we left the plane and made our way to Greek Immigration.
Five minutes off of the plane and we were already amazed. There is a smoking section in the airport. Indoors! I think that’s when I truly realized that we were now in Europe.
We grabbed our bags and made our way to the train. Some sketchy Greek pronunciation from myself bought us two tickets to the train, where we boarded and made our way to Acropoli station. It was a pretty easy ride, with one train change at Syntagma station.
After leaving the train we made our way up to the quiet streets in the early morning. It was a nice relief from the humidity of Singapore. Around 11°c and fine. We checked into our hotel, Airotel Parthenon, literally 200m from the metro station, and had a shower. For anyone considering going to Athens, it’s a quality place. Cheap for young travellers like us, but has everything you need. It’s four star in Athens, probably equated to a 3 star in Adelaide, but it’s clean and it’s central – we could get to all the historical sites in anywhere between 1 minute to 20 minutes on foot. Since we are travelling together, it worked out cheaper than the backpackers place down the road, and this way we got our own shower and room – something we wanted after the long flight.
To see the Acropolis and other sites surrounding, it will set you back 12EUR. You can see the Parthenon from everywhere. It’s just so impressive. We were basically pinching ourselves the whole time we were here. It’s so surreal, and everything is just so much larger than life.
On the flip side, it’s almost as though every man and his dog (literally, I don’t know if people own these dogs, but there are dogs everywhere) is in on the deal. For the major tourist attractions of Greece, the gardens, paths, and all of the infrastructure surrounding seems somewhat makeshift. It looks as though they are constantly working on the Acropolis, however when you walk around, you can see where rubbish has been thrown after previous repair jobs.
For these reasons I have mixed emotions about Athens.
Enough negativity though, we both enjoyed this place. Yesterday’s lunch was at Thanassis, where we had some authentic lamb kebabs. Melted in your mouth!
We were worried about visiting in February – not really sure what the weather would be like, but it was perfect. I’d definitely come again during this time of the year. Yesterday it rained in the morning, but it was only drizzle and it didn’t affect us at all. The rest of the time the sun was out and we were comfortable in a jacket.
Ultimately we had a great time here. The people are friendly, the streets are very picturesque, and the history is just something neither of us have seen before. It was short, but sweet.
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