The Sweden Diaries - Part IV (The Copenhagen Chapter)

Caught the morning train over to Copenhagen this morning - a mere 1.5 hrs, and you're in the centre of the city. Nice quick ride (and scenic too!)

Had a hot-dog right outside the station - been ages since I had one, and couldn't resist it. It was wrapped and fried in bacon, and the mustard was excellent. The idea was to take a walk around the city, but no sooner had I started than I saw Hard Rock Cafe - right in front of me. Resistance was out of the question, and so I walked right in and grabbed a stool at the bar.
The girl at the counter happened to be Swedish (she was from Malmo); chatted for a bit, while I was having Bud.

Well, off I went to see what Copenhagen was all about. Walked through the city all the way down to the harbour;they have a pedestrian walkway that cuts right through and extends to the harbour. It was a lovely bright sunny day, and the entire population seemed to be up and about to enjoy the sunshine. They also have a nice canal and offer boat-rides to tourists. All along the canal are innumerable street-side cafes which serve some damn good food (and yes, beer).
Helped myself to filet-o'-fish and downed that with a glass of Carlsberg (which, by the way, seems to be omnipresent).

There are also a number of street-side artists who peddle their wares, and do various tricks to entertain the crowd; there were also a couple of guys dressed up as Red Indians, and playing live music (Aicha, by Khaled). Quite charming.

And then it was time to go back, and so I caught the train back to Malmo & on to Helsingborg, and am now back at my apartment; need a shower and a drink, in that order.

Ciao.

The Sweden Diaries - Part III

Yoohoo! I now have a contact number - bought a pre-paid SIM card for my phone on the way back from work and the whole thing was quite easy! The girl at the store explained everything quite nicely too.

With a sense of elation at being connected again, I made my way back and got down to the task of cooking a meal for myself. Since I'd bought rice and lentils (dal) the day before, I thought I'd content myself with a simple dal-chawal combo (rice and lentils for those not familiar with Indian food). I then got ambitious, and tried my hand at a fancy omelette as well.

At the risk of sounding rather immodest, let me say here that the whole thing turned out quite yummy - me and my stomach are at peace with the world, and typing this post as I lie on my bed is about the only thing that interests me right now.

Might go over to Denmark tomorrow (or Sunday) - haven't decided whether I should catch the ferry or make do with the train; depends on the weather and my level of laziness (lol).

By the way, I think I like Carlsberg better than Heineken (beer, for the ignorant).

Some of the things that I've forgotten to mention earlier:

The weather here is rather end-of-summer - not too cold, but a bit nippy nevertheless.

They don't use Euros over here, so had to get some forex and change to Kroner.

The cars are left-hand drive, and they drive like the Americans do - for those in India or the UK, that means the "wrong" side of the road (lol).

Too sleepy now - off to Denmark tomorrow. Will post once back.

The Sweden Diaries - Part II

My first day at work - the office is a short walk from where I stay, so that's good. Nice people, nice place.

Did my first bit of grocery shopping in the day - eggs and veggies, a few spices, a few beers; the only thing is, everything's written in Swedish, so at first, it's a bit tough to figure out what's what. Was too tired to cook though, so bought a ready-to-cook meal and ate that (guess what - it tasted good!)

Gonna try my hand at cooking tomorrow - let's see how that turns out to be.

The Sweden Diaries - Part I

So here I am - Helsingborg, Sweden. The southernmost part of (almost) the northernmost region of this planet.

The trip out of India was quite uneventful - a bit of turbulence on way to Delhi, an absolutely smooth-as-silk landing at Delhi airport (bless the pilot), a timely flight to France and an equally timely flight to Denmark. The nifty bit was crossing the Oresund in a train from Copenhagen to Helsingborg; the view as I crossed the ocean was positively breathtaking.

The apartment that I'm in is quite nice; a fully-equipped kitchen, a departmental store with almost everything right next door, comfy beds - not much more you can ask for. And on a clear day, the sea-view is lovely and you can actually see Denmark on the other side!

What surprised me, though, is the nature/attitude of the people here - they are amazingly helpful and polite - without exception (so far). It really goes a long way in alleviating the sense of detachment you have at times when you travel to other countries.

Well, not much more to write about at the moment - watch this space for more!

A return to writing

Well, just wanted to say that I'm back to posting...