Ingenting

Some Swedish music...KENT - Ingenting, taken from their new album "Tillbaka Till Samtiden".[Back to the presence"]
The video is strange, but I really like the song (and the whole album :) ).
Enjoy :)

When the days get shorter...

Hejhej :)

Winter is coming fast. Almost too fast. It's getting colder and darker - the sun already sets around 6 o'clock (check the time on the picture). And it will be even earlier after the clock change. Wohoo! And I've just realized that this is my 3rd picture of a Sunset here...sorry for posting so many of them, but I really think that a post without any pictures is boring, therefore I post some nice sunsets instead of stupid pics of myself ;)

Well, 1 week ago my best friend from Austria came to visit me - I showed him Karlstad, all the cool shops here and some of the (few) sights. I tried to show him Sweden's Partylife, but I failed miserably. The parties on the campus were really boring last week (8 people on a birthday party...hello?!) and the other "parties" were more or less just sitting together and drinking. B-O-R-I-N-G. Well, I guess it's because now all the exams start and people realize that they actually have to study, that's why they are called Students ;) We were at a Salsa Party, which was really cool - in the beginning. Some Mexicans showed people how to dance Salsa and everybody was dancing and having fun - but then they changed the music (to some strange music) and everybody left the room/the party...oh well.

Nevertheless, we had/have much fun together. We bought some winterjackets (that's why I'm broke now...70kr (approx. 7 euros...) left on my swedish bank account) and we strolled around the city, drank a lot of coffee and had a good time. He made a lot of trips (to Örebro, Oslo, Stockholm and Gothenburg) and he'll leave on Tuesday.
This weekend he went to Gothenburg, so I have some time to learn (yeah...). Next week I have my swedish exam, I hope it will be ok.
Oh, by the way - I got good mark (a "B") for my "Discrimination Laws in Austria and Sweden" Essay I had to write for the Aspects of Sweden course... :)

So, that's it so far...I'll go back to my swedish stuff ;)
cu
manuel

Oslo

Hejhej :)

Sorry for not writing for such a long time...quite a few things happened, but lets start from the beginning.
Last Sunday (30th September) Jonathan, his girlfriend, Elisabeth and I made a "Pancake breakfast" - we met in the morning and made Pancakes - at least 40. We ate them with whipped cream, vanilla sauce, jam and - the most delicious things of all - Nutella. (we all agree that nothing's better than Nutella on a warm Pancake...yummy). In the evening Claudia, Elisabeth, Lena and I made some Pizza and watched a movie...so that was last weekend. ;)
During the week nothing too spectacular happened...I went to the hairdresser and paid a fortune for a new haircut - Swedish style. Nevertheless, I look like Manuel, the Austrian guy desperately trying to get a new style.

This weekend we (Claudia, Elisabeth, Mathieu and I) went to Oslo, Norway. We stayed there for two days (Saturday, Sunday) and it wasn't enough time to see all the sights of Oslo. My first impression when I came to Oslo was "well, quite nice, but not too extraordinary and not too beautiful" but as soon as I saw some more parts of Oslo I changed my mind. Oslo definitely has a lot of things to offer but - to quote my beloved Lonely Planet Travel Guide - "it [Oslo] doesn't make a big fuss about it".

Beside historical buildings (Parliament, Theatre...Palace) it has a lot of interesting museums. For example the Vikingship museum (if you're interested in vikings) or - my personal favourite - the national Gallery. Like in London, the entrance is free and it has quite a good collection of nice art. I guess Munch's "The Scream" is the most famous one, but in my opinion, it's not the most interesting picture in the gallery. I really liked some of the Norwegian artists, like Tidemand, J.C Dahl or Fearnley...I could go on for hours, but I think it'll bore you... Speaking of artists - like Barcelona, Oslo has its own Park for one of Norway's most famous artist Gustav Vigeland. You might not have heard of him before but I guess most people know his sculptures. The Park was really fascinating and beautiful, I kind of liked it more than the Park Güell in Barcelona (although this is also a very nice Park and - in fact - quite different than the Vigeland Park).

Oslo is also quite famous for its ski jump, the Holmenkollen (honestly, I've never heard of it before...but apparently it is famous because everyone else is crazy about it). It's a nice place and you have a great view over Oslo from top of it. It reminded me of Innsbruck's Bergisel and the whole atmosphere there was like in St. Anton or any other Ski resort.
So, before I bore you to death with all my babbling about Oslo's museums and sights, I better stop - I uploaded some pictures - click here. Have fun watching them and probably let me know what you think of them (Feedback is always good ;) ).

So, that's it for today. On Thursday my best friend from Austria comes visiting me - I'm really looking forward to that and I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun (and of course, I'll take some pictures of it ;) ).
Tjena!
Manuel