Best of...

WARNING! This post will include a lot of pictures...sorry for that, but I think that's the best way to present them. My first intention was to present the most beautiful/funny pictures but somehow I ended up making a collection of pictures that remind me of the good times in Sweden/Karlstad...a lot of pictures are missing, since I tried to keep it as "short" as possible...Also - it will be a bit sentimental :(
This won't be my last entry..I plan to write a final conclusion in the next few days - and I'm sure I will post some random stuff before flying back home...for now, enjoy the pitures...

Lena, Elisabeth and me...we had a great time, I miss them! But I'm going to meet Elisabeth back in Austria :) and Lena hopefully in Munich...

Sandra, Theresa, me and Christoph on the Värmland trip...seems like years ago, but it was last autumn...and it was a great trip! (picture from Theresa)

One of my favourite Oslo shots...again, it was a great trip and actually I wanted to go back to Oslo in spring...well, next time ;)

Me, Elisabeth and Mathieu in front of the Munch Museum... THE SCREAM :P

When my best friend from Austria came to visit me...it was great! I'm so glad that he came! I'm really looking forward to seeing him again!

Alster lake..one of my favourite Spots here...

The Westcoast-trip with Lena, Harry, Claudia and Elisabeth...this must have been the most beautiful trip ever!

A jumping picture during the westcoast trip (picture from Harry)Claudia and me in the Icehotel...it was so cool! Kiruna was a very special and amazing trip... (picture from Claudia)

the last "group picture" (sadly Elisabeth and Jonathan are missing)

Stockholm in December..that's when my love for this city started...and it was the first time I saw Rufus live, which was truly amazing! And it was realy nice to meet Linda, a fellow-rufus fan :)
2nd term in Karlstad...the winter was dark and without much snow...but the sky looked really cool sometimes...

Sofia, Carl, Ilana and me...all of them are great people and I'm so happy that I met them!
*lol* on a lazy afternoon in February- the TV was running and Sofia, Ilana and Jimmy were cuddled up in our kitchen and sleeping...
Me, Ilana, Sofia, Carl and Jonathan...the Bangers :D I'll miss them all, but I know that we will meet again! Probably not this year (Carl and Ilana), but definitely within the next 2 years... (picture from Ilana)
Stockholm, again...in spring I REALLY fell in love with this city. Partly because of all the nice people I met there (Niklas, Mike, Freddy, Linda...to name a few) but also because of the beauty of the city and the surrounding islands...
Sofia..a very beautiful picture...We were the "hard core" in our corridor and I really enjoyed the time with her...We became really good friends and will definitely stay in touch...
Gothenburg/Göteborg - another amazing trip and another beautiful city...Jonathan, Hong and I stayed at Sanna's place (Jonathan's girlfriend) and the whole family has been so kind to us...! It was a great time...
Malmö with Hong and Jonathan...I will never forget this trip... (picture from Hong)
Jonathan and Hong...two really dear and close friends and I'm so glad that I've met them! Again, we are going to stay in touch and meet again...Hong will come to Austria soon (for the Eurocup) and Jonathan plans to come to Austria in autumn...and I plan to fly to Canada next summer (it's really on top of my list).
I'm going to miss both of them a lot...but as Jonathan said this morning when we brought him to the station- this was just the beginning...

Stockholm again ;)

Hej :)

4 more weeks to go!! Unbelievable how fast time goes by :(
Anyway, last weekend I went to Stockholm and it was great. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny. I arrived there on friday afternoon, met a friend and we had dinner with another friend of his. Afterwards we played Guitar Hero, which was quite funny but I prefer SingStar ;)
Anyway, it was nice but not very exciting. On Saturday I went do "Drottningholm", the royal castle, which is located a bit outside of Stockholm. It was really beautiful - the castle has a huge garden and it's a very popular place - not just for tourists, also a lot of Swedes go there to relax since the garden is really peaceful and beautiful.
Afterwards I went shopping for some spring clothes, then I met Niklas and some other people at Tantolunden (a Park in Södermalm). Afterwards we had a small BBQ in another Park which was really nice.
I guess I never had so many BBQs as in the last few weeks ;)

However, that was my trip to Stockholm - it was quite calm, but I enjoyed it a lot. Though it was a bit sad to say "good bye" to the people there and Stockholm...But I hope it's more like a "See you", because I really want to come back.
I don't know why, but I love Stockholm. Sure, it's not a huge city and some people there are probably a bit "snobby" but the town itself is so beautiful and the atmosphere is great. All the small islands that are connected with each other give it a "special feeling". I definitely want to come back...

Well, I came back home yesterday afternoon, then I met two friends for ice cream and a walk around the town. Afterwards I had to clean up my room, because I have my room inspection today - an obvious sign that I'm going to leave soon...

So, that's it for now. Sorry, that was a very boring entry - but I'll try to make the next one a bit more exciting ;)

As always, click here for some pictures from Stockholm :)

This time I took a lot of random pictures, because that's how I want to remember Stockholm, and I already have tons of pictures of the Royal Palace and so on ;)

Manuel

Göteborg, Malmö and the swedishness

Hello :)

I'm back from my trip - Jonathan, Hong and I went to Gothenburg and Malmö and it was a very nice and adventurous trip. But I'll start from the beginning.

First of all, on friday afternoon I had a group presentation in the media class. It went quite well, I guess...at least the teacher said that it was a good presentation, but you never know... After the class I caught the bus downtown, were I met Jonathan and Hong. We got on the train to Gothenburg and 3 hours later we were there. Since Jonathan's girlfriend Sanna is from Gothenburg, we could stay with her and her family. They live in a cosy little House close to the sea and it was really nice to stay there. All the family members were very nice - Thanks again for everything :) ...they even made a BBQ for us, when we arrived there. The sunset-picture was taken by the sea close to the house...

The next day we strolled around Gothenburg - we watched the sights and did a boat trip around the city and the harbour. It was cool because the boat goes underneath those small bridges and sometimes you have to duck your head because it's so low. It was interesting - and we were really lucky with the weather...
Anyway, after a few hours in Gothenburg we took the train to Malmö (Malmö is in the south of sweden, close to Denmark...). There we went to our Hotel and had dinner - we were too tired to check out Malmö's nightlife.
The next morning, after a delicious Hotel breakfast (I LOVE hotel breakfast buffets ;) ), we went to the train station to buy a ticket to Karlstad. I think I wrote it earlier, but the swedish train system is quite different from the austrian system. If you buy tickets early in advance they are quite cheap, but if you buy them shortly before the trip, they are really expensive. But there is a certain amount of "Last Minute Tickets", that are available 24 hours before the train leaves - they are really cheap...and since our Malmö trip was quite spontaneous we wanted to buy a Last Minute ticket to Karlstad. But there weren't any left. And paying more than 900 krones (around 100 euros) for the train (without a seat reservation) was a bit too much for us...so we decided to take the train to Gothenburg in the evening and stay there one more night at Sanna's place. Surprisingly I wasn't angry at all...Usually I hate it, when something doesn't work out and I usually plan everything before I make a trip (I buy the tickets 2 months in advance, book the hotel etc ;) ) but this time it was very unscheduled. But it was OK, I enjoyed the extra day in Gothenburg.

Anyway, Malmö is a really nice city and the weather was really beautiful. We went to the beach and the old town - the thing is, that Malmö's old town is really beautiful, but the outside area is quite industrial and not so nice. My Lonely-Planet guide said, that Malmö is Sweden's most european city - and I see why. It's close to Denmark and thanks to the Öresund bridge it's easy to get there. The "feeling" in the city is very european...it's very hard to explain, but Stockholm or Gothenburg just have a certain "swedish-ness", which is missing in Malmö (at least partly). It's not necessarily the architecture, it's just the "feeling" you get when you walk around... Anyway, I enjoyed Malmö.
Back in Gothenburg we went shopping - I bought some nice clothes and just for fun we dressed up "swedish" - a fancy scarf, tight pants (see picture)...just the hair is wrong, but I've already booked my appointment with the hairdresser ;)

Well, I came back on monday evening and I had to study for my exam today - that was actually the main reason why the extra day in Gothenburg was a bit bad, because I planned to study on monday... However, I already had the exam and I think it went OK...I answered all the questions and I'm sure I missed some things that the teacher wanted to hear...but all in all I think it's OK...hopefully.

So, on Friday I'll go to Stockholm...one last time, to say goodbye to some friends and Stockholm. The end of my Sweden stay is approaching, and it's not a nice feeling at all...but let's not think about leaving now - as always I uploaded some pictures, you can watch them here (I decided that the slide show [in my last post] is too distracting if you want to read something):
Göteborg Pictures
Malmö Pictures

Feel free to leave comments...
Manuel

PS: Oh, I just remembered...the big question, which town is better, Stockholm or Gothenburg... It's a hard question, that's for sure, because both cities are different. For now, I'd say that I like Stockholm more - BUT I've been there more often and I saw it from a different side. In Gothenburg I just saw the tourist places. I didn't go out there and haven't met "Gothenburg people". So, although I say that I like Stockholm more, it doesn't mean that I don't like Gothenburg. I want to go there again (and hopefully I will)...

The ultimate experience...

Hej everbody :)
I'll excuse in advance for a very Rufus-related entry. I'm sure I'll write something like "it was so great" for about 30 times in this entry.
However, for all the people who are not interested in reading a loooong breakdown of my weekend in Stockholm (which had more to offer than just Rufus [though Rufus was the main thing ;) ]) here are the hard facts:
it was great; I met a lot of nice people; I had fun (in every sense); Rufus was amazing-both times!;

So, let's start..with thursday, because that was when my weekend started. You could call it the "Pre-weekend-Party". We had a very tasty Schnitzel-dinner in our corridor (Dominik, an exchange student from last term was here to visit us..and he made the Schnitzel) and afterwards Martin, Lukas, Maria and I went downtown to see a concert. The Swedish band "Johnossi" played at a local club and since I really enjoy their first CD I didn't want to miss them. However, the concert was nice but not too special. Actually, it was quite "loud", but I enjoyed it anyway. The small picture shows the band.

On Friday I finally drove to STOCKHOLM, something I had been looking forward to for more than 2 months... I arrived there around 4 o'clock, went to the Hostel, grabbed something to eat, strolled around the city and looked at expensive, but perfectly fitting jeans - but I didn't buy them (now I wish I did...). Then I went back to the hostel, had a shower and went to a Party I was invited to.
The Party was on Södermalm (an island that's part of Stockholm) and started around 7 p.m. I was quite nervous, because I just (kind of) knew the host (Niklas) and nobody else. But it turned out to be really good, because I met a lot of really nice people (Swedes only ;) ). Since it was a swedish Party it (obviously) was a "Pre-Party" and around half past 11 we went to a Nightclub nearby. And well, what can I say? It was great, I had a real blast there - dancing, talking,...and so on ;) (this is the wrong place for more details)

The next day I met some people from the night before. We had brunch at a nice cafe (String) and afterwars we strolled around Södermalm and Djurgården. At 4 o'clock I met Linda - I know her from the last Rufus concert and she bought my ticket for this Rufus concert. We walked around (you see, I walked a lot in Stockholm) and waited for the concert to begin. We were really nervous and looking forward to it...The concert was at "Dramaten", the Royal Theater, a really beautiful place with a very nice flair.
It's hard to describe the concert itself, because it's something that you have to experience yourself to believe it. It was amazing and really special - and we had tickets for the second row! Rufus came without his band, so he sang and played the piano or the guitar himself and although his music is quite opera-like with a lot of orchestration and instruments, his songs worked really well "stripped down" like that. And once again, he proofed that he is a great entertainer. He really rocked the place with his witty comments about Sweden/Stockholm, Sylvester Stallone and other things. He's just so authentic when he is on stage. He makes mistakes and laughs about it - and the audience laughs with him and he means every single word he says. He doesn't have a script with jokes he tells every night, because he tells something different every single time.
After the concert Linda and I went to the backentrance to wait for Rufus to come out. We met some other Rufus fans (mostly people from the off. Rufus Messageboard) and together we waited for him. He came out and was really nice - he tried to talk to everybody and signed CDs, tickets, pictures... Since there were so many people we couldn't take a picture WITH him but I took plenty of pictures OF him. It was really nice meeting him - finally. Though I was quite nervous and I didn't know what to say...but he told me that he loves Austria and that it's so beautiful there :D *faint* Obviously I needed some time to calm down afterwards..I was really tired and just went Downtown to meet a friend at a bar but I left quite quickly because I was so sleepy...

The second concert on Sunday was even better, although the first concert was really hard to top. Rufus played different songs, talked a lot and told many funny stories - and he recognized some people in the audience who were there on the night before. It was really special and amazing...I had goosebumps on both evenings, especially during "Ready to Love", "The art teacher" and "This love affair"...AMAZING!

On Sunday (before the concert) I met Niklas again, for a trip through Stockholm. We went to the TV tower (but the weather wasn't that nice, so the view wasn't as impressive as it should be ;) ) and afterwards we went shopping. His boyfriend came back from work and we went to have lunch at a wok restaurant and shopped some more...But I didn't buy anything, because I really should save some money. It was hard, but I resisted buying some really good looking and perfectly fitting clothes - I didn't even buy a CD! Nothing! I spend my money on food (and the entrance to the nightclub) and nothing else. I'm surprised of myself, though I wish I had bought some clothes...hopefully next time.

It was a perfect weekend in Stockholm...and I really want to go there at least one more time before I leave Sweden...
More pictures of Stockholm
More pictures of RUFUS
Anyway, here's a Video of Rufus - not from Stockholm though. Listen to the song - or at least the awesome piano part around minute 2.45...

Farewells...

Hej!

Sooner than I planned to - my new entry.
Ilana and Carl have left :( They had a big Goodbye Party on Tuesday and yesterday we had a big "fika" (coffee/tea time) in our kitchen and a lot of people showed up to say goodbye to them.
It's really sad... It's hard to realize that they are not here anymore. I got so used to seeing them nearly every day, hanging out with them, going out, laughing,..just having a good time.
But I hope we'll meet again. Maybe not this year, but hopefully next year - I really want to go to South Africa. The picture shows me, Ilana, Sofia, Carl and Jonathan - hopefully there will be a re-union :)

What else is there to say... something went wrong with my course registration and I missed the first class yesterday, because I didn't know about it (haven't got any information). It was just a 20 minutes class to get some basic information about the course, but still, I hate the feeling of having missed something. Anyway, the next class is on Tuesday and I'll be there - with or without registration.
I'm heading to Stockholm tomorrow - Party on Friday, concert on Saturday (and maybe even on Sunday...) :) And hopefully the weather will be nice...Last time I went there, it was cold, dark and rainy. At least it won't be dark this time (sunset around 7.30 p.m) :)

Nice weekend, everyone!

...tell the northern lights to keep shining

Hej :)

Some hours ago I came back from Kiruna. Some people asked me where and what Kiruna is, so I'll give you a very short description - Kiruna is in the far north, approx. 1200 km away from Stockholm and sweden's biggest town up in the north. It's a really nice town that lives of the mining and tourism.

However, we went there to see the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi and to make some tours with sledge dogs, snow mobiles and snow shoes. Of course we also hoped to see the northern light...
We arrived on Friday around 1 o'clock - it was not that cold but already getting dark. A taxi drove us to our hostel (which was really good - it was like a small apartment with our own kitchen and bathroom). Later we went downtown to go to the tourist office and look around the town. On Saturday we were picked up from the hostel to get to the snow mobile tour - it was quite far away from Kiruna.
Driving with the snow mobile was really cool - it wasn't that cold (around 0 degrees, which is really warm ;) ) but we got warm clothes before we jumped on the snow mobiles. With the snow mobiles we drove through the forest, over frozen lakes, streets...until we arrived at the Icehotel. There we had time to look at it - and I must say that it's pretty amazing. It wasn't that special, in my opinion, but it was nice to see. I wouldn't necessarily want to spend a night there - it's much cheaper to go camping somewhere in Sweden's wilderness - and it has the same effect. Nevertheless, it's really cool to look at all the ice figures and the rooms. It isn't finished yet, so we couldn't see everything - but it was enough ;) Afterwards we drove back to the "camp" and had some reindeer meat with potatos.
The next day we went to church - oh yes. We wanted to have a look at the church and since our timing was perfect we were able to attend mass. Mass is probably the wrong expression - it was a christmas mass with christmas carols and Jesus-Story - played by adults, who sang some songs. It was interesting to watch - and to listen to the swedish ;)
In the evening we went for a walk - on snow shoes. It was nice...but since I'm not a huge fan of winter sports it wasn't my favourite activity - although I must say that it was fun to do. And we saw our first northern light - the sky was clear so we saw many many stars - and the northern light. The guide took us to a small hut where we had coffee, sandwiches (of course with reindeer meat) and cake.
On Monday, our last full day in Kiruna, we had time to do whatever we wanted. I decided to stroll around the city and go inside the town hall. In the evening we made a dog sledge tour - which was my personal highlight of the weekend. The dogs were really beautiful and well trained - they really had fun doing this. It was a very unique feeling to sit on the sledge, hearing the dogs and the sound of the sledge, watching the stars and the snowy landscape...it was really cool, I enjoyed it a lot. It was freezing cold (around minus 20 degrees) but we got good clothes there, so it didn't feel too cold. After the sledge tour we went for a walk - and we saw some more northern lights. It is so fascinating to watch them, I guess you can't believe it unless you see them yourself. We stood there for more than 1 hour to watch them in the sky. Most of them were green, but some of them changed their colour from yellow to red to green...fascinating.
However, today - Tuesday - we left Kiruna and came back here. I really enjoyed the weekend and if I ever have the change to go there again - I will do it. It was an amazing experience :)

So, that was my travel-report ;) Sorry if it's quite boring to read, but I'm tired - and I wanted to write it before I fall asleep.
I will write again later this week...
cu
manuel

OH YES - Of course you can watch pictures of Kiruna...here ;)

and btw - the headline is taken from a Tori Amos Song ("Amber Waves")

Rufus + Kiruna

Well, until tuesday I will be in Kiruna - this means no messages etc. before tuesday evening. But feel free to write me, I'll answer as soon as I am back.
Here's a short video of Rufus performing "14th street" not in Stockholm, but he sang the song in Stockholm too ;) (oh yes, I'm still amazed and in awe ;) )
greetings from Sweden,
manuel

forget all your troubles, come on GET HAPPY :)

Hejhej :)

I'm speechless. In awe. Unbelievable.
The past weekend was absolutely amazing - mainly because of the Rufus Wainwright concert, but also because of Stockholm. This time I had the chance to see some not-so-touristic parts of Stockholm and it was amazing. All the tourists go to the (boring) palace and shopping in the Gamla Stan where you find one tourist shop after another but the swedish people are somewhere else. I discovered some really nice cafés and a really cool independent bookstore that sells all kind of books - in english ("New York Stories" - Odengatan 100). The shop owner is a really nice woman who comes from NY but has been living in Stockholm for 25 years now... and the shop is really small and cosy, I almost forgot that bookstores like this exist (nowadays you mostly see these huge bookstores without personal contact and so-sophisticated-and-cool-looking reading cornes everywhere...that sell paperbacks and sheepworld-stuff).
However, I spend the whole saturday afternoon shopping for christmas presents and discovering some parts of Stockholm. In the evening I went to a small and really cool looking coffee house ("Chokladkoppen", Stor Torget 18, Gamla Stan) and had the best hot chocolate...
Afterwards I went to a bar and back to the hostel.
On Sunday morning I went to the Museum of Modern Art which was...OK. Nothing too special, in my opinion. There were some really good pictures (some Picassos ;) ) but nothing too extraordinary. They showed some movies of Gunvor Nelson, a swedish film maker/artist who made some interesting art-movies - mostly in the 70s and 80s up to today.
In the afternoon I met Linda, a swedish girl I know from a Rufus Wainwright Message Board. Together we went to the concert arena and waited for the concert to begin...and that was the Highlight of the whole weekend! The concert was amazing and the audience was in the perfect mood. Believe it or not, but Rufus is a much better entertainer than Robbie Williams. He's sincere, honest and really charming.
At half past 7 Rufus and his 7 bandmembers entered the stage and started the show which ended up being an amazing night full of surprises and greatness. He wore a green suit which glowed in the dark (*lol*) and after a 10 minutes break he changed to his fabulous Lederhosen from Austria ;). The encore was amazing...for the last 2 songs Rufus got dressed on stage - he was wearing a bath robe sat down and started putting on lipstick, high heels,... I know, this sounds freaky, but the crowed went wild. Then it got dark, the music started and his band members came on stage, wearing black suits and dancing a funny choreography...Rufus sang Judy Garland's "Get Happy" (original Judy Version... RUFUS VERSION). He ended the show singing "Gay Messiah"...
It was an amazing show (oh, I think I already mentioned that several times*lol*).
However, I could go on forever about the show... but I think I won't waste your time any longer ;)
Tonight we have a big christmas-dinner in my corridor, since this will be one of the last evenings where everybody is here... :(
On Friday we'll fly to Kiruna (that's in the far north) and I'm really looking forward to that. Although it will be really cold (today it has -12 degrees) but we will get warm clothes up there...

bye
manuel
PS: As always - you can watch some pictures HERE (I didn't take many pictures on the concert since they always end up looking blurry...)

Westcoast :)

Hejhej :)

Well, a lot has happened since last week...but let's start from the beginning.
First of all - I passed my Digital Imaging Exam...! I'm so relieved, because I thought I had failed ...but thank god, I didn't - which is quite surprising, considering that 10 of 17 students failed...(as you can see, Exchange Students HAVE to study to pass an exam...).
What else happened...last Sunday we baked christmas cookies, which was really cool and fun - in the end we had 6 different kinds of cookies - all of them taste great. (both pictures (c) by Elisabeth).
However, on thursday we had a huge international dinner at the university - every nation (well, almost) prepared some typical dish and we - the Austrians - made an "Apfelstrudel" with Vanilla Cream. It was really cool to taste all the meals - my favourite was the swiss "Käsefundue" - finally something that reminded me of Vorarlberg ;)
Speaking of which - I'm really looking forward to going home over Christmas. The closer it gets, the more I think about all the things I miss (well, kind of). Small things, like eating Austrian sausages (I don't like swedish sausages...believe it or not, they taste totally different), seeing mountains (although I already know that I will be annoyed by them after 1 day). And of course to see my family and friends again :)
Let's not get too sentimental...I'd rather tell you about the amazing trip to the westcoast.

On Friday Harry, Claudia, Elisabeth, Lena and I drove to the Westcoast - once again we started at 7 o'clock and drove to Fjällbacka, which is a small town at the coast. Ingrid Bergman used to go there regularly (it was her favourite town), that's why the main square is named after her. (some random information...in case you ever have to know it). The weather wasn't that nice, so we had to imagine how lovely the town must be in summer. We climbed on a rocky hill where we had a great view to over the town, the sea and many archipelagos...
Afterwards we drove to Smögen, another small town on an archipelago. We stayed in a cosy Hostel, directly by the sea. We even went to the sauna (small red building on the pic), which was next to the hostel - and afterwards we (well, Harry and I) sprang into the swedish sea to get a refreshment ;). It was really cool (*lol* notice the wordplay ;) )...
The next day we went to Lysekil, which is located at the Gullmarsfjord. The town itself wasn't that impressive, but the Fjord was quite nice, in my opinion. We drove on to Håverud to watch the aqueduct. We saw some amazing pictures of it in a travel guide but when we came to the Bridge of the aqueduct, we weren't impressed at all. There was a small sign saying that they open the sluices once a day - for five minutes - and only during summer. So our timing was really bad... Nevertheless, it was nice seeing it - and I learned what an aqueduct is, because I had never heard of it before...
The trip to the wecstcoast was really beautiful - Smögen and Fjällbaka are the typical swedish postcard motives with the sea, archipelagos, narrow red houses,... If I ever have enough money, I'll buy a summer residence there ;)
As always - you can watch some pictures on Flickr.

Today (Sunday) we'll go to a small christmas market in Karlstad - I'm already looking forward to that.
Next weekend I'm heading to Stockholm (again) to see Rufus Wainwright live (finally :) ) and buy some christmas presents... On the 7th of december we go to Kiruna (in the far north) and 11 days later I'm heading home...time goes by so fast....

Bye
Manuel

Stockholm...

Yesterday night I came back from Stockholm - I finally managed to go there. After 3 months in Sweden it was about time to go to the capital city.
We - Elisabeth, Harry (both from Austria) and Heidi (Finland) arrived in Stockholm on friday morning around 11 a.m. Since it's getting dark around half past 3 now and all the museums close at 4 we had to hurry to see something of Stockholm. We went on a boat-sightseeing tour and to the Astrid Lindgreen Museum "Junibacken". It's a really nice place, especially for Lindgren Fans and - of course - for children. Sitting in a small train you drive through the stories of Astrid Lindgren, and although it's mainly for children, we really enjoyed it there. In the evening we walked around the Gamla Stan (the Old Town), bought some souvenirs and went to a really cosy Pub.
The next day we got up quite early to go shopping and to see the Royal Palace. The palace looks quite interesting and nice, though you can't compare it to the Schloss Schönbrunn or any other Palace in Austria. We didn't go inside, because they had some technical problems (whatever) when we wanted to go inside and since we wanted to go to "Skansen" we didn't have much time to wait. Skansen is a huge open air museum/park/zoo on one of Stockholms islands. It was the world's first open air museum and shows a lot of old swedish houses. There are also a lot of nordic plants and animals, which makes the park really interesting. You could spend a whole day there, looking at the animals, the houses, the old shops or just walking around.
We had a good time there - and finally I saw a living elk ;) and reindeer.
All in all I have to say that Stockholm is a very beautiful city and definitely worth to visit. All the small Islands, the old buildings, fashionable (and mostly good looking) people, a very lively bar/pub scene and interesting museums make it to a very unique and cool city.
In 2 weeks (1st weekend in december) I'll go there again - on my own. I'm really looking forward to explore more of this amazing city. :)
To see some pictures - click here.

Walk to the lake

Well, just a short entry - I uploaded some new pics. Click here to see them.
I walked to the Vänernlake today - finally. I planned to do that for quite a while, but never had enough time to do it. But today I got up and thought that I should do it, since I don't have to study or work on a project. It's quite a long walk, so it takes some time to get there (all in all it took me 3 hours to go there and back home). It was really beautiful and I took many pictures.
!!! - you won't see any human being on the pictures! Only trees, water, more trees and sometimes even stones ;)

Well, that's it for now - I've written everything else in my last entry (Halloween and 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

RoadTrip

Hejhej :)

Well, after I've recovered from my muscle ache from thursday, I went to a Roadtrip to Örebro. Harry, Claudia and Elisabeth, the other Austrian guys, took me with them (thank u :) ).
We drove to Örebro, watched the sights there and went strolling through the city. Örebro is a really nice town with a very beautiful castle. I guess it's really romantic in springtime, because the river that surrounds the castle has a lot of water lilies. Obviously, they weren't in flower anymore.
In Örebro there's also a mushroom-shaped water tower. When I first saw the pics I thought that it's not really beautiful and nothing special, but as soon as I stood next to it, I changed my mind. Still, is certainly not the most beautiful building in the world, but it's quite nice. And you have a great view from top of it.
Afterwards we drove to a hill a few miles south of Örebro. There was an exhibition called "Konst på hög" and there were some really strange, but somehow good-looking things to look at. (check the pictures here to see the obscure objects).
In Karlskoga we went to the Alfred Nobel Museum, which was quite interesting, but you didn't really learn much about his live. Basically you just saw his house and the rooms he used to work in. However, it was quite interesting and especially the area around the house is really beautiful.
Kristinehamn was the last station of our Road Trip. It's a small town near Karlstad and there's a Picasso statue. It's nice, but nothing too special. I was more interested in the cool looking tree opposite the statue ;)
We came home around 7 o'clok and I was really exhausted...but there was a Theme-Party going on (Dress up as your favourite movie star) and since I told everybody that I'll be there, I had no other chance than going. But I didn't dress up, because I had a) no idea and b) nothing funny to wear. Some people were really dressed up which was really funny ;) I met Superman, 2 pretty women and hang out with Madonna (see pic). Probably I'll dress up on the next party, depending on the theme ;) Although I was tired, it was a funny party.
I'm already looking forward to the next weekend - on Friday there's Sofia's Birthdayparty (the finnish girl on my corridor) and on Saturday I want to go the Nöjesfabriken.
But before the weekend I have to study...I must write an essay about the differences of the Swedish anti-discrimination laws compared to the Austrian ones *yuck* I'm so glad when this course (Aspects of Sweden) is over...
Well, that's it so far... I'll write again as soon as something spectacular, important, unbelievable, whatever thing happens. Meanwhile, you can check the Örebropictures and the new Partypics...
Manuel