STOCKHOLM FINAL PART.

FINALLY, here's the final part of the Stockholm-series.

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Friday, 31st of December 2010.

Around 3pm

I am already on the plane back home. I got a seat next to the window which gives me a tremendous view. The sun is shining for the first time in 5 days. Yesterday was a very nice day. We went to Skansen. For the people who live in Belgium: Skansen is like the Swedish variant of Bokrijk. It's a museum/amusement-park/zoo/everything built around the theme of Ancient Sweden. The houses are ancient (and original!) Swedish buildings. Some of them are open for visits and a couple of them have traditionally clothed actors in them telling about the life in ancient Sweden.

I also went for shopping in the afternoon. I hadn't bought anything yet and I still had somewhat 2000 SEK left. (about 200 euros) I spent it on a shirt and a scarf (both at H&M's of course). But when I walked back into the street, I accidentally put one foot in a huge pile of snow. 'No problem', I thought. But wrong I was. I hadn't noticed that there was something sharp in the pile of snow that put a whole in my shoe. My feet of course got all wet and ice-cold. I decided to buy some shoes as well. I first considered buying a new pair of All Stars. But I thought the ones I found there were kind of weird.

In one shop I saw a pair of really cool grey VANS. Unfortunately, they were on sale and they weren't available in my size anymore. (Yes! Sales (or 'rea') start mid-December in Sweden!) From that moment on I just kept on looking for VANS. I ran all the way through Stockholm and back. ( I literally ran because I had agreed on meeting the guys in front of the hotel at 7.30pm). And after a decent half hour of running and stumbling trough shopping streets, malls, weird alleys, etc, I found what I was looking for. Old-Fashioned Red-Awesome VANS!

At 7.30pm we had cheap but delicious dinner in a steak-house. We made a last late-night walk along the isle-shores of Stockholm before we said Goodbye.

Although I haven't got a lot of experience when it comes to visiting cities, I know that Stockholm is one of the nicest cities I know. I am DEFINITELY going back. I don't know when because I have trips planned in July and August. What's left for now is a beautiful memory of a mind-blowing city.

Goodbye Stockholm,

Yours truly.

PS: See you soon!

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PICTURE OF THE DAY.

This is 'Skansen'. Notice the coldness that really jumps off the buildings. :D

STOCKHOLM PART III

Damn, I should really get into posting again. It's just that I have been terribly busy! Here is the third part of my Stockholm-series!

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Wednesday, 29th of December 2010.

around 11pm.

After having enjoyed the delicious breakfast at the hotel. (Including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, grilled tomatoes and even a Japanese buffé) we took off for Östermalm. This is the northern island. Technically speaking, our hotel was on Östermalm. But the inner parts of Östermalm are quite different from the part along the shores of Lake Mälaren. It's more about urban functions. The social importance of this part of Stockholm is very high! We walked along a park, visited the city library and eventually settled in an old café. It was completely decorated in 50's style. The amazing part about this was knowing that the café was built and decorated in the 1950's by a man and his wife. Unfortunately the man died at an early age. His wife decided to keep her café just as it was and didn't change anything about it in some sort of remembrance to him. We had a drink and a snack there.

After our rather short visit to Östermalm we took the subway to Södermalm, the southern island. I can't really describe the city-function of Södermalm. I guess it is supposed to give residence to the lower classes. After walking through it,we continued our 50's way of thinking by going to the cinemas at Rio's. This is a little theater completely in 50's style. The film we saw was rather weird. Yet again I didn't really expect anything different since it was a German movie.

We had dinner and finished another great day. I was kinda' tired because I had been awake for some time. When Levi & Bert went for a morning-swim in the hotel's pool this morning, I saw my chance clear to go on my ritual solo-morning walk. It's some kind of a holiday-tradition for me. (Especially when staying in a city!) I get dressed, take my iPod, and just wander through town. I love the fact that all the inhabitants are having their morning routine. Catching buses, walking to the office and running to make it in time for the train. And between them, is me. Listening to music, taking pictures, ... I love it! It's my time alone with the city I temporary reside in but don't know.

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PICTURE OF THE DAY.

This is 'Sergels Torg' a modernistic tower, right in the city-center of Stockholm.

Edit: Picture taken during morning walk!

STOCKHOLM PART II

I finally found the time to post the sequel of the Stockholm-series. I hope you'll enjoy it. :D

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Tuesday, 28th of December 2010.

Around 11pm.

Okay, so today was our first real day in the city. And I must say it looks totally different in daylight. And I mean that in a good way! Today was kind of museum-day.

We visited:

• Nordiska Museet (www.nordiskamuseet.se)
  A museum about almost anything. A lot of temporary exhibitions. Slightly modernistic.
• Vasamuseet. (www.vasamuseet.se)
  Built around the discovery of an ancient viking-ship called 'Vasa'.
  
• Moderna Museet (www.modernamuseet.se)
  Mostly a gathering of temporary modern-art exhibitions. It contains works of Andy Warhol, Picasso, etc.
• Arkitekturmuseet. (www.arkitekturmuseet.se)
  Small museum about the national and international accomplishments within architecture throughout the history of mankind.
• Nationalmuseet. (www.nationalmuseum.se)
  Probably the most old-fashion museum. An impressive collection of ancient art (mostly paintings) by artists such as Rubens, Rembrandt, Manet, and many more. (I must say that it was a really pleasant experience.)

For me the most impressive one was the Nordiskamuseet. There was an incredible variety there. From modernistic exhibitions about the history and importance of plastic to the evolution and revolution of fashion. All this settled in an eye-capturing setting. The Nordiska museum, the largest in Scandinavia, is a beautiful building that really makes you hold your breath. (At least, that was what I experienced)

It was already dark outside at 3.15pm, which my body found hard to accept. At 4pm, I really had the feeling like it was already 8pm! After the numerous museums we visited we went to 'Gamla Stan' the oldest part of Stockholm. Here, the spirit of old-Stockholm is clearly to be seen. Tiny old buildings in dark but cosy alley-like streets. (all of them beautifully lit of course!)

We had dinner there and had a beautiful ending of a busy yet amazing day.

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PICTURE OF THE DAY.

This is one part of Stockholm's skyline. It was hard to take pictures with the early darkness, yet I succeeded in taking this one, which I am quite proud about.

STOCKHOLM PART I

So I promised you guys to publish my vacation-writings. I have to warn you though, The first part is not quite as positive as you might expect. But no worries, It's all coming together!

*- Ps, I hope I will find the time to publish the other 4 writings as well this week! If not, I'm sorry.

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Monday 27th of December 2010.

7pm

I hope I'll be able to say that Monday was: 'just a bad day' on Friday. Everything went well until we were ready to depart at Eindhoven Airport [Netherlands] . Our flight got one hour delayed. So we arrived at Skavsta Airport at about 6pm. Because This airport was some 80 kilometer remote from Stockholm city, there were coaches that took us from the airport to the city-center. But, because our flight was late, most buses had already left. The four of us were the last to step aboard of the 6.45 bus. But there were only 2 empty seats left. We first agreed on taking the next bus, but when the bus-driver said that the next one would not be here until 8.15pm we changed our minds. We had to check-in at the hotel at 8pm [The trip took about 80 minutes]. So Levi and I took the last seats on the bus and Alvin and Bert stayed at the airport waiting for the next bus. Ten minutes after we took off, Levi sent me a text (he was sitting in the back of the bus while I was in the front). He said that we needed Bert's credit-card to check in at the hotel.

I hope things will work out. Currently I'm sitting on the bus. It's 7.15pm. Another 40 minutes. I'm a bit worried about Bert & Alvin. I hope they are doing alright and they found a warm place to sit!

To close off this writing on a positive note: I really really enjoyed my first flying experience. Even despite all the delays. I am currently listening to Team William's 'First Snow'. The guy next to me has fallen asleep and I can't really enjoy the landscapes and surroundings because it's remarkably dark outside. I can tell though, that there's quite a lot of snow here. Oh, and minus 11 degrees Celsius isn't really a big thing here.

It feels weird to be some 1200 kilometers from home. But it really doesn't feel like that. I still think that if I would get stuck in traffic, my dad will be here in less than an hour to pick me up.

(:

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12pm (probably later)

Okay, I just scrapped some lines in the thing I wrote earlier. Levi and I arrived in an eye-capturing city that really blew me off my feet. It was hard to decide where to look first!

The lady at the lobby was extremely kind and she completely understood our situation. She gave us our room-keys (actually more like room-credit-cards, but who cares). We are staying at the prestigious Radisson-Blu hotel. It's an amazing hotel right in the center of the city.

While we had to wait for Bert & Alvin to arrive, we figured we could better do something useful, so we went for a first late-night walk through town.

PICTURE OF THE DAY.

(This picture was taken in the hotel's skybar. It's a bar at the top floor of the hotel that gives you an amazing view.)

2010, The day after.

I know it's kind of late to start thinking about 2010, but I wasn't able to do anything of this earlier. So I wanted to give you guys a summary of what has been going on in my life the past 365 days.

(and all this while I am listening to Christina Grimme's version of 'Little more us', check her out here.)

Best New Artist International 2010.

This was a hard one. There were a lot of new artists who were making their way to my ears this year*. Swedish house mafia, Bruno Mars, Rascal Flatts, Vampire Weekend, 30 seconds to mars, Owl City, Gregory & The Hawk and local natives did not make it. The winner is undoubtedly Mumford & Sons. With the number one single: 'Little Lion Man' they conquered pretty much the entire world, but most important they conquered my heart.

(* Please note that these artist might have been active for longer than one year.

The nominated ones are artists I discovered this year.)

Artist: Mumford & Sons

Album: Sigh no More

Discovered: January, 2010.

Favorite song: Gave you all

Artist of the year 2010:

This was a hard one as well. I could have easily picked Adele for her beautiful voice and her general awesomeness. But Paramore, Editors, The Script, Digitalism, Rihanna and many others deserve a mentioning as well. The absolute winner of this year is most definitely: The Fray. I bought their self-titled album somewhere mid-October, and I haven't stopped listening to it ever since.

Artist: The Fray

Album: The Fray (2)

Discovered: October, 2010

Favorite song: 'Say When'

Best Artist National 2010.

Belgium is more or less paradise for addicts of good music. This year I really loved the rise of: Absynthe Minded, Balthazar, Black Box Revelation, The Van Jets, Team William and Stromae. But the one who beat every single one of them is definitely Das Pop. It was the first of these I saw live and they have really blown me off my feet.

Artist: Das Pop

Album: Das Pop (Previously: 'Postcards from Fuckland)

Discovery: March, 2010?

Favorite song: 'Wings'

Miscellany:

Song of the year: 'Hometown Glory' - Adele

Movie of the year: 'Into the wild'

Moment of the year: This is quite a difficult one. I've experienced a lot of remarkable moments this year - good and bad. Like when we were dancing to 'In zaïre' on our school prom, realising that all the shitty things about school were over, but all the fun things about it as well. Or when Sacha and me biked across the school square reminiscing about the past with the sun setting behind us. Or The moment when I saw Alina walk down the aisle in June like it was the last time I was going to see her and I almost started to cry because of the insecurity of the future.

Picture of the year: Most definitely this one. It was taken in July when we came

back from our trip to Rotterdam, Netherlands. And we decided to have a small pic-nic in the backyard of Michelle. We were acting a bit foolish and started taking weird picture.

Don't mind the yellowness of my arm. It's just a weird effect of my camera.

Okay, this has to be the longest post I ever made.

I hope I didn't bore you guys to death. =D

Keep enjoying everything that happened in 2010!

Bring it on, 2011.