eleven: April 2005

at the bus stop.. heading to the beach to BBQ!!!

trying to start the BBQ fire....

We started the fire in less than 15 mins!! Power sia...! haha..

Check out the nice fire!!

happily BBQing...

this is the sand at the beach that we were at... it is so colourful!!! thick because it is a pebble beach.. thats why.!

a bit of the sun came out for a while.. but still cold... *brrr...*

The last chicken wing of the BBQ!! VERY VERY VERY TASTY! ( cos bbq by me..... heh..)

This is the small town Granna, that is the starting town of the worldwide candy.. called polkagris in swedish.. red and white striped..

Making the sweet, polkagris...

the end product!! Polkagris!

they gave us a freshly made one to try!! it was still hot..!

polkagris in the many different flavours..

full of polkagris!!!

a picture of troll. a myth creature that is in the deep forests..

The ferry that we took to go to the island in the middle of the lake.. it ferries cars as well..

the tunnel leading to the runied castle.. this was a castle ruined by the vikings on the island Visingsor. This island is in the middle of the lake..

outside the ruined castle.

In side the ruined castle.. all of us..

The Bishops Arms bar.. a bar in many parts of Europe who has 100 over beers from all over the world for sale.. Impressive huh?!

all of us in the Bishops' Arms Bar

Kailing's visit, together to BBQ and nearby towns

2 days before i went for the east europe expedition, Kailing ( from crescent) and Cheryl ( From NJ) came from london to visit me in my town. And, me together with my roomie and my 2 hong kong friends prepared a BBQ and a visit to a nearby town called Granna. Then, from Granna, we took a ferry to the island in the middle of a lake, Visingor.

The weather of the days that they were here were not very good, it kept drizzling and was cold.. so.. the BBQ was cold and didn't last very long too. "A pity!" We brought about a quarter of the food back to our homes to cook for dinner..

The next day, we went to Granna. it is about a 45 mins bus ride from my town. Granna is the town that first produces this particular sweet that is now available all around the world. In swedish, the name of the sweet is called Polkagris. It is the red-and-white striped candy. A famous version of it is the candy cane. (ring any bell?)

Then, we proceeded to the island in the middle the biggest lake in Sweden, Lake Vattern. This island is called Visingor and has many trails left behind by the Vikings. ( you know, pirates-like men.. haha..) Yup, it was very quiet there, probably cos it is not summer yet.. so, we only stayed there for a short while.

Yup, anyway, posted the photos as well. You can see the ruined castle at Visingor and the famous sweet that i am talking about.

-Choy-

photos taken when we were on the the train.. that we called it "polar Express" as it brings us to the north!

things outside the train got more and more "snowy" as we progress more and more north..

doesn't this resemble those scenes we see in the storybooks depicting how the north pole looks like?

After the long 23 hours train ride, we finally arrived at the north pole! the north side of sweden, KIRUNA!

the whole place is so cold that they have road signs made of ice!!! this sign shows speed limit 80km/h

everywhere is SNOW! beautiful snow! not the kind that i see in my town..

all the snow.. they are so thick that they act like fences along the roads.. i love the houses here.. they just look different.. very beautiful with the snow stacked so thickly on their roofs..

so much snow that they just piled them up... not knowing what to do with them..

look carefully and you will see the igloos.. it is near the blue slide.. just behind the fence..

360 degrees view of the scenery in Kiruna, the north.

the locker like thing that i told you guys about.. this is what they kept dogs in.. look carefully into the top second one and you see a dog's nose poking out..

reindeer skin.. to sit on..

this is how a dog sleigh looks like.. 5 dogs will be tied to the front.. and, the one in blue and yellow. its me.. haiz.. i know the colour combi a bit off.. but the man gave me a yellow pants... no choice..

preparing ourselves for the dog sleigh!

doesn't the sleigh dog look beautiful?

this is how the gods pull the sleigh... and in the background you can see someone orange and someone blue, they are driving the sleighs.. have to stand behind the sleighs.. the one in blue and yellow is me!