let's start off this post with something i really love - Twix. huiyu and yd, i found white chocolate twix (twix, always the memories of st.nicks)! michelle, let's try to hunt this down back in Newcastle. apparently its limited edition. hrm.

we stepped out into the warm sunlight...

to T-Centralen. the trains in Stockholm are clean and efficient...people are allowed to eat on the trains but they remain relatively clean, as compared to London's tube.

the interior of the trains. they announce the next stop, and flash it above our heads too. the same goes for buses, which we found really helpful given we didn't know our directions.

first stop, Drottningholm Palace. well, dawen suggested that we have ice-cream before we start looking at the place proper.

and while we were standing around enjoying our ice-cream and the view (and the bloody cold wind), we saw some Chinese dude who looked a lot like dalun. we both did a double take and started giggling. and that's the Drottningholm Royal Palace in the background.

finishing our ice-cream before we enter the palace,

and fooling around with the four statues.

the view from the entrance of the Drottningholm Royal Palace.

this is not an impressive picture of the palace, and we were not allowed photography inside. well, this palace is on UNESCO's World Heritage List - built in the 1600s in neo-classical style, it is one of the most preserved royal castles and the royal family still resides in the southern wing of the palace.

the back of the Royal Palace,

which leads to the entrance of The Palace Park.

well, too bad its winter.

much of the prettier sights were kept off limits, but we still had a good walk through the Palace Park. there were families out for the weekend too, parents pushing prams, kids running around in the open space. definitely not something you'll see much in Singapore.

in the Royal Park, with the Palace in the background.

the next stop and after was a little bit hectic. by the time we got the the next station (Karlaplan) it was around 2.30pm. there were loads of museums and sights in the area, and because of the lack of time (most close at around 4pm), we chose only Skansen (largest open-air museum) and Vasamuseet (recommended by jilyn). well, when we saw only kids streaming out of Skansen, we were wondering if we made the correct decision in forsaking other museums for Skansen.

we headed straight for the Scandinavian Animals section and saw this pretty horse (okay, i admit, i forgot the name).

and dawen was really excited, because we saw the horse poop. straight after its keeper was done cleaning its enclosure. the poop was warm, you could see the smoke in the cold...and smelly. we immediately headed off to see...

the boar. who was happily satisfying an itch by rubbing against the huge log. it was pretty amusing, everyone around was laughing at it.

wolverine? hrm. small and bouncy little thing.

ugh, i couldn't capture a good picture of this animal, and i can't recall its name either. it looked like a cross between a cat, a leopard and a tiger.

the reindeer's butt. dawen really wanted to see the reindeers, but those two buggers only cooperated with the two girls who were taking photos before us. when our turn came, they turned around almost immediately.

this is a peek of how the rest of Skansen looks, roads that lead you up to other museums/displays. there was a glass museum but we missed the glass-blowing demonstration. there were loads more to see, but we didn't have the time, and the mini zoo was also closed for winter. if we had the time, we would have taken a more relaxing walk through the entire place, which i felt was more like a park than the fancy-named 'open air museum'. haha.

yep, we definitely enjoyed Skansen, despite the short hour we spent inside.

Nordiska Museet, which we walked past but didn't visit. :(

dawen said that i had to have this in my blog. he claims that the block of buildings really resemble the HDB flats in Tampines, complete with a MacDonald's at the 'void deck'. well, except for the yellow taxi that looks slightly out of place in a Singaporean setting, i suppose it does look a little like the heartland.

final stop, Vasamuseet. this ship was built by the orders of Gustavus Adolphus in the 1600s, took only about over 2 years to build, to be used in the war against Poland. unfortunately, the huge ship sank just after over 1km into its journey. there were attempts to retrieve the shipwreck, given how expensive it was to build the ship, but it was only only (re)discovered in the 1956, and wholly moved back to the shore in the 1960s.

how it all looks like now after restoration and preservation,

but this is how the ship looked just before it set sail - extremely colourful. the above picture shows the Vasa coat of arms, with gilded gold. the guided tour and film helped tremendously in explaining how the restoration and preservation works were done, as well as the history behind the shipwreck.

his main course - Flaskhoisette in Pepparsas. that's pork. really tender and juicy pork.

and of course, Swedish meatballs. :D