Stockholm CNY (16th to 18th Feb)

My first CNY away from home.. decided to make a long-awaited trip down to Stockholm to join the guys for reunion dinner... Stockholm's really different from Linkoping.. you practically see asians everywhere you go... the capital also feels more lively and vibrant.. Anyway didnt really do much on the first night besides cooking a successful meal of carbonara with duan and heading down to town for some nightspots to chill with a couple of NOC guys.. but wasnt all that happening at the club since the ppl seemed to belong to another generation and the music sounded really weird..

Our first attempt at homecooked carbonara... Tastes GOOD!

Duan brought me around to explore the various parts of the city the following day... Well, as usual he was busy with his photo-taking while i had to play his porter carrying his camera bag around (kinda like Phileas Fogg and his manservant Passepartout).. but no complaints since i left some of my stuff in his bag too.. headed down to Gamla Stan which is the old town of Stockholm... it was a splendid trip indeed... the town consists of medieval alleyways, cobbled streets, and archaic architecture.. we visited the Royal Palace built in the 18th century guarded by Swedish soldiers and also marvelled at the charm of its medieval and Renaissance architecture of the town.. the cafes and restaurants along the streets exhibited a delightful ambience in the evening hours..

Stockholm City:

The Master...
And his Slave.

The main shopping street: Drottninggatan

The shopping malls:

Gotta try this sometime man!

Gamla Stan: Royal Palace

We found this in one of the alleys... not sure what it symbolises though.
Care for some Ice-cream in this cold weather?

Our reunion dinner plan met with a major hiccup as 4 of the group were trapped in Riga.. me duan and jm had no choice but to go ahead without them.. it wasnt exactly that bad since the 3 of us got to finish up all the meat that we bought... had a great time gorging ourselves though cooking in 2 pathetically minute rice-cookers which took ages for the soup to boil...

The spread...
With the dwindled participants...

Woke up really early the next morning to skype home to wish my granny and family... Feels really weird that i'm seeing them on the computer this year round... but it certainly feels good to see everyone happy... I miss my new year goodiesss!

Okie that's all for now.. time to hit the sack.. enjoy the pics and Happy Chinese New Year everyone! ;) Anyway thanks to duan for his kind hospitality!