Sweden part 1
My first overall impressions of Stockholm thusfar:
The whole country is a huge IKEA showroom! Our hotel is very neat and sparky and shiny... chrome, glass, hardwood and interesting looking furniture. They're really big on the votive candles too they are everywhere at all the cafes and resteraunts...Today will be an interesting day as this is our first real day exploring beyond our hotel and general area.
After shopping in Globen City, (there are quite a few shops there btw!) we had a meal at Globen Star where we discovered chantrells... the most yummy mushrooms made into a soup that I've ever tasted! I'm not sure if they are regional to Sweden but ooh they are good! :) The stores are pretty much what you'd find just about everywhere you go, just keep in mind the language barrier. If you ask a Swede "tallar du engelska?" most will nod yes and then you can go about your exchange. They are very helpful and nice and I will admit that by the end of the trip I was picking up basic phrases and questions without too much problem. The funny thing is that when you greet a Swede, you use the word "Hej" pronounced "Hey" which of course here is a very casual greeting too... so, if they say 'hej' to you, it was very easy to just say 'hej' back and then they start speaking to you in Swedish and well... *grin*.... I learned how to say 'sorry I don't understand Swedish'... and that helped much!
There were only 2 people on the whole trip whom we encountered who didn't speak any English... so all in all good.
On Nov 2, I and Shannon went our seperate ways for the morning. He went in search of a comic shop in Gamlastan (old town) and I went into central Stockholm to meet up with a guy named Johan to discuss this very interesting navagation system they've been working on called e-adept http://www.eadept.se/Templates/Article0.aspx?PageID=618ea136-9f01-4172-b03a-0852776c65c7
i spent the morning with Johan going through the technology and an in house demo. Unfortunately we couldn't go out and test it live as the developers were doing something with the servers and that would have caused an issue trying to receive up to date info from all the appropriate databases. But what I did see was very interesting. It has many different practical applications not just for those who are visually impaired, but for those who have cognative disabilities or those who might have difficulty reading or something. It's a little different than google maps or the maps on your iphone etc... the digitized maps are only available on a nokia phone at the moment, but in time that might change to have the service available to BB, Android and iphone.
Our Globen hotel had as a part of their service, free wi fi and free continental breakfast. Free wi fi was the original game winner and I thought that breakfast would be just an added bonus. Based on my past experiences on what continental breakfast was, I thought oh, a toaster, some bagels, toast and maybe some juice... since we were on the same floor as the restaurant we'd give it a go one morning.... colour me surprised when I found that yes, there was bread, and toast, but also, scrambled eggs, soft boiled eggs, Swedish pancakes, sausages, beans, cheese, coldcuts, fish, vegetables, cereal, yogurt, smoothies, juice, tea, coffee, strudel and cinnamon rolls.... EVERY MORNING!! Both Shannon and I had our favorites... I usually had, buns, 2 soft boiled eggs, some bacon, coffee, juice and strudel.... oh it was so yummy!! The running joke for the day was to wake up to get there for 6:30 to get there for "juuuuiiiiiiice" cuz the exotic juice that tastes just like 5 alive was what we were there for. :) You had to get there early as if you came after 8am, the room was full and there was nowhere to sit.
As far as Nov 2 goes, the only thing I can really remember about what we did that day after our seperate outings, I think we just tootled around Globen city shops looking at the stores. Whilst sitting at a cafe or a resteraunt, it was fun to find out if we had free wifi... We were granted access to the homerun network there to which we had to enter a username/pw everyday as the cards we had only lasted 24 hours. It's a far reaching network for sure. We were in central stockholm accessing the network so it was kinda neat to check in and update my fb status when standing in the middle of Kulturehusset.
There was one afternoon where Shannon was tired and he took an afternoon nap... so, I went out by myself and walked along globen city square to find out what was there. There was one big place there called "Hovet" that we kept passing, which I never did go into... I dunno why, but I always thought of it being a 'hospital' or something. (but now that i've googled it) Hovet is the ice hokey arena. Well no wonder there was a crowd around it! :) So, I walked as far to the end of the square as I could, and just as I get to the end by the 2nd train station, what do I find? A Subway restaraunt! I coulnd't not just pass it by... I had to go and get me a roasted chicken sandwich. So, after asking if the employee spoke english (which she did), I got me a footlong with all my prefered fixings with this oh my god... this.... garlic sauce Vidloksdressing they call it... Oh YUMMY!!! Needless to say, I had to take Shannon back there. So, during the week, I had 3 yawbusses with that marvelous vidloksdressing! :)
The whole country is a huge IKEA showroom! Our hotel is very neat and sparky and shiny... chrome, glass, hardwood and interesting looking furniture. They're really big on the votive candles too they are everywhere at all the cafes and resteraunts...Today will be an interesting day as this is our first real day exploring beyond our hotel and general area.
After shopping in Globen City, (there are quite a few shops there btw!) we had a meal at Globen Star where we discovered chantrells... the most yummy mushrooms made into a soup that I've ever tasted! I'm not sure if they are regional to Sweden but ooh they are good! :) The stores are pretty much what you'd find just about everywhere you go, just keep in mind the language barrier. If you ask a Swede "tallar du engelska?" most will nod yes and then you can go about your exchange. They are very helpful and nice and I will admit that by the end of the trip I was picking up basic phrases and questions without too much problem. The funny thing is that when you greet a Swede, you use the word "Hej" pronounced "Hey" which of course here is a very casual greeting too... so, if they say 'hej' to you, it was very easy to just say 'hej' back and then they start speaking to you in Swedish and well... *grin*.... I learned how to say 'sorry I don't understand Swedish'... and that helped much!
There were only 2 people on the whole trip whom we encountered who didn't speak any English... so all in all good.
On Nov 2, I and Shannon went our seperate ways for the morning. He went in search of a comic shop in Gamlastan (old town) and I went into central Stockholm to meet up with a guy named Johan to discuss this very interesting navagation system they've been working on called e-adept http://www.eadept.se/Templates/Article0.aspx?PageID=618ea136-9f01-4172-b03a-0852776c65c7
i spent the morning with Johan going through the technology and an in house demo. Unfortunately we couldn't go out and test it live as the developers were doing something with the servers and that would have caused an issue trying to receive up to date info from all the appropriate databases. But what I did see was very interesting. It has many different practical applications not just for those who are visually impaired, but for those who have cognative disabilities or those who might have difficulty reading or something. It's a little different than google maps or the maps on your iphone etc... the digitized maps are only available on a nokia phone at the moment, but in time that might change to have the service available to BB, Android and iphone.
Our Globen hotel had as a part of their service, free wi fi and free continental breakfast. Free wi fi was the original game winner and I thought that breakfast would be just an added bonus. Based on my past experiences on what continental breakfast was, I thought oh, a toaster, some bagels, toast and maybe some juice... since we were on the same floor as the restaurant we'd give it a go one morning.... colour me surprised when I found that yes, there was bread, and toast, but also, scrambled eggs, soft boiled eggs, Swedish pancakes, sausages, beans, cheese, coldcuts, fish, vegetables, cereal, yogurt, smoothies, juice, tea, coffee, strudel and cinnamon rolls.... EVERY MORNING!! Both Shannon and I had our favorites... I usually had, buns, 2 soft boiled eggs, some bacon, coffee, juice and strudel.... oh it was so yummy!! The running joke for the day was to wake up to get there for 6:30 to get there for "juuuuiiiiiiice" cuz the exotic juice that tastes just like 5 alive was what we were there for. :) You had to get there early as if you came after 8am, the room was full and there was nowhere to sit.
As far as Nov 2 goes, the only thing I can really remember about what we did that day after our seperate outings, I think we just tootled around Globen city shops looking at the stores. Whilst sitting at a cafe or a resteraunt, it was fun to find out if we had free wifi... We were granted access to the homerun network there to which we had to enter a username/pw everyday as the cards we had only lasted 24 hours. It's a far reaching network for sure. We were in central stockholm accessing the network so it was kinda neat to check in and update my fb status when standing in the middle of Kulturehusset.
There was one afternoon where Shannon was tired and he took an afternoon nap... so, I went out by myself and walked along globen city square to find out what was there. There was one big place there called "Hovet" that we kept passing, which I never did go into... I dunno why, but I always thought of it being a 'hospital' or something. (but now that i've googled it) Hovet is the ice hokey arena. Well no wonder there was a crowd around it! :) So, I walked as far to the end of the square as I could, and just as I get to the end by the 2nd train station, what do I find? A Subway restaraunt! I coulnd't not just pass it by... I had to go and get me a roasted chicken sandwich. So, after asking if the employee spoke english (which she did), I got me a footlong with all my prefered fixings with this oh my god... this.... garlic sauce Vidloksdressing they call it... Oh YUMMY!!! Needless to say, I had to take Shannon back there. So, during the week, I had 3 yawbusses with that marvelous vidloksdressing! :)