Thank you redzman!

I was told by Shaun that Redz suggested the herbal soup and chilli powder =)
It's so cool that you'd even think about what I'm missing up here.
Thank you for being there for Shaun while I'm away, and keeping him company and keeping his sanity. You're a great friend Rez and I can't wait to see you again!

Special Delivery!

Yesterday I received a call from the post office telling me to try and be home between 12-2pm as I have a parcel that would be delivered to me around that time. I knew at once it was what Shaun sent me 2 weeks ago and boy was I excited! So I set my alarm for 11:55am and waited and waited until it finally arrived at a quarter to 2pm. It was much bigger than I had expected...Wheeeee!

I had to rush of to meet the guys and go to storeheden for a day of shopping, so I didn't get to open my package. When I finally got home at 8pm, I was famished. So I made myself a simple dinner of pan roasted vegetables accompanied by Knäckebröd (hard, crisp, bread) and a dessert of berry yogurt with orange bits topped of with almonds. And the package just waited patiently on the couch for me, looking very beautiful and inviting - with its stamps amounting to SGD$90 :s
Finally I was ready and had all the time I needed to open my package. I sized it up and delicately unstuck the tape all around by hand. I didn't want to ruin the box =) When I finally got it open I felt like a little kid who just chanced upon some stash of treasure...you know how the yellow of the gold would reflect onto the face of the kid making him glow as he smiled widely? Well that was me.
My wonderful sweetie didn't even ask me what I wanted and still he got it all right. Japanese curry - 2 packs mind you. Sayur Lodeh mix, herbal soup mix, chicken rice mix and my all time favourite spicy, sticky, crunchy tapioca chips!!!! I guess 8 years is not enough to know everything there is to know about someone, but it is enough to develop a small area of expertise, such as 'Shila's eating habits' in Shaun's case :pThe main event was a T-shirt I got him some time back, complete with his scent (I got him to sit around in it for a couple of hours before sending it over) and an envelop with writing on it that caught me by surprise. But it's the stuff inside that me feel all nostalgic and made me miss Shaun so much more.
The boy had written me notes on the receipts and napkins of restaurants we used to frequent. An especially bittersweet one was the Azabu Sabo one, where he kept looking at our usual orders in the menu and the booth seat we always take and started to feel really sad I wasn't there =( My own little lovelorn romantic. You're the best babe,thank you so much! I can't tell you just how much I appreciate this :)
The only problem is how I'm gonna finish all the food before I leave and, I'm desperately trying to loose the 5kg I put on here...now it is going to be even more impossible :/

Week 47

It is week 47 in school and things have been picking up quite a lot. I've been working on essays and I'm left with one more on The Grapes of Wrath and a take home exam which will come sometime in early December.
For the past 2 days I have sat in my room like some social recluse typing and reading away furiously so get work out of the way so that my plans for the week will not be ruined and I'm happy to announce that everything will go as planned.
The Shils pulled it off =D My thanks to Maccy Mac Lappy.

Well I've also been keeping the boys here happy with my unpredictable urges to whip up food at or past midnight. On Saturday after a party, I decided to make apple crumble at 3am...that was fun. And then on Sunday I went over to Vishnu's with everything I needed to make chocolate Swedish pancakes and whipped up a nice warm batch that we enjoyed.
Vishnu has developed a love affair with crumbles. Leave out the fruit, just give the boy some topping!
I've come to realise that my days in Lulea are numbered. I teachnically only have a month here and then I leave to run around Europe for a while before returning back home. We had a planning meeting to decide how we'll be traveling. We all decided to make it a potluck, so I made thai fishcakes (again), (adulterated) Greek tomato keftedes and the starwberry crumble in the picture above.
Vishnu made a great spicy fried bee hoon and chicken curry, while Jason made yam rice which was such comfort food. And dale made chew sweet potato fritters that his roomie form China taught him, very tasty morsels indeed.

It turns out that we all might only end up meeting sometimes, and even that depends on the trains - how full they are and if there are delays. Plus it's the holiday season so everyone will be traveling to go back to home towns and what not. I'm fine with traveling alone now, it's just that I think being alone for Christmas and New Year's would be really tragic.

I'm looking to begin from Stockholm and fly to London.
From London onwards I'll be taking the train to all my destinations:
Paris ->Belgium/Luxumberg/Holland ->Berlin -> Prauge -> Zurich -> Nice/Monaco ->Pisa/Rome/Vatican
And I'll fly back to Stockholm from somewhere in Italy. Grab my stuff and fly home to Singapore.

I. Hate. Planning.

Living In A Winter Wonderland!

Okay, I know the title is corny...but really, Lulea is so beautiful all covered in glistening white snow. It is getting a lot colder though. It was pretty much averaging zero degrees to -2 all the time until this morning. I woke up at 8am and the first thing I did was to check the thermometer in the living room. It was -8.8 degrees! So I figured it was still early and things will warm up in an hour since i only had to leave at 9. So at 9, just before leaving home I went to check again and it was -9.2! So much for positive thinking. I decided to ditch the bike and walk to school instead because I was bundled up pretty well, which meant I would have less manoeuvring capabilities. Well I slipped and kinda fell on the way to school but I was quick to react and saved myself from a full on fall, so all was okay. And I was walking fast, so I broke out into a small sweat too!

After class, I bumped into a Swedish schoolmate, Alex, and we were chatting for a while. I said I was about to go home and he had nothing to do so he walked me home and I invited him in for coffee and ice cream. We ended up chatting for more than 3 hours and as he was leaving he said that we should coin a new word ' hanging-in' (indoors) which would be perfect for this kind of weather cos its just too cold to 'hang-out' (outdoors). I thought it was cute coming from him.

Well besides just 'hanging in', a whole bunch of us decided to take a trip to a ski slope about a one hour walk away...yes we walked in the cold...
By the time we got there I could not feel my toes but that did not stop me from getting into my trash bag and sliding down the hill! I also rolled around in the snow a bit and made a snow angel!
Oh and with snow comes snow sculptures! But my neighbour Katalin thinks that snowmen are so boring, so here's what she made on the ledge of her balcony...
A Snow Sheep! Too cute right?!

But not all is fun and games...Grocery shopping is not fun in the cold AT ALL. Given the ridiculous bus timings here, missing a bus means waiting 40mins in the cold for the next one. And when you shop for 3 weeks at one go, it is really hard to carry everything then your fingers have gone completely numb from the weight plus the icy weather. Anyway, we played charades from Vishnu's iPhone while stranded at the bus stop. Here's Bryan and I looking like a bunch of shady hobos.

But as always, I get by with a little help (and warmth) from my friends!

Flatemate Dinner! This time it's East-Meets-West!

Time really flies. It feels like it was just a few days ago that I experimented with my sweet potato onde-ondes, but in fact many weeks have passed and today was my turn to cook for the girls again. I took a lot of time to think about this one and I finally came up with a menu that seemed plausible.
-Citrus Jasmine Rice
-Attah's Tomato soup
-Thai Fishcakes
-Strawberry Clafouti [traditional French dessert]

As usual, I wrote the menu on the fridge 2 days ago so that anyone could object if they were not feeling it - not that it has ever happened, but we don't want to end up serving something someone would hate. Thankfully everyone just told me how interesting it sounded.

So this afternoon at 2:45 after I got back from church, wishing my dad 'Happy Swedish Father's Day ' and talking to Redzman and Shaun for a bit, I got cracking.

I think the hardest part is not cooking per se, but cooking everything at ONCE. It's a lot of multitasking to ensure that no time is wasted. So while I defrosted the fish for the fishcakes, I chopped up everything and boiled all the potatoes I needed. While mashing the fish and other ingredients for the fishcakes I got the rice going. While baking the Clafouti I started pan-frying the fishcakes. Wah Piang Eh!

In the background were Kenza and Lucie going "Shila! Shila! We're HUNGRY!!!" or "Shila! I'm so hungry I'm gonna eat my slippers!". It was really funny but I felt bad that they were starving. I promised dinner at 7, but it was served at 6:45 =D Not much, but for someone who cooks as slowly as me, preparing a four course dinner for 4 hungry girls in 4 hours is no small matter.

Kenza was watching me cook for a while and she announced to the other two, "I know why Shila cooks so slowly. She takes the vegetable, feels it, looks at it, cuts it so gently and kindly..." I thought she was so funny, I just told them I like to "respect my ingredients". But I must say all the girls in my flat are good cooks, especially Kenza, who remains unfrazzled at the prospect of cooking couscous and accompanying gravy with vegetables and roasted chicken for 20 people!

I digress.....here's how it turned out! Click on the names of the dishes for the recipes.
Thai Fishcakes. Bad picture, I assure you they look a lot better in real life.
Clafouti. For how good it tastes, it was ridiculously simple.
The whole shebang :) With Citrus Rice still in the pots.

The girls were all smiles and the plates were empty, so I'm satisfied.

Spain and Portugal!

This is really hard...I have no idea how I am going to condense everything I did into a blog post. It's even harder because I've been on the road for 8 days and none of the days were even remotely similar to each other - there was no routine, no familiarity, and the whole thing was one big sensory overload. I guess I will just have to tell you things in person as I go through all the ticket stubs and receipts I've kept from each place. But here I'll just try to pull out some places and the highlights :)

First Stop: Granada
I really did not know what else to expect in Granada besides the Alhambra Palace with its labyrinth of gardens. But once I got there, I saw that it was full of life and history at every turn. I was really fortunate to have picked the hostel I did, as it was in district called Albayzin, which is a Unesco site. The whole place is very Moorish/Arabian inspired and I love just wandering in the many lanes and getting lost. Though the majestic Alhambra was the main highlight, I got to go off the beaten track on a walking tour organized free by my hostel and check out the famed Sacremento caves. Basically you get people who just find a spot along the hills, dig it out, put a door on the front and call it home. They don't pay for anything, but most also don't get water or electricity. Of course, some are better built and have official certification for safety etc and they have some facilities the others don't.
Granada was really fun also becuase of the really cheap Tapas bars! Buy a drink for SGD$3 and get free food! So for a total of SGD$14 I had 4 drinks and 4 really filling snacks =D


Stop 2: Sevilla
I didn't stay here for a night or anything but I had to take a bus here from Granada in the morning and then take an overnight bus out to Lisbon at midnight. One guy from the hostel -Ilya from St Peterburg- in Granada was going to Sevilla too that morning, but he was staying there for a few days before heading to Lisbon. So that 12 hours in Sevilla, I spent with him just checking out the famous cathedrals, castles and the Plaza Espana. Sevilla is really beautiful and there is so much to see there, I think 2 days would be a good amount of time to have spent there. The highlight though was when Ilya consulted his guidebook and found El Riconcillio, the oldest bar in Sevilla. We went there for cheap and delicious beer that was brewed there and excellent tapas...they didn't come free with the drinks but they were really cheap anyways.

Stop 3: Lisbon
This was what I was waiting for. Lisbon just sounded so much more exotic than Barcelona for some reason...I guess it's because I know many people who have been to Spain but no one who has been to Portugal. Lisbon is a MUST SEE okay people! I instantly fell head over heels in love with this city because it is beautiful, there is some historic thing to visit at every turn and the creative and artsy vibe of the city is so saturated you cannot escape it. I think Lisbon is the most culturally exciting place I've ever been too. The feel of the place got me more excited than the majestic castles and buildings if I was being honest. Plus the hostel was awesome, I met really cool people and during the down times I could watch DVDs and play Wii!

Stop 4: Sintra
This is one beautiful place. Super romantic though, so I don't suggest doing it alone. Hahah. Many many palaces to see, from mysterious and strange Quinta da Regaleira to the fun and Kitsch Palacio da Pena to the imposing Moorish Castle. But I would suggest that you start out to Sintra on the first train that day...probably 9-ish in the morning so that you can complete seeing the place by 2pm. That way you can take a bus out to Cabo Da Roca to see the western most point of continental europe - stunning views are a given. Then after that take the same bus out to Cascias, which is a town by a really nice bay. Apparently many exiled kings ran to Cascias for refuge back in the day.


Stop 5: Evorah
Pronounced "Ev-rah", this tiny town is not as touristy as Sintra, which I loved. There are not as many things to see here as there are in Sintra BUT the 2 hour bis ride form Lisbon is very very worth it. Evorah is so serene and feels like a place stuck in time. There are many windy roads to explore and the yellow and white houses are really pretty. You must go to the main Cathedral and climb up to the roof for an awesome view of the town and you should go to the bones chapel to get creeped out a bit. There are two bodies hanging there that are still not fully decomposed, and legend has it that they were cursed so as to never find rest.... If you have money to rent a car from Lisbon and drive to Evorah, you should do that because along the way to Evorah there are many cool places to stop, such as beaches amd this one place 15km away from Evorah in the direction towards Lisbon which as Portugal's answer to Stonehenge. Too bad I could not do that. But still, I had a really nice, chill, time there.
Stop 6: Barcelona
Barcelona baby! Oh yeah, La Ramblas and Gaudi! That is really all I wanted to go there for. But like Lisbon, the city is bursting with creativity and there is nothing run-of-the-mill or common about it. I checked out the Picaso museum which was AWESOME and then I just ran around the city looking for Gaudi's creations, the park dedicated to him and walked up and down the Las Ramblas a couple of times just to soak it in. Gaudi leaves me speechless and wanting more... he is genius and his works look like some surreal fantasy just plucked out of someone's wildest imagination and plonked onto the streets of this bustling city. At night, if you have company [and ONLY if yo have company, even if you are a guy] go to las ramblas again. Notice how int he day time it is fun, touristy and PG-13 and at night it transforms into a shady, far less crowded place with people hanging around pushing bar crawls, drugs and hitting on you. It was an experience all right.

That just about rounds it all up, after Barcelona I packed myself into a stockholm bound plane, which had an empty space in place of the seat I was assigned. So I had to hang out in the kitchen with a very very good looking air steward from Norway, until the plane filled out and I could pick a random empty seat I wanted. I got complimentary juice for my trouble - _ -

Thanks for reading and following my adventures! More pictures on Facebook and even more on my hard drive, hahah:)

Leaving, Learning, Living.

The journey began with a song.
"I'm Yours" was playing at an overpriced cafe at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and I was gonna walk right past and grab a cheaper bite, but my legs decided to lead the way into Cafe Ritaza and my ears seconded the idea.
In Latvia, after a night in the transit lounge, I heard the song again as I had my potato pancakes for Breakfast.
In Lisbon, an aunty who I was struggling to communicate with in my non-existent Portuguese [as she did not speak English] started to sing along to the song as it came on the radio while I was leaving her shop....I did buy those ceramic plates, so I guess she was celebrating with song.
And time after time this song was just hanging in the air around me.

I had such significance for my solo journey, especially the lines below...
"I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some"
I really learnt so much about myself, the cultures of these new lands, the languages and about people.
"Well open up your mind and see like me, open up your plans and then you're free"
I tried very hard to not constantly compare these places to other places I've lived in or been in, I wanted to see them as they were...holding thier own. And yes, I opened up my plans for this trip and while on the trip I allowed myself to add to or subtract from my plans.
"But I won't hesitate no more, no more, it cannot wait. I'm yours"
Oh the day my journey began, I was so scared and hesitant but Spain and Portugal were calling and no, I could not wait any longer now, could I? I just threw myself headlong into the plan...and for those 10 days, I belonged to the journey.

"So please don't, please don't, please don't, there's no need to complicate. Cos our time is short, and this is, this is, this is our fate."
Leave, Learn and Live. That's all I did, really.
I cannot leave God out of this post. It was so incredible how he watched me every itty bitty step of the way. I made sure I let Him know just how scared I was. My prayer before walking out of my home was more of a statement then a prayer - "Lord you are God of Singapore, Sweden, Spain, Portugal...God of the entire world and universe. There's nowhere I could go that you are not present at. You will be there, I'm sure of it".

And every place I went, God had planted kind people -who spoke English, no less- to help me in so many ways. Directions, loading baggage, holding my backpack for me while I strap it on, delaying a bus by 1/2 an hour when I was 20mins late and thought I had missed it for sure, keeping me safe when I had to go from airport to hostel sometimes at midnight...the list goes on. And I made so many friends in the hostels so I was never lonely...except maybe when I had to while away hours in an airport. I really treasure these friendships and contacts I made from Tel Aviv to St Petersburg. From Romania and The Canary Islands to Chile and Argentina.

I think I've grown a lot in this short time of traveling alone...I can't quite describe it, but it feels like I've hit some new level of adulthood I never knew was there to reach in the first place. After each plane, train or bus and location or hostel, I would tick off what I have completed on my travel plan and I would put the E-ticket/booking confirmation at the back of the envelope I carried them around in and look with anticipation at the document in front which would tell me what to expect next. I kept every ticket, map, brochure, etc...those I feel, are the real souvenirs.

But as fun as it was, I did get a tad bit Lulea-sick and I was excited to come home. When I got off the plane in Stockholm, it still felt a little foreign, but when I walked across the tarmac in Lulea Kallax Airport, and felt the icy, zero degree air on my face I knew that this journey had come to a great close. This morning I woke up to snow -and a big load of laundry- it's good to be home.