Örebro Day 3 -Last Discoveries

by Patricia

PART 1  /  PART 2

The last day begun in Örebro. Waking up earlier than the usual, we started packing up as we had to check out by twelve o'clock. 

Although packing everything in our car did not mean leaving yet. After filling up the suitcases and stuffing them in our car, we parked out if the stugas' area to a free community parking lot and left the car there. 

The map of Gustavsvik, Örebro

We visited lots of places in the previous days, like Klossbutiken and Nora, but we didn't really get time to walk around our actual area IN Örebro; Gustavsvik! 

As a beginning, we walked down by the lake, which was completely frozen. I was totally surprised, because back in Stockholm, there was barely ice on the lakes, but here, it was completely hard and safe. Too bad I didn't bring my ice skates. :( 

Then we walked past an easy-looking obstacle route made of wood and a few ropes. Of course the family gave it a try, we'd never have missed it. :D As I said, it seemed pretty easy, but it was actually really hard! You had to swing, jump, balance… It was just a non-official playground like route though, probably built by the people around. It turned out good!

Afterwards, we walked all the way back to the reception near where we parked our car, to see a golf court. It was no ordinary court, this one was well-known all across Örebro. Why? Let me just explain.

This golf court was basically the maquette of Örebro. It showed every important place or tourist attraction from the city! The perfect copies of places were fully detailed and symbolised Örebro well, reflecting the importance of every each thing. For example, Örebros' well-known castle, the slott was built, just as good looking as its real building, but smaller of course. It looked great, even the water around was present! Great job, Gustavsvik!

Closer look at the slott

I really liked how the slott was made. As a person who likes art and drawing, I studied the windows for a while, how the designers made them look like they were in deeper, when the building was actually plain. The shadowing is done perfectly, well done to the artists!!!

There were also models of the water tower that is famous here, the Tekniska Museet av Örebro, a possible picture gallery I didn't know about, and many more! They looked amazing, all accurate and real!

The water tower and the Tekniska Museet with the water powered wheel

When we admired all built maquettes, we said goodbye to the reception staff and to Örebro itself. It was time to leave. Of course we visited an IKEA before approaching home though… and a Toys R Us…. and inside the car, I even wrote my English homework! I mean, better later than never!

This had been an amazing and eventful trip in my life. All these new memories… I hope we'll go on a similar trip like this soon! Maybe this spring in the Easter break! Travelling is endless.

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Örebro Day 1 -The Basics

by Patricia

 PART 2  / PART 3

On the Friday in the Sports Break, me and my family travelled to Örebro, a city two hours away from Stockholm. I was excited for this trip since my dad had said so much about the opportunities we have, from water park to Toys R Us.

After two hours of driving, we arrived to Gustavsvik, a leisure time place in Örebro. The place is based on a water park, just like the place where we went in Uppsala this January.

Stugas

When picking up the keys for our house, we were told that we'll live in a "stuga". A "stuga" is a Swedish word for little house, like a cottage. It was about five minutes to get there from the reception, and on the way, we saw lots of different "stugas". There were the really small ones, all wooden, even from the inside. They were all empty now, probably because they weren't heated and it was still winter in Örebro, snow everywhere. Next to the small stuga group, we could see medium ones. The buildings were bigger, and one building had two sides; two different parts to rent. Our stuga was one of these medium ones, number 31. I was amazed by how modern it was from the inside compared to the smaller stugas. It had everything, a living room- kitchen- entrance combination, a bathroom in a separate room, and one bedroom with a bunk bed in it. The medium stuga meant to be 5 star rated, and let me tell you, I approve! We even discovered that they had wifi in the stugas, because every teenager needs that. :)

After we settled in, we ate lunch that my mum cooked in this stuga, trying out the modern oven. I read a magazine I found about Örebro later, which I found interesting. It said there is a famous museum which seemed just like the Tekniska Museet back in Stockholm. I also read about Örebro's water tower, and a "slott", which is a Swedish word for castle. I wondered if we'll visit any  of these places.

Later, my dad told us that there's a LEGO shop near by. Of course we got excited, I mean, LEGO is amazing. ;) But after listening to him, it turned out this one's the biggest LEGO shop in Sweden!

The place was really nice, and it was surprisingly full of LEGOs. We stayed there until the closing time, observing everything, because I've never seen this much LEGO in one place yet!

After getting home with some freshly bought products, we decided to visit Gustavsvik's water park as a nice ending of the day. I saw a map of the park earlier, so I was expecting lots of slides and jungle pools. When we got there, I wasn't disappointed! 

Honestly, this water park was way too scary for me. Those slides… I screamed all the way. Turned out that following my sister and my dad was a really bad idea, because they only took the dangerous-looking slides. There was a fast, dark one, which was scary, but the worst of all was the "onion" slide. It started out normal, then it became one single circle, which made me spin around all the way, then eventually, I fell into the water. Never again.

Just like in the LEGO shop, we stayed here until closing time as well. This had been a perfect ending of the day, I hoped we can come back here tomorrow, but I also remembered that there are lots of other things we planned to do in Örebro! I wonder what's the plan for tomorrow...

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Read More:

Uniquely Stockholm? Part 2

Euphoria Bar & Grill - Bansko, Bulgaria

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Uniquely Stockholm? (Part 2)

A while back, I talked about a bike pump and water fountains around Nybroplan in Central Stockholm, and asked if they were uniquely found in Stockholm. Now, I have another one.

A few days ago, I was walking around Central with my family and stumbled across this just in front of Central Station:

If you look on the top right of the sign, you should be able to see text saying "Grattisbuss till IKEA". ONLY IN SWEDEN will you find a BUS STOP offering a FREE BUS RIDE to an IKEA. 

If we were playing a word association game and I mentioned "Sweden", many people might say "Meatballs" or "Blonde People" or "ABBA" (!). But I bet majority of people will say "IKEA". 

Believe it or not, even until NOW I have never entered an IKEA here in Sweden, or anywhere around the world. I know they sell easy to assemble furniture, but that's about it. Also, a couple of websites states the fact that IKEA is actually made to be just like a maze, to prevent customers from easily exiting their premises.

So once again: is this uniquely Stockholm? It probably is... or is it? Is there something like this in other parts of the globe? Maybe instead of a shuttle to IKEA, a bus to another big mall / market? Remember to leave your thoughts in the comments below or GO TO THE FACEBOOK PAGE and comment your thoughts there! 

***

And get ready for the next two weeks of March, the co-authors will be posting!

More Cool STOCKHOLM Attractions:

SKANSEN | Stockholm's Open Air Museum

STOCKHOLM CITY HALL | and Strandvägen Harbour

The Teen Traveller's Facebook Page

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Skiing At Bansko (The Ski Road)

I mentioned in a blog post that I went skiing at Bansko's Chalin Valog that was a part of a Ski Road. The Ski Road is a 6.3 kilometer long track which leads you from Bansko's Bunderishka Polyana to the Bansko town center, on the first Gondola station.

Skiing on the Ski Road was relatively easy and the views you get are gorgeous. There will be a section of the road where you can see snow covered mountains behind the numerous buildings of the main town of Bansko.

Here's a gallery of all the awesomeness that I have seen:

A view of the Ski Road shortly after its entrance from Bunderishka and Banderitza.

A majority of the road is surrounded by trees on its left and right, as seen in this photo.

Nearing the Bansko town at the end of the Ski Road.

I shall end this post with one of my favorite pictures:

Natural beauty, natural awesomeness.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed the little gallery I've put up. To sum everything up, I think that the Ski-Road was a fabulous addition to our skiing experience in Bulgaria, because I experienced skiing on natural terrain and got to see a lot of natural sights around me. The Ski-Road is another experience I will never forget, and hopefully you can experience skiing on this ski track someday, too!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BANSKO, BULGARIA!

Read More | Why Should We Travel?

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Philippine Slang

In celebration of our flight to the Philippines tomorrow, here's some basic Philippine slang or, salitang kalye (street-speak / lingo)

• Uno, Dos, Tres... Once you become accustomed to the Philippines, and you find yourself walking throughout its neighbourhood streets, buying something from a sari-sari store, you will question the prices. The shopkeeper would then tell you the price, commonly in Spanish. Ex. When you buy a candy costing PHP 2, the shopkeeper would most likely tell you that is costs "dos", not "dalawa" (Two in Filipino). 

• Yosi is Bad. In Philippine "sari-sari stores", you would be able to buy cigarettes, even if you're a minor. The people who actually smoke though, would commonly refer cigarettes as yosi. But remember, yosi also harms the people around you!! 

• Chibog, Kaon, Lafang... Ano Pa Ba? Filipinos have a really big variety of food, mixed with Asian cultures... If you hear a Filipino mentioning, chibog or lafang or whatever, they basically mean that they will eat or the mean something related to eating or food. In the context of... "May chibog dyan." = "There's food there"

I'm sure there's many more, but that's all the things I've found within 30 minutes of research.

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MY FIRST SNOWFALL!

After five (seemingly short) months in Stockholm, I got to experience my FIRST NATURAL SNOWFALL EVER!!!!

I have never experienced natural snow before, mainly because my home country is near the equator and has temperatures ranging from 29 to 36 Celsius. 

This might be something small for some, but it is a momentous occasion for me. 

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Travel To The Philippines! Part 1- TOURIST SPOTS

I have lived in the Philippines for more than ten years, and I can honestly say that I have only explored less than two percent of the whole country. But I do know the basics for Travelling in the Philippines.

• Luzon 

Luzon is the second largest island-group in the Philippines. The current capital city, Manila is also located here. Luzon is a great place if you want to experience an urban, but nonetheless diverse culture of the Philippines.

Going here? Go to Mayon Volcano in Bicol where you can see the perfect cone shape of the volcano itself. You can also experience lots of fun, leisurely activities. Also, either go to Tagaytay or Baguio. Baguio is an astounding place with lots of parks and natural activity. Don't forget to get a jar of strawberry jam while you're there.

If you wish to stay in the Manila area, go to Roxas Boulevard and Rizal Park. Rizal Park is a great place where you can see a large monument of our national hero, Joze Rizal. The place on where the monument actually stands on is the place where he got shot into his death. Go to Roxas Boulevard to experience a wonderful sunset and maybe try some of the local street-food.

• Visayas

Geographically, Visayas is the smallest group of islands in the Philippines. It may be small, but it contains some of the most fascinating festivals and relaxing beaches there is. 

If you want to enjoy the sun and the sand, most people want you to go to Boracay. Boracay is probably is the most notable Philippine beach. If swimming in Boracay isn't enough, you can also scuba-dive, snorkel and ride glass bottom boats there. Quite the trip, isn't it? 

Opt to experience a more cultural aspect of Visayas? Go to Bacolod in Negros Occidental to feel the wonder of the Masskara Festival. Literally translated, the Masskara Festival means "The festival of masks." You will find tons of street dancing and exhibitions including people wearing artistic masks and the like. 

• Mindanao

Mindanao is probably the largest island group in the Philippines, considering its size. This part of the Philippines is really green, as most of its natural aspects come from the fact that it is an agrarian part of the Philippine archipelago. 

If you really want to experience nature but want your heart pumping at the same time, go to the Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon. What's so notable here? Well I know that you can experience Asia's longest dual zipline here (850 METERS!!). They also have a ropes course and a crazy bungee-rope type thing that plunges you into a man-made lake. All for an affordable price. 

Part 2 is out now! Please read it here.

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I really do recommend WOWTRIPPERS.COM if you want a stunning Philippine adventure. Make friends along the way, don't forget to party and most importantly, explore the Philippines and experience its history and culture. 

<They also do International Trips too!> 

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE 

CLICK HERE FOR SOMETHING RANDOM

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