The Stockholm Observatory

Located near the Stockholm Public Library is the Stockholm Observatory, located at the peak of the hill at Observatorieparken.

A couple of weeks ago, my friends Lisa, Linh and their younger siblings had a picnic on one side of the observatory. I have been to the Observatory countless amount of times, and I have never been disappointed with my climb.

We had a picnic near this statue, just overlooking the public library itself.

Before reaching the observatory itself, you would need to climb a lot of steps, but once there, you will see the magnificent views of Stockholm that it offers. Below is a sneak peek of the awesomeness that we saw once on top of the hill:

We then chose to go down the hill to Observatorieparken, where everyone had a joyous time playing around the spacious playground.

Since this park is very close to our house, it didn't bother me to walk there. It's really fun to just sit down, relax and savour the views that you are given. It's better to explore the area around you with your friends, too!

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- The Stockholm City Hall 

- Skansen - Stockholm's Open Air Museum

- The Vasa Museum

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Stockholm's Science Museum {Tekniska Museet}

So the other day, we went to Tekniska Museet or the Stockholm's Science Museum with my mom's friend and her daughter for a simple "get-together".

Admission Prices: Children - SEK 40     |      Adults - SEK 100      |      Family Ticket*- SEK 300

* - The family ticket may be bought if you are a family being comprised of a maximum of two adults and a maximum of four children. I recommend buying this for a good margin of savings rather than buying individual tickets.

Upon entering the museum, you will be welcomed by a great big hall only used for one exhibit. I think this exhibit is called the 100 Innovations, where it showcases a collection of what should be the most innovative and influential items that are useful to the current world. It poses a question: "What if these items were not present today?"

Another exhibit in the museum was "The Mines", where you could see replicas of old-school technology used for mining coal, copper, gold and other stones and precious metals. This part of the museum also exhibited materials that were used back then for everyday living {as well as now, I suppose} such as leather and porcelain.

Another exhibit was the Beloved Telephones, where it showcased telephones and telecommunication throughout the years. It was a shame though, that the telephones were in some sort of cage, and weren't clearly visible. Still, it was a fine exhibit. My favorite part of this exhibit was a wall filled with headphone plugs, where you needed to plug a headphone to hear a radio station of the country it was on.

Christopher Polhem - Back To The Future was another exhibit featuring the variety of energy and electricity. This exhibit was a maze of interactive sections and games, an example being bike-pedaling to produce electricity, and a medium-sized showroom with a presentation on valuing electricity.

Finally, Game On - 2.0 was another exhibit featuring gaming throughout the years. It featured several games like Tetris or those handheld Tamagotchi games that people used to play back in the days. It also featured several video games being played today, such as Halo or Angry Birds. I played Pinball and Tetris, and got high-scores! TIP: Game On 2.0 will only be open until the 27th of April, 2014. 

Thoughts: What I liked about the museum that it was interactive, and superb for a young audience.
Question: How would this attraction appeal to the adult audience?
Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

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Stockholms Stadsmuseet

We went to Slussen yesterday (18 October) for a class trip to the Stockholms Stadsmuseet (Stockholm City Museum).

Facade

Opening Sign <Close-Up>

The first thing we did was to look at an overview of Stockholm by century, from 1400 to 2000. We then proceeded to another corridor with this replica on it:

This is a replica of the Stora Barnhuset pa Norrmalm, or the Norrmalm Orphanage. Our tour guide told us that children here were treated quite badly, giving them meals of bread and butter, chickpeas, or sometimes, no breakfast or lunch at all. If children tried to escape, their heads and hands will be chained to a wooden contraption, or their legs will be shackled to a chain connected to a heavy wooden log.

16 children have escaped the orphanage, though. They then raced to the Royal Palace (picture above, not exactly how it looks like now), where they met the current queen. Interestingly, the palace is heavily guarded, there were only a few entrances and exits and the walls were very thick and high, but they still managed to go in. Even our tour guide didn't know what happened. Maybe they were just really fast runners? They should have raced against Usain Bolt back then.

Fast-forward for about forty-fifty minutes and our guide led us to some stairs, before ending in one of the corridors leading to two houses. One of the houses belonged to a family of three, who really can't even afford the cheap price of the house. Because of this, two men from the harbor just nearby also settled into the house to help pay the bill. Quite disturbing.  <No pictures because my phone's battery died!>

Then our guide showed us the next house, belonging to only two people. This house was quite better, because it had a sewing area, some kind of writing/reading nook, wallpapers, and etc. It really is like those stereotypical "grandma's houses" that you see in the T.V shows.

The houses were really small though, everything was kinda squished together. I wouldn't be surprised if the house replicas would fit into a rather large bathroom or a small bedroom.

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Fees: SEK 100 (19 years +), otherwise free.
Overall Impression: Very good. The museum is great for kids because it is somewhat interactive, but it is still loaded with historical information. 7.5 out of 10.
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Vasa Museum & Aquaria Ocean Museum Stockholm

So we went to Stockholm city and Djurgårdsbron today to visit the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet). The Vasa Museum displays an inact 17th century ship, the warship Vasa that sank on its first voyage in 1628. According to Wikipedia, this is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. 

So the admission rates were SEK 130 for adults, SEK 100 for students, and for children and teenagers 0 to 18 years, were free. The address of this attraction is Galarvarvsvagen 14, Stockholm. 

Upon paying for your ticket, you will cross a hall with sets of glass doors. After the third set, you will be welcomed by the ship itself. Take note that once you enter, you will be in the fourth floor. 

The Salvaged Vasa Ship

What amazes me once I saw the boat was it was excellently preserved. You may not see from the picture, but even the minor details of the boat seemed to be untouched, considering that the boat sank in the 1600's. 

There are lots of stuff you can see in the fourth floor, such as a presentation room where you can see how the Vasa ship sank and some models on how they re-constructed the ship itself. 

The second floor didn't have much to offer though. It just showed some mere pieces of planks, axes and stuff that they used to build the boat. There was also a replica of a smaller boat there. I supposed that this was a life/rescue boat... 

On the fifth floor, there was a theme that was introduced, and that was Life Onboard The Ship. It pretty much showed how the people interacted with each other, the form of currency they used and my personal favorite, the gun and cannon artillery. -

A Cannon From The Artillery 

The sixth floor had a theme of Power and Influences. This part of the museum particularly explained how the Roman Emperors influenced the Vasa ship and its people. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures from this floor. Whoops... 

The final floor was an observation deck, where you can clearly see the top and upper parts of the ship itself. I took a picture (below) which shows the view from the seventh floor. 

After this, we headed to the Vasa Museum's Restaurant / Cafe for a quick nibble. Yes, they have a cafe. Overall, I think that this is the most interesting museum I've been in. It was very informative and historic, and I recommend it to anyone. Rating? I'll give it a 8 out of 10. 

By the way, my stepdad told me that he visited the museum 10 years ago. When I asked on how was the museum then, he replied: 

"It's been ten years since I have last visited here. The crew was still restoring the actual ship. The ship was about seventy percent completed then." 

So after our magnificent trip here, my stepdad let us choose if we would rather go home early or go to another attraction. My mom, sister and I then said that we wanted to go to another attraction. We saw a post indicating that there was a Marine Aquarium Museum.

After a quick, five-ten minute walk, we stumbled upon Aquaria, the marine museum. Long story short, the place was divided into sections that resembled the wilderness and rain forests. My stepdad found it pathetic because of its space. I agree. A little bit more space and maybe an air-conditioning unit might do the trick. Rating? 4 out of 10. Funnest part of this attraction? The small, approximately twelve meter Sewage Area that was literally underground.

Me Inside The Manhole Leading To The "Sewage Area" of the Attraction 

On an ending note, I leave you this picture that I took whilst strolling across the fifth floor of the Vasa Museum. It was on the floor. 

Is There Some Kind Of Demonic Ritual Up In Here? 

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