This weekend was reserved for a short-long trip to Kolmården Zoo (Kolmårdens Djurpark) - approx. 150km far from Stockholm.
The Kolmården Zoo is Scandinavia’s largest Wildlife Park and basically is packed with quite exciting experiences, where you can meet almost 750 wild attractions from jungle, savannas and oceans.
The main attraction of the zoo is the Dolphinarium, which was the first in Scandinavia, opened 1969.
Gallery:
Very rare species:
…trying to get a student discount
Tommy ready to shoot to next Indiana Jones episode:
and as usually Anders is trying to impress everybody with his new real leather jacket:
When talking about Sweden all the time somehow comes to my mind IKEA, Volvo, Saab, ABBA, blond girls, nature and why not modesty. It looks that after visiting some of the royal residences the word modesty is not the most appropriate for this selected Swedish family.
Below you’ll find some pictures with the castles/palaces owned by the Swedish royal family and believe me you won’t find inside any IKEA decoration .
Drottningholm Palace
The Drottningholm Palace is on UNESCO´s World Heritage list. It is the most well-preserved royal castle built in the 1600s in Sweden and at the same time is representative of all European architecture for the period. The Palace is also the present Royal Family’s permanent residence. The rooms in the southern wing of the palace are reserved for this purpose. The rest of the palace and grounds are open to the public year round.
Gripsholm Castle
Gripsholm is known as Gustav Vasa’s castle, since he decided to build the castle.
At Gripsholm you can take a royal stroll around the romantic castle grounds or meet the royal deer at the Hjorthagen nature reserve. Gripsholm Castle is also home to the oldest national portrait gallery in the world. It is also one of the largest, with around 4500 pieces, primarily oil paintings. The earliest portraits date from the late 15th century and the collection includes contemporary works.
Despite these nicely decorated locations, in Sweden there other nice destination like Vaxholm. Vaxholm is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a city. According to Statistics Sweden, however, only localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants are counted as cities. The name Vaxholm comes from Vaxholm Castle, which was constructed for defense purposes, by King Gustav Vasa.
Maybe the main reason I agreed to go to Finland is because Finland is the motherland of the most weird events. You won’t believe what the Finns are up to when it comes to weird annual events, contests, and similar activities…and so here they are, the world’s weirdest events!
1. Wife Carrying World Championships
Each summer, this weird event in Sonkajärvi, Finland, becomes more and more popular. The wife-carrying contest has been at a world championship level for over 13 years now.
2. World Cell Phone Throwing Championships
Finland is the home of cellphone manufacturer Nokia, but it is unclear if they have anything to do with this weird event. Ever wanted to throw your phone? Join the World Cell Phone Throwing Championships taking place each August in Savonlinna, Finland.
3. Ice Swimming Events
Whether in the nude, or clothed, ice swimming is popular in Finland. There are events in many areas. So whether you’re looking for a quick ice-cold shock, or nude beaches in Scandinavia, Finland is the destination for you!
4. World Cup in Snowshoe Football
Finland also has football! No, not the regular kind, but the unique kind: Snowshow Football.
5. Finnish Sauna World Championships
Not quite as weird as other annual events in Finland, the Sauna World Championships test how long the competitors can tolerate a humid 110º Celsius in a Finnish sauna.
Perhaps the Finish sauna, is their sole contribution to human life as of today (except of course, nordic walking and the totally useless Nokia ). Some like to say that the Sauna really comes from Russia, but don’t be silly: everyone knows the only thing the Russians ever came up with is the AK-47.
Before describing the trip to Helsinki, I will present some fact about this lovely country:
* One of the most successful countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.
* Finland’s natural resources are composed mostly of non-vegetative soil, prairie, and cell-phone minutes.
* The climate in Finland is pleasant and temperate. During summers it rarely snows and during winters it doesn’t rain so much.
Government: Bureaucratic Demorcratorship.
Official language: Undecipherable with lots of unpronounceable vowels.
Location: Far away from USA, so far from Japan, quite a long way from Cairo, lots of miles from Vietnam, but it´s there.
National anthem: The Nokia Tune and any HIM song.
Currency: present day EU rubles, before that Säkkiwulesi, ihQseteli and flying squirrel skins.
Population: Maybe a bit over 1000, nobody cares.
Exports: Saunas, Love Metal, snowboards, Lappi, Turunmaa, Jarkko Ruutu, Vowels.
Imports: Russian vodka, African husbands, Russian wives, Beer, Used German cars.
Kings: 0.001 %
I guess to many facts and now some pictures:
It seems that in Finland everybody used to be or is a sailor-man, so this leads to another Finish record - the highest number of hats per capita
My impression is that people are not so conservative and cold as it is stated in all crappy cross-cultural literature.
They are actually very friendly, all the time ready to help and give a hand for the people in need:
They will listen to you very carefully and also provide time for retort:
will make you company and serve with cold Finish beer:
For a while I thought that I am actually in Georgia or Ukraine when seeing all those demonstrations for the 1st May:
I guess the best word, which describes the last week is spontaneous random adventure . It started with a peaceful Monday morning in Sweden, but ended with less peaceful late nights somewhere in the Baltic Sea
Monday - Tuesday
My responsibilities at my old new job are becoming more significant and more varied so that on Monday and Tuesday I was appointed as the official paparazzi of the that mysterious company . The only thing remains to increase the salary for this risky and hazardous job . Monday and Tuesday were really busy, full of meetings, quarterly reports and so on. I guess the purpose of these meetings is to accentuate that the main reason for being successful is not because we have a strong and tall CEO , but actually it’s because of us, every employee who is making the company more successful day by day. To motivate us for better results and to perceive this successful first quarter, our manager reserved a small boat and invited us to go for a short-long trip to a nice and lost island.
After some traditional Absolut Swedish food:
we were ready for some tango moves
since it was a natural park, alcohol was forbidden and everybody respected this rull
after the boat trip on Tuesday and not drinking any alcohol you may imagine how motivated I was to work . Life is Sweden is so spontaneous and unpredicted, that I am not surprised anymore.
This time Mr. Mallon called me:
Mallon: hey Ion, what are your plans for the next 2 hours?
Ion: 2 hours or 2 days ?
Mallon: how about to take the ferry and go to Finland?
Ion: ohhhh no, again alcohol
The thing is, that most of the exchange students from SSE went on Wednesday on a trip to Finland, Baltic countries and Russia. However few students cancelled the trip, so some free tickets were in the air and without any modesty I took one and the opportunity to see the country of sailor men.
The cruise-ferry
The trip took around 15 hours and you got to see how younger people party together with senior citizens and also how they play the slot machines like they’re in Vegas.
Speaking about cruise-ferry it’s a new type of ship. The enormous demand for sea travel in the Baltic (approximately 15% growth in recent years) together with the ferocious competition between the existing lines has promoted the development of so called cruise-ferry. The English word “ferry” is used to designate a ship that allows passengers and vehicles to travel from one port to another. Ferry designers always try to increase the number of passengers and vehicles, and also improve the turnaround time (loading and unloading) and the crossing time. The factors previously mentioned (demand and competition) have made the atmosphere, the comforts and the leisure activities on board more and more necessary.
So, the ship itself has become a tourist destination as important as the two ports. This has allowed the operators to increase their revenues from passenger sales and services (duty free stores, foods, casinos, etc.). This represents up to 40% of the total revenue, allowing companies to lower, or at least maintain, present prices.
It is quite unlike anything I have seen before. Normally I tend to think that to be scenic an area must have significant undulation if not mountains. Here there are none. The islands are so low that a ship like the one we were on could be spotted even if there were two islands between us and it. It is the sheer number of islands and the immense sense of peace which give the voyage its character.
And now you may ask yourself, why 25 springs on 2 boats - yes you are right , somebody just turned 2,5 years and now has the official permission to buy alcohol without showing his birth certificate
I need a lot of dictionaries with synonyms to write this article.
It’s really impossible to write about one of the greatest day of my life - just a single day was enough to visit:
- Astonishing Swedish Lappland
- The highest mountain in Sweden - Kebnekaise
- The immense Swedish and Norwegian frozen lakes - Torne, Kalix, Vittangi, Könkämä & Rautasälven
- The most coldest hotel in the world - Ice Hotel
- The oldest wooden Sami church in the world
- The biggest iron mine in the world - Kiruna mine
- The deepest located mushroom farm - Kiruna Svampodling
- The most beautiful sunset next to the Atlantic Ocean
- The magic Aurora/Nordic lights
- The mysterious fjords in Norway
- An more than 200 amazing reindeer’s and 500km per day on icy roads!
Of course now you see the list and say that it’s impossible to see all the sights during one day, but when the sun is rising at 4 o’clock in the morning and never sets, of course is possible. Starting May in Lappland (Northern part of Sweden and Finland) nights are missing at all for more than 50 days
Departing to Lappland
We first took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, which is the fastest way to go to the airport, is kind of Swedish Maglev Train.
After 2 weeks of no writing any posts and not having Internet here comes the boom as Mr. Mallon likes to say .
I shall start first of all with more culturally things and then end with less culturally attractions .
One place in Stockholm which is quoted with 5 stars in all the guides is Vasa Museet. The Vasa Museum is Scandinavia’s most visited museum. The Museum is so famous because of the warship Vasa - the only remaining, intact 17th century ship in the world.
When asked about stereotypes about Sweden the first thing foreigners often think about Swedish population is blond hair and blue eyes, which actually coincides only with a small percentage of the population.
During the dinner organized by International Committee at Stockholm School of Economics we were advised not searching for many blond girls, because they represent a small percentage at the university and it’s better not to call them Swiss, because we are now in Sweden .
It was a busy, but wonderful night before leaving Prague. Having a nice dinner with Silvestru Family and than exclusively they provided us an unforgettable night tour around Prague, for few minutes we transformed our car in a horse carriage, which means that we have the permission to drive through Old Town Square and other places :
After a very comfortable journey to Moldova in very comfortable ***** bus (with individual seats inside (of course not adjustable), with option to carry somebody’s bag in front and below your seat in order to have a better aerodynamic coefficient inside the bus, and exclusively which was stopping every 5th hour in order to survive to next customs point I thought it’s a good idea to change the old traditional way of reaching Prague by another less overcrowded way of transportation.
Brussels is the city with one of the highest density of people wearing ties on the km2.
I can divide the population of Brussels into 2 categories:
1) Those who are wearing EU ID badge, of course with EU logo,
2) Those who don’t: they can be simple tourists or not EU fans .
Sometimes I have the feeling that I am related to some terrorist groups, not because I am behaving like them, just of the simple fact how the police officers from
the entrance of the European Commission: Continuare »
It’s been 4 days since Brussels became my “home”, but not a very hospitable one.
Life in Brussels is kind of strange: no English in metro, no English in the buses, trams, no English inside all the EU institutions, if you speak French or Dutch (I don’t ) you are welcomed inside the EU capital city.
Before writing how nice Brussels is, it deserves to say some words (some bad words :- ) ) about the whole integrated Brussels transportation system. It is so unclear and illogical, no description, no English, no English speaking people. Brussels’s transportation doesn’t speak at all, I mean there isn’t any announcement about the next station, and even they don’t have led display with the name of the next station> so all the time we poor foreigners are supposed to:
1) to count the stations;
2) to watch through dirty windows of the metro/tram the name of station which is graved at each station (size 12, Times New Roman .
During the nights sometimes I am sleeping at the Royal Residence, a very nice place with hot water, something like Kolej Jarov .
When you are coming to the Czech Republic, people are recommending you to visit Prague, maybe Karlstejn, Karlovy Vary etc. When you are coming to Denmark, people are recommending you to visit… Copenhagen, no; Legoland no… Malmö, which is actually is not located in Denmark. Denmark and Sweden are like a family, simply friends forever and they can recommend all the time to visit its neighbour.
After lessons we went to Sweden, because of the Malmö Festival - a culinary festival,music and culture festival. My 15 minutes break is over, it’s time to return to classes, I’ll write later.
What a pleasant morning: no waiting for the tram (I must admit and say that Danny was right I do use sometimes public transportation in Prague , then no waiting for the metro and strange waiting only 2 seconds for the bus. The atmosphere at the airport was ok, no terrorist at all, even in the plane. Let’s go to check-in.
The lady, who was doing the check-in was nice, but after she saw the colour of my passport she started to behave not very pleasant, because through SkyEurope you first of all make the reservation for the flight ticket and then you are validating it on the chek-in. But still the lady was not able to find my reservation.Oh really , that’s nice I am not going to Copenhagen. She was so stupid, instead of “Ciorici” she typed “Cirici”, 1 minute of Drama and I have ticket . Next, Sir your bag is too heavy unfortunatelly you should pay for the extra kg. Oh really , weigh it and the magic number is on the display 19,8 kg !
Plane was ok, some Boening 737-500. After only 48 minutes!!! I am in Copenhagen. What a beautifull view, so many islands, so many brigdes, simply amazing. The airport, in Danish = Kastrup , is located on the island of Amager, about twelve kilometres south from Copenhagen.
Public transportation is a little bit complicated (too many lines, too many strange letters). Anyway after one hour I am alive in centre of Copenhagen at CBS (Copenhagen Business School), ready for the blocked seminar. The blocked seminar is entitled “Cross Cultural Management: Team Dynamics in Global Context”.
The main departments of the university are situated right in central part of the town. At 16:30 we had some introduction about were are we coming from (I am proud to represent Republic of Moldova and of course at the same time the Czech Republic ). The blocked seminar seems to be really interesting, 35 students from the most biggest economic universities of EU. The thing is really interesting, because there are a lot of different nations which actually are not representing the nationality of the home university. Was really funny how everebody was introducing: “Hello my name is “blabla” I am from University of Economics from Prague, but I am originally from Moldova….hello I am from London School of Economics, but I am originally from Nicaragua… hello I am from Cologne University, but I am originally from Brasil .
After the introduction we had some dinner.
Today 20th of August, the whole day we were dealling and trying to anylise, solve different cases regarding the cross cultural management. At the end of the day in order to relax we had some “Lego Serious Play” .
At this moment I haven’t managed to take enough pictures, because almost the whole day I am spending at the university.
Tomorrow (21st of August) we are going to solve some cases with some managers from Shell Company and then after the lunch we have a trip to Sweden, exactly to Malmo.
Now, time to take some sleep, after so many Tuborgs .
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). Some like to say that the Sauna really comes from Russia, but don’t be silly: everyone knows the only thing the Russians ever came up with is the AK-47.
. Life is Sweden is so spontaneous and unpredicted, that I am not surprised anymore.
- yes you are right 
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