Visited Uppsala on Wednesday since it's my free day (no school)! Though claimed to be the 4th largest city in Sweden, it's so much smaller than Stockholm.. It's probably Singapore's Jurong only I guess.. As usual, we took the morning train at 09:11am since it was the cheapest and upon arrival, our first stop was the TOURIST OFFICE! The great thing about Uppsala is it snowed the previous night and the whole place was filled with SNOW! However, it is DIRTY SNOW! haha.. There were certain areas that had "Cleaner" snow so Kim & I started our nonsense, wrote our names, made footprints haha...
I would say Uppsala is a cultural site of Sweden... It has lots of museums that exhibits the evolution of Sweden, historic museums, etc.. At Uppsala, we also saw the first & of course, OLDEST university of Sweden - Uppsala University! Apparently, King Gustavus Adolphus (Swedish king) donated land and funds for the establishment of the university and indeed, he was held in great respect in Uppsala till today! The university was really old-school, large building, interior was totally wood-made but it totally didn't look like a school to me.. haha :) There were clothes hanger along the corridor for students to hang their coats and tons of statue in the premises!
Next, we visited Museum Gustavianum-lots of displays on the olden days crafts, from the medieval times to the viking days... Looking at the coins, clothes, jewellery, shoes, utensils to even coffins.... hahaha...
The 3rd stop was something that left a strong impact on me! The Uppsala Cathedral... The largest church/ cathedral in Sweden and dated the oldest too.. I've never had any religious thinking or ideas since young though my parents are taoists & I have relatives who are Christians... I felt religion is something that is totally your own belief and no one can influence you... I first enter a church in Singapore when my auntie got married but perhaps I was too young, I didn't have much memory of how a church is like.. Subsequently, when my friends ask me to follow them to service, it was always at a big auditorium and stuff... I guess that's probably the reason that explains why I never imagined how holy a church can be, like those in movies or shows where people sit at benches and pray sincerely to Jesus to bless & protect them... All changed when I stepped into that Cathedral! It was totally peaceful and the atmosphere was really solemn right there... There was this really long hall way at the two sides of the entrance & displays were placed along the hallway, depicting images of Jesus, his journey to being crusified, displays of old kings & queens, tombs etc etc... Right in the middle of the 2 hallways, there was the image of those long endless benches that you have to pass to reach this crystal-plated cross at the end of the hall way.. You will pass where the choir stands and the image totally stunned me... While I stood in front of the cross, I seemed to be able to feel God telling me to trust him, to confide in him & to become his follower... You will understand when you see the photos... It's totally different from those churches in Singapore..
Now, all of you must be thinking I am becoming a Christian.. No of course, I just wanted to share with you how I felt while I was standing there... I am still apathetic when it comes to religion...
The disappointing thing about the Uppsala trip was: We couldn't get into UPPSALA CASTLE! It's closed for winter.. Only opened during summer! I heard it's really beautiful, maybe I used to live there in previous generations? haha.. totally dreaming...
Alright, by 7pm, we were done with shopping and all that and our train back to Stockholm was at 21:35pm!! Both of us sat around for the 2 hrs, chit-chat, me disturbing her all the time with all the crap and lame jokes that I can think of... Somehow, Uppsala is much colder than Stockholm & we were freezing so we went out to the temporary cart-stalls to grab french fries & fish & chips! haa...
Now to the most disturbing thing: Toilets in Sweden costs 5kr (SGD1.25) per entry, even at TRAIN STATIONS! We totally wanted to pee but didn't feel like paying so we decide to beat the system and get FOC toilet visits... first, let me describe how the system works... Outside every cubicle, there's this coin machine where you insert your coins and unlock the door... After you are done, you leave the cubicle and the door swings CLOSED at a FAST speed and becomes locked again... the next person would then have to pay again and the cycle repeats! So what we did was- we sat at benches outside the cubicles, pin-point at people who walks past and make a guess if he or she will be going to the toilet... Once we see a potential "victim", we will stand outside the cubicle so that once he leaves the toilet, we can hold on to the door and not let it shut! hahaha... Now you guys must be thinking we were really cheapsake but come on come on, it's the excitement of beating the system that thrills us! haha... The 1st attempt wasn't that successful as we were too slow... we succeeded on the 2nd though!! hahaa... Btw, we weren't the ones who thought of this... Rather, it was this foreign guy (doubt he's a Swede) that we met at one of the shopping centre who taught us that... I would say it's a FLAWED system but to the Swedish, I guess they are really honest and wouldn't do this kind of thing so it seems to be a well-designed one.... CULTURAL DIFFERENCES--That's the only thing I can say.....
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