Grona Lund.

Grona Lund.24th May 2008

Grona Lund is the theme park in Stockholm! It's like the Tivoli in Copenhagen but I think it's slightly smaller? I missed the tivoli gardens in Copenhagen because it was Easter and winter. Theme parks only operate in summer!

Posing with all the small kids! :)

There's even a live band performing inside the theme park!!

It was a great day out. Kenneth.Seng Wee.Fazli and I were supposed to be visiting the secret rooms of Stockholm that morning but the queue was long everywhere so we decided to skip it and go straight to Grona Lund first. :)

Anyway, one lesson learnt in Stockholm-NEVER EVER MEET UP AT MACDONALDS!
Why? Apparently there are always a million Macdonalds wherever you go. So Kenneth told me to meet at the Macdonalds at T-Centralen when he was actually at the Central Station Macdonalds. The thing about all these European Cities is that there's always the RAILWAY station (Central Station or Terminal Station they call it usually) and the Metro (MRT) Central Station. It's different! Yes, the metro and the railway station are usually close to each other but it's still not the same! So I went to 2 different Macdonalds in T-Centralen and I couldn't find them! Fed-up as I was, I just called him and asked him to explain where the exact location was? Then I REALISED he was at the one at CENTRAL STATION!!! But I don't blame him. I should have guessed it was that one because he said it's the SJ ticket centre and SJ is the service for regional trains to go to other cities in Sweden or maybe Norway or Copenhagen.

Hanging around by the river before we set off for Grona Lund. It's just so relaxing. Which explains why I don't want to leave...

There's like this March Pass on our way to Grona Lund.

We bought a RIDE PASS plus the Entrance which costs us 290SEK since we got a group discount because we bought 10 tickets altogether. There were some other students from the school that Kenneth and gang were studying at and surprisingly, they are students from SINGAPORE! 1 NUS.1 NTU!! Surprise! Their friends were mostly Engineering students and from what I observed, I really think that Engineering students are in stark contrast to Business or Finance Students! Their thinking, their behaviour, their attitudes, their DRESSING... I would argue that their personality and their field of major is like the chicken and egg problem. Does their personality determines the kind of major they choose or did the major they choose shaped their personality? Like my neighbours and friends from Stockholm or Europe in general, they are always about being stylish, appearance, communication etc.. But those Engineering students that I met were more stylish, simple and casual, less open etc... Of course, I am not judging anyone here. It's just my personal comments and observations... :)

Crazy Frit Fall...

See how high we were!

Katapult.It bounces while in air. Damn Scary but I like it! There's this waiting period which lasts about 20 seconds in between and I thought we would be lowered slowly already since we have gone up and down twice! So I just talked to my neighbour pointing at the sky tower which we see from afar. God knows the katapult was released 1 second after I say "SKY TOWER!" Shucks. Totally unprepared.

Back to what we did... it was crazy! All the free falls, katapult, roller coaster, viking ship, magic carpet, scary train blah blah.. We figured out that we need to complete 11 stars to break-even with our ticket so we visited all the 3-stars rides first. Also, it's because 3 stars are usually the more exciting ones that give you the adrenaline rush! The whole idea was about SCREAMING! If you don't scream, you don't get the excitement and thrill. I see some people who were really cool during the whole ride and I seriously wonder if they feel anything?? How can they just keep quiet and not make any sound at all?!!?!! I can't wait to go to Gold Coast to try on the THUNDERBOLT. Everyone says it's damn scary but I love such excitement! It thrills me!! There were videos too but you guys gotta go to Facebook to see it because Kenneth tagged me in them but I am unable to download it.

5 adults squeezing into a small teacup! Gosh! We are so extreme. But it's fun!

Reliving our childhood. That's the merry-go-round horse ride. :)

Along the journey, we met these 2 really cool kids, one from Russia and the other Ukraine! The Russian one was slightly older and he could speak English rather fluently. The Ukraine one was so reserved and he's quite closed to outsiders. I thought he was really cute and our conversation was as follow:

71:"Do you speak English?"
UB:"No."
71:"Where are you from?"
UB:"Ukraine."
71:"Do you know Shevchenko?"
(Ukraine Boy immediately takes off his jacket and turns 45 deg displaying his AC Milan Jersey with the wordings Shevchenko!)

I decided to disturb him a bit so I took off my outer jacket and showed him my MANCHESTER UNITED Jacket. Guess what he did?

He gave him a THUMBS DOWN.

Throughout the conversation, we were just using body language to communicate. But he's so cute! I think he should be a Chelsea fan now though he's wearing a AC Milan shirt. Further, Manchester just beat Chelsea to the UCL. So that explains the THUMBS DOWN!

I wanted to take a picture with him but he wasn't too willing to. The Russian kid was more spontaneous and immediately agreed! To spice things up, before he left, he said,"Give me a call if you want. My number is 2919**!"

All of us were STUNNED! He's probably 10 or 12 at most but he sounded he's like 20 or 22!

Russian.Ukraine (him & his Sheva Jersey).Singaporean.

Don't you think that Ukraine boy is really good-looking? Ukraine boys are smart! :)

To the rides.. Initially everything was great. But the thing about theme parks is the queues are long so after some time, you get sick of it when you have to keep queuing for it. So we started to get a bit restless but I would say we covered at least 70% of the rides so it was worthwhile! Then it was almost sunset by the time we leave at around 8:30 p.m. Managed to get a few really good photos but we didn't watch the sun set totally because that would probably be around 9:30 or 10:00 and we were starving already since we didn't really eat anything for fear that we will all PUKE!! haha...

Group photo! :)

And the beautiful sunset at 8:30 p.m at night! :)

Anyway, it was a really nice day out! Something I like about Europe, you slow down. After the whole thing ended, we just "recky" around the island. Btw, the time was 9 p.m when this photo was taken. The sun never sets fully now!
Honestly, would you ever have a picture of your friends and you just sitting on the grass in Singapore? I doubt so. :( But we should try when we get back okay? But you have to not mind the dirt and wet grass though. :) We all have to learn how to slow down seriously.

Out-dated pictures. Stockholm Panorama.