rocked the boat

It was my first time on a cruise last weekend, and truth be told, I spent more time on board DFDS Pearl of Scandinavia than running around Copenhagen one cold, rainy Saturday. Neil and I dashed from one spot to another, trying to see as much (and camwhore as much) of the city.

We checked the shopping scene along the miles-long, car-free Strøget, the giant phalluses in the Erotica Museum, the Tivoli Gardens, the colorful houses and docked boats in Nyhavn, and of course, possibly one of Copenhagen’s icons – the Little Mermaid. I didn’t actually root myself deeply in the experience since the whole seven hours on land just whizzed by. It was just a whirlwind city sightseeing. The only time we ate in Copenhagen was at 11 am, at KFC. Later that day on our way back to the boat, we picked up some takeaway and surprise, surprise, a Filipina crew gave us free chicken pieces in addition to our order. So instead of five, I took home eight! Haha!

So that basically sums up my stay in Copenhagen.

But it was the boat trip that made this whole adventure worthwhile. Despite some heavy waves which lulled the ship crazy that I felt like throwing up and the small inside cabin with thin walls you could hear the party going on next door, it was a good cruise all in all. Thanks to a great company, I laughed a lot, drank a lot, danced a lot. It was so fun dancing with all these cute Scandinavian guys and this one Kylie Minogue-looking girl. It was like everyone knew each other. Boys dancing with girls. Girls dancing with girls. Boys dancing with boys. I don’t think those cute Scandinavian guys were gay at all, but they were grinding with us, communicating across the disco-lit room, and looking just ultra hot. Thank the heavens for beer!

Who would’ve thought that one day, I’d find myself in a packed dancefloor, in the middle of an open sea, crossing two countries? It was just fun.

in transit: copenhagen, denmark

I’ll get off work at 3:30 PM tomorrow and meet Neil for our weekend trip to Copenhagen. We are taking a medium-sized cruise ship from Oslo to Copenhagen, so the trip is already half the journey. Our ship sails out at 5 PM and we’ll be in Copenhagen 9 the following morning. Then we only have eight hours on land until the ship sets sail back to Oslo which arrives 12 noon on Sunday.

I’m sure it would be fun, on the boat, in the shopping streets of Copenhagen, and by the statue of the Little Mermaid. We also got tickets to the Tivoli Gardens, where we could try some thrill rides. But one of the highlights of this trip would be raiding the local KFC (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) shops and devouring as much finger-lickin’ goodness as we could.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

starbucks cometh

Okay, my life has spiralled back to the normal routine and there’s really nothing much to blog about. Well, at least not until the next couple of days. Anyway, I found these bottled Starbucks drinks recently, and as you know, not a single Starbucks store can be found here in Norway so I just had to grab them.

My god they’re freaking expensive! A bottle costs 39 kroner = 6.45 USD = 4.81 Euros! Now I know Starbucks ain’t the best brew out there but with that money, I could already buy two freshly-brewed and whipped-cream-topped Venti Frappuccinos in one of the many Starbucks stores in Manila. I guess I won’t be having any more Starbucks fix here in Norway soon. But is this the start of Starbucks invading the Nordic countries? If I have the money, I would open the first Starbucks store here. I’m sure it’d be a big hit, what with Norwegians being one of, if not the biggest coffee drinkers in Europe. Hmmm…

17th of may

Today is the National Day of Norway. And as a first-timer for this grand celebration, I had to wake up early to see the festivities down in Karl Johan, the road leading to the Royal Castle where every year, the Royal Family comes out to the palace balcony and greets the people of Oslo.

The day started with the march of school children at 10 AM towards the Royal Castle. This year, 111 schools from all over Greater Oslo paraded in their colorful regalia and with their school’s musical corps. So as you can imagine, there’s the traditional sausages, ice cream and soda stands everywhere to keep these kids happy. In the afternoon, graduating high school students took their turn and paraded towards the City Hall in their trademark red jumpers and caps. This year though, the infamous bling-bling buses didn’t make their way across the crowd. But these hot Royal Guards did, and of course, they were led by who else? An Asian, that’s who.

What amazed me was that people actually took their time to dress to the nines – suits for the gentlemen and dresses for the ladies – or clad themselves in the traditional costume of Norway called bunad. I didn’t know that these special handmade bunads are expensive, fetching from around 25,000 kroner (EUR 3,000 = GBP 2,100 = USD 4,100) apiece. I want something like the one pictured below, but I don’t think this one is designed for the Oslo region. Each region in Norway has its own bunad design. Or something like that. Hehe.

Anyway, I also dressed my part and took to the streets of Oslo with friends.

With Neil in front of the Stortinget or the Parliament, where each year the Norwegian President waves to the crowd.
With the group across Stortinget where we waited for the Russetog or that marching troop of high school students.
Walking around town. Believe me, after spending some time walking along Karl Johan, you’d want to walk along side streets to escape the crowd.
Later in the afternoon, we invited our friends to the rooftop terrace of our apartment where we had some champagne and small snacks. The view was fantastic from up there – one could see the Oslo fjord, the mountains, and the major cityscape.Also, the weather was absolutely nice, the sky was at its bluest, and the wind was just chilly enough to keep the temperature in our flute glasses just the right degree for our drinks. Okay, that last one was an exaggeration. We ended the day with Kill Bill Vol. 2. Where did that come from? Hahaha!

Happy National Day, Norway! Thank you for having me.

hello from helsinki: camwhoring in the city

I’m so glad you all liked my photos from Helsinki. I have more to share, now that I got my laptop up and running again. You see, I left my laptop charger in the hotel room last Sunday and fortunately, Holiday Inn found it. Here’s the last installment of photos from my trip to the land of thousand lakes.

The Second Day
I noticed that Helsinki must be a land of thousand hills, too. The roads all over the city are warped like this one pictured here.

This was taken from Esplanadi Park, site of the Europe Market that showcased each participating country’s culture, wares and tourism. On the periphery of the park are two of the most exclusive shopping lanes in the city. One of which serves as the stellar address of Kamp Hotel, probably the poshest hotel Helsinki has to offer.

This was taken in front of the EuroClub, the Eurovision Song Contest’s official site for parties and events, located at the Old Student House.

The Market Square is one of Helsinki’s most famous market places and tourist attractions. It was brimming with stalls selling various wares – from the must-try fried Baltic herring to reindeer hide. At the background, you can see the other iconic cathedral in Helsinki – Uspenski Cathedral – which looks very Russian.

The Third Day
In the morning, we met Ola Salo of The Ark, which represented Sweden. We saw them outside their hotel, a neighbor to ours. God I’m such a cheesy fan!

The rest of the day was spent shopping and trying out the world-famous Fazer chocolates of Finland. I looked at Stockmann, one of Finland’s largest department stores, but got nothing. I moved to Moda where I found an Esprit collared short-sleeved shirt and to the big Diesel store where I got a nice white summer tee.

Afterwards, we spent a cozy afternoon at the Karl Fazer Cafe, built in 1891, where I had these citrus-flavored mousse and sponge cake and a specially-made Eurovision cake with chocolate and white truffle layers.

That night, after six months of waiting we finally found our way to the Hartwall Arena where the Eurovision finals was staged. I was impressed with how everything – from getting tickets for the train ride to the security check at the arena – went smoothly.

I was also impressed with the show, well at least from the performances we heard inside Hartwall. When I saw a short replay on TV the day after, I wasn’t so impressed with the vocals of some artists. Anyway, I was happy with the winner Serbia, as well as with Ukraine’s and Russia’s second and third placings respectively. The Ukraine act was so crazy everybody inside the arena was dancing and jumping to him. Of course, my crushes also fared nicely in the competition – Belarus, Spain, Greece, and Turkey. I took around 300 photos of the show from where we were seated, but unfortunately, most of them were blurry due to the slow shutter response of my cam, my distance from the stage and the performers’ constant movement.

Back home, but wait!
We flew back to Oslo last Sunday from the Helsinki Vantaa Airport, and while waiting for the boarding time, we strolled around and saw a couple of artists – Croatia’s duo (which were so horrible in the semi-finals) and Germany’s Roger Cicero who was doing an ambush interview. Of course, since he’s a cutie, I had to take my photo taken with him. And you know how I love guys who can swing. Le sigh.

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed my adventures in Helsinki. Thanks for dropping by!