#41 Fika

"Fika" is a word you will hear every day in Sweden. I had never heard of it before coming here, but after a few days I realised its importance in daily life. I recently met someone who had been here for a month and didn't know what fika was, which inspired me to write this and inform the world!

Fika basically means coffee/tea and a dessert. It's most common form is coffee and the famous Kanelbulle (cinnamon bun), but you can also have many different types of desserts, or if you're pushing it, even a sandwich.

Kanelbulle

There are hundreds of café's around Stockholm that serve fika, but don't expect any special discounts! As it is a popular tradition, I assumed that there would be a fika (coffee + dessert) discount in café's, but this is actually quite rare, and when it occurs the savings aren't too big.

Muffin and medium coffee from Wayne's Coffee (about 55kr)

Cinnamon bun, vanilla bun and pistachio bun.

The best place to get Kanelbulle and fikabröd (fika bread: aka collective term for all the desserts) are probably in the supermarket chains, where you can usually find offers such as 3 for 20kr or something like that. Some people argue they don't taste as good, but I find cafés can also be hit and miss. In cafés, expect to pay around 25kr for coffee and about the same for fikabröd!

On a side note, if you really love Kanelbulle, visit the Haga district in Gothenburg city Here you can find giant Kanelbulle. For about 40kr they can feed about 4 people!

Real life cinnamon challenge

#40 Uppsala Ice Festival

During the week I ventured away from Stockholm (just a little) and visited Uppsala. It's a nice town just North of Stockholm, and easily accessible for a day trip.

The town is most famous for it's old university and cathedral, but I visited an Ice Festival which was on for this week only.

Ice Festival: It was free entrance, and although it was obviously really cool (pun not intended!) it wasn't fantastic. There were about ten or so sculptures, and many of them were artistic designs. I personally would have preferred more animals or familiar shapes. Apparently they were also better at night because they were lit up, but I left before it got dark.

Bear

Fish

Sabre tooth tiger

Design

The University building is nice, and inside it has a cafe and some statues. The Cathedral is also very impressive, and the tallest Church in Scandinavia. It has a museum attached to it that costs money to enter. There's also a Castle that gives a good view over Uppsala, and it has nice gardens (although they are covered in snow now). I didn't enter but I think there's an art gallery or something there. I'll admit I wasn't hugely interested in any of these places, but they were nice to visit. 

Uppsala University

Cathedral

Castle

The University, Castle, Cathedral and big shopping street are all close to the train station. There are buses that can take you out further, but these tickets are different from the ones you use in Stockholm.

To get to Uppsala from Stockholm requires only one train and takes less than an hour, but the pricing is different as it is a separate county to Stockholm. I spent a long time working it out as different people told me different things, but the following was what happened for me: If you have your SL Stockholm travel card (this should also cover the 1, 3 and 7 day cards) then you can get a commuter train for 60kr on the way, and 90kr on the way home (it's ridiculous it costs more to get home, I know!!). This is probably the easiest option and is what I did. You also have the option to get the SJ train which is a little faster but prices vary depending on times (from about 70kr to 150kr), and usually requires booking.

Also, I'm not sure if this is an official thing that Uppsala is famous for, but you can get really big Kanel Bulle (cinnamon buns) at the cafés there. They tasted good too, and cost at most 30kr (which was the average for the desserts).

So that was my trip to Uppsala! It was a nice place to spend a day, but for me it was nothing spectacular. If you only have a short time in Sweden then there are probably better places to visit, but if you have the time it's worth a visit.

#39 Shopping in Sweden

Even though we can often find familiar brand names, being in another country can be confusing at first if you don't know where to shop or eat. So, here's a post about the most common shops and chain stores in Stockholm and Sweden, as well as the best places to shop!



My biggest shopping shock in Sweden was this: They have no euro/pound/dollar store!
I thought every country had one of these, it seems Sweden is the exception. There is a shop called Clas Ohlson that sells a variety of electrical and household goods, but it sure isn't priced at 10kr! While it could be cheaper than other stores, most things are at least 50kr up to 1000kr (for the electrical items). Shops like LagerHaus and TGR are good for some novelty household items, as well as gifts. TGR is very cheap, some things are 10kr, while most things are around 20kr-40kr. It is probably the closest you will get to a dollar store in Sweden.





For groceries, the popular Swedish shops I've seen are Hemkop, ICA, Pulssen and Coop. The prices in these stores vary depending on what you buy, but generally they're all pretty similar. Pulssen often has massive savings on one or two products. There is also Lidl, which is familiar for many Europeans, and is cheap (also, Lidl products usually have English on the packaging which is useful!). Finally, there's another shop called Willys. I've heard it's one of the cheapest shops, and also here you can bulk buy things like rice and pasta, but this will only benefit you if you're staying here for at least a few weeks. The  most common corner stores are Presbyran and 7-Eleven, but items in here are usually expensive, so try to avoid going unless you have to. The grocery and smaller local run stores are often better value.

The popular chain coffee shops are Espresso House, Coffehouse by George, and Waynes - which has a massive mug of coffee for around 30kr. They are more reliable than local cafés, which can be very expensive and offer small amounts of coffee. [Fun fact: there are only three Starbucks in Sweden: one in Stockholm Arlanda airport, and one each in Gothenburg and Malmo central train stations!]

If you're looking to eat out,  your best option is a buffet. Buffets are really common here and if you're hungry, are much better value than anywhere else. Prices are usually 100kr for lunch time, and then 150kr for evenings and weekends. Sushi and Asian buffets are the most common, but Pizza Hut also have a lunch buffet. Otherwise there are the same food places you might expect (McDonalds, Subway and Burger King, but no KFC). The McDonalds menu is pretty much the same as every other European country, and a Big Mac meal costs about 60kr, while any of the special edition items or bigger burgers cost about 80kr. They have a saver menu too. Sweden's national fast food chain, Max, has meal prices at about 70kr, and is a tasty change from McDonalds. If you really need food on the go, there are also lots of fast food venders on the streets, selling things like kebabs and hot dogs, which are really popular.

For clothes, from what I can see, they have none of the UK high street stores like New Look, River Island etc. No Primark either!! Their main store is (you guessed it) H&M. It's familiar and has nice clothes but like most things in this country, I'd prefer something cheaper. There's also a shop called Lindex, which I think is pretty similar to H&M, except it seems to cater a bit more for an older market. The same goes for Ginatricot. For something more fashionable perhaps, Bik Bok is quite reasonable, and has some really cool clothes.

For shoes, there's a shop called Din Sko. I'd never heard of it before but it's really popular here. The prices seemed average enough, though at the moment is a 70% sale in which I got some very nice boots for 200kr down from 700kr! So maybe look out for a big sale like that before you buy. There is also Euro Sko and Nilsson Shoes, but these both seem to be more expensive.


And of course for all your household furnishing needs (as well as some delicious meatballs), there is only one place to head in this country:

#38 The snow is melting (a little...)

Temperatures soared to a scorching 5 degrees Celsius this week (aha) so some of the snow has melted. The trees are bare now, and where there was once just piles of snow I have discovered what looks like tables and chairs outside my house. It's slippy as f*ck (pardon my language) though, and while the city of Stockholm has mostly dried up, all the little paths through the snow are now super dangerous, and I find my feet sliding out from under me quite often. Haven't fallen yet though! Anyway, updates on what I've been doing:

Södertalje
This place is south of Stockholm (less than an hour on the train I guess) and a friend and I decided to go. We got off the train at Södertalje Centrum and honestly, there's very little there. There's a river and nice park around it, and then a shopping street with H&M and the usual suspects. It's home to an interactive museum place called "Tom Tits Experiment" but I didn't hazard a visit. It was a nice place, but nothing special.

Fotografiska - Swedish Photo Museum

I heard this place was great to go to, and I was a little surprised when I went inside. From Novemeber 2012 until March 2013, the whole place is dedicated to the work of David La Chapelle. I'd never heard of him, but the second I saw his pictures I knew I loved him! His photographs are outrageous, from recreating the Pieta using Courtney Love as the Virgin Mary, to the wildest pictures of celebrities you'll ever see. The exhibit was bright, colourful and in your face. I was expecting there to be permanent exhibits, but this was not the case, so I advise you to check out what exhibit is on before you go. I guess I just got lucky!

Swedish National Museum

I don't have an interest in art, so a visit here wasn't high on my agenda. However, it closed its doors today for the next four years (!) for refurbishments. This weekend had free entrance, which was also enticing. So, it wasn't great. Unless you have an interest in art, it really wasn't worth your time. There is an exhibit with Swedish design and stuff from the past hundred years which was cool, but other than that I wasn't so impressed.

RIP National Museum

And finally, some pictures of Stockholm

View of Gamla Stan from Katarinahissen

Stockholm's main shopping street, Drottninggatan

In front of the Kulturhus at Sergels Torg

Vasa Museum

Grona Lund Theme Park (closed for winter)

#37 First look at Sweden

The first thing I saw in Sweden (at Arlanda Airport)

This is only my fourth full day in Stockholm, but already I've started to get my head around things. Being in Europe, there are so many shops and restaurants that are the same as being home in Ireland, so it's not too difficult to adjust. The language barrier isn't a problem either, most things are only signposted in Swedish, but you can ask anyone for help because almost all the Swedish can speak fluent English! I'm in college so this week we had lots of introductory meetings to attend, but from next week my schedule should be much more free.

It's cold here now, around -7 to -15 on average I think. There are mounds of snow everywhere and every roof and tree top is covered in a thick layer of white snow. The rivers are mostly frozen solid which is really fascinating to look at. It's really pretty, but also too cold to take out your camera every time!

This was a soccer pitch

The first day here I went grocery shopping, and I found something special for all the Millennium Trilogy/Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fans out there: Billys Pan Pizza!!

Mmmmmmmm!

Also, as promised, I took a trip to the worlds largest Ikea! It was also my first Ikea visit, and it was a little overwhelming. Nothing was signposted in English so it was pretty difficult to find our way around, and then most of the things we wanted were in the warehouse rather than around the display floors upstairs. Mostly, it was really difficult to leave, we spent maybe 15 minutes walking aimlessly in the warehouse looking for the exit! We went to the big cafe, but it was still breakfast time so we couldn't try the famous meatballs! They had a Kanelbulle (popular Swedish cinnamon bun) and coffee for 5 krona though, which is super cheap!

Beautiful!

This is half of it, I was too close to fit the whole thing in one picture

So there it is, the first of many posts about this snowy country!

#36 Five days to Stockholm

I haven't mentioned Sweden in this blog for a long time. I've been too busy in Japan to think much about it, so since I've been home I have been plotting and planning a lot more, and now in only 5 days time I will be stranded in Stockholm for the next 5 months.

I'm going to be studying at a University there, but it looks likely that I will have very few hours so I should have much more free time than I did while working in Tokyo. The disappointing thing is, Stockholm doesn't seem to have the same huge range of entertainments that Tokyo could readily offer. Since I'm not working I'll also be on a stricter budget too, which doesn't help! This time I am going with three classmates and will be living with and surrounded by people my age, so I will have more company than in Japan. Overall, I'm interested to see what fun things we can find to do!

I booked a one-way ticket all the way back in mid-October, and will be flying with Aer Lingus. We [my classmates and I] won't arrive in Stockholm Arlanda airport until 7pm, so we'll be spending the first night in a hostel. On Monday 21st we will move into our college accommodation, but more importantly we will be taking a trip to the biggest Ikea in the world (!!!!) to stock up on a few things. I'll be sure to take pictures!


So far I've been looking at this website for Stockholm information, it's the official tourism page and therefore likely a little prejudiced but it has some good information http://www.visitstockholm.com/en/

Getting a little ahead of myself, but the Swedish weather website is here: http://www.smhi.se/en/Weather and the transport finder (trains, planes etc) is here http://reseplanerare.resrobot.se/bin/query.exe/en?L=vs_resrobot&

Photograph of Gamla Stan, the 'old town' of Stockholm

#35 Farewell Japan!

Although I have been home from Japan almost a month, and technically it was last year too, it is only now that I have written about (most of) the things I did there. At only 20 years of age (although I did turn 21 while I was there) I managed to survive four months in a foreign country, about 9500km away from home. Well done me! So this is really just a post to tie up any loose ends I can think of.


Asakusa and Shinjuku, the old and the new, two very different sides of Tokyo.

My Top Tokyo Destinations:
So after living in Tokyo for four months, I managed to see everything I wanted. And there was still a few things I didn't see, such as sumo wrestling. I was disappointed I never got to leave the greater Tokyo area and visit Kyoto and all the wonderful Japanese cities, but I never had the free time, and it would have worked out quite expensive too. Nevertheless, not everyone can say they spent 4 months of their youth living in Tokyo! So I've been thinking about what my number 1 place was and I can't decide, so instead here's a list of a few of my favourite places, in no particular order:

Shibuya
Shinjuku
Harajuku
Akihabara
Odaiba
Minato Mirai 21 (Yokohama)
Skytree
Tokyo Tower
Ueno Zoo
Tama Zoo
Tokyo DisneySea

Living in Tokyo
I would recommend it to anyone! The trains are really only ridiculously overcrowded in the mornings from 7am until 9am, but they do get busy again from around 6pm until maybe 8pm.  Despite what you hear, the chances of you being train-groped are really, really low, so don't worry. Everything (well, most things) in Tokyo are signposted in English, and English information and leaflets are almost always available. The only problem is most people can't speak/understand English good/at all, so a phrase book would be handy if you can't speak any Japanese. The Japanese are very helpful people and do their best to understand what you want, or to get across what they mean. It's not as expensive as they say, but groceries can't be got as cheap as in Ireland or the UK (and probably America). The trains are expensive because you can't get a return ticket, or a monthly ticket that covers you for wherever you go, or a student ticket. . .or basically anything that could make it cheaper. But I think every Japanese company will refund your travel expenses for work, so it's not so bad. For girls, Tokyo has shops like Forever 21 and H&M so it shouldn't be too difficult to find clothing if you're UK size 16 or under. After this it may get a little difficult, the same for shoes, once you're under a UK womens shoe size 6 (can be pushed to a 7) you're fine, but after this it'll cost you a lot in specialist shops. It really is very safe, but at the same time a few months before I went an Irish girl my age was murdered (although by Americans, not Japanese) so just because it's notoriously safe, you shouldn't be foolish about it either. がんばって! (Ganbatte, it means "good luck" or "go for it")



Teaching
I worked as an English teacher and I have realised that I have never addressed it in this blog. But just to sum up for those wondering, my experience was overall good. I had to wake up around 6am, I started work at around 8.30am and I stayed in school until around 3.30pm (times vary a little between schools, as well as how many classes you have, but most people seem to have pretty full days), and then you would have to plan classes outside these hours too if you don't have time in the school day. I worked mostly at an Elementary school, but also at a Junior High School. At times they have an irritatingly low level of English, but you get used to it. In Elementary school you can't help but feel they learn nothing, as they don't get homework and can't read or write English, which often limits your classes to playing card games and chanting words over and over. Junior High School they actually learn things properly and you feel you accomplish something, although the classes you plan need to be more detailed than Elementary school. I can't discuss pay because I was an intern so it's different. I only spent four months teaching and to be honest, at the end of it I was very tired. I'm not sure I could work at it for a year, but at the same time I have no interest in being a teacher, and I find children very annoying! So there. If you want to get to Japan, the only way is teaching English, and although it's not the best of jobs, I would definitely recommend it. It's worth it to spend every weekend and spare minute wandering around Japan! I am planning to go back for a year when I graduate from college. Maybe I'll see you there :)

Welcome to Japan