Last week in Stockholm

A week before our Stockholm trip, we saw hot air balloons in Jyväskylä 🙂 This is funny/pleasant coincidence for us. In May 2012 we saw a couple of hot air balloons through our window at home. We were pretty excited because we were going to Barcelona to do just that on our 1st anniversary (I’ll write about it some day)! Last year, we saw them few days before our Florence/Pisa trip.  We kind of dubbed this as a symbol of our summer trips in Europe. I know its kind of crazy but it brings a smile & tons of beautiful memories for us.

Last week in Stockholm, TH & I went round to some of the popular tourist locations. When we travel, we like to take it slow and relax. It doesn’t matter if we don’t get to see all the famous museums or the islands or whatever – there is always next time! And we love getting acquainted with the local transport system.

We took a metro to Slussen on Södermälm . We walked from there to Gamla Stan & all over the little island back to Slussen. Then we walked in Södermälm in search of a restaurant called Chutney. Chutney is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant with generous portions. We were very hungry & ate heartily (We didn’t even stop to take any pictures!)

At Slussen, Katarinahissen is a popular place to get good views. But we walked up on Fjällgatan & enjoyed the sun & this –

Walking through Gamla Stan –

City Hall: offices, Municipal Council & the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet –

Back to the narrow streets of Gamla Stan –

One of the entrances to Stockholm Palace –

Totally unrelated to the picture above –

By the way, Nike black & white shoes seemed to be the rage on Stockholm streets. I can’t begin to count how many people (mostly women/girls) we have spotted wearing them. Once I began to spot them, I couldn’t stop stealing glances at people’s feet all day! On our return to Helsinki, I spotted some more. In my weekly advertisement mail (mainos/reklam), Intersport was advertising them. Last week, those shoes were popping up everywhere I looked 🙂

Last week in Stockholm – Library

We visited Stockholm in neighbouring Sweden recently. It wasn’t summery weather. There was a chill in the wind with some drizzles now & then. But the sun showed up too! We did manage to hang out when the sun shined 🙂 More about our trip will come soon but first a post on Stockholms Stadsbibliotek!

I love libraries. I love the quietness. I love books, well, paper actually. Last week in Stockholm, I visited the popular Stadsbibliotek. It was a nice day & I walked too much on cobbled streets. This was my relaxing space before flopping down in bed!

By the way, the picture below is not about Mc Donald’s! Focus on the brown building, it is the library. The entrance is round the corner behind the Mc Donald’s.

As I walked in, a huge group of tourists were just leaving. There is a café on the right & children books area on the right. And then, 3 staircases (don’t know where the side staircases lead too, they were closed).

Ahaa, the magnificent library. I love the open-plan & the high roof!

I browsed through a few books. I noticed many people coming in for pictures only.

So, that was about one of my favourite places in Stockholm. Do you like it?

 

 

 

 

Ravintola Dong Bei Hu – China Tiger

For a very long time, I loved Chinese food. My Chinese food experience came from Indian restaurants in India. Many years later, I got to know that what I love is actually Indian-Chinese cuisine! My favourites in this cuisine are ‘Fried rice’ & ‘Manchurian’.

On New Year day 2014 (yep, that’s not a typo), TH & I were in Helsinki & we visited a Chinese restaurant : Dong Bei Hu – China Tiger. We (especially me) walked into the restaurant very skeptically but it turned out to be a good surprise! The ambience was good, the staff were friendly, restaurant was full but we got a table quickly & the food was tasty. Being an ardent fan of fried rice, I had to try their version. I remember being very pleased with it. It was very different from mine (obviously!)

I never got to go back to that restaurant until last month. In April, we spent a few days in Helsinki for a conference. On the evening the conference ended, TH & I went to celebrate with a dinner at China Tiger.

This time I ordered their fried rice again. By the way, my order is ‘Fried rice with eggs’ in their menu. Taking the meaning too literally, I asked the waitress if she could add vegetables to make it fried rice with egg & vegetables. She told me that even though it doesn’t say, it includes vegetables! So, this is how it looks!

TH ordered an eggplant dish. It is ‘Fried eggplant with Korean chilli sauce’ in the menu. Salad & a bowl of rice were served with it.

The food was good initially. Both of us loved & shared it but there was a ton of oil in everything. TH & I felt nauseous after our dinner & we are pretty sure the oil is to blame for. We did avoid most of the oil from our food but still it was too much!

So, what can I say about this restaurant? Love it but hate it?

*****

Dong Bei Hu – China Tiger (very near to Southern Esplanade) at Korkeavuorenkatu 47, 00130 Helsinki

+ Location

+ Price

+ Friendly staff

+ Tasty food but..

– Very oily food (this time)

Other thoughts:

The first time we tried in 2014, we had a better experience. I don’t think I will be going back there until about an year or more when I will have forgotten this ‘oily’ experience!

*****

Note: This is NOT a sponsored post!

KCBW6 : The End

Last week went by so quickly. I took part in a week-long KCBW6 event. I was unable to take part on day 1 & day 7 (last day) of the event. But it was fun to post & to read everyone else’s take.

Thank you to all the people who visited, liked, commented & followed this blog. I am glad that you have taken time to answer my survey & given me valuable feedback. Psst, if you haven’t answered, there is still time – go here 🙂

And, do follow Crafty Spell’s Facebook, Pinterest pages for updates & posts/pins I share. See ya!

 

KCBW6 (Day 6): Polls Apart

**The posts titled KCBW6 belong to the ‘6th Annual Knit & Crochet Blog Week’ event I am taking part in. Click image if you want to join or for more info**

New topic today – poll, survey or feedback. I never did a survey before so I went to SurveyMonkey & put together a few basic but important questions for you.

The survey will take only a minute. You can answer it here or click the image below.

Thank you very much. Your feedback means a lot to me!