The Splash and Dash: Stockholm

The other two guys that I had come over to Sweden with were taking the flight home on Saturday afternoon so it was off in the car to Stockholm on Friday afternoon for a night on the town and some sightseeing.

Erika and me

Changing of the guard and the Royal Palace

First stop was to check in and head out for a little tourist shopping. Pete took me to the shops where he had previously bought me some clogs and I ended up stocking up on four more pairs. Awesome! I bought a few more touristy things for friends too, but Erika was keen to head out to the major shopping district. The boys did some "man-shopping" while Erika and I went off to the malls. I ended up finding a nice jacket but for some reason didn't try it on. But while Erika was in the changerooms trying some other stuff on, I decided to give it a burl and tried it on. It looked awesome! I bought it for 949SEK which is about AUD166 and I've been wearing it ever since!

The boys had planned a fairly big night on the town and I was pretty keen to go too. We started off at an Irish pub called the Shamrock where we were served by a Australio-American Swede. We knew that something was different about him when he took our order and just before he turned away to head to the kitchen he said, "No worries". We all just sat there and looked at each other. "He just said 'No Worries'. Did you hear that?" was the call. He had to have been partly Aussie. No-one else says that!

The meal at the pub was good albeit a little late but by then it was about 10pm and I was getting itchy. And I mean literally itchy. I don't know if its the washing powder in the hotel towels and sheets (most likely) or stress on my body from the cold or the water or what, but I get wickedly itchy. And when I get itchy, I get irritable. So as we were walking outside in the cold air heading towards the next bar, I had to call it a night. I was starting to shake. Not the cold shake, the "my body has had enough" shake. So I jumped in a taxi and headed back to the hotel. When I got there I noticed that the hotel had towel heaters on already, so I made the most of it and did some washing and dried them on the rack.

On Saturday morning I was woken up by the hotel phone with "Jorgen!". Pete, Erika and Chaim were downstairs and calling me for breakfast. I went down and nailed some more herring (yum) and later we checked out and headed out on the town again.

Pete making fun of me being "short stuff"

Be cautious of cars driving into the water

We went to two museums, one on Swedish culture at the Nordisk Museum and one of the Vasa, a ship that sunk in the centre of Stockholm.

The VasaLovable bones

It was back in a taxi to the hotel to grab our stuff and head over to the airport to see the boys off and Pete and I then grabbed the hire car and headed back to Örebro just in time for dinner, not without a stop for Maccas along the way...


It was off to Sebbe's house with beers and Chinese food to play Wii, and watch some videos. That, and kit up for some snow-boarding action.

Beware of the Swedish Snowboard Ninja!

Norway and Ringveg Vest

Well, it was back to business on Wednesday. The trip to Norway was the crux behind actually being sent to the other side of the world. I set the alarm for 03:30am as the taxi was picking us up at 04:30am for Örebro Airport. I wasn't really looking forward to the early start but I knew the trip to Norway would be awesome. Two countries for the price of one.

Well, actually the flight had a stop in Copenhagen, but not enough of a stop to warrant a "stay" in Denmark.

The flight to Copenhagen on NextJet was about an hour and 15 minutes, then an hour stop. The flight to Bergen on SAS was another hour. It was easier than driving to Arlanda Airport in Stockholm for 2+ hours then flying for 2 hours.

Once in Bergen we went straight to the construction site at Ringveg Vest with Mesta. I spent most of the day underground and with the project managers from Mesta.

Two 8km tunnels, one North, one South, meeting in the middle.At the face

Wednesday evening was our opportunity to check out Bergen town. Rolf had hired a car with GPS and we set off for a spin around. The hunt was on for things to see and most importantly... food!

Views of the town

Yep, it was bloody freezingSam, Pete, me, Rolf, Håkan and Chaim

We ended up stopping off near the harbour at Peppes Pizza and downed some local beers, and followed on for a walk around.


We were back at the tunnel site on Thursday but at from the other end of it. The contract was still done by Mesta, but they were using a different rig to do the work. My Swedish counterparts were curious to see this competitors rig in action.

We were back on a plane late on Thursday afternoon and touched down around 10:00pm in Örebro. It was back to the office on Friday with more talk of business. Tonite... it was off to Stockholm!

The Big Factory Tours

Well, today I got the big factory tour at Atlas Copco in Örebro; both the underground gear at AVOS and the surface equipment at EYRA. The factories are about 6km apart.

Australian Flag at AVOS

Surface gear at EYRA

And yes, that last photo ^^^ proves that I did see some sunshine in Sweden! The weather has been quite drizzly and very cloudy. But this fine patch (for about half an hour) was a nice change.

The day finished at about 5:00pm and when we got back to the hotel we were all dying of thirst and hunger. We moved dinner forward to 6:00pm and walked over to the Bishop's Arms where Erika works.

Along the way I took some more photos of the main square in Örebro. I guess the best part about Örebro is that everything is almost walking or cycling distance. So no matter which direction you go in, there's always something to do or somewhere to eat.

In front of the Bishop's Arms

Pumpkin (Pete) and me

At the Bishop's Arms I was all set to rip into their specialty burger when Pete decided to order a tasting plate of some local salami and cheese. After demolishing that, I no longer felt hungry for the burger so I ripped into the booze. Erika poured me a white rum and Coke (as they don't have Bacardi here) which blew my doors off. I don't think there was much Coke in there at all. But still, I downed that and a beer and tried some Black Grouse whiskey (from the makers of Famous Grouse). Not long after I was starting to fade away and it was time to walk back to the hotel.

The square at night

First Hours in Örebro

I've made it to Örebro. 24 hours of flying and another two hours in a car down the E18 highway from Stockholm.

My first few hours were meant to be a hot shower and perhaps a nap followed by a walk around the town.

Instead, checkin was still two hours away, I was funky, I was cranky, I was thirsty. So I called Pete and Erika (and Sebbe and Sandra) and we all caught up at a local cafe.

Now, problem #1 was that I don't do dairy. So what possessed me to drink a coffee... with milk?
Once the pub up the road had opened at midday we walked across the town and sat down for a meal. Problem #2 was that this place was very dimly lit, very stuffy and automatically I started feeling very average.

I had two sips of warm(ish) Swedish beer and got up to go for a walk outside. It was +7°C in Örebro today, which is apparently a nice warm Spring day. It's still fucking freezing if you ask me!

After about two hours at the pub and me going outside about 4 times and downing some powder to settle my stomach, I felt the need to walk back to the hotel and just check in. Ugh, was I feeling average.

So I grab my stuff, check in and head upstairs. On the bed are 3 stuffed teddy dogs. On one it says:

Hi!
My name is Turbo and I live here in this room.
You can't take me home, but you can buy me at the front desk for SEK 299:-
Turbo with puppies SEK 495:-
7% of the income goes to BRIS (Barnens Rätt I Samhället - Childrens Rights in the Community)

Sleep tight!

After telling Robin, his reply was:

HOMG... you go to the other end of the world and you have a turbo in
your room. How funny is that? You must buy!

Cracked me up big time.

So here are the photos from today!

Old town Örebro

The two love-birds and my hosts, Peter and Erika

Sam and Chaim taking photos

Me, Sam and Chaim

The taxi will be here to pick us all up and take us to "work" for some training in about an hour so more will follow soon.

Bowled Shane!

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than getting smashed in the hot sun on $12 jugs of super at the local bowls club. They even serve pots of beer. Just like they did in 1957.

Cheers to Sean for coming up with the idea and hosting pre-bowls beverages at his place and escorting us over to the Mt Lawley bowls club.

Experiments with Photography

Robin and I went out on Friday night to take some photos:

I'm not a guru with the camera and the terminology still boggles me. All I know is how to set the exposure. That's what I can do with my point and shoot camera. The photos above were taken on Robin's Canon 350D with 75-300mm lens and a little fiddling around with aperture values and exposure.

The low cloud over the city was something we both noticed while riding around the city earlier in the evening. I saw that the tip of the central park tower was covered in low cloud which had lit up and formed a glow around it. Pretty cool eh?

A Dinner with Curry and Pepper

Last night I went out with the Curry Crew for a catch-up dinner. Where else but an Indian Restaurant!

We all met up at the Melbourne Hotel for a few beverages, said our hellos and *eventually* walked across to 9marys. We opted for the buffet ($40) and apart from the excellent company and nice looking restaurant, the food was average and the service was appalling.

A fun night with the usual suspects and clowns. Pass the parcel with curry puffs and onion bahjis, lots of red wine, perving and girls and crass jokes galore.


Now that Nicole (aka the R1) is back on the road, I'll be out on another Curry Run real soon!

Cheers to the usual suspects for making it a nice night out. Too bad we couldn't really stay longer and enjoy the festivities but we were both pooped and needed to crash out for the night.