A Trip to Sweden - Day 1 (26 Nov 2014, Wednesday)

So the first day in Stockholm was a new experience for  me. We took a bus from Arlanda Airport to our hotel, HTL Hotel at down town by bus. Which was at least 50% cheaper than taking a fast train. Needless to say, it was very much cheaper than taking a cab. 

Well the bus ride took about 44min. I like this type of arrangement as I got to see more things on the way to the hotel.  The bus took us to a couple of stations.  I enjoyed the sight seeing on the bus all the way to down town. 

So when we arrived at the city, we got to ask around for directions to get to our hotel. It wasn't too hard to locate it. 

HTL Hotel, emphasises much on design and functionality.

So the best part happened when we arrived at the hotel. We were looking high and low for the reception counter and we  couldn't find one. So just as we were thinking of how to check in, we suddenly realised that we were actually standing next to a reception counter. No one was there to serve us to check in. 

So the reception counter was just a  small desk. On the desk, there is a small touch screen, some keycards, some hotel cards and a pen. All we needed to do was to key in our booking number at the screen, place a key card on the respective slot and the room number will be displayed on the screen. We can use the pen to jot down our room number on the hotel cards and off we went to our room. So simple. So quick and so efficient. Hassle free! All DIY. 

DIY check in counter

The room was small. I guess space is a constraint here in Stockholm. However the room comes in a clever design to make our stay a pleasant one. 

The bed - it's pretty much taken the whole space of the room, except for the bathroom. It is also a little on the higher side so that we can put our baggages under it 

The art - just a big piece of sticker on the wall to minimise the space taken up by the frame. 

Toilet- is small but functional. A cubicle for shower with hair shampoo and bath gel in dispensers. This cubicle has a tempered glass door without a knob. They made a hole for us place our fingers to open and close the door. A toilet bowl and a sink that comes with a dispenser of hand soap. Under the sink is a small shelf and beside the shelf was a pull out dustbin. 

The pull out drawer

Oh I forgot to mention that there's no cabinet for clothes in the room. So the hotel puts up many hooks around the room for us to hang our clothes. I just thought that was a brilliant idea to save space and cost. 

A trip to Sweden- Prelude

Ah... We had finally arrived at our destination Sweden after a long 20 hours travelling time. 

This is the long awaited dream of mine, to visit Sweden, what more to be able to stay with a local for a couple of days. 

We will be in Stockholm for 3 nights, then to Umea for 2 nights and Skeleftea for 2 nights. 

The flight we took from Malaysia was Air France. After travelling for 13 hours in the air, we arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris that was where we had a 3 hours of transit. This airport is a simple airport. Nothing's exciting, nothing's special. We walked around and that's it. Then we sat down and waited and waited. 

Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris

The food the AirFrance served was not really my cup tea. For dinner, we were given a choice of Perchick chicken marinated with coconut milk and spices, French green beans with onions, steamed rice OR fillet of perch with mustard sauce, linguine pasta with herbs, sautéed vegetables with shiitake mushrooms. 

I chosed the second dish. The pasta at the top was a little hard as it was not soaked in its gravy. The fillet was a little fishy. I thought that wasn't good but little did I know that the subsequent food served was cold food and tasteless, or perhaps again, not my cup of tea...hot worse! 

I went to the back of the plane and asked for a cup of instant noodles. Guess what!  The air stewardess told me that isn't for me. That was food for the business class passengers! That was only Maggie Mee in My Cup! Nothing too fancy and nothing too expensive. Back in Malaysia, it could have cost only RM3! Then the food from Paris to Stockholm got worst. We were served a cold and hard bun with some cold cheese and ham. I wish I had taken a photo of the food. I really couldn't finish the food, really! 

Upon arriving, I couldn't actually see much of the view from the plane. It was very foggy. It looked like a big and thick white blanket. 

View from the plane

Touching down

Anyway, when we arrived at Arlanda Airport, the weather was welcoming us. It was cold, about 1 degree Celsius. This is really cool! The air is clean and it's freezing! I love it! 😙❤️

Inside Arlanda Airport, Stockholm

Snowman Cake

Next month is my son's birthday. Every year during the month of December, all the public schools will be on long holiday. So, it's impossible for my son to have his birthday celebrated with his classmates. 

Therefore, I'd let him celebrate his birthday twice in a year, once in November (before the school term ends) and another on the actual date. 

So for the birthday this year, my son requested for a Frozen theme cake. His mother came out with the idea of a cake with a snowman topper. 

I made him a two-tier cake. The top tier was a vegan vanilla 8" cake while the bottom was a moist chocolate 10" cake. 

The whole cake was covered with a layer of crumb coat, then another layer of cream and finally with turquoise fondant.

I used four straws to support the top tier. Then I put a snowman cake topper at the top of the cake. I also piped royal icing  around the top tier as melted snow. And for the second tier, I piped some cream around it as snow. Reason? I was in a rush so I asked my helper to fill the piping bag. All I told was to fill up the bag for making snow. 😄 I guess she couldn't read my mind as I thought she could. 

Well this is the picture of the cake. I hope the picture could give some inspiration to those who want to make a snowman cake. 

Oh I almost forgot about the number six topper. Yes, it's made of black gumpaste, airbrushed with silver paint, edible of course. 

Till then, tata!