19 June 2018, Tuesday I’ve reached another milestone today. It’s been 50 days since I left home, and even though I didn’t know it at the time, today marks the official halfway point of my trip. Before I set off from Singapore, I kept my return date open-ended but I knew that the entire trip […]
18 June 2018, Monday Wakey wakey, it’s my third and final full day in Tallinn today. Months ago, when I was still in the planning stages for this trip, I considered heading out of the city today to visit Lahemaa National Park, 70km east of Tallinn. Lahemaa is Estonia’s first and largest national park, and […]
17 June 2018, Sunday After the wonderful day exploring Tallinn’s Old Town yesterday, I woke up today feeling very excited about the day ahead. Once again, the forecast showed that it would be a day of great weather, mostly sunny with the temperature reaching a peak of 24 degrees Celsius at 1pm. Super grateful that […]
Estonia | Europe | Finland | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 47 – Finland (Helsinki) / Estonia (Tallinn)
16 June 2018, Saturday Rise and shine, it’s time to move on to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, today! The past two days in Helsinki have been great, but I’m rather excited to go to Tallinn because I’ve read so much about how its Old Town is one of the best preserved and most authentic […]
15 June 2018, Friday This morning, I went up to the 7th floor of my Eurohostel to make use of the free sauna. Use of the morning sauna from 7am to 10am is included in the room rate (i.e. free) while evening sauna from 5pm to 10pm is chargeable at €7.50/guest. Saunas are an integral […]
14 June 2018, Thursday After a restful night’s sleep in my cabin, I woke up fully refreshed, feeling great. I had my breakfast in the cabin, then went up to the upper deck at 10:30am. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and loads of people were already out there enjoying the sun and the breeze. […]
Europe | Sweden | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 44 – Sweden (Stockholm) / Finland (Helsinki)
13 June 2018, Wednesday Today, I’ll be leaving Stockholm for Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It will be the 11th country I’ll be setting foot on since departing Singapore 44 days ago. For those who are unaware, the concept I had for this trip was to take one flight out of Singapore to Europe and […]
12 June 2018, Tuesday Yesterday was very action-packed and I had a really good time, especially at the ABBA Museum and Gröna Lund. For my second full day in Stockholm today, I wanted to take it easy and explore at a more relaxed pace. As usual, the weather forecast was great – a sunny day […]
11 June 2018, Monday I’m 42 days into my Grand Adventure, and Sweden is the 10th country I have visited thus far. My accommodation here is Generator Stockholm, a chain of large hostels that are run more like hotels. I had stayed at Generator Hamburg earlier in the trip and I found the professional, business-like […]
Europe | Norway | Sweden | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 41 – Norway (Bergen/Oslo) / Sweden (Stockholm)
10 June 2018, Sunday After spending nine fabulous days in Norway (excluding today), the time had come to say goodbye to this amazing country and move on to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. It was going to be a long day of travelling as I would have to first take a train from Bergen to […]
9 June 2018, Saturday Today, I was determined to make the best use of my last full day to enjoy as much of Norway’s nature as possible. After conquering Preikestolen and Trolltunga earlier in the week, I wanted to make one more hike to Ulriken. Standing at 643m, Ulriken is the highest of the seven […]
8 June 2018, Friday After yesterday’s momentous hike to Trolltunga, it was time to move on from the small town of Odda to Bergen, the second largest city in Norway. I woke up at about 7am, had my breakfast, checked out of Trolltunga Hotel and took bus 984 (fare: 37 Kr / S$6.32) to go […]
7 June 2018, Thursday I woke up this morning at 6am, all ready and excited for the hike to Trolltunga (click here). I checked the weather forecast and it was a chilly 8 degrees Celsius at the moment, with the temperature expected to hit a nice 17 degrees at noon time. I had booked a […]
6 June 2018, Wednesday After spending three nights in Stavanger, it was time to move on to Odda, a small town located about 200km away. The journey would require two bus transfers and take some five hours altogether. The total fare for the entire three-leg bus journey was 492 Kr (S$85.22) and I had booked […]
Europe | Norway | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 36 – Norway (Stavanger / Lysefjord)
5 June 2018, Tuesday After the thrilling hike to Preikestolen yesterday, I was left wondering what I could do with another spare day in Stavanger today. When drawing up my itinerary months ago, I originally planned to do another trek to Kjeragbolten, which is not too far from Stavanger, about 2.5 hours’ drive away. Kjeragbolten […]
Europe | Norway | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 35 – Norway (Stavanger / Preikestolen)
4 June 2018, Monday This morning, I woke up with an extra spring in my step, because it was the day I had waited for so long…I would be hiking up to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) today! After months of planning and dreaming about it, I am finally going to do it. Super excited! I left […]
3 June 2018, Sunday After spending two nights in Oslo, it was time to head southwest to Stavanger, the fourth largest city in Norway and gateway to one of the country’s most visited natural attractions – Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock. This 604m steep cliff ranked high on my bucket list and it was one of […]
2 June 2018, Saturday This morning, I woke up relatively late and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at my hostel at 9am. For once, I was not having croissants bought from the supermarket the night before because breakfast was included in my room booking. Food in Norway is very expensive so I was happy that there […]
Europe | Norway | Sweden | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 32 – Sweden (Gothenburg) / Norway (Oslo)
1 June 2018, Friday I woke up very early this morning because I had a 6:55am train to catch. In fact, I could very well have been woken up by my roommate’s snoring rather than by my mobile phone’s alarm. I had the “fortune” of having snoring roommates for the past three nights so I […]
Denmark | Europe | Sweden | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 31 – Denmark (Copenhagen) / Sweden (Gothenburg)
31 May 2018, Thursday Today marks a milestone…it’s Day 31 of my trip and it means that this is the longest I have ever been away from home. My previous record was set in 2012, when I went on a 30-day backpacking trip around Asia to celebrate my 30th birthday. So it has been a […]