largest runestone? saw it!

For my module called sweden and the swedes i get to go on this super cool excursion to the old parts of sweden where there are ruins and runestones to see for myself what they actually are while the teacher would explain the historical relevance. I always look forward to field trips with my class because field trips give you that opportunity to be free from the limitations of classroom behaviour. For example in the field trip you can keep on talking to your friend while in the classroom setting i was taught that that behaviour is frowned upon subsequently i also find it hard to teach in a class of noisy students. However in a field trip everyone knows this is some extra input and views it as an adventure, kinda like the magic school bus series where the bus takes the students to magical places. I do think that field trips are magical, though they are so rare back in Singapore its almost mythical. I was sitting next to Andrew in the bus and for me choosing who to sit with is a critical decision that would affect the whole field trip. The person has to be able to talk to you yet respect your sense space when you get the after lunch coma and not reply. Unfortunately i am not very good at respecting his food coma's lack of interaction but thank God Andrew was gracious enough not to slap me in the face when i was being so talkative.

For those who didnt know, the beautiful pictures on this blog is all thanks to my sony nex 3N which has helped me alot with its AUTO and SUPERIOR AUTO (as if auto was not good enough) mode that gave me the "ability" to take good photos. For this field trip i brought along my camera too and unfortunately or fortunately theres this taiwan girl who didnt, so besides my own photos, i have almost majority of her photos. It felt like i was a "professional" photographer.

 This is the runestone that, no im not refering to the stone tablet. Just kidding, that you see is the biggest runestone in the world! (well cause only nordic countries have runestones anyway)

 This is my teacher with the build of a viking

 So the story behind the runestone is that its like an encouragement from a father to his sons who are going to war. But since scholars cannot agree all on this, it has been agreed to disagree that this stone is not about rock and roll

 Thats lin yi, the taiwan girl who has her own camera (thank god)

 Stacy and lin yi and their new friend

 Okay dont ask me why i have these solo pictures of people

 This might actually make it to stacy's facebook display pic

 So we asked some french girl to take photo for all of us and i guess she was more concerned if the grass was also in the shot

 if you look closely you would realise we are all asians. Yes we asians do like to hang out with ourselves

 and why we are looking in the sky is because we were trying to imitate this movie poster of na xie nian

 ang mo girl " kill kill kill" 

 windmills weee

 tis is the oldest church in linkoping i think

 so yes we have reached the second destination after the runestone, the old ruins of a once prosperous monastery 

 i always take these kinda pictures thinking i would read them later but it always ends up just being chucked in the photo bucket

 "this is very fertile land!" as quoted from the teacher

 sorry guys if you expected some effiel tower monument, this is it.

 This used to be the most prosperous part of linkoping as the land was really fertile and that time agriculture was like the key element to riches.  A monastry was built here cause the monastic movement was really powerful in Europe after the fall of the church. But a king in sweden decided to tear it down as it was deemed pagan. So what we see here is half ass effort in deconstruction, blessing? 

 That huge arch is supposed to be the worship hall i think, where it was once with stained glass and alot of deco

 while everyone is busy listening i obviously was more concerned with what the back of everyones' head looked like 

 #1

 I really hope i pass the exam for this course 

 as usual i was making sure that the construction is sturdy

 before i take a photo

 or photos

 please scroll down if you are bored

 ah okay this is the largest lake in sweden! which is the 4th largest in europe with the largest being in russia. It was so big i thought it was an ocean

 the bus driver is really damn zhai, the road is so narrow and he drive so confidently.

 reallllllll nice

 smudge

 this was like missing a damn nice shot, got a shot of damn trees instead

 see, bus also have seatbelt

 This was the last stop, a town with a castle! as usual everyone not listening to her except asian guy

 St. birgitta? this church looks really awesome

 The key feature of this church is the simplicty, notice the simple roof design

 Kinda remind me of my Presbyterian church 

 this is a catholic church as seen

 time goes by, so slowly

 coolest thing is that the floor has carvings

 This is where the nuns would confess to the monks, so the monks will sit/lie/sleep on this side while the door is opened and the nun will be on the other side. Kinda cool idea

 This is like a chair for the monks, but because monks do alot of kneeling and standing, this was an invention to like stand while "sitting" as i have illustrated my butt is actually sitting abit on the foldable chair behind

 trying to replicate history

 i only see this scene in army, where people heck care and lie on the grass. But in Europe the grass is like natural bed 

 This made me wanna bring my tamiya car and let it run through

 i dunno what im doing. going crazy due to taking so many photos

 taiwan girl: this looks like a heart right. Me: no it looks like a butt print. 

 #2

 #3

 when i see a dog i get really excited

 i am the dog whisperer 

 Look at the next few pictures carefully 

 qn: who loved the wall the most? 

 o we had free fika ! 

 look at that cinnamon bun, yum 

 pasar malam woot woot, but turns out all the fashion v obiang. 

 this looks like fun 

 this looks like fun.....HALP

 OMG SAM HALP 

 look at that castle

 Famous castle that we are here for. IT EVEN HAS A MOAT HOW COOL IS THAT. unfortunately no drawbridge

 i am good at symmetry 

 lion being crushed, hence the eyes

 inside the castle....carpark. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN

 Being bored, we decided to play 5 stones with real stones

 doing what i do 

 teehee

 thats andrew! 

 this is how we roll

 mini golf course here! its so cute cause it replicates the city

Annnd thats the end of my school trip! sorry for not captioning alot of the photos, if you have time you can go to visit these places too but my advise is dont waste time looking at the runestone and the ruins and just go to the most awesome castle dressed up as a knight and start fighting random people you see.