Day 19: The Day I went to IKEA

Another Saturday, another great day. The sun was shining so beautifully today. It was a great photo opportunity day. Too bad the sun was in the wrong angle when I went out this afternoon to get my groceries. It was in the way of the nice sceneries. Shoot.

So I made it a point to go take some photos later in the afternoon, at around 1530. By then, the sun would be in the right position. Not to high, not directly behind me or the buildings and sceneries. Just perfect. Too bad I didn't manage to take any photos again.

What's with me and photos? I can never get a chance to take them. It was the perfect day for photo taking!

Instead, I went to IKEA.

En route to the cathedral (great photo opportunity there), I met a guy from church. He was on his way to IKEA and asked me to join him. It was rather good timing since I wanted to get some containers and see the IKEA here in Uppsala. I heard that it's the smallest in Sweden.

Yup. It is small. In fact, I think it's slightly smaller than the one in Singapore. But they do have an additional warehouse here, one that the little red dot lacks. If the signs were not in Swedish, I certainly would have thought I was back in Singapore.

To think we almost had the largest IKEA in southeast asia (SEA). As I understand, they wanted to build one (the second in Singapore; as their flagship store in both Singapore and SEA) at Woodlands, but the authorities didn't approve of it. So they moved north, to Johor.

The good thing about IKEA is the sense of comfort one feels. Go to any hostel in Europe and you'll find that almost everything, especially the utensils, is from IKEA. The same dishes and cups. Only of different colours. This uniformity is rather comforting.

But I was rather disappointed with the food hall in this particular IKEA. I think the one in Singapore is bigger. Shucks.

Yup. I got my containers and also a set of clips. Yah lah, this time I bought them. Didn't get freebies. Their stall wasn't in the city today anyway.

On the city, it was really lively this afternoon. There were more people out than the previous two weeks. Almost made it crowded. Somehow, I think it's the good weather we had today. Everyone just wanted to come out and have fun. There were street performers (singers, jugglers, and mime) and street vendors selling those battery operated soft toys that can move and make noise (the ones we see at our pasar malam). Well, these things were there the previous weeks, just that the atmosphere was so different today; much more lively than I'd experienced. And of course, the usual carts selling hotdogs. I wonder if they are any good. Haven't bought one to try yet. I will. One day.

I'm thinking of getting a second-hand bicycle to use here. It should facilitate my travel to more and further places, instead of relying on the bus. But the road conditions and the fact that I'm used to driving on the different side of the road makes this a rather difficult decision to make. Should I risk cycling on slippery icy streets and on conditions that I'm not familar with, or should I be more concerned about going places where the bike can take me. Ooo... My aching head.

Great day today. Cheers!