Ghent Arrival and Welcome Week Event

The second semester has wrapped up on June, and we are now welcoming the new academic year. As the Edinburgh blogger in the first semester, I have finally arrived in Gent this September. I am excited (and a bit nervous) for this new semester as we will have more essential fire engineering courses such as passive and active protection, performance based design, and fire safety legislation. Each students will have to choose two more elective courses, and one of them should be a structural fire engineering course. One of the things that also makes me excited is the classes that will be held on-campus this semester.

To welcome the new academic year we have some welcoming week activities held by Ghent University. I attended the welcome event by the Ghent University International Office last week. Following the rules and measures, the event is held with several slots so we had to book our place. It was overall an info session for life as an international student in Ghent. There was an additional info about the vaccination program in Ghent, if you have not vaccinated, you can now get it easily through the vaccination bus. It will come to areas indicated on this link, at certain date and time. You do not need to book in advance and you only need to bring your id card or BIS number (it’s available on your enrolment certificate). After the info session, we got to meet other new students in Ghent (and many of them are Erasmus mobility program students too!) while enjoying some free drinks and foods. We also got a kit from the university and interestingly there are tokens we can exchange for free frites, drinks, and a boat ride along the canals.

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My Semester 2 Experience

In the second semester, we had 4 subjects: Advanced Fire Dynamics (AFD), Human Behaviour in Fire (HBiF), Risk Assessment (RA) and Simulation of Fires in enclosures (SoFiE). The first half (January to March) will be hectic. In the first half of the second semester, we completed the entire syllabus of AFD and HBiF and 60% of SoFiE. We had our semester exams for AFD and HBiF in the 3^rd and 4^th week of March. All the exams were open book exams (ppt slides) except for HBiF. The exam duration for two subjects, AFD and RA is 5 hours each. The second part of the semester i.e after the Easter break (April end to June) is quite good and relaxing. You will get enough time to explore different places 😉. Do install the travel app “Skånetrafiken”.

From this

To this

We completed the second semester !!!

LU accommodation and cleaning contest

I stayed at Eddan. Eddan is a new building as compared to the rest of LU accommodation. Eddan is far from the engineering faculty building. But this year anyway the lectures were completely online because of the global pandemic so the location didn’t matter. The WiFi is quite good at Eddan but do get a WiFi router when you come to Lund because the accommodation does not provide wireless internet access. At LU accommodation the laundry is free and make sure that you book your laundry slot well in advance. Since the currency in Sweden is Swedish Krona and to avoid paying high transaction charges I would strongly recommend everyone to get a Revolut or N26 card. You can easily make an account in these virtual banks. The groceries at Lund, Sweden is a little expensive as compared to Ghent, Belgium. The cheapest grocery stores include Lidl, Farfar Livs and ICA.

In May there was a corridor cleaning contest organized by Lund University. I was glad that this year our corridor won the first prize and as a reward, we got to choose one item from the list of Lund University merchandise. I chose the Lund University hoodie.

You can check the LU merch from the below link if you are interested in buying one.

https://extern.shop.lu.se/en/group-4122453/

Weekend get together

I had awesome corridor mates. People are extremely friendly and accommodating at Lund. I learned a lot about languages, cultures and cuisines. You can play a lot of card games, board games and lawn games during your stay at Lund. Every weekend there would be some sort of gathering like dinner night, movie night, chai and snacks, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Lund. I’m pretty sure that everyone will enjoy their time in Lund especially the second half of the semester.

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Happiest country Suomi! And the trip to Helsingborg!

During the summer (June to August) I was in Finland. Architecture wise Finland and Sweden are quite similar. However, when it comes to the language, I think Finnish is quite difficult to learn. I checked the language tree and I found that most of the European languages are from the Indo-European tree whereas Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian originate from Uralic roots.

According to some of the articles, the following reasons make Finland the happiest country in the world:

1. Beautiful landscape and nature

2. Low crime rate

3. Excellent healthcare

4. Superb education system

5. High standard of living and faith in their government

During the summer, I got the opportunity to go Kayaking in Helsinki. This was the first time that I was going to experience this adventure and learn a new skill set. In the beginning, we had 25-20 minutes of the informative session as to how to hold the paddle, how to sit in the kayak and generate maximum power, safety measures, etc. The weather was conducive for Kayaking and we rowed for 3-4 hours with short breaks in between. It was an amazing experience and I’m glad that my boat didn’t capsize 😜.

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Suomenlinna fortress and Helsinki Cathedral

If you visit Finland in the future do visit the Suomenlinna fortress in the summer. You need to get down at the University of Helsinki metro station, then take 10 minutes of the ferry to reach the fortress. There is no entry fee to enter the fortress and the rock beach is worth the sight! There are some museums inside if you wish to visit those you will have to pay 7 euros. The fortress was built by Sweden in the 18^th century and it’s also recognized as World Heritage by UNESCO. The Helsinki Cathedral is also a magnificent structure built in honour of Nicholas 1, the Tsar of Russia. While traveling in Helsinki you should install HSL mobile application. It gives you all the information related to the public transport services like the quickest route, timings, costs, etc.

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Helsingborg trip

On 17^th April,  Devmini, Sean, Momoi, Karoline and I went to Helsinborg. Thanks to Devmini for organizing the entire trip. The trip was very well planned! Helsingborg is approximately 60 Kilometers from Lund and it’s a beautiful city. Devmini, Sean and I lived at Eddan (LU accommodation). We met Momoi and Karoline at Lund Central station and we started our journey to Helsingborg at 8 in the morning. The train journey from Lund to Helsingborg was around 50 minutes. The entire journey (to and fro) was priced around 11-12 Euros (110-120 SEK). You can get the tickets through Skånetrafiken mobile application. (there is a discount if you buy group tickets)

We visited the following places:

1. Dunkers: Museum and art center

2. Kärnan: Medieval tower made in the 14^th century

3. Fredriksdal: Open-Air Museum and Botanical Garden

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(Note: From Helsingborg you can see Denmark)

References:

1. https://www.insider.com/life-in-finland-happiest-country-2019-6

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomenlinna

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_Cathedral

4. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g189836-Activities-Helsingborg_Skane_County.html

Summer Internship- Part 2

This summer most of the students had the opportunity to undertake an internship. Some of the students have shared their responses below.

Questions

1. Where did you undertake your internship?

2. Could you tell us about your educational background?

3.  How did you get this internship?

4. Tell us about your duties/tasks during the internship?

5. What was the best part about your internship?

Sean’s response:

1. I worked on a summer internship with the Danish company DBI, located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

2. I went to a community college (2-year college) to take courses to become a firefighter. There I got my EMT license and was studying paramedicine. After a year I transferred to a 4-year university, Eastern Kentucky University. There I received a degree in Fire Safety Engineering. I then worked for three years as an R&D engineer at a company called Janus Fire Systems where I designed and tested fire suppression systems.

3. I applied for this internship through the company’s website. I heard of the internship when reps from DBI presented the company and internship opportunities to IMFSE.

4. The project I was assigned was to address the fire risk of electric vehicles aboard ro-ro ferries. It was primarily just a literature review of detection and fire control options that could apply to the hazard. My contribution was a preliminary review and research for a year-long project that DBI was awarded to start after my internship ended.

5. Getting paid! Other than that, the freedom of investigation and lack of rigid structure was a pleasant change from what I was used to in my last job. Also, the food in the cafeteria was great every day.

Stephen’s response:

1. I did my internship at FPC Risk at its headquarters located in Antwerp, Belgium.

2. My qualifications include: BEng in Civil Engineering from the University of Liverpool (UK) Graduate of the Institution of Fire Engineers, UK fire and rescue qualifications.

3. One of our early lectures in year 1 given by Kevin Smeyers on industrial fire safety led me to become interested in the company. I kept in touch with the people at FPC and they asked if I would be interested to join them for a month.

4. I have worked on a number of varied projects including Hydraulic calculations (KY Pipe) for Total Pertochemical Plants in France, Evacuation calculations (Exodus) for a local shopping centre, heat transfer calculations for determining if two industrial units were an adequate space apart and some work on heritage protection (which I had a background in due to the fire service). The company also invited me to present at their monthly technical review meeting on my thesis topic.

5. Everything! FPC is an amazing company with amazing people. They welcomed me with open arms and have been really helpful in assisting me to perform my role. They have given me responsibility which I was very happy with. I have learned an awful lot and will hopefully apply to join their team when I finish. I am so grateful they gave me the opportunity to participate in such a fantastic experience.  I would highly recommend anyone looking for an internship to apply to FPC.

Lea’s response:

1. I undertook my internship at Dar group’s Beirut office. It’s an international engineering  consulting company mainly based in the MENA region with almost 18000 employees.

2. Graduated high school with a General Science degree, then pursued a bachelor’s in Mechanical engineering at the Lebanese American University.

3. After failing to score a paid internship in Europe I decided to go back home for the summer then remembered Dar had a big office in Beirut. I looked up fire safety engineers at Dar on Linked in and found the person who ended up being my supervisor, I messaged him asking for an internship opportunity and they immediately said yes.

4. I had the chance of working on different projects in the Gulf such as aircraft hangers  Dubai, an extension to an airport in Qatar and a heritage site in Saudi Arabia. My tasks included risk assessment, evacuation calculations, application of NFPA, British Standards and local codes and writing up reports.

5. The best part was the chance of presenting my work to the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) and getting to push my ideas forward, in addition to working in coordination with the civil engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering departments.

Edwin’s response:

1. I did my summer internship at Promat, Tisselt, Belgium. Most of the internship was online.

2. Civil Engineering from National University of Colombia. MSc in Structures from the same university.

3. I sent my motivational letter to Lies in November of the last year and around March/April they told me that they were interested.

4. The primary purpose of the following study is to perform a model to identify and understand how COMSOL tools can be employed to simulate the spalling in concrete slabs.

5. The best part of the internship was when I could visit the company. I did a “tour” around the laboratories and the factory.

Shaunak’s response:

1. I undertook my internship at Fennovoima, Finland. It’s a Finnish energy company and the office in which I worked was situated in Helsinki.

2. After secondary school, I went for vocational training (Mechanical Engineering) and then did my Bachelor’s in Mechanical engineering from Mumbai University.

3. I was looking for a summer internship since January. Luckily, I found this internship opportunity around March/April through random web searching. I applied and I was shortlisted for an interview and I’m glad that I got selected.

4. My tasks mainly involved reviewing different buildings of the Nuclear power plant and reviewing fire simulation reports as per the Finnish building fire safety codes. The software used for reviewing was Autodesk Navisworks. My internship was completely prescriptive-based.

5. The best part about my internship was that I could choose to work remotely or work at the office. Honestly, I preferred to work at the office! Also, I was happy that I could apply concepts like smoke filling, ASET/RSET calculations, structural resistance which we had studied in IMFSE. The entire civil engineering department at Fennovoima is very accommodating and supportive. It was the best 3 months of my life!

Thank you so much! Sean, Stephen, Lea and Edwin for sharing your internship experience.

Summer Internship- Part 1

This summer most of the students had the opportunity to undertake an internship. Some of the students have shared their responses below.

Questions

1. Where did you undertake your internship?

2. Could you tell us about your educational background?

3.  How did you get this internship?

4. Tell us about your duties/tasks during the internship?

5. What was the best part about your internship?

Timo’s response

1. I took my internship in Finland, in a Finnish fire consultant company called KK-Palokonsultti Oy. The office of the company is located in Espoo, but most of the time I worked remotely from my home.

2. After high school, I studied in two different programs in Emergency Services Academy Finland which is located in Kuopio. I did a Fire Fighter degree program and Bachelors’s in Fire Safety Engineering.

3.  I was searching for good internship opportunities from Finland since I knew I wanted to spend the summer in Finland and meet my family and friends. I had already worked in fire departments in multiple different positions, so I decided I want to try something new, so I was looking for fire consultant companies in Finland and found KK-Palokonsultti Oy and they decided to hire me for the summer.

4. During the summer, I was working on the project to update the Statistical Data for the Fire Risk Assessment. The project was needed because the earlier research was carried out in 2009.  To get the information about the fires I mainly used PRONTO database which is a rescue services resource and emergency database used in Finland.

5. The best thing about my internship was that I was able to work with something completely different from what I have used to before. I was enjoying the new challenges that the work offered me, and I was able to learn a lot during my internship. I also enjoyed the possibility to work remotely, because that way, I had the opportunity to spend more time in my hometown and spend time with my friends and family.

Devmini’s response:

1. I did my internship at The Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology or as most know it, DBI. It’s based in Copenhagen and is involved in research and development, fire testing, and fire investigation.

2. I received my bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

3. When we were given to choose our master’s thesis topics, I picked an industrial topic that is collaborated with DBI. My supervisors at DBI very kindly offered me the opportunity to spend the summer holidays at the company getting a head start on my thesis and I was very quick to gratefully accept.

4. My project involved investigating a type of engineered wood composite called Oriented Strand Board (OSB). In the 2 months, I carried out several tests to investigate the thermal properties of the material as well as the relationship between the mechanical strength and thermal degradation of OSB.

5. Due to Covid 19, I had to do most of my first year of the master’s program online and I hated missing out on physically attending lab sessions. So, it was an awesome opportunity to see the various material and testing labs at DBI and witness actual tests being conducted. And Copenhagen is a great city to live in, especially in the summer months. There are so many things to see and places to visit.

Nazim’s response:

1. I undertook my internship at Fire Engineered Solutions Ghent (FESG), now part of Jensen Hughes. It’s a Belgian fire consultancy company and I was located at their main office in Ghent.

2. Before joining the IMFSE, I followed an engineering course from the Polytechnic School of Algiers (Algeria) and I graduated with a major in Industrial Risk Management.

3. I applied for an internship position through the website of the company. A few weeks later, I got an interview and was accepted. My internship started in August of 2021.

4. I was involved in the development of web tools. This is part of FESG’s effort for the digitalization of the workflow and to provide consultants with tools to carry their calculations and automate certain tasks.

5. What I like the most about my internship was the opportunity to work with experienced fire safety engineers. My colleagues were very helpful and supportive. And I got an interesting insight into what consulting is about and what are the expectations.

Mohammad’s response:

1. I did my internship at Fire Engineered Solutions Gent (FESG), located in Gent, Belgium. It is now a part of the Jensen Hughes family but was founded as a Gent university spin-off in 2009.

2. I did both my bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), with my majors in fluid mechanics and energy conversion systems, respectively.

3. Since FESG was a member of the IMFSE sponsors, I applied for the internship through the IMFSE secretariat in late November. Then I had an interview with a project manager and HR from the company in March, and they updated me about my admission within a week.

4. I did two separate projects, both involving Python codes. The first part was about calculating possible consequences of fires and explosion for new energy carriers in tunnels and carparks, such as faireballs, jetfires, while the second part involved calculation of radiation attenuation using water curtains in industrial plants.

5. Getting familiar with the workflow in SME in fire consultancy was an important gain for me. I also developed my Python skills, I did not have any professional experience with Python before.

Thanks you so much! Timo, Devmini, Nazim and Mohammad for sharing your internship experience.

Events in Lund, Sweden

1. (Ghent+Edinburgh) @ Lund= Lively gathering

For the first semester, most of us started (around 16 students) at Ghent whereas some of the students (6 students) started their IMFSE journey at Edinburgh. In May, Lea put a plan for a BBQ on Sunday at noon near Eddan (Lund University accommodation). We all gathered, cooked delicious food, got to know each other and certainly, our meet-up was successful. We played games like Kubb (typical Swedish game), Football, Frisbee, Chess, Viking Chess, etc. It was Sean’s birthday on the same day which acted like icing on the cake.😉🥳

(Note: The beginning of Semester 2 (January-March) is quite hectic. After the Easter break the curriculum is super chill)

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2. Eurovision 2021

Honestly, I didn’t know about the contest named “Eurovision”. This was the first time that I got to know about this event. For the people who don’t know what Eurovision is, it’s an international song contest that primarily consists of participants from European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the European Broadcasting Union’s Eurovision and Euro radio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries’ songs to determine a winner. Everyone from our floor at Eddan gathered in the common area and we were enjoying the event. Our corridor had people from different nationalities and we were all supporting different countries. I was supporting Finland 🖤. Unfortunately, Finland didn’t win the competition but I was happy that Finland was in the “Top 10” as it ranked 6^th out of the 39 countries which participated in the competition.  

Congratulations! to Italy for winning Eurovision 2021 🙌🤩

(Note: Finland was the winner of Eurovision 2006)

Eurovision Finale Night

3. Eid 2021

Eid-ul-Fitr is a great religious festival for Muslims. It is celebrated by Muslims all over the world. Eid marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. After 30 days of fasting, Eid is the first day after that month when Muslims do not fast and enjoy their day fully. We were invited for dinner by Hamza (IMFSE Cohort 2019-2021). He had made delicious finger-licking Chicken Biryani and Raita (made with yogurt, spices, herbs and vegetables). Nazim had brought tasty sweets named “Baklava”. We wrapped up our dinner over a cup of chai. We thoroughly enjoyed the feast.

(left to right: Hamza, Ajay, Antariksh, Shaunak and Nazim)

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I would like to extend my gratitude to Hamza and Nazim! This was the best meal that I had since I left home.

(Note: Hamza is an awesome chef!!!)

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubb

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest

3. https://www.toppr.com/guides/essays/essay-on-eid/

Women in FSE Event

Last May, the IMFSE held a very exciting event that is the Women in Fire Safety Engineering Event. The IMFSE invited current students, alumni, and all associated partners of the IMFSE. Not only women, the event was also attended by men. At that time, the event is held online and hosted by Prof. Margaret McNamee from Lund University and Fanny Guay from Rambøll.

After welcoming remarks by the hosts, the speakers shared their experience and perspective working in the fire safety engineering field. The first is shared by Fanny Guay who at that time was working as a senior specialist at Rambøll. After that, Laura Schmidt, one of the IMFSE alumni, shared her experience as she is now working as a fire safety engineer at WSP Australia. As an alumni, Laura also shared her experience during job hunting before graduating from the IMFSE. The last speaker is Danielle Antonellis, who previously was a fire safety engineer at ARUP, and is now the founder and CEO of Kindling, an non-profit organization addressing fire safety inequalities globally. During the discussion, there was a questions and answers session where it attracted many interesting discussion, such as salary gap, or how recruitment process for women in FSE is different in different places.

The third agenda was group discussion, and we were divided into breakout rooms. Each group discussed opportunities and challenges for women in fire safety engineering. After it finished, each groups presented their discussion result. I was in the same room with one of our alumni who is currently working at a Basler & Hofmann and an associate from IMFSE partner, Modern Building Alliance. We shared stories about how the experience of being a women in the STEM field really depends on the cultural context at where you are working. Our group also shared that the support from male co-workers is very valuable. I think this was also pointed in the bigger discussion, and I am really happy to see some of our male classmates attended the event. One of the highlight in the discussion is workplace should accommodate individuals who wants to build family, especially for expecting mothers. This is related to what Fanny shared in her experience about the company and the policy, in this case she works in the Nordic countries, who support women in the job market, such as by giving benefit of parental leave for both women and men.

The event did not only left a meaningful and intriguing discussion, but also a place for a networking session. Hopefully, there will be future Women in FSE event next year, where we can meet up physically.

Belgium Student Visa Application from Sweden

This post is for the students who need to apply for a student visa to Belgium for the 3rd semester.

For those of you who start the mobility in Ghent, starting last year, you can get a 2-years resident permit in Belgium. Meanwhile, if you start your mobility in Edinburgh, it means you have to apply for a student visa after the second semester in Lund. In this post, I am sharing my experience applying for a student visa from Sweden.

Applying for the visa from Sweden, you firstly need to contact the Belgium Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, through email because they are handling all the visa applications from Nordic countries residents, and they will let you know all of the documents required for the application. Usually, the documents include the visa application form, 35 x 45 mm photos with a light background, acceptance or enrollment letter, financial proof, visa application payment proof (if you receive the scholarship, there is a payment exemption document you can ask from the IMFSE administration), willingness to integrate form, language form, and the copy of your valid Sweden residence permit. Additionally, we need a police certificate and a medical certificate.

To get the police record certificate in Sweden, we need to fill out the request form online here. After it is printed and signed, scan it and send an email to utlandsutdrag@polisen.se. Do not forget to include our passport scan in the email, since the IMFSE student normally does not have a personal Swedish ID number. After that, they will ask you to transfer the processing and mail fee and it costs around 230 SEK. This takes about 1-2 weeks until you get your police record sent to you.

For the medical certificate, you can have your medical check-up anywhere in Sweden, because after that you need to get an apostille for the document. I personally followed an advice from previous IMFSE students and booked an appointment with a private GP from Vaccinedirekt in Malmö, it costs 1850 SEK. After that, you can go to any public notary to get the apostille, and it usually costs around 400 SEK.

After you have all the necessary documents, you need to scan them and email them to the Belgium Embassy. They will tell you if there are any documents lacking. When it is finished, you can either go to Helsinki yourself to get your visa or you can mail your passport to the Belgium Embassy to get the visa. I sent mine using a private courier and book it again to receive it.

After you get your visa, you can enter Belgium, and do not forget to fill in the online form (max 8 days after your arrival), to process your student visa into the Belgium residence permit.

Christmas presents and Fika!!!

Sinterklaas (also called Sint Nicolaas) is a traditional Winter holiday figure in Dutch-speaking Europe (The Netherlands and Flanders) and is also well known in the former Dutch colonies. Every year he is celebrated in The Netherlands, one day before Saint Nicholas died (5 December) and on (6 December) in Belgium. His helper and best friend Black Peter. Sinterklaas is the basis of the mythical holiday figure of Santa Claus in the United States. Sinterklaas has nothing to do with Christmas. Christmas will also be celebrated in the Netherlands as well as in Belgium, so Santa Claus is not the same as Sinterklaas (in the Netherlands). Sinterklaas arrives from Spain in a boat and has a white horse that can walk across rooftops. Every little kid puts his shoe at the chimney (or the window) and sings a song, when the kid goes to sleep Sinterklaas comes and puts a present in the shoe.

In the beginning week of December, all the students staying at Ghent University accommodation received an email stating “ Sinterklaas – with the help of ESN Gent and Home Konvent – will be visiting your home and he will leave you a small surprise”. The email had a google form which we had to fill and register ourselves. On the evening of 15^th December, we had to keep our pair of shoes outside at 6 pm hoping Sinterklaas, his horse, and his sidekicks come by and leave a couple of presents and snacks😜.   

The Christmas present included chocolates, a pair of oranges and biscuits.                  

You can also get winter clothes at cheap rates during Christmas. Ghent looks vibrant with all the illuminations and colorful spangles. Here are some of the pictures that I captured last year.

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Fika is often translated as “a coffee and cake break”, which is kind of correct, but really it is much more than that. Fika is a concept, a state of mind, an attitude and an important part of Swedish culture. Many Swedes consider that it is almost essential to make time for fika every day. It means making time for friends and colleagues to share a cup of coffee (or tea) and a little something to eat.

Lund University, Engineering faculty had organized Easter Fika for all the IMFSE students at the end of March. The first half of the second semester (i.e. from January to March) is quite hectic. This Fika was a perfect end to a stressful curriculum. Sabrina, Timo, Antariksh, and I met at around 11 am at the Lund international office to get our Fika!

After having our coffee and blueberry/carrot cake we were basking in the park playing “Fluxx” (card game). The day was indeed well spent!

References:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

https://www.swedishfood.com/fika

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxx

Trip to the “Venice of Scandinavia”

I know that this blog is WELL after the time it occurred, but I feel the need to write this for the sake of the future member of IMFSE. During the spring vacation in Lund, a group of us decided to take full advantage of the window of opportunity. On a late March weekend, we took a train up to Stockholm to explore the city for two days. It is helpful to know that Stockholm is called the Venice of Scandinavia and this title comes for a good reason. The city is a major port city in Scandinavia, and it exists as a series of islands interconnected with a spaghetti mess of bridges.

We started our trip by taking a train up from Lund early one morning and arrived at a very Scandinavian level of sunshine for the rest of the day. The overcast weather and slight drizzling did not however put us in a bad attitude since this weather is what we have come to expect and learned to love. We checked in to the Generator Hostel located in the Norrmalm neighborhood just north of the train station and after dropping off our luggage we quickly began a personal phone guided tour of the city, led by our fearless leader Léa.

Beginning the tour was a visit to the city hall located just outside the center of the city. Here we appreciate the traditional red-brick architecture of the hall built nearly 100 years ago. After seeing all that was to be seen there, we journeyed to the Old Town. The Old Town of Stockholm consists of the densely packed central island in the center of Stockholm. There along the many bridges that crisscross the city we were able to catch fetching views of the surrounding city architecture as the sun cut through the ever-present clouds. Within Old Town, we explored the many churches and government buildings that are sprinkled throughout the island; noticing the blend of architecture from Belgian, French, Italian, and of course Swedish. After several hours our legs grew tired of walking, our heads were full of cultural knowledge, and our stomachs were approaching uncomfortable levels of emptiness. So, we found a small café in Old Town to give our legs a break and rest our minds while we filled our stomachs. After that well-needed recovery, we continued our exploration of the city.

Our next stop was the graffiti stairwell. This does not compare to the graffiti street back in Gent, but it still helped us to get back in the mindset of appreciating art. After the hike up the graffiti stairs, we visited a few more churches until we came upon the Royal Palace and Parliament Building. Both had exquisite exteriors and most likely equally beautiful interiors. However, with Covid restrictions, we were limited to the outside of the buildings. At this time with most of the major historical buildings visited it was decided to catch a tram to one of the parks located on the Alberget Island to the east. Along this ride, we passed some of the must-see museums in Stockholm (Vasa Museum, Nordiska Museum, ABBA Museum, and the Royal Garden Museum) all of which were just as open as the royal palace was. We later found out that the week after we were there the museums opened…just our luck, I guess. After a long day of exploration, it was time for some drinks and dinner. I cannot remember what we had for dinner, but I remember concluding the night with drinks and card games in the room. A great way to wrap up our first day.

The next day we decided that the ~10 km we walked the first day was not enough and set out to test our limits. After a small breakfast at a café, we began our long hike towards the newly named Avicii Theater. The first day was focused on the past of Stockholm, grand architecture and historical monuments, so the second day was centered on modern Stockholm by visiting several parks and public spaces that the locals spend their time. No real planning was done for this day and all that was planned was to travel south until we reached the Avicii Theater. The Theater is a grand white dome structure with an adjoining conference center, and all surrounded by cafes and restaurants. Before beginning our trek, we confirmed that the theater was open, however we did not see if there were any active events preventing the use of the observation deck. This sad reality was not realized until we got to the theater. That weekend was the international figure skating championship and never till or since that day have, I hated figure skating so much. At the point of reaching the theater we needed sustenance and with the number of restaurants around it was not hard to find food.

At this point, the last attraction to visit in Stockholm was of all places the subway/underground. Stockholm, like most modern European cities, has a vast public transit system connecting the spread-out city. A specific region of the city has a group of subway stations that are intricately decorated with bright colors and murals. This concluded the last day in Stockholm and at this point, our group needed to split up. Two stayed in Stockholm for a bit more exploring and dinner. While the remaining three began a whole other adventure which led them to the arctic circle. This arctic circle trip will be the second installment to this blog.