As a true travelling-addict, it was obvious that I wouldn't go straight back home after the summer school in Kaunas had come to an end. As mentioned in my last post, I went on to visit Sweden for a few days.
It was very convenient that there was a direct flight from Kaunas to Stockholm. On my last day in Kauans I met up again with my friend Rima and she told me that her friend Milda was also going to Stockholm the next day to visit her boyfriend. We assumed that she would be on the same plane, so I asked Rima if she could show a photo of her friend so I could go talk to her at the airport. She showed me a clear picture from their trip to Hungary earlier that week and gave me her full name as well so I had an opportunity to check her out on Facebook. Then the idea to pull some crazy prank on this innocent girl came to my mind. With the help of my most creative friend Tommy I made up a story to surprise and confuse her. The conversation went like this:
L: "Hi! You are Milda (...), right?"
M: "Yes..?" (clearly confused that a stranger walked up to her and knew her name)
L: "Great! Let me introduce myself first. My name is Marcel Hoogervorst from Elle Fashion Magazine and I would like to ask you a couple of questions, is that ok?"
M: "Yes...?!?"
L: "Ok. So my sources told me that you recently signed a contract to be a model for the Swedish magazine Skessuhorn. What made you decide to do this?
M: "Ehm... As far as I know, I didn't sign any contract...?"
L: "You were in Budapest earlier this week, right?"
M: "Yeah...?" (thinking: how on earth does he know this?!?)
L: "Yes, and on Monday you signed the contract there."M: "No, I didn't, I think you really have the wrong person."
L: "You are Milda (...), right?"
M: "Yes, I am."
L: "Interesting. My sources gave me your name and even your photo, and usually they are right about such things."
After this, she didn't know what to say any more and I felt she had suffered enough already, so I confessed to her my real identity. To my surprise she didn't hate me: she even invited me to sit down next to her and we kept on talking until we arrived in Sweden. This was really a great way to avoid boredom at airports and on airplanes. I am seriously considering to do such pranks more often.
When we arrived in Stockholm I said goodbye to Milda and her boyfriend and suddenly I was alone again; for the first time in one month. I walked to my hostel, that was on a boat actually, through the old town and was amazed by the beauty of Stockholm. This city is certainly one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. The old town is just amazing, as well as the views over the water from Kastellholmen and in Djurgården I felt just like walking through the countryside at times.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that this trip was planned only two weeks in advance, I didn't manage to find anyone to meet up with in Stockholm, but in such a beautiful city you don't need a person to hang out with to have a good time.
On Monday morning I got on the train from Stockholm to Jönköping. Jönköping is a city full of students, located next to the second biggest lake in Sweden. In this city I would meet my friend Dyiva. We met eachother in a hostel last year and stayed in touch because we both share the same passion: travelling. It was great to see her again. Dyiva told me that I came to Jönköping at the right time: that Monday was the first day of the introduction week at the university and since her best friend was a Fadder (= some kind of mentor) of a group of new students, I was invited to join the activities on the days that I was there. I joined a group of students at the engineering school. On my first day in Jönköping I participated in some games to get to know the other students in the group, enjoyed a barbeque and some drinking games in the park and we had a party afterwards. Also, I talked with a guy from Lithuania using the Lithuanian that I had learnt during the past month, which was great, and in Dutch with a Dutch guy, which felt really weird, since I hadn't spoken my native language for almost a month now.
The next day I attended the Overall Ceremony. On the first day, all Fadders were already wearing an old, dirty overall in a color that represented their studies. The second day, the new students would get their own overalls and had to play some games in their new outfits to get them just as dirty as the overalls from the older students. Attending these two days of the introduction week really took me back to my own introduction week in Tilburg. We didn't have dirty overalls, but the activities were very similar. For sure being among all these students was much more interesting than just walking around the city and taking some pictures of the local churches.
Below you can find some photos from my second day in Jönköping, which was already my last day in Sweden.
It was very convenient that there was a direct flight from Kaunas to Stockholm. On my last day in Kauans I met up again with my friend Rima and she told me that her friend Milda was also going to Stockholm the next day to visit her boyfriend. We assumed that she would be on the same plane, so I asked Rima if she could show a photo of her friend so I could go talk to her at the airport. She showed me a clear picture from their trip to Hungary earlier that week and gave me her full name as well so I had an opportunity to check her out on Facebook. Then the idea to pull some crazy prank on this innocent girl came to my mind. With the help of my most creative friend Tommy I made up a story to surprise and confuse her. The conversation went like this:
L: "Hi! You are Milda (...), right?"
M: "Yes..?" (clearly confused that a stranger walked up to her and knew her name)
L: "Great! Let me introduce myself first. My name is Marcel Hoogervorst from Elle Fashion Magazine and I would like to ask you a couple of questions, is that ok?"
M: "Yes...?!?"
L: "Ok. So my sources told me that you recently signed a contract to be a model for the Swedish magazine Skessuhorn. What made you decide to do this?
M: "Ehm... As far as I know, I didn't sign any contract...?"
L: "You were in Budapest earlier this week, right?"
M: "Yeah...?" (thinking: how on earth does he know this?!?)
L: "Yes, and on Monday you signed the contract there."M: "No, I didn't, I think you really have the wrong person."
L: "You are Milda (...), right?"
M: "Yes, I am."
L: "Interesting. My sources gave me your name and even your photo, and usually they are right about such things."
After this, she didn't know what to say any more and I felt she had suffered enough already, so I confessed to her my real identity. To my surprise she didn't hate me: she even invited me to sit down next to her and we kept on talking until we arrived in Sweden. This was really a great way to avoid boredom at airports and on airplanes. I am seriously considering to do such pranks more often.
When we arrived in Stockholm I said goodbye to Milda and her boyfriend and suddenly I was alone again; for the first time in one month. I walked to my hostel, that was on a boat actually, through the old town and was amazed by the beauty of Stockholm. This city is certainly one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. The old town is just amazing, as well as the views over the water from Kastellholmen and in Djurgården I felt just like walking through the countryside at times.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that this trip was planned only two weeks in advance, I didn't manage to find anyone to meet up with in Stockholm, but in such a beautiful city you don't need a person to hang out with to have a good time.
On Monday morning I got on the train from Stockholm to Jönköping. Jönköping is a city full of students, located next to the second biggest lake in Sweden. In this city I would meet my friend Dyiva. We met eachother in a hostel last year and stayed in touch because we both share the same passion: travelling. It was great to see her again. Dyiva told me that I came to Jönköping at the right time: that Monday was the first day of the introduction week at the university and since her best friend was a Fadder (= some kind of mentor) of a group of new students, I was invited to join the activities on the days that I was there. I joined a group of students at the engineering school. On my first day in Jönköping I participated in some games to get to know the other students in the group, enjoyed a barbeque and some drinking games in the park and we had a party afterwards. Also, I talked with a guy from Lithuania using the Lithuanian that I had learnt during the past month, which was great, and in Dutch with a Dutch guy, which felt really weird, since I hadn't spoken my native language for almost a month now.
The next day I attended the Overall Ceremony. On the first day, all Fadders were already wearing an old, dirty overall in a color that represented their studies. The second day, the new students would get their own overalls and had to play some games in their new outfits to get them just as dirty as the overalls from the older students. Attending these two days of the introduction week really took me back to my own introduction week in Tilburg. We didn't have dirty overalls, but the activities were very similar. For sure being among all these students was much more interesting than just walking around the city and taking some pictures of the local churches.
Below you can find some photos from my second day in Jönköping, which was already my last day in Sweden.
