Sheffield, UK

Prior to my study camp in Denmark, I spent 3 days in UK – 2 days in Sheffield and 1 day in London. My experience with Heathrow airport is not pleasant. The plane took an hour to land after arriving at the airport. Queues at the immigration were extremely long. The officers there asked a lot of questions and it took approximately 20 minutes. No wonder people estimated 2 hours just to get out of the airport.

After collecting my luggage, I headed to Victoria Coach Station via tube. In the train, spaces between the seats are very narrow and the ceilings are low. There were no air-conditioned and the windows are slightly opened. There were free newspapers (Metro) on the seats for reading. As it was busy hours, the train was packed. The lights went off at times and it seems to be a norm. I was rather surprised to see a lot of Punjabis, Indians and Africans in the train as I have the impression that a lot of British are pure English.

As I go out of the train and headed towards the tube exit, my first impression was “oh my god!”. There are so many staircases! I was lucky to have met some helpful young chap. They offered to carry my 16kg luggage up the staircases and I was really grateful.

Please note that the Victoria Station is different from Victoria Coach Station. Victoria Coach Station is for express bus and some airport concept applies. There is an information center for enquiries. Depending on your bus schedule, you will need to take the bus from the respective gate. The difference is, there are plenty of gates and they are allocated near to each other. The station is crowded most of the time. Instead of people going around shouting as the bus arrives, there is a flat panel television at each gate, displaying the bus arrival time, bus company, destinations and status (e.g. boarding). Details of the next few buses will be shown as well. If you are hungry and looking for something to eat - no worries! There are plenty of small shops in the station selling sandwiches, snacks, drinks and newspapers.


The bus that I took is Megabus, heading to Meadowhall Station in Sheffield. The express bus there is not as comfortable as the one in Malaysia. There are 4 seats in a row and the seat is hardly moveable. I was very tired as I got there but happy to see Jimmy, my long lost friend. Jimmy will be my tour guide for my 3 days stay in UK and he did a very good job. I would like to compliment him for his helpfulness, flexibility and map reading skills. In addition, I have met a number of nice people in Sheffield and they made my stay in Sheffield memorable.

Unlike London which is very busy, Sheffield is less crowded and more relax. Finding a Malaysian and kebab shop there is very easy. According to Jimmy, Sheffield is an industrial city and land of origin for stainless steel.

What’s nice in Sheffield? The people, the food and the place. There are many churches around the city and many of them are abandoned. Yet, they look marvelous to me from the outside. Many old buildings here have been converted to pubs, restaurants and even lecture halls! It will be hard to imagine having classes in a church.


Shopping in Morrison is a good experience. There are so many varieties for juices, desserts, cookies, fruits etc and the price is reasonable and comparatively cheap for certain items. My favourite would be the strawberries, blueberries and raspberry cheese cakes. We got it at around 1-2 GBP per item. According to Jimmy, the older people in Sheffield like to address people by “love”. But, I did not manage to catch that word in their conversations as they talk very fast.

Peak District is a place not to be missed if you are visiting Sheffield. Well, it’s not exactly in Sheffield but nearby. It is the first national park in the British Isles and covered quite a huge area, including counties of Lancashire, Great Manchester, Cheshire, Staffordshire, South and West Yorkshire. The place that I visited in Peak District is Castleton. It’s a beautiful, clean and quiet small town with lots of greeneries. The air is very fresh and the water is crystal clear. People there are very nice. They would smile and greet at you even though they don’t know you. I was excited to see the sheeps/lambs. They are so cute and fluffy.

P/s: Please check my FB for more pics.

Aarhus, Denmark

As some of you know, I was in Aarhus, Denmark for approximately 2 weeks (June 27-July 9) for my study camp, which is part of my MBA. I had extended some days for travelling prior and after the camp. Below is my “little experience” in Aarhus:

Aarhus weather:
1st week – Humid, Cold (around 17-20 Celsius) and getting warm (up to 29 Celsius); At night, 16-24 Celsius
2nd week - Humid, Cold (around 19-20 Celsius during day time, around 11-17 Celsius at night)

The weather is pleasant when I arrived in Aarhus (it is pronounced as “Oo-hus”), approximately 17-20 Celsius during day time and around 16-24 Celsius at night. Sunset is at around 10pm and the weather varies greatly after that. Sunrise is at around 4am during summer. According to the locals, this is one of the hottest summer in Denmark. I am rather disappointed as most of my clothes are thick and it can be rather hot at times in the afternoon.

Denmark is a land of blondes. I see more blondes here than anywhere else in the world and my coursemates agree to this. Aarhus is a lovely and quiet city with a lot of greeneries. People here are friendly and they speak good English. I have no problems asking for directions.

Shops here close around 5pm for Monday to Saturday and for the whole day on Sunday. Restaurants and grocery shops generally has longer opening hours. After most of the shops are close, the street is almost empty. The atmosphere is totally different from Malaysia, where the happening hours are after work and weekends.

The common transportation here is bicycle. There are lots of bicycles everywhere and public bicycles (in blue) are available for free. I got very excited when I knew about this. Unfortunately, the bicycle’s seat is too high for me and I did not manage to get a ride around the city. The common public transportation here is the city bus (yellow colour). Each bus ticket costs 19 DKK (around RM7.20) and valid for two hours. If you will be travelling a lot by bus, you can get a “klipperkort” (10 tickets) for 120 DKK. There is no expiry date for the 10 tickets and you can use it whenever you want. There is no bus conductor. Tickets can be bought at the machine in the train station or in the bus. In the bus, there are two CCTVs.

In general, the Danish food is quite nice – creamy, cheesy, cold (for seafood) and raw (for seafood and vegetables). Danish is famous for its pastry. For breakfast, I normally have fresh bread, strawberry/raspberry jam, bacon, cheese and milk. I have almost the same breakfast throughout my study camp and it can be rather boring. Occasionally, they have the fruit yoghurt which is thick and creamy. Danish people seem to like salty and sweet food. Some of the food such as the herring is really salty and some desserts are too sweet. My favourite is the salmon dishes. It is fresh and they have numerous ways of cooking nice salmon dishes.

Attractions:

Den Gamle By (The Old Town) is one of the main attractions in Aarhus. It is a living image of life in a market town at the time of Hans Christian Andersen. Buildings in the Old Town have been rebuilt based on materials of the original building. In the town, you will be able to see people dressing up in 1800s costumes. It is as if the town has been “revived”. My favourite building is the mintmaster’s house. It is also one of the major projects of Old Town. Even though the architecture of the building is not fascinating, its internal design is splendid. Surprisingly, they changed the colour of the building according to the latest trend. From the mini models, I can see the changes across different eras.

Legoland is a theme park in Billund. Inside of Legoland, there are plenty of models or statues made of Lego. Some of these models such as aeroplanes, ships, boats and mindmill are moveable. The designer of this park is so detailed that almost every single thing in the park is made of Lego. For example, snakes in the bushes and monkey on the roof. Games in Legoland are very interactive and built based on the Lego series. For some games such as the pirates, both people inside the ship and right outside of the boundary are able to shot water “bullets”. A lot of parents are engaged in the games with their children. I am really amazed on how the layout the theme park and design the games. Lego has definitely put in a lot of effort and thoughts into this.

Mindeparken is a park near the sea. It is very nice and pleasant park with lots of greeneries. Beside the park is the royal summer palace. In the afternoon, you will be able to see a lot of people sunbathing, barbequeing or playing games with their family. Some ladies even dress in bikini or only bra.

ARoS is an art museum. Near the art museum are the court house (which seems to be very quiet) and the old barracks. The concept behind the art museum building is very special. It is designed in a way that it blends well with the city. At the lower ground, there is a bookshop and people are allowed to walk around freely. Therefore, the museum is lively at all times when it is opened. There are many levels in the museum and different arts are located at different levels. My favourite is the modern art section and 9 spaces. The oil paintings are refined, beautiful and alive. The 9 spaces is a gallery of light art, video art and installations. It is very interesting way of presenting “art”. My favourite will be the 2nd space. It is a room with a living room and a “window” (it is not a real window but perceived to be one). At different times of the day, the sky colour changes and so as the lighting in the room. At night, there are “stars” on the ceiling and floor. They have exhibitions of special themes for a period of time. The theme when I went was “love”. Well, their definition of “love” is much different from what I expected. It is really an eye opener. There was a short video with the “bisexual” theme and the way they filmed it is very artistic.

*Please check my FB for more pics.