Scandinavia - the less glamorous side.

You've seen the smiles and nice pictures on facebook. (Click here just in case you have not..). Here's to more insights as well as the really depressing parts of the trip.

Our hotel room in Lulea, Sweden. We didnt act poor, becoz we were really poor. We bargained for a lower price. Told her that we are leaving early morning for 5am, whether it can be cheaper. Told her that we didnt want breakfast, whether it can be cheaper. And last resort, told her if we can have a single room becoz we are really poor. Final result: cheaper by 20 euros! The first time i ever bargained at a hotel.

Not to mention the Flat screen plasma TV with champions league game going on, she even made us very delicious breakfast despite saying breakfast will not be included during the bargaining process!

Here's how we thank her for her help to these 2 poor asians...

Next, you might not have known, but many border crossings in Europe does not require passport. So you wudnt have known if u have actually stepped into another country! Here's Ang's guide to 3 tips knowing that you have crossed Finland into Sweden.

Tell tale sign 1: You see alphabet A with a big round circle above it. In Finnish, we call this the Ruotsalainen O. In English, its the Swedish A.

Tell tale sign 2: The first line reads: Valkommen till IKEA. While the smaller second line reads Tervetuloa (means welcome in Finnish).... Since Finnish is placed on the Second line, we are no longer in Finland.

Tell tale sign 3(and the most obvious one): You spotted a REALLY HUGE IKEA.

You should have seen on FB the following 2 Lapland cuisines. A lappish starter plate that is extremely small but delicious, and reindeer meat with Mashed potatoes.

Here is what u haven seen on FB.

Both plates cost a total of 27 Euros, 54 SGD. And this is just some random cafe..... not even high class.

Skiiing? Looks fun? I bet none of you noticed that we were in jeans. No idiot will wear jeans to ski. We were ill prepared and not ready to buy ski pants. Tested and proven that it works. Not ready to spend on instructors, we fell on the slopes and relied on guidance from kind Finns to teach us. End of the day, we had fun and grasped basic skiing!

If you had noticed, one of my FB pics says on the way to Norway... Any of you wondered why there were no pictures of Norway? Here's one.

A glimpse of Narvik, Norway. Beautiful settlements by the sea. Beautiful snow.

But why werent there more pictures? Heres the reason why..

We rented a car. Nice and ready. Set off for Norway. Unfortunately.. the weather was bad..

Our car skid off snowy slippery road on a left turn into a carpark, and bumped into another Norwegian car. A crash in Norway is no joke since it is one of the most expensive countries in the world....... Ranked 1st in the Big Mac index.....

And now you truly understand their slogan.

Europcar: You rent a lot more than a car.