Took a train for one stop and there it is: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan. If I have visited this place earlier I might have been less impressed with Lund cos this royal university really lives up to its name. The main entrance of this largest technical university in Northern Europe that greeted me was one that I can only describe as grand. As one of the best engineering school in the world, I was actually expecting a modern campus with glass and metal buildings; perhaps an even more impressive modernity than Stockholm University. But turns out, it's quite the opposite. Maybe I've overlooked the fact that the "K" in "KTH" stands for Royal, and this place really give you the feel. Red bricked building with yellowish vines crawling up half the face, surrounded by an inclined garden with cobblestone steps and water fountains; this is exactly the kind of place I imagined the princes and princesses would go for school. While Lund gives off a down-to-earth studious vibe as a university town, this slightly misplaced "palace" in the middle of a modern city has an additional "majestic" feel to it. And as I walked deeper into the campus, I see more fusion between the rustic and modernity, where brick walls are fitted with full-lengthed window panes. At the other end of the school, the majestic feel fades off as wooden-planked buildings with more neutral colours of pale yellow (still fitted with large windows) and green forests replaced the domineering bricks. Suddenly, it was a countryside scene, with old-school trains and narrow dirt tracks leading the way. Soon, I wasn't even sure if I'm headed in the right way...
But alas, I took out my phone and checked that I was indeed in the right direction, heading towards Stockholm university. In fact, I wasn't the only one lost: this Swedish looking guy was also heading to the same place as me, except in a more urgent quest. He asked me for the directions and I confirmed it with my phone; but I also read off the expected duration of "30 minutes" to him, but he didn't believe me. He ran off, literally, while saying "I'll try," and saluted me with a friendly gesture of goodbye. At his pace, I figured he'll probably take less than 10 minutes to reach "the library" (his answer to "why are you heading there for?" I guess he really needed some books pretty urgently). It took me another 20 minutes before reaching the familiar, yet contrasting, Stockholm University.
And that ended the peasant's trip to the royal palace!
