Eskilstuna

 

 As I've mentioned in my previous posts, there are 2 cities situated on the two sides of Lake Malaren. The university I'm attending here, Malardalens Högskola, has faculties in both of these cities. Since I only have 8 hours of classes (monday: 16.00-21.00, wednesday: 18.00-21.00, and my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are free, I took this opportunity to take the free shuttles from Vasteras campus to Eskilstuna in the morning. It takes approximately 45 minutes with the shuttle to get to the other side of the lake (Same as taking the shuttles from Sabanci campus to Kadiköy). My university doesn't have some sort of a campus here, but instead it's a combination of seperate buildings, which are really close to each other. I've found my way to the library and studied 3 hours there. Following that, I spent some 5 hours in the city to see what it's like.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that it's less populated than Vasteras, I had this feeling of being in a more active and lively city in Eskilstuna. There's a total of 60.000 inhabitants living here (maybe 1/3 of that in Vasteras).I took a walk in the city center after a short break at McDonald's and Clas Ohlson (Clas Ohlson is like the Electroworld or MediaMarkt of Sweden, selling not only electronics but hardware and stationary etc. with reasonable price tags). In the pictures below, you can see the city center and the main square.

  

In Sweden, a whole academic year consists of 4 study periods. We're only here for 3rd and 4th. In each period (periods correspond to almost 2 months time duration), students usually take 2 courses. I will have Production Quality Management Course and Supply Chain Course in Eskilstuna in my 4th study period, and I'll be in this city more often.

I was startled by the accuracy of bus hours. I was waiting for my shuttle next to a bus station, I've noticed that the schedules for buses were full of weird arrival times like 15.23, 16.48 etc. And they arrive precisely on the given time. That's also something we're not used to in Istanbul (But it's acceptable as the traffic in Eskilstuna is nothing compared to Istanbul).