This time, we ventured into the North All photos by Skord As far as I've heard, the road signs don't say "Manchester" when driving from the south of England here, but they just state "The North". Sounds appealing to me, I must admit. Unfortunately (in many ways), we entered the country by Manchester airport, so I couldn't get any North signs on photograph. The reason for this trip was threefold: * A translators' conference (my reason) * Several interesting colonialism/slavery museums and places (my loved one's reason) * Holiday! (good reason) And since an old classmate (or what do you call people you've been too university with?) from Ancient Greek moved to Manchester a while back, we could stay at her place instead of at a hostel, which always is good. But I'm ahead of myself. ... read more

First of all, I must apologize for not bringing a proper camera. My mobile is really shitty as soon as I'm not completely still and it's not broad daylight. So there are fewer pictures here than I'd hoped for. So, after two days filled with conferencing (at least they had good teas in the breaks and I avoided the cookies as much as possible ;-) ), I had one day left. Unfortunately, due to several things, but mostly that I had taken on a very badly formatted translation text the days before and during the conference, I now had to work a bit as well, so my plans of seeing more of both Edinburgh and Glasgow melted away. But at least I started my Sunday at a good breakfast café. "Always Sunday", not a bad name, ... read more

So, I'm out travelling again. This time in business, I'm going to a translators' conference here in Edinburgh, the stunning capital of Scotland. Or, as a guy put it in a pub in Aviemore last time I visited this place: "Edinbrrrrh? Tha's a dump." I didn't feel like arguing with him at that moment. He was a bit too tall and drunk for that. and, I never found so lovely mushrooms (kantareller) as I did in Aviemore, so in a way, I guess he was right. So. I started out perversly early this morning, since I don't have a car and the local buses don't go as often as one might wish for to the "City" airport of Göteborg. The airport bus left the central station 2 hours and 20 minutes before departure of the flight... ... read more

Together, me and Klas travelled by train thrice :-) during this trip: Klas from Ann Arbor to Washington D.C., and both of us first from NY to Chicago and then from Detroit to NY. The first time, Klas was delayed 4 hours and 45 minutes. He had then heard several stories both about how often the trains run late (22 % run on time, which means are at the most 15 minutes late...) and why this happens. Amtrak seems to be totally thwarted, I saw some numbers saying that up until 2006, Amtrak got several tousand dollars (I don't remember how much) each year from the state, but this year not a single penny. Sure, the Swedish railways, SJ, doesn't get state support either, officially, but they are still considered to be something worth supporting. Some of ... read more

So, we finally arrived in the windy city. I know I promised a separate entry on the train trip, but that has to be when I've written something by hand first, to sort out the bits and pieces :-) Yes, the city is windy, but with temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is around 40 Celsius (104 is 40 and we had that today), it's a bit hard to appreciate the hot wind :-) Luckily, our hostel is air conditioned, as is most of this country, including the public transport in this town. I'm so relieved not to drive a car anymore! It was great fun, but to have to park in the cities and to be worried in the back of your head that something would happen to it was a bit of a strain. ... read more