Blogs from Sweden, Europe - page 205

What life looks like from above? Better, faster, bigger, newer, nicer, more chic, more fashionable are just a few examples of words we like to attach to our material needs. And think about what the next generation will value if we continue this way! Christmas and all the commersial hype around it. Wouldn´t it be nice to skip it and just spend time with the family? Just being satisfied! Think about it. SATISFACTION. Satisfaction unrelated to material things. This is why I called this entry for "A bird´s perspective". Up there, you see clearly what is important in life. You see how small and insignificant most things - that are valued highly on the ground - really are. The only things that matters are the bonds you have to the people you know, care for and ... read more

Where: Silja Ship from Stockholm to Helsinki Temperature: -1C (to be honest this is a bit disappointing… BRING ON THE COLD) Wind: calm 7m/s out of the NNW Dew point: nice try… haven’t a clue I had a great time in Stockholm which is undoubtedly one of the more beautiful world capitals. I would almost venture to say that it is prettier than Vancouver… I know you’re all rolling your eyes at home but it’s true. The one advantage Vancouver has is the mountains but Stockholm has architecture (as you’ll see in the photos) which is stunning… so let’s call it a tie! Stockholm is also one of the most expensive places I have ever been. Their sales tax, are you ready for this?!, is a whopping 25%. Naturally the country is very socialist and manages ... read more

To spend some more time with Mum (including her birthday) Justin and I thought that it would be a good idea to follow Mum to Sweden, where she had an exhibition. We soon found out that Sweden was famous for a number of things including Volvos, ABBA, beautiful people (that was our own deduction) and the Nobel Prize. Saturday 12th November Justin and i flew to Stockholm in the early hours of Saturday morning (love those cheap ryan air flights). After staying the night in our budget hostel (with no toilet paper) we met Mum at the luxurious Radisson Hotel. We arrived bearing flowers and chocolate for her bithday. After stealing the tissues from her room (to replace our lack of toilet paper) we had the beautiful buffet breakfast in the Hotel. After telling the lovely ... read more

Where the heck to begin.... Lets see on the 4th Oct I caught the bus to Stanstead airport to catch the last Ryanair flight (thank god) that I plan on taking whilst in the UK. I landed in Malmo (Sweden) reasonably late and headed to my hostel in the south of the city. It was a very nice place. I work early due to lack of sleep from the snoring in the dorm and headed out in the mist to walk the streets of Malmo. It was a tad foggy which added to the mystery of the place. Swedish is remarkably similar to German so it was not a prob working out where everything was. I went for a stroll through the main streets and squares, past the Rathaus and canals. Wandered through the parks and ... read more

Based on some rough estimation, Sherry and I are making the unofficial call that we have each both set a new mark for 'personally-occupied, most northernmost point'. It looks like Stockholm is around 59.333 (you could say '3 repeating' if you're a math brain) degrees north latitude. That's pretty far north! In fact, in all likelihood when we grabbed our bags from the luggage carousel at the airport some 40km north of here, we were probably over 60 degrees north. We expect to restablish a new point of extreme when we travel on Sunday to Uppsala which is farther north. So, here we are in the so-called capital of Scandanavia, at least that's what the airport billboards were proclaiming. As far as I know, there are 3 other (at least) Scandanavian capitals that might compete. We're ... read more