The Toren Hotel. A place with true character reached after traffic jams, rain and dodging Dutch bicyclers.

If you’re tired of uncharming hotel chains and in need for some really valuable service from the hotel staff this is a true find. And if you appreciate little surprises like in-room espresso machines and iPod docks you’ll be well off here. I’m just happy there’s a bathtub.

Goodnight from Amsterdam and see you soon in Göteborg.

I’m still struggling with the lighting panels in my room. There’s this master panel at the bed that controls all the lights: bedside, wake-up, TV, entrance, reading and on it goes. Not a single one of these switches work the way you’d think. I mean I love the idea of being half asleep and turn off all the lights in the room with one press of the button. But there’s no reading light that works so I have to turn on ALL lights in order to read at all.

After checking in yesterday I was certain that they’d given me the wrong room. I thought I had gotten Dayenne and Yessikas room and felt embarrassed by reading their little, intimate welcome card.

I was about to call the reception when I read a little further. It was a welcome message not to Dayenne and Yessika but from them both, being responsible for the house keeping.

I’m can be such a n00b sometimes.

(´sval´ is Swedish for ‘cool’, as in temperature)

Today I have the utter pleasure of sharing these amazing moments from a friend who worked as a coxswain on a trip up north. A little place called Svalbard. I’m jealous.

Photo: Daniel Ståleby

He arrived, he shook, he cut and he served. Everyone should have a greek friend whom you see too seldom.

For us northerners the winter season provides intense darkness each year. On the darkest of days we have 25% daylight (Göteborg). On New Years Day this year Kiruna had less than 1,5 hours total daylight. Uplifting, indeed.

The good news is however that already on the 21st December 2009 things started to look brighter - literally. After that we get a little more daylight for every day until it peaks at the other end on 21st June. The tables have turned - we now have the opposite situation with 75% daylight. In some places the sun simply never sets or rises. It just stays.

My point of course - sleeping. Or more accurately, the precise and delicate art of waking up. Personally I’d prefer hibernation between November and April but that not being an option for various reasons one must call for other, more drastic measures. Getting in bed with the iPhone and Philips.

My latest experiment then is having the iPhone track my sleeping pattern by movements during the night and wake me up when it sees fit. Philips then syncs by engaging its light slowly to blind the sleeping hormones. And at just the right time it turns on the radio on my favorite morning channel.

Does it work though?

On a bad wake-up day I feel just like Tare-Panda looks. So you bet I’ll try.

Creation - among many on my list.

The turn of the month each year between January and February. A week where I can just completely indulge in movies from around the world. Flip longingly through the pages of the programme even though I already  made my choices. Sit in uncomfortable chairs of temporary theaters chosen to accomodate the 200.000 visitors of one of the worlds largest film festivals. Discover new themes, feelings and filmmakers.

Göteborg International Filmfestival - the one thing I love about west coast winter.

Monologuers posts from previous festivals.

You’d imagine the idea of a 2,5 hour wait at arrivals in a small airport a literal nightmare.

You’d imagine just right. After staring into the arrival information board for sixty minutes you know she’s not gonna be on that already very delayed flight you hurried in for. The next possible flight is already more than 1 hour late. I continue glaring. I never leave my post. I’d make a good soldier I guess.

Fortunately I possess the ability of foresight for worst case scenarios and was well prepared. I just never thought worst case would actually happen. Expectation versus reality bites.

My plan to relax with my Macbook went terribly wrong. It took less than 3 minutes from that I was online until I was chatted up by a severely unsober man from Örebro who suffered from acute human interaction since he mumbled “Am I disturbing” while moving my jacket, handbag and scarf to sit next to me.

I should have known better. He asked me to watch his bags while visited the gents room. Asserting me he was not a terrorist. I promised him the same, that neither was I. He didn’t really get it. That was a clearly a first sign.

For 2,5 hours I observed people moving about the terminal. Taxi drivers loitering around with little signs in their hands. “Nilsson.” A middle-aged couple munching on homemade sandwiches washed down with a shared 50 cl  strong apple cider. Mothers threatening their kids to leave them if they didn’t visit the bathroom before checking in. Tear-filled reunions and red eyed families arriving from uncomfortable flights with too little sleep.

And then my mother arrived.

Third flyer out is a friend of mine currently living in Sweden but spent most of his time in Asia. Apart from English, German and perhaps French this blonde Swede speaks Mandarin and Cantonese as well. And now he has the job of making his beloved hometown attractive for conferences and events.

Ladies and gents, meet Mathias.

Name: Mathias
Based out of: Gothenburg, Sweden
Travel mostly in: Europe, Asia
Occupation: Project Manager

1) Favorite destination all times?
Tokyo
2) Favorite airline/airport?
Cathay Pacific. Very good service, good food and great entertainment system. Airport, that’s tricky, I loved Kansai international Airport but Hong Kong is great as well, I guess it’s a draw between them. 
3) Favorite seat location? Back/Front, Aisle, window, or emergency exit seat?
Window in the front of the aircraft. 
4) Preferred aircraft model?
Never thought about it, but I think Cathay Pacific’s configuration of the Boeing 777-300 ER is pretty nice. 
5) Worst nightmare flight?
Flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, 2 hours of severe turbulence over the Tibetan Plateau, people were praying…
6) 3 things you always bring in your carry-on?
Book, Pen and my computer
7) Are you the chatter or chatee with your neighbor?
Really depends on my mood and who is sitting next to me
8) Easy sleeper on flights, yes/no?
No unfortunately, but I really wish I was.
9) The flight is delayed. What do you do to ease the wait?
I Read a book or Magazine.
10) What do you always order when the pre-meal beverage cart comes?
Always water, and sometimes I have a glass of wine or a Gin Tonic to go with it.

On the bright outside it’s very white.
On the inside I’m creatively challenged.
On the sidewalk something high will fall down.

No. This isn’t some odd, ill-versed Japanese-style poem. It’s just plain winter. My imagination is as deep frozen as the tip of my nose and toes as soon as I leave the summit of my mountain.

Wake me up when September comes. Or even a bit before that.

From my window at work this morning

Sure I could reflect on and summarize the past year. Rally on about annoying politicians and bad TV. And top it off by expressing my hopes and wishes for 2010.

But somehow I’m sure you get a lot of that already. I’ll spare you. Instead; Why not talk about what’s going to happen THIS year? Here’s the twenty ten calendar so far, according to Wikipedia.org.

I do however suggest you fill it out with more fun things than planetary movements and G-numbered meetings. Cheers and happy new.

January

• 1 January – Spain takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Sweden.
• 1 January - The 2010 Lakki Marwat suicide bombing occurs at a volleyball game in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 95, and injuring over 100.

Predicted and scheduled events

January

• January 4 – The Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates will be opened. It is already the tallest man-made structure ever built.^[7][8]
• January 15 – Annular eclipse occurs in Indian Ocean. It can be seen in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda,Kenya, Maldives, southeastern of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, central China. It is also the longest annular eclipse in the 21st century. ^[9]

February

• February 4 - Planned date of the first flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 commercial heavy lift launch vehicle.
• February 12-28 – The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.

March

April

May

• May 1 – October 30 – 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
• May 14 – On STS-132, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry an integrated cargo carrier to deliver maintenance and assembly hardware, including spare parts for space station systems.

June

• June 6 – Conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus, Jupiter 28′ south. First conjunction of triple conjunction Jupiter/Uranus.
• June 11 – July 11 – 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
• June 25-27 - The 36th G8 summit is to be held in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. Consecutively, the 4th G20 summit will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the same dates.
• June 26 - Partial lunar eclipse, visible after sunset in Asia, and Australia, and before sunrise in the Americas.

July

• July 11 – Total solar eclipse (visible only in the South Pacific (esp. Easter Island) and southern South America).
• July 29 - On STS-134, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the third ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station.

August

• August 14-26 – The inaugural 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held in Singapore.

September

• September 16 - On STS-133, the Space Shuttle Discovery will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier 4 (ELC4), a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MLPM) and critical spare components to the International Space Station.^[10] It currently marks the scheduled end of the Space Shuttle program.
• September 22 – Conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus, Jupiter 53′ south. Second conjunction of triple conjunction Jupiter/Uranus.

October

• October 10 – The Netherlands Antilles is scheduled to be dissolved and the islands split up into a new constitutional status.

November

• November – The first Peruvian nanosatellite will be launched from Russia.^{[11][12][13][14]}
• November 29 - December 10 – 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Mexico, also referred to as the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6)^[15][16]

December

• December 21 - Total lunar eclipse

Tempelhof airport, Berlin. 1923-2008.

The birthplace of Lufthansa in 1926. The main building ordered by Albert Speer in 1934. One of the worlds 20 largest buildings. With the worlds smallest duty free shop.

A huge, deserted airport in the middle of the capital of Germany? I just had to go and feel the time stand still.

The images of the terminal building miss details such as waiting areas, the small duty free shop and other interior but can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TempelhofInterior.jpg

Terminal building. Missing is the waiting area and duty free shop.


Left: From the roof toop, the hangar area.
Middle: Main entrance.
Right: Unfinished ballroom (if I recall correctly)

Check-in counters, right. Departures, straight ahead. Above, restaurant.

Left to right: Gymnasium built by Americans 1945. Boiling room. Terminal.


Burnt out bunkers for film storage.

I read the above on an outside poster of a supermarket. And no. I never said German was a beautiful and poetic language.

Regardless though Berlin serves me not only great Turkish lamb kebabs and superb chipotle burgers at Room 77 it also provides a brief stop in time at Würgeengel, a classic cocktail bar that instantly takes you back some 60 years. The atmosphere, the interior and the bartender with perfect manners and crisp white shirt serves among the best classic cocktails this side of earth. For 8 Euros.

Apparently according to our personal guides in the capital of Germany the name of the bar derives from a movie which name I have already forgotten. Anyone?

Until then, some visuals of the drinks enjoyed.

The little kiosk on the next block is still open. They didn’t carry any double cream. I went with condensed milk for my eggnog instead, in my drink app referred to as “healthy”. With half a bottle of bourbon in it? Ah well.

Meatballs, both traditional and those with chili and ginger has been made from scratch. As has mumma. Musically rounded off with some homemade Swedish cumbia music performed live at the dinner table as an alternative to the traditional dram songs.

Now some are playing chess on the floor. The result of an earlier gift exchange. Others are typing on keyboards.

The wooden floor is hard and the night still young in Berlin.

Happy Christmas.

Me and the talented miss Hellman defied the coldest day of the year yet in GBG and went out to shoot some evening pix in town on Sunday. The first two are from up and around my hood, taken on Saturday.

Cheers and happy Christmas.

Or a study in various relaxing techniques on electric blanket, mastered by pro’s only.

It’s getting colder. The much more frequent use of electric blanket for both cat and human proves this fact very well.