From the Blog

La Gomera, Valle Gran Rey – La Merica – Arure

La Gomera, Valle Gran Rey – La Merica – Arure

«Consider the heat,» warned my newly befriended local, Dominique. Somewhat skeptical about my intention to walk from La Calera at the bottom of Valle Gran Rey, up La Merica to Arure, at about 800 m above sea level, “…it’s really blistering today”. I had studied the map and made up my mind; I had some excess energy to […]

La Gomera

La Gomera

Despite the fact that I had been travelling since three in the morning, sleep was not an option in my current position: My knees draped somewhere in the neighborhood of my ears, my bulging backpack in close proximity to my kidneys. From the look and feel of it, the bus taking us from Tenerife airport to […]

Ski Bum (dumb) in Åre

Ski Bum (dumb) in Åre

Shooting uncontrollably down the escarpment, head first, like a human snow plough, I wondered like Creep by Radiohead: “What the hell am I doing here!”  In what felt like a terribly long and much too fulfilling life time, I managed to shift my limbs into a spread eagle position. Painfully using my hands and ski boots as […]

Morning has broken

Morning has broken

Morning has broken, and what a daybreak. After a long drive in the dark the previous night, I went out like a light in the comfortable cabin’s loft and slept like one of the logs neatly piled up next to the downstairs fireplace. Sun rays now dance on my ice flower decorated window, inviting me […]

Tiring Business

Tiring Business

“Mum, where are my winter tires..?” Suffering from the mission-impossible-never-ending-Sisyphus-like position of logistic manager around here, my brain snapped into full alert.  The snow had been coming down in thick layers the past few days, with no regard to economic or social standing, democratically covering everything with its brand new infinite-shades-of-white coat. The roads were no […]

Viking Wirral adVenture

Viking Wirral adVenture

Considering the appalling behavior shown by some of my forefathers when they were last here, I am amazed and relieved that I am not being met by drawn swords and boiling oil when I meet up with John Emmett and Peter France of Wirral History and Heritage Association who have promised to show me around the Viking […]

Helsinki Rock n Roll Church

Helsinki Rock n Roll Church

Where Helsinki and Uspenski Cathedrals with their multitude of tall spears seem to be longingly reaching for the heavens, the Rock Church looks like a celestial body having landed on earth, planting itself deep in the granite surface on top of a hill. The gently curved cobber dome, glass panels and a rough rock wall […]

Brighton Revisited

Brighton Revisited

  On the train from London to Brighton I was excited, looking forward to getting reacquainted with a city I had last visited as a child. My memories were blurry, but I clearly remember the elated feeling of walking along the seafront, marveling at the way English people enjoyed a warm summer’s day lying on […]

Kon-Tiki

Kon-Tiki

One might think that six down-to-sea, unkempt men on a balsa raft, alone on the same open body of water for 101 consecutive days, could be no match for e.g. spaceships in intergalactic battles when it comes to action filled entertainment. On the surface there might not be too much going on, but down below, […]

Taekwon-do Chaos Theory

Taekwon-do Chaos Theory

It started and ended in chaos. On the first day of the competitions, queuing up outside Brighton Centre half an hour before The Taekwon-do Worldcup 2012 was about to commence, I wondered where it would all end, or rather, when would it all begin? Just a trickle of people was able to get through the […]