I guess it started with "Sommar i P1", the radio show I have written about earlier. Several of the people that hosted the show this year have impressed me and in some ways affected me in ways i never expected from a radio show. It really has inspired me more than it probably should have.
Some of those hosts made me think, and once I got thinking I also remembered more of the people that have inspired me in the past (and continue to do so).
Bill Tillmann comes to mind, a great explorer and adventurer who not only lived an extraordinary life but also wrote some excellent books about it.
Alma Karlin was one of the first famous female travelers and journalists, some of her writings about her adventures are also quite amazing (she spent 1928-38 traveling alone).
It would impossible for me to write about these kinds of people without also mentioning Harry Martinson - probably my favourite Swede of all times. His writings and theories about the "world nomad" have had an profound effect upon me.
There are of course many others, adventurers, politicians, religious leaders etc.
What has been occupying me lately is trying to figure out what they all have in common.
I came up with a lot of things like: empathy, compassion, sense of adventure, lack of fear, integrity, command of their language(s) etc...
In the end I had to realise it was all summed up quite neatly in the previously mentioned theory about the "world nomad". Since it is pointless for me to try and outdo old Harry I will just ask that anyone interested enough read some of his stuff on the subject.
Anyway - a big thank you to all those people that have and keep on inspiring me. I am quite a pathetic excuse for an adventurer; but without you I would not have been able to overcome my fear even for this first little step of my adventures (I think of it as adventuring with a safety belt).
(and an extra big thank you to the people I actually know that keep inspiring me - Andreas who is now moving to Cuba before continuing to Costa Rica, my sister who keeps doing stuff I only dream about doing, my parents who have found adventure in their retirement, Göran with his wonderful stories of Tibet and incomparable talent for finding adventure in everyday life... Thank you for showing me that things are not as hard or complicated as they sometimes seem.)
torsdag 30 augusti 2007
söndag 26 augusti 2007
Guidelines or rules?
In
Actually a lot of people think Swedes are so square you could use them as a mold if you ever need something really square.
Add to this a huge state machinery to fill us with propaganda about what to eat, how to sleep, how to talk etc and you get a people that drive very safely...
During 29 years in Sweden I think I saw people blatantly running red lights maybe 10 times. Most of my friends would never drive if they had a drink. Actually a lot of people won’t drive the day after a decent party.
Because people follow the rules.
Now in
I don’t know how many times I have seen people running red lights in my two months here. It is however often enough to make me instinctively look if the cars are actually going to stop before walking.
The strange thing is it still seems to work. I don’t see a lot of accidents.
There probably are more than in
Now if they could only get people to drink a bit less before driving home during the weekends traffic here wouldn’t be worse than in
tisdag 21 augusti 2007
Cinematic Sunday - Stormy Tuesday
Had a nice experience on Sunday.
Decided to go to the cinema and see the Simpsons movie. So I walked the 20 meters to the nearest cinema that shows english movies and bought a ticket.
Was looking forward to seeing a nice movie and eating some popcorn. Been quite some time since I last went to the movies alone and it always feels a bit special.
First of all i get a surprise when 3 people I know leave the cinema just as im about to enter. They managed to catch the show just before the one I was planning to see. This is the third time in 2 months that I bumped into people I know by accident. Which seems quite strange to me seeing how few people I met like that in Stockholm.
Once I got into the theatre I realised that I was the only person watching. Its not a huge place, but has a bit over 300 seats. This was the first time ever I got to see a movie at the cinema completely alone. It was very enjoyable, much better than when the rest of the seats are filled...
The movie was quite decent. (with the first apearance of spiderpig making me LOL for real even though I was comepletely alone in a big movie theatre).
Monday ended with a couple of beers and a quick round about the festical de Gracia. Did not stay very long as there was not much going on at all. Last week was much much better.
Today we have another huge thunderstorm. August so far has been a lot cooler than July and with a lot more rain. Which is interesting mostly because everyone told me August would be hellishly warm compared to July.
I must admit I am quite thankful that things have not gotten warmer. After a few weeks of sweating 16x7 (not at work since it has strong aircondition) you get tired of it. Although never thinking about what the weather might be tomorrow (you always expect sun and 30 degrees celcius, anything else is abnormal) is quite nice even if you do lose half a litre of liquid before you even arrive at work.
Well, thats it for today. Any day now i will stop this stupid diary stuff and write about something interesting... I promise.
Decided to go to the cinema and see the Simpsons movie. So I walked the 20 meters to the nearest cinema that shows english movies and bought a ticket.
Was looking forward to seeing a nice movie and eating some popcorn. Been quite some time since I last went to the movies alone and it always feels a bit special.
First of all i get a surprise when 3 people I know leave the cinema just as im about to enter. They managed to catch the show just before the one I was planning to see. This is the third time in 2 months that I bumped into people I know by accident. Which seems quite strange to me seeing how few people I met like that in Stockholm.
Once I got into the theatre I realised that I was the only person watching. Its not a huge place, but has a bit over 300 seats. This was the first time ever I got to see a movie at the cinema completely alone. It was very enjoyable, much better than when the rest of the seats are filled...
The movie was quite decent. (with the first apearance of spiderpig making me LOL for real even though I was comepletely alone in a big movie theatre).
Monday ended with a couple of beers and a quick round about the festical de Gracia. Did not stay very long as there was not much going on at all. Last week was much much better.
Today we have another huge thunderstorm. August so far has been a lot cooler than July and with a lot more rain. Which is interesting mostly because everyone told me August would be hellishly warm compared to July.
I must admit I am quite thankful that things have not gotten warmer. After a few weeks of sweating 16x7 (not at work since it has strong aircondition) you get tired of it. Although never thinking about what the weather might be tomorrow (you always expect sun and 30 degrees celcius, anything else is abnormal) is quite nice even if you do lose half a litre of liquid before you even arrive at work.
Well, thats it for today. Any day now i will stop this stupid diary stuff and write about something interesting... I promise.
lördag 18 augusti 2007
Dizzy Friday
Seems lately all my posts have been done after coming home under the influence. Tonight will not be different.
It is friday night, it is around 5 am and i just got home from the festivities in Gracia (hood about 3 blocks away from where i live).
It has been quite good. Quit work at 22:00, home at 23:00 and start partying at around 23:10...
Tonight i have been drinking with people from work, some random german girls, some mexican girls, a whole crew from France and some other people. The party in Gracia was great as always. And when all hte places started closing at around 3:00 we had a friend with a jambe (or however those african drums are called). He started drumming out on the street and other random people walking by stopped to dance. Then someone else started drumming and so on... The result was almost two hours of dancing on the street after the party was officially over. People stopped to drum for a while or just dance to the drums a little. We had a crowd of between 40 and 100 people all the time. It was just a spontaneous drum party and was very nice.
I got to know people from all over the world while clapping my hands to the various drummers.
Now im home and aiming to sober up a bit before falling asleep. Tomorrow is another day filled of party. And i aim to meet up with some people whose numbers i got tonight; no clue if it will happen or not.
But first i have to get my hair cut, i am truly back in full and proper "mon chi chi" mode with my head....
I apologise for all the crappy spelling, i know i didnt bother wiht capitalising "I" and stuff like that. But its dark, im drunk and i cant be bothered to find all the right keys at the moment.
good night!
It is friday night, it is around 5 am and i just got home from the festivities in Gracia (hood about 3 blocks away from where i live).
It has been quite good. Quit work at 22:00, home at 23:00 and start partying at around 23:10...
Tonight i have been drinking with people from work, some random german girls, some mexican girls, a whole crew from France and some other people. The party in Gracia was great as always. And when all hte places started closing at around 3:00 we had a friend with a jambe (or however those african drums are called). He started drumming out on the street and other random people walking by stopped to dance. Then someone else started drumming and so on... The result was almost two hours of dancing on the street after the party was officially over. People stopped to drum for a while or just dance to the drums a little. We had a crowd of between 40 and 100 people all the time. It was just a spontaneous drum party and was very nice.
I got to know people from all over the world while clapping my hands to the various drummers.
Now im home and aiming to sober up a bit before falling asleep. Tomorrow is another day filled of party. And i aim to meet up with some people whose numbers i got tonight; no clue if it will happen or not.
But first i have to get my hair cut, i am truly back in full and proper "mon chi chi" mode with my head....
I apologise for all the crappy spelling, i know i didnt bother wiht capitalising "I" and stuff like that. But its dark, im drunk and i cant be bothered to find all the right keys at the moment.
good night!
onsdag 15 augusti 2007
Mixmax
Well, I had so many things I thought about writing today I will end up writing about nothing....
Just came home, fairly early considering that tomorrow is a national holiday here in Spain (and France it seems, probably something Catholic). Nothing special planned for my day off, i did not actually realise it was a holiday until a day or two ago. Will probably end up sleeping for a bit (had a few mohitos tonight again and will need it) to long, go to the beach in the afternoon and then party in the evening.
Tomorrow the party of Gracia starts. Its one of my favourite parts of Barcelona so far that his its own party for a week or two.
This means that with my current schedule (2-10) i can go out and party every night and still be ok for work! They have prepared for well over a week with decorating the streets and building temporary bars all over the place (although gracia is mainly made up from bars to begin with). I have been told its a great week to go out and have a good time...
I had a bunch of ideas about other stuff to put here. One entry about differences in housing, one about active lifestyles, one about how weather changes things, one about how written Catalan is similar to French, one about the big differences to Sweden etc etc repeating myself incessantly, ad infinitum, over and over again without end. -ibid ;)
Right now I feel like this will all have to stay in my head. I'm drunk and i need to drink some water before i go to sleep.
So no matter how intriguing and generally great all those blogs would have been you will just have to be happy with this little diary style entry. I'm sorry about this and perhaps later this week i will be composed enough to type something worthwhile...
The short version is this: Things are generally quite nice here.
Just came home, fairly early considering that tomorrow is a national holiday here in Spain (and France it seems, probably something Catholic). Nothing special planned for my day off, i did not actually realise it was a holiday until a day or two ago. Will probably end up sleeping for a bit (had a few mohitos tonight again and will need it) to long, go to the beach in the afternoon and then party in the evening.
Tomorrow the party of Gracia starts. Its one of my favourite parts of Barcelona so far that his its own party for a week or two.
This means that with my current schedule (2-10) i can go out and party every night and still be ok for work! They have prepared for well over a week with decorating the streets and building temporary bars all over the place (although gracia is mainly made up from bars to begin with). I have been told its a great week to go out and have a good time...
I had a bunch of ideas about other stuff to put here. One entry about differences in housing, one about active lifestyles, one about how weather changes things, one about how written Catalan is similar to French, one about the big differences to Sweden etc etc repeating myself incessantly, ad infinitum, over and over again without end. -ibid ;)
Right now I feel like this will all have to stay in my head. I'm drunk and i need to drink some water before i go to sleep.
So no matter how intriguing and generally great all those blogs would have been you will just have to be happy with this little diary style entry. I'm sorry about this and perhaps later this week i will be composed enough to type something worthwhile...
The short version is this: Things are generally quite nice here.
fredag 10 augusti 2007
My new role model
Today i decided to finally take a look at that podcast thing people have been talking about for the last couple of years. Go to iTunes store and take a look, and am pleasantly surprised to see that the download list is topped by various programs from SVT and SR that you can get for free.
Not only do I now get "Dagens Eko", "Aktuellt 21" and "Världens bästa land" (or whatever Fredrik Lindströms latest project is called). I also get "P1 Sommar"! I always did like this program and I started downloading all episodes from this year and a couple from last year at once. I listened through a couple of episodes and found several very good ones already. Renata Chlumska had some nice thoughts about what drives her to adventuring and Knut Knutson was also a decent speaker.
But the real surprise was a guy called Lars Fredriksson. He is a librarian for a huge collection of asian litterature in Stockholm. But in his youth he managed to live in Marocko and China. His passion for music and somewhat quirky personality shine through his extremely polished and often poetic words. I never heard of the guy before but this radio show has made me respect him immensely. I urge anyone able to understand Swedish to go to SR's homepage at once and listen to "P1 Sommar med Lars Fredriksson".
From the homepage you can even listen to the whole show including the music. With the podcasts i listen to you only get around 20 seconds of every song before they cut it. Which is a shame; but at the same time means i have time to listen to a whole episode on my way to and from work. Which is exactly what i will be doing over the next couple of weeks.
Thank you SVT and SR, you keep proving over and over again how public service can truly represent high quality culture and entertainment while remembering the "service" part in the job description.
Not only do I now get "Dagens Eko", "Aktuellt 21" and "Världens bästa land" (or whatever Fredrik Lindströms latest project is called). I also get "P1 Sommar"! I always did like this program and I started downloading all episodes from this year and a couple from last year at once. I listened through a couple of episodes and found several very good ones already. Renata Chlumska had some nice thoughts about what drives her to adventuring and Knut Knutson was also a decent speaker.
But the real surprise was a guy called Lars Fredriksson. He is a librarian for a huge collection of asian litterature in Stockholm. But in his youth he managed to live in Marocko and China. His passion for music and somewhat quirky personality shine through his extremely polished and often poetic words. I never heard of the guy before but this radio show has made me respect him immensely. I urge anyone able to understand Swedish to go to SR's homepage at once and listen to "P1 Sommar med Lars Fredriksson".
From the homepage you can even listen to the whole show including the music. With the podcasts i listen to you only get around 20 seconds of every song before they cut it. Which is a shame; but at the same time means i have time to listen to a whole episode on my way to and from work. Which is exactly what i will be doing over the next couple of weeks.
Thank you SVT and SR, you keep proving over and over again how public service can truly represent high quality culture and entertainment while remembering the "service" part in the job description.
onsdag 8 augusti 2007
Grey Tuesday
Well, had rain for the first time in ages. Proper rain for the first time since i moved here. I believe this is the longest i have ever gone without seeing rain (6 or 7 weeks).
With the rain came the cold. Temperatures where down to almost 23 degrees when i left work. It felt really chilly compared to what i have slowly gotten somewhat used to.
Other then that there hasn’t been much happening. I’m slowly getting a bit tired of working these hours. Especially during August. The whole country closes down so train times and everything are different from 6th of August to start of September. This means it takes even longer than usual to get to and from work. Especially getting home is frustrating since i can either run about 1km (I have 11 minutes to make it) or I have to wait 35 minutes before the next train leaves. So either stress out completely or come home closer to 24:00 than 23:00. "Pest eller kolera" is a nice Swedish expression for that kind of conundrum.
Got to talk a bit to my kid sister today, was nice even though we didnt get to finish before our phones cut the conversation short. I find myself thinking about how she is doing a couple of times per day and am really looking forward to seeing her soon (btw dont forget to msg me Annabelles nr!).
Will try to catch my parents tomorrow, although that has proven to be futile for the last week or two. They never seem to answer when i try to call them and they manage to call me when im at work or when im on a train with no or almost no coverage. Got an e-mail at least so now i know they made it out of Poland ok.
Overall keeping in touch with people is proving more difficult than expected. My working times just make it so that i have time to talk either while people are at work or while they are asleep. At least i managed to reload my skype account. So that is one problem taken care off...
Time for some sleep, will try to finally get up a bit early for grocery shopping before work. Else i end up having nothing home that can be turned into dinner. Which sucks at 23:00 when all the stores close at 21:00.
With the rain came the cold. Temperatures where down to almost 23 degrees when i left work. It felt really chilly compared to what i have slowly gotten somewhat used to.
Other then that there hasn’t been much happening. I’m slowly getting a bit tired of working these hours. Especially during August. The whole country closes down so train times and everything are different from 6th of August to start of September. This means it takes even longer than usual to get to and from work. Especially getting home is frustrating since i can either run about 1km (I have 11 minutes to make it) or I have to wait 35 minutes before the next train leaves. So either stress out completely or come home closer to 24:00 than 23:00. "
Got to talk a bit to my kid sister today, was nice even though we didnt get to finish before our phones cut the conversation short. I find myself thinking about how she is doing a couple of times per day and am really looking forward to seeing her soon (btw dont forget to msg me Annabelles nr!).
Will try to catch my parents tomorrow, although that has proven to be futile for the last week or two. They never seem to answer when i try to call them and they manage to call me when im at work or when im on a train with no or almost no coverage. Got an e-mail at least so now i know they made it out of Poland ok.
Overall keeping in touch with people is proving more difficult than expected. My working times just make it so that i have time to talk either while people are at work or while they are asleep. At least i managed to reload my skype account. So that is one problem taken care off...
Time for some sleep, will try to finally get up a bit early for grocery shopping before work. Else i end up having nothing home that can be turned into dinner. Which sucks at 23:00 when all the stores close at 21:00.
söndag 5 augusti 2007
Lazy Sunday
Yesterday was spent with my team from work. We went to a water park, where we rode a lot of different water slides and drank beer. This was followed by a BBQ, which was very nice indeed.
The whole day proved to me that my co-workers are quite insane, and i enjoyed it a lot.
It all ended fairly early for me, since we spent the whole day from 10:30 in the sun with only beer to drink. At 2am i fell into bed without any hope of recovering enough to go out to any clubs.
Today i have not really done anything at all, went walking for an hour or so. Found some new cool buildings i had not seen before. Also found a nice museum with an exhibition with old photographs of the mediteranean area during the 1850's. Some of those pictures where awesome both in quality and subject.
For the first time in my life i went to KFC for food. We dont get it in Sweden so was curious how it would taste. I imagined deep fried chicken by the bucket to be delicious but i have to admit im disapointed. Seeing how rarely i eat fast food these days (except for the patatas bravas) i wont be going back to KFC for years yet. Even though it was nice to eat french fries again, that is one of those things that i just hardly ever eat anymore. Not by any conchious choice but rather because they never serve any around here.
Now im thinking about what to have for dinner, not sure why i bother. I just know i will end up beeing to lazy to shop for groceries and make a tortilla with whatever i have left in the fridge in it.
The whole day proved to me that my co-workers are quite insane, and i enjoyed it a lot.
It all ended fairly early for me, since we spent the whole day from 10:30 in the sun with only beer to drink. At 2am i fell into bed without any hope of recovering enough to go out to any clubs.
Today i have not really done anything at all, went walking for an hour or so. Found some new cool buildings i had not seen before. Also found a nice museum with an exhibition with old photographs of the mediteranean area during the 1850's. Some of those pictures where awesome both in quality and subject.
For the first time in my life i went to KFC for food. We dont get it in Sweden so was curious how it would taste. I imagined deep fried chicken by the bucket to be delicious but i have to admit im disapointed. Seeing how rarely i eat fast food these days (except for the patatas bravas) i wont be going back to KFC for years yet. Even though it was nice to eat french fries again, that is one of those things that i just hardly ever eat anymore. Not by any conchious choice but rather because they never serve any around here.
Now im thinking about what to have for dinner, not sure why i bother. I just know i will end up beeing to lazy to shop for groceries and make a tortilla with whatever i have left in the fridge in it.
fredag 3 augusti 2007
Still no August heat
Well, still no sign of the August heat i have been warned about. Actually tonight was the first time in ages i felt a bit cold, temperatures where probably close to 24 degrees as i walked towards the train after i quit work at 22:00. For a while there was a bit of wind also and i felt quite chilly, its the coldest temperature i have experienced outside in over a month.
On other news my first attempts at getting into Barcelonas jazz scene have been thwarted by the month of August. Basically everything is closing down for summer vacation because its supposed to be to hot to work. A lot of bars and clubs are also closing and the jazz band i talked to on Tuesday confirmed that during the next few weeks there will be very little to see or hear.
Time to get some sleep, want to visit a futon palace before going to work tomorrow. My back will commit suicide if i do not get a proper bed soon.
On other news my first attempts at getting into Barcelonas jazz scene have been thwarted by the month of August. Basically everything is closing down for summer vacation because its supposed to be to hot to work. A lot of bars and clubs are also closing and the jazz band i talked to on Tuesday confirmed that during the next few weeks there will be very little to see or hear.
Time to get some sleep, want to visit a futon palace before going to work tomorrow. My back will commit suicide if i do not get a proper bed soon.
onsdag 1 augusti 2007
Jazzy tuesday
Been a mediocre day at work followed by a quite nice night. Got home at round 23;00 (as i will do the rest of the month since im working 14:00-22:00 every night), and went right to the nice restaurant on the other side of the street. They have live jazz music every tuesday,.. Talked to a few people about joining me there but expected to eat dinner alone. Was quite surprised to find myself having two of my flatmates and one other guy as company.
Dinner was nice, music was good and wine was excellent.
We decided to have one more quick drink before going home. So we went to see if Elsa bar was open. It was and their mohitos are just as strong during the weeks. A bit of beer and mohitos, talking to my flatmates and just chilling out was quite nice. Also the jazz band from the restaurant was there, and they recognised me well enough for me to talk to them a bit. They have a very cute and talented singer (Ana), a keyboardist i just love listening to (Michelle) and a bass player that was about to move to Germany (he is a guy, quite good but dont remember the name).
Tonight i also got to hear Elsa herself sing, which aparently is her habit. She sang a few songs while all other business in the bar stood still to listen to her quite astonishing voice. This happened a couple of times during the night. And once we left it was again time to first take a huge shot of that special cuban drink (which i can honestly say i never saw her give to anyone else). And then the promises to be back soon, kisses on cheek etc.
Now im buzzed, its 4 am and i have to work tomorrow. Was hoping to get some grocery shopping done before work. But am not counting on it anymore. Bit of a shame as i was doing it with my favourite person in Barcelona so far (trust me to get a slight crush on one of my flatmates), but she was with us tonight and i doubt she will be up before me.
Well, good night everyone,
Dinner was nice, music was good and wine was excellent.
We decided to have one more quick drink before going home. So we went to see if Elsa bar was open. It was and their mohitos are just as strong during the weeks. A bit of beer and mohitos, talking to my flatmates and just chilling out was quite nice. Also the jazz band from the restaurant was there, and they recognised me well enough for me to talk to them a bit. They have a very cute and talented singer (Ana), a keyboardist i just love listening to (Michelle) and a bass player that was about to move to Germany (he is a guy, quite good but dont remember the name).
Tonight i also got to hear Elsa herself sing, which aparently is her habit. She sang a few songs while all other business in the bar stood still to listen to her quite astonishing voice. This happened a couple of times during the night. And once we left it was again time to first take a huge shot of that special cuban drink (which i can honestly say i never saw her give to anyone else). And then the promises to be back soon, kisses on cheek etc.
Now im buzzed, its 4 am and i have to work tomorrow. Was hoping to get some grocery shopping done before work. But am not counting on it anymore. Bit of a shame as i was doing it with my favourite person in Barcelona so far (trust me to get a slight crush on one of my flatmates), but she was with us tonight and i doubt she will be up before me.
Well, good night everyone,
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