Travel books don’t necessarily have to be books written by travellers, most of the books that have inspired me to travel are novels in which the setting is important to the atmosphere of the book. As a child I was …
My Top Five Asian ‘Chill-Out’ Destinations
Travelling is all about taking time out of the craziness of modern life to experience new cultures, meet new people and to reflect. Here is a selection of my favourite places for peace, tranquility and some much-needed soul refreshment. So …
Why Sweden is a Great Place to Live
Sweden is often regarded as being somewhat of a liberal country; many people think that blonde, tanned Swedes cavort naked in forest lakes all summer long before retreating into their saunas for the duration of the long and cold winter. …
Miss(ing) Saigon
I was inspired by a post about Saigon that I read on another travel blog recently. So here is my very own tribute to the place that I once called home. These are some of the things that I loved, …
The Arctic Journals #4 Aurora Borealis
“The Aurora blazed all of a sudden into brilliant life… a thousand miles high and ten thousand miles long: dipping, soaring, undulating, glowing, a cataract of glory.”
This is Philip Pullman’s description of the Aurora Borealis in ‘Northern Lights’, the …
The Arctic Journals #3 Cross-Country Skiing
There are two things that I have always disliked: sport and being cold. For this reason I have never understood why people want to go skiing. Skiing holidays baffle me, why would anybody pay a lot of money to go …
The Arctic Journals #2 Northern Lights Apartments
We were met on the road by Patricia Cowern, owner of the Northern Lights Apartments and Arctic-Color gallery in Porjus, who greeted us warmly and led the way to our cabin. The complex comprises of 4 wooden cabins aptly named: …
The Arctic Journals #1 A Long Journey
At 19.22 the train pulled out of Stockholm’s Central Station and our 17 hour journey into Swedish Lapland began. Our destination: Porjus, a small village approximately 100km north of the Polar Circle, and our mission: to seek the enigmatic Aurora …
Stockholm on a Budget
‘Stockholm’ and ‘cheap’. Two words that you don’t often hear uttered in the same sentence. It is common knowledge that tourists’ hard-earned cash doesn’t stretch that far in the Scandinavian countries, making visiting them an expensive …
Beating the January Blues
Christmas is over, the New Year’s resolutions have already been broken, and the beautifully glistening snow had turned to brown mulch – January has well and truly set in but things are not all bad. We are now embarking on …
2010s Best Bits
What an awesome year this year was. In honour of a great year this blog post recalls some of my favourite moments of 2010
January
We welcomed in the New Year with elated cries of Chúc Mung Nam Moi on …
God Jul – A Swedish Christmas
The festive season has definitely taken hold and I am familiarising myself with Swedish Christmas, although this is not my first encounter with Swedish Yuletide traditions. Two years ago Nicklas and I spent Christmas on Koh Phi Phi in Thailand …
The Baltic Journals #4. Tallinn’s Turrets and Towers
On Thursday we said goodbye to Riga and headed to Tallinn, capital of Estonia. The journey took 4 ½ hours on a nice warm and comfortable bus. We arrived at our hostel which is right in the heart of the …
The Baltic Journals #3. Amber
I have to confess that my knowledge of the Baltic countries is pretty limited. Embarrassingly it’s probably fair to say that if it wasn’t for the Eurovision Song Contest then I would never have even heard of them – didn’t …
The Baltic Journals #2. A-ha
I was a bridesmaid 3 times during the decade of blue eyeliner, crimped hair and legwarmers and have already blogged about the numerous 80s wedding discos that I attended throughout that decade (http://elainethatcher.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/the-final-countdown-to-a-night-in-the-cells/). The 80s may well be …
The Baltic Journals #1. Arrival.
It’s been a really long half term and I am absolutely exhausted. I am totally ready for a holiday and have been looking forward to my break in Riga for weeks. The ferry from Stockholm to Riga was a much …
Autumn Daze
As I walked home from school the other day, the trees shedding their leaves like confetti around me, I looked down to see something that I haven’t seen for over three years. Lying at my feet was a small but …
Ticket to Ride
When I was interviewed for the job at IESE I was asked where I would be planning to live should I be offered the position. I explained to them that as Nicklas would be working in Västerås we would base …
One Hel’ of a Weekend – the staff social.
In my opinion, one of the best things about teaching internationally is the sense of comraderie that develops amongst your work colleagues. This seems to be very different from the UK when everybody already has their own group of friends, …
Need a place to stay? Check out these wacky hotels!!
Last weekend I went to prison. I was to spend the night in a cell at the infamous Långholmen Prison, Stockholm.
The hallways were long and narrow with row after row of bolted and numbered doors harbouring their confining cells behind. As expected my …
