Travelling Archives - Page 13 of 13

The Arctic Journals #2 Northern Lights Apartments

March 6, 2011March 6, 2011 Life in Sweden, Swedish Climate, Swedish Tourism, Travelling lapland, northern lights apartments, porjus, sweden, swedish lapland

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

The Arctic Journals #1 A Long Journey

March 5, 2011July 22, 2012 Life in Sweden, Swedish Tourism, Travelling gällivare, lapland, porjus, sweden, swedish lapland, train journeys

A typical carriage 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,

Stockholm on a Budget

March 2, 2011October 22, 2011 Food and Drink, Life in Sweden, Swedish History, Swedish Tourism, Travelling finance, gamla stan, meatballs, skansen, stockholm, sweden

‘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

Viking Booty

February 19, 2011February 19, 2011 Life in Sweden, Relationships, Swedish History, Travelling nordcham, sweden, vietnam, vikings

"The Viking conquests of yesteryear were often undertaken by the fierce Nordic warriors to "make contact" with new cultures and warmer climes...Today, however, Swedes have ditched the unkempt beards and longboats in favour of designer

Beating the January Blues

January 9, 2011April 15, 2011 Asia, Travelling, Vietnam asia, ho chi minh city, saigon, south east asia, vietnam

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.

2010s Best Bits

January 1, 2011December 14, 2011 Asia, Life in Sweden, Teaching, Travelling, Vietnam, Working Overseas baltic countries, cambodia, eskilstuna, europe the final countdown, eyjafjallajökull, gröna lund, helsinki, hong kong, iceland volcano, nha trang, partying, qatar airlines, riga, ryanair, saigon ink, serendipity beach, sheridans saigon, sihanoukville, skansen stockholm, stockholm, sweden, tallink silja line, tallinn, tattoo, västerås

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

God Jul – A Swedish Christmas

December 11, 2010December 16, 2011 Asia, Food and Drink, Life in Sweden, Tradition, Travelling christmas, jul, sweden, swedish christmas, thailanad

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

The roof top terrace taken from the lounge.

Another New Home

November 14, 2010October 11, 2011 Asia, Childhood Memories, Friends and Family, Travelling, Vietnam moving house, sweden, uk, vietnam

My Baltic adventure ended a week ago today as I stepped off the Tallink-Silja Festival and back onto Swedish shores. But new adventures are always awaiting and it was with a spring in my step

The Baltic Journals #4. Tallinn’s Turrets and Towers

November 7, 2010May 18, 2011 Europe, Travelling baltic countries, estonia, tallinn

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

The Baltic Journals #3. Amber

November 4, 2010April 14, 2011 Travelling amber, baltic countries, latvia, riga

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

The Baltic Journals #2. A-ha

November 3, 2010October 11, 2011 Childhood Memories, Music, Travelling 80s music, aha, latvia, morton harkett, riga, riga arena

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

The Baltic Journals #1. Arrival.

November 2, 2010October 11, 2011 Travelling baltic countries, getting lost abroad, latvia, naughty squirrel hostel, riga, stockholm to riga, tallink silja line

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

Autumn Daze

October 16, 2010April 14, 2011 Japan, Life in Sweden, Swedish Climate, Travelling asia, autumn, autumn days, autumn in japan, autumn in sweden, japan, sweden, vietnam

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

Ticket to Ride

October 8, 2010April 14, 2011 Japan, Life in Sweden, Travelling commute, japan, pendeltåg, sagami line, sweden, swedish trains, trains in japan, tunnelbana, vietnam

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

One Hel’ of a Weekend – the staff social.

October 3, 2010December 30, 2011 Friends and Family, Life in Sweden, Travelling, Working Overseas ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, finland, helsinki, mui ne, partying, silja line, staff social weekends, teaching

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

Need a place to stay? Check out these wacky hotels!!

September 25, 2010October 22, 2011 Asia, Life in Sweden, Swedish History, Swedish Tourism, Travelling, Vietnam, Working Overseas accommodation, aeroplane hotel, crazy house, dalat, hostels, hotel jumbo stay, ice bar, ice hotel, jumbo jet hotel, langholmen prison, Långholmen, stockholm, strange hostels, sweden, utter hotel, utter inn, västerås, woodpecker hotel

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

Välkommen till Västerås

August 10, 2010December 30, 2011 Life in Sweden, Travelling sweden, västerås

Welcome to Västerås: Sweden’s sixth largest city and the place that I will be calling home for the next year or so. The city is one of Sweden’s oldest cities and was the second largest