Destination: Sweden
The Swedish Novel has ‘a Passport in its Back Pocket’
by Eva Holland | 09.17.09 | 3:58 PM ET
A group of Swedish writers have published a manifesto for Swedish literature in the 2010s. “We want to write books which are read, thumbed, torn out of the hands of angry taxpayers, borrowed and distributed to the max, quoted, imitated and translated,” they wrote. “The Swedish novel has brown eyes and black hair, it’s bald, green-eyed, blind and hook-nosed. It carries a collection of poetry in its breast pocket, a passport in its back pocket, and wears high heels.” (Via The Book Bench)
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Yahoo! BuzzTurn Up the Tunes, Break Out Your Phrasebooks
by Elyse Franko | 09.09.09 | 8:44 AM ET
Elyse Franko wonders: Is the United States at the beginning of a linguistic musical revolution?
European Flesh and the American Prude
by Rick Steves | 09.08.09 | 12:54 PM ET
Alexandra Beier/Reuters Exploring Europe, exploring travel as a political act
Six Great Summer Music Festivals in Europe
by Ben Keene | 07.14.09 | 9:37 AM ET
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Headed overseas this summer? Ben Keene surveys music festivals from Budapest to Stockholm.
Low-Cost Carriers: Not Always a Bargain
by Eva Holland | 04.24.09 | 11:52 AM ET
Photo by irishflyguy via Flickr (Creative Commons) Fodor’s posted a helpful reminder for thrifty travelers this week: Be wary of European budget airlines. Of course, those low-cost carriers have generally been a huge help in reducing the expense of European travel, but, as writer Doug Stallings points out, they aren’t always as cheap as they seem.
His first two points are, for me, the most important: low-cost flights tend to leave from secondary airports, and at odd times of day.
Leave Home Without It
by Tom Swick | 02.19.09 | 10:07 AM ET
Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
No One Will Ever Find Me in This Camouflaged Treehouse Hotel
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.18.09 | 1:32 PM ET
Not sure if this idea is crazy or brilliant, but I’m not surprised that it came from eco-chic Scandinavia. The Swedish architecture firm Tham & Videgard Hansson have designed a lightweight treehouse hotel with a mirrored exterior that reflects the forest around it. The mirrored cube is supposed to be invisible, but with a full set of living quarters inside, including a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette and even a roof terrace. (But a warning to the dainty eco-poseurs: scaling up here via rope ladder or rope bridge is not for the matched luggage set; pack a backpack instead.)
Stockholm and San Francisco: Two Capitals of Eco-Cool?
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.29.08 | 1:23 PM ET
Stockholm has organic jeans, eco-guidebooks and Michelin-starred chefs specializing in natural cuisine. San Francisco has eco-boutiques, enviro-warriors and dating sites for “eco-sexuals.”
The no-bad-news folks at The Optimist lavished praise on Stockholm, which has been shortlisted as a European green capital for 2010 and 2011 and even has its own eco-focused blog. The pub calls the city “eco-cool.”
Meanwhile, a Qantas blogger obsessed with the evils of plastic bags gave some love to plastic-bag-banning San Francisco.
I don’t know exactly what eco-cool means. If we’re talking style and sustainability, then I’d also give a shout out to Amsterdam, Reykjavik, Vancouver, Sydney, Copenhagen, Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado.
Who would you nominate?
How to Love Herring in Sweden
by Lola Akinmade | 10.09.08 | 10:50 AM ET
Lola Akinmade digs in to a smörgåsbord of herring and explains how to best appreciate Scandinavia's favorite fish
The Long Descent: Woman’s Journey Down Baggage Belt
by Valerie Conners | 08.27.08 | 4:10 PM ET
We often put a sarcastic or humorous spin on tales of airport woe and aggravation, but this story struck me as just plain sad. Sure, it’s unfortunate that increasingly absurd airport measures are becoming the norm, but to imagine we’re at the point where a 78-year-old woman, in a huge misunderstanding with Swedish airport personnel, considers being asked to climb in a baggage chute as a reasonable request—and does so—is just ... unreasonable.
Grounded 747? No, it’s a Hostel.
by Ben Keene | 01.08.08 | 3:31 PM ET
Thanks to an entrepreneurial Swede, it may soon be possible to spend an evening in a Boeing 747 that’s been grounded at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport since 2002. Oscar Diös, the businessman with the rather unconventional proposal, hopes to eventually open a chain of similar hostels at airports around the world.
The World’s Most Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotels: From the Amsterdam Hilton to the Chateau Marmont
by Michael Yessis | 11.09.07 | 11:23 AM ET
The Guardian’s Sean Dodson picks 10 sleeping giants of rock, including the spot where John Lennon and Yoko One had their “Bed-in for Peace” (Amsterdam Hilton), the hotel where Led Zeppelin chucked TVs out windows (the now de-balconied Hyatt Riot House, pictured, on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip) and the place where David Bowie lived in Berlin while recording “Low” and “Heroes” (Hotel Ellington). One obvious clunker: The Hotel Rival in Sweden, which is owned by Benny Anderson of ABBA fame. I’ve heard “Dancing Queen.” I’ve seen “Mamma Mia.” ABBA ain’t rock.
Nuclear Tourism: Still Hot, and Getting Hotter?
by Eva Holland | 11.06.07 | 8:27 AM ET
We’ve written before about the steady trickle of visitors to the infamous Chernobyl site, and to lesser-known, functioning nuclear power plants in Japan and the United States. Now we can add Sweden to our list of “hot” nuclear tourism destinations. A staggering one-third of Swedes have visited a nuclear plant in the country over the past 35 years, writes Barbara Lewis in a Reuters story. And they’re still going to Forsmark, one of the three main plants on Sweden’s Baltic coast, even after a safety scare in July 2006.
Faro, Sweden: Through a Remote Island, Brightly
by Joanna Kakissis | 10.10.07 | 4:38 PM ET
I’m a sucker for quirky, remote places that revel in their magical weirdness. So after reading Danielle Pergament’s fabulous New York Times piece on Ingmar Bergman‘s home island of Faro, Sweden, I’m already dreaming of a Storybook Hollow wonderland of verdant fields, giant mushrooms, wild strawberry fields and a cast of enchanted characters. “Like Bergman, Faro is remote,” writes Pergament. “Getting to the island, off the eastern coast of Sweden, takes a plane, a train or a bus, a car and two ferries. Which is exactly what made it so appealing to the reclusive Bergman.”
Globalization Brings ‘Big Shift’ in Sweden’s Outlook on Vacations
by Michael Yessis | 08.22.07 | 10:16 AM ET
When it comes to vacation time, nobody in Europe—or anywhere, perhaps—has it better than the Swedes. A recent EU study found that Swedish workers are “entitled to an average of 33 paid vacations days in 2006—close to 7 weeks, not counting public holidays,” according to the International Herald Tribune’s Ivar Ekman. Now, with the rise of a global economy, that may be changing. ““The Swedish vacation is being adapted to the international situation,” said Orvar Lofgren, a professor of anthropology at Lund University and author of the book “On Holiday: A History of Vacationing.” He adds: “The classic five-week vacation is not as holy as it used to be.”
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