Summer time has finally arrived and with it long Scandinavian days. Northern Europe has plenty of beautiful cities to while away your time, but one that will always have you coming back for more is Stockholm. Indeed, if the city had existed in Viking times it’s doubtful these feared pillagers would ever have left their own shores. If you want to take advantage of a city built on their spoils, here are five outdoor activities that will ensure treasured memories.
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The day I learnt to cockfight
I’ve always despised cruelty to animals. As a kid I was so enraged by fox hunting that I used to spend weekends traipsing through woodlands, trying to sabotage the huntsmen’s sport. Strange then, that years later I’d find myself in the Peruvian Andes, dressed in the cloak of a cock fighting manager, watching birds slaughter each other.
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Exploring Morocco with Ovi Maps
This story is about another “Ovi Maps Acid” similar to Jan’s cross-European road trip that was covered here at the Ovi Blog last week. Recently my wife and I decided that it would be a good time to have an adventure as we used to have when we were young(er).
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Ladies take centre stage at this year’s Helsinki Festival
The Helsinki Festival take place every year in late summer. The festival rush that dominates Finland’s warmer months has mostly died down by then, giving this highlight of the European cultural calendar a very relaxed, open-minded atmosphere. The program for this year’s event was just announced, and interestingly female performers are predominant in the lineup…
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The World’s Most Magnificent Book Shop
In the early 19th century Argentina was one of the ten richest countries on earth. Its great herds of cattle supplied beef to the world. Walk around Buenos Aires and you’ll see monuments to this wealth on every street. One example of this grandiose building spree can be found at 1860 Avenida Sante Fe. If you’re a bookworm, you’re in for an orgasmic treat, for it’s here you’ll find the world’s most magnificent bookstore.
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Monte Carlo: princely pickings from the pennypincher’s perspective
We all know Monte Carlo as the home of tax evaders and debauched aristocrats. It has the highest ratio of rich scumbag per square metre (picking up any bitterness here?) and a range of amenities likely to suck up the average Joe’s monthly pay packet in a matter of seconds.
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The Zero Emission Book Project
If you believe the media, the end of the paper book is nigh. With an increasing number of digital readers flying onto the shelves, they say it’s only a matter of time before the retro paper book is pulped. The Kindle, the newly launched iPad, and even the iPhone (which now has more book applications than games) are trying to trounce the trusty paperback into mush. One reason these gizmos, and dozens more like them, are pitched as the future of reading is that they’re greener. Sure they use power, the geeks say, but they don’t use trees.
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Just the ticket for sumptuous dining
You’ve just met a girl and you want to take her away for a romantic break. Paris is the obvious answer. You check out all the sights; the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, the Montmartre. You cruise down the Seine on a canal boat. Everything is going fantastically. You’re on fire. Then, on the final evening, you want to dazzle her and take her to a restaurant she’ll remember forever. You choose Le Train Bleu, convinced it’ll be just the ticket.
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The real McCoy or a cunning fälscher?
Recently, I’ve been getting my kicks from a little-known British TV series called Virgin Virtuosos. Each week, the host guides a celebrity guest through the process of creating a work of art, and with surprising success. This man must be a world-famous artist, I hear you gasp. Well, not quite: he’s a former master forger and his name is John Myatt. The guy’s a great painter, there’s no denying it, but he’s suffered for his art, so to speak: he served four months for perpetrating “the biggest art fraud of the 20th century“, after netting a six-figure sum flogging faked masterpieces.
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Drop dead gorgerous
If you believe the stereotypes, graveyards tend to attract certain types of people. But, I’m living proof that you don’t have to be a Goth, Satanist or body snatcher to get a kick out of places for the dead. My fascination started as a kid. On the way to school I’d often loiter in the local graveyard, mesmerized by the inscriptions on the stones. For some reason reading them felt as forbidden as sneaking a peak up a girl’s skirt. But read them I did.