World Travelers

Did you see my 'Cthulhu lunch' picture?
It can't possibly be worse.

Not really 'world travelling', but in a few hours I'm heading off to Tromsø in the North again, for the annual Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF). This year, I will be interviewing visiting directors every day in the foyer of the Culture House -- an event that is both televised and with an audience:

http://www.tiff.no/en/seminars/film-talks

(it's my editor in the photo above from last year's Film Talks; I'll be taking his job this year).

I'm still not totally free of the cold, but it should be great nonetheless. It's a very "dramatic" city jammed between high mountain peaks all around, maybe Northern Lights (depending on weather) and long stretches of darkness. Maybe I'll post the links to the international interviews here once they're posted online.

Island?

Ah yes. Well, most of the inner city is on the mainland, but some parts are across the bridge, including the famous "Ishavskatedral" ("Ice Ocean Cathedral").

I've been there 3 (4?) years in a row now, but I've yet to experience this:

http://img.akam.no/895/895515/original.jpg

There's been a lot of solar activity recently so you may well get some good Northern Lights?

Chiefly it has to do with the sun. Sun flares send highly energetic particles into space. Earth's magnetic field shilds us from most of these particles. Yet some get into the atmosphere along the magnatic "lines" that center at the magnetic north pole. The lights you see are the result of the atmosphere getting "ionised" (?).

I am not used to express myself in English about such things. I hope what I said makes any sense at all.

Volker

Liz Bonnin was in Tromsø last week for the BBC show Stargazing Live and had spectacular views of the Northern Lights. It looked fantastic. Regardless of this spectacular show, there's something I find magical in just seeing snow in the dark. I used to spend ages looking out of my bedroom window when I was a child, looking at how bright it was in the middle of the night when there was a thick covering of snow on the ground.

So me and a buddy of mine is off to Edinburgh in a month for a 2 1/2 day holiday. Never been to Scotland at all. Any Scots (Alan?) who can recommend things to do and see here?

We'll be staying in the old town and exploring from there. So no out-of-city trips this time, I think. Rose Street sounds nice; I see it's located in New Town. I thought that was just a residential area for the most part?

Hi guys,

It's been way too long since I've been online here. So I'm trying to make up now, by posting at least on some different threads. So this one first.

I'm planning on traveling to Sweden for the first time. In little under two weeks, I'm going up to Stockholm as one of my best friends, Tine, is getting married. And as she moved to Stockholm, it's there that I have to go.

Any pointers on what I could see/visit while being in Stockholm?

Elin

That's my kind of terrain Bregt.

Looks kinda like Jotunheimen in Norway too.

Not enough umbrella drinks and sandals for ya, Martijn?

Just returned from a long weekend in Edinburgh with a friend of mine. Terribly hung over.

It's basically three days of drinking and binging on unhealthy foods, but I still love it!

We managed to do most of the touristy stuff -- visit Edinburgh castle, the HMS Britannia (the Queen's old ship which is now a museum), the Shore/Leith, Calton Hill, New Town, Grassmarket etc.. Yesterday, we hiked up the steep hill to Arthur's Seat -- a terribly exhausting hike after two days of heavy partying. But it was well worth it for the views.

On Saturday, May 17th, Norway celebrated its 200th anniversary of our Constitution -- a massive day in Norway, but we danced to our own tunes, literally.

Amazingly, I never got to sing karaoke.

Must recuperate now.