Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “scandinavia”

The People Of Helsinki


When travelling to other cities and walking around it is a fascinating experience to merely observe the denizens of that city. They do vary city to city. Factors such as age, smoking, fashion and quirkiness all define a city as being different from another. Helsinki is full of polite and very different people certainly from the UK and interestingly other Scandinavian and  Baltic capitals. In short a group of people fascinating to observe. Here are a few examples of the people of Helsinki.

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A typical Helsinki couple. Element of distance between them but managing to look cool.

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Cigarette and I Phone. A new Oasis song maybe?

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Smoking was maybe more common than in other Baltic and Scandinavian countries

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A very european image. Attention to the phone but not to where she is walking

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Helsinki Fashion

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A hard worker

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Tourists on the edge

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Tourists in their tourist uniforms. Maybe sometone told them Helsinki was freezing?

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Far more cyclists than London

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On Guard

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A hard working man

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Finnish fashion may differ from other countries? Again attention to that phone .

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The obligatory young persons uniform. Cigarette, headphones and phone. Just dont let the world in

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I really have no comment here. What did he ask for at the hairdressers?

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A very serious business this guarding

Paintings of Bergen in Norway


More paintings by the British artist Vincent Van B. Bergen sits on the Norwegian coast and I struggled to be captivated by it, in contrast to cities like Stavanger that have something special. Here are a few paintings designed to try and bring Bergen to life and light.

Few interesting turrets floating around. 000000450000005000000065

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Lives Here


The Stieg Larsson trilogy are some of the best books ever written. The main female character Liz Salander manages to become endearing and likeable despite some dubious personality traits. Recently in Stockholm I asked where she lived in the fictional story. These photos were taken in the general area and give some idea of the locality. Next time for me it will be one of the tours of all the places in the book. Strange but true.

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Weather Report from Scandinavia


It seems I am replicating the Grand Tour but instead of Italy am focusing on Scandinavia. All that I am trying to do is get back from Copenhagen to London. However last night having got onto a plane and sat there for 2 hours it became too windy for the ground staff to work. This also meant that they could not connect the air bridge so we were all stuck on the plane.  Today the weather is a little less stormy but snow has arrived. Copenhagen airport is chaos, with people and queues everywhere. The pushing and shoving at the gates reminds me of Rugby League. Mr Angry is out in force and has been cloned too. Mr Important is standing there shouting into his phone that ” he has to get to Bejing”. Which is where most folks might wish to place him. Restaurants are packed selling high priced pizza and hot dogs. Most folks are surgically attached to wine or/and beer glasses.

Somehow I escaped on a plane to Stockholm that then promised me a trip to London however the london flight was cancelled along with most other flights. So I am here in Stockholm Arlanda Airport, most likely all night. The queues to book at the SAS ticket centres stretch around 200 yards or longer and just keep on getting longer. The staff are doing their best and remain cheerful and pleasant and SAS cannot be criticised at all.

For those of you who would like to experience this joy a few photos. As for the weather, well cold, windy, actually very cold and very windy and lots of snow here. Posted 8 pm. A glass of wine for me

The Hilton hotel is at Copenhagen airport and the sky shows that snow was coming. The queues you will have to just work out as they were endless. The pushing at the Gate. Well thats easy. The folks sitting on the baggage carousel was last night at Copenhagen. They may well still be there!photo

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Casting Spells in Finland


After a mere 24 hours in Finland I can only say that this is quite a magical place. The people are kind, intelligent and interesting, also interested in other people. The food is great. The hotels are interesting. The temperature is cold, minus 8 this morning.  What however struck me the most is that for children to learn spelling is not so easy. I had to sit through 2 hours of lectures in Finnish, which I did with good grace ( and my blackberry). One noticed that they used a lot of long words, and I counted  21 letters in one word. At dinner I was informed that the words could get and did get longer. Here is an example:

levyseppahitsaasaopiskelna = 26 letters

 

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Reflections of Sweden. A country where the Wi-Fi is free


Spending time in Sweden is not a hardship. The country is a vibrant and exciting country and populated generally by happy and well meaning people. Perhaps the only real surprise was that not all Swedish speak English. I flew into Stockholm and most people travel into the city centre on the Arlanda Express,  a sort of cheaper and better version of the Heathrow Express. The main city is full of restaurants mostly and of course the Ice Bar in the Nordic Light hotel. An OK hotel but the rooms were tiny and some larger clients may have had interesting times trying to fit into their bathroom/toilet area. But I spent most of my time out of Stockholm travelling to other places. Firstly a short flight to Malmo on Norwegian airlines. Now I mention them specifically as not only did they text me a boarding pass without me asking ( for an early flight) but also because they were on time. Flight was scheduled for 7.30 am and that is the minute it left the runway. However when one gets to 10,000 feet they have free wi-fi that comes into operation. Wi-fi in the sky and free. Marriott hotels are you listening?

The small city of Lund is apparently the equivalent of our Oxford and Cambridge university towns ( looked more like Exeter to me) but with amazing sandwich shops. The rolls and cakes are incredible and cheap. A train journey of 3 hours to Gothenburg was less exciting. A packed train. Not a travel method to recommend. Gothenburg however was a lovely city. Again free wi-fi more or less anywhere, hotel room, burger bar or station concourse. Canals running through were reminiscent of Amsterdam.

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