Hops Across the Globe

Jan 11 2012 - San Francisco Beer Week - Small Batch:Big Thirst

2012-02-11T23:19:00.000-08:00

Chicken Paw, whose unique instruments
are made from animal bones and hides

Every February since 2009, San Francisco Brewers Guild presents SF Beer Week, a celebration of all kinds of beer ranging from Cider to Strong, centering mostly on local smaller breweries in the region. For the past year, I've been looking forward to the second annual Small Batch:Big Thirst event where garage brewers from around the Bay Area (and a few former garage brewers who have moved on to the big time) come together to show off why they've been parking their cars in the street. If you're wondering what beer will taste like in the future, this is your chance to schmooze with the future Fritz Maytags and Jim Kochs. This year, 11 nano-brewers offered tastings of 40 beers and 8 professional (licensed) brewers had 12 beers to share.

To get around the limitation that home brewers can't technically sell their beer without liquor licenses, business licenses, and Health Department checks, they designed a system where patrons make a $20 donation to charity, receive a glass and drink tickets, and are encouraged to taste and judge the brewing competition. This way, we are not paying customers, but benefactors and judges.

Getting the perfect pour at Orange & Black

To level the playing field and make the judging even more interesting, several months ago the nanobrewers got together, probably had one too many drinks, attached a bunch of potential themes to a dart board, and ended up selecting London Ale yeast and "fruit and/or vegetable" as a requirement for at one of the beers each brewers had to present.

Once inside the grounds, mini glass in hand, I got the lay of the land. Two food trucks. Outdoor band stage. Two outdoor areas for Professional and Hobbyist brewers. Big empty warehouse that solely houses a very long line and a few toilets. The warehouse looks like it was abandoned a decade ago and taken over by birds. There are signs around the building which seem to denote it was once a distribution center for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Local Brewing Co.

The band Chicken Paw was playing when I arrived. I can't quite explain what they sound like. The only instrument I recognized was some kind of guitar. Other than that, they had a washboard, metal buckets, something that looked like weightlifting equipment, and other fun goodies. Eclectic local music at its best!

Passing briefly through the professional side of the beergarden, I sampled Speakeasy's Imperial Wheat, which is a Hefeweizen that is very dark and rich like a Porter. Great way to kick off the day!

Filled my tummy with the Veggie Wrap from Eire-Trea, a food truck specializing in Irish-Eritrean food! It was a delightful mixture of yams, potatoes, veggies, and curry in a soft tortilla -- YUM!

Queued up at the bar on Brewtruc

Now on the nanobrewing side of the rope, I tried a taste of Spinfisch Brewery's Appled Porter. Apples and Porter are two of my favorite things, so I was definitely psyched to try it! It's actually more of a brown ale -- with chunks of apples!! Also I had their Bucky Belgian - the strong taste of coriander is a little unsettling. Gotta give them props for brewing it in their North Beach home.

Next up was Shagbark's Cherry Stout. The cherry is very subtle - you have to catch the glass at the right angle to take it in. They took the keg off ice to let it warm up a little. Brewed in the Richmond neighborhood, with supplies from Brewcraft and hops from More Beer.

Sampled the Black Currant Oak-Age by Orange & Black, run by employees of the Homebrew supply store Brewcraft. It's surprisingly bitter and smoky. Most black currant drinks/snacks are highly sweetened, which tinted my expectations.

Muddle Puddle pouring outside the Brewtruc

Zorn Brewing is a husband and wife team brewing from their garage in Monterey. Just when you thought Autumn was over, they surprise you with their delicious Pumpkin Porter. The signature pumpkin pie spices underline and compliment the Porter. Great any time of the year.

At this point, I climbed aboard Brewtruc, the centerpiece of the event. They have 6 taps on the outside of the bus and another 6 inside. The old-school school-bus has been gutted and recreated as a lounge slash party bus available for bar hopping and sightseeing. Tried Muddy Puddle Stout, which after my palette got conditioned to fruity beers, smelled better than it tasted. Maybe it was time to clean my glass.

The good folks at Poplar just before finding out they won

Went straight to Muddy Puddle's own booth for a fresh taste of their Tule Fog herbgruit w/ currants brewed in Mill Valley. Gruit is the way beer was brewed in the 15th Century before they replaced spices with hops for their purity and preservative power. The first thing that hits you is its sweetness. Maybe a tinge of honey, reminiscent of Mead. This is a very special drink, taking you back to the old country. I can see why Muddy Puddle has been selected to provide beer full-time for one of the six taps on the Brewtruc.

Poplar Brewing Company consists of a couple buddies brewing deep in the Mission (25th and Valencia). They've been brewing for 5 years, taking an average of 6-8 weeks to brew each beer. Once the first drops of their Irish Rhubarb Red hit my glass, the strawberry essence tickled my nose before I even took the first sip. As I drank it down, the rhubarb kicked in towards the bottom. Strawberry rhubarb pie in liquid form - Delicious!

One last taste of Appled Porter

I mentioned to Poplar's bartender than it seemed like most people aren't taking tickets. "Oh people are taking tickets alright - they grab them from my collection and use them to get beer at other booths."

As I was savoring the last sip of rhubarb goodness, the announcement rung out that Poplar was selected as the best beer of the festival. Suddenly the friendly brewer became an instant superstar and the quiet corner of the beer garden became very crowded. They cater private parties, which sounds like a fun, delicious, and unique way to spice up a gathering.

I couldn't get Spinfisch's Appled Porter out of my mind, so I went back for seconds. Now near the bottom of the keg, it had even more chunks of Golden delicious apples. Yum!!

Spinfisch was the runner-up in my mind

Next up was Van Houten's Peach Porter. I'm not a huge fan of peach, but this is really spectacular. Creek (Mrs. Van Houten) and I recognized each other from last year's event. The San Francisco nanobrewery scene is really phenomental, a community of collaboration not competition. Johnny Van Houten was responsible for most of the brewing, while Creek was in charge of narrowing down the porter's fruit selection down from blueberry, apricot, and peach. Great choice!

On my way out, I passed through the Professional side to check out the Saison from Pacific Brewing Labs. They represented the nanobrewing community at last year's event, but this past year they got all the proper licenses and started contracting with Devils Canyon Brewery in Belmont to brew using their facilities. Now they sell kegs to 25 bars in SF. After brewing just for fun for 6 years, they say all it took to go pro was $25-50k in startup funds. Hmmmm!!

Jan 13 2012 - Yet a couple more days in Shanghai

2012-01-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

Queue in front of the Pudong Apple Store.
Today must be the iPhone 4S release day

I had lunch near my office on two successive days at HoF, which stands for House of Flour, but it may as well be House of Cocoa. They started as a bakery making artisanal bread, evolving into a cute cafe that serves a lot of things made out of chocolate - shakes, hot cocoa, truffles, torts. I became friendly with the proprietor Brian Tan, who offered his thoughts on pairing drinks with desserts and even which locale of cocoa bean goes with which type of drink.

Fur Hat and Leather Coat convention in
front of the Oriental Pearl Tower ticket booth??

Many of you have heard me complain about Chinese vendors and their inability to think outside the box. Something that happened Wednesday is a perfect example of the Chinese methodology on troubleshooting. During the course of construction, an IT vendor ran ethernet cables to every desk and connected them into jacks. Another construction firm cut those wires in one office. After a week, the user complained to me and I relayed it to the IT vendor. After some investigation, they informed me that the two options were to either (A) rerun the cable at someone's expense (not theirs) or (B) extend the cable. If you extend an ethernet cable and try to pass a computer network through it, it will fail, intermittently and spectacularly. I told them option B is not an option and we'll need to talk to my office manager to have someone agree to pay for option A. Then they said they already gave the options to the office manager and she approved Option B, although it will fail a cable test (this is the vendor telling me they know it will fail the test, but they already suggested it and it was accepted). Are you with me so far? So I asked them to show me the office in question. Within seconds, I could see at least two other solutions: (C) put a small jack against the wall a little further from the desk but still in a good location (they said this isn't feasible), (D) put the jack under the floor in the wiring conduit and then run long network cables to the computer, phone, etc. In the end, this is what we did. The vendor was amazed at the creativity of the solution. How do you teach that kind of thinking to an entire society?

View of The Bund from my hotel room
in honor of my last night in town

Thursday was my one and only opportunity to go shopping and I almost blew it. Time slipped away from me and pretty soon I was arriving at the knock-off market at 7:45pm. I went to a couple of stalls and they pretty much kicked me out for lowballing. At about 7:55 I realized that everything was closing and kicked into high gear. I walked into a scarf store, asked "what do you have for 10 RMB", how many I needed, and walked out a few minutes later with two bags of pashminas. It was the fastest haggle ever. Success! I didn't get a few things I *wanted* but I got everything I *needed* if I want to be allowed back in the office next week.

Hopped on the Metro Line 7, the Bombardier train cars are connected in a way that there is no separation between one car and another, like a reticulated bus. When you're on a straight stretch of track, it seems as if you can see for miles from the back to the front of the train. On my way back on Line 2, I rode an Alstom train that was built the same way. I guess I just never noticed it before!

Shopping done, I treated myself to a new brewpub nearby in Pudong: The Brew at Kerry Hotel. Dugite Vanilla Stout is a masterfully-made milky stout, a little frothy on top like a milkshake. The White Ant is a White Hefeweizen with distinct lemon flavor, also a little airy and frothy. Not light, but airy.

Amazing Australian pint glasses at The Brew

I love being Pescetarian. I may miss out on dishes like the BLT mac n cheese and burgers and all of the pizzas (margherita is too boring) - but now options like salmon skewers with pita and yogurt will leap off the menu and into my lap. It's very exciting!

The beer glasses are custom blown by a glassmaker in Australia. If you ask nicely, they'll let them go for 176 RMB (almost $30). I definitely gave it a lot of consideration -- maybe next time! I've been to most of the brewpubs in Shanghai (Boxing Cat, Bund, two Paulaner's) and this is by far the best. Maybe Pudong is worthy of a second look!

I CAN BE DIFFICULT!!

At breakfast, I had my first pulled noodle soup. On Monday, I saw the chef kneading the dough. Tuesday he was pounding it into the table. Wednesday he was cutting in. Thursday he was making some sort of broth. Today I saw one bowl of the final product and jumped at my chance to have it, not wanting to know if it's meat or veggie broth. Of course it doesn't take a week to make pulled noodle soup, but for some reason I kept missing the final product. The anticipation was the best part :P

If you plan your trip properly, you can stop by the knock-off market one last time (it's actually on the way) to use up your loose RMB. I have it down to a science down where I can haggle prices down to the point where I have 6 RMB remaining, enough for a train to the airport maglev station and an ice cream when I get there.

There's a cute model railroad at the Shanghai international airport. I asked if it could move, the attendant explained succinctly "it's bad." Say no more. Their engineers probably tried to extend the cables.

Jan 11 2012 - a couple more days in Shanghai

2012-01-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

Happened to walk by this restaurant. My friend says it's better
translated as The Capital of Taste, which is a huge improvement.
They should've seeked guidance before making the signs.

Although our office building is the centerpiece of China's new financial district, it could've conceivably been planned better, in particular the elevator. To get to our floor, you have to first take an express elevator to the 30th floor. Then you get off, walk around the corner, and there's another bank of elevators that will take you to the upper floors. It seems ridiculous, but that's not what I'm here to write about today. The crazy thing is there's a guy whose job it is to stand at the corner between the two elevators, wait for people to arrive, usher them around the corner to the other elevator, and press the button while they are walking over. This is mind blowing to me. Every single time.

I wonder what the trade-off was during the architecting process - we could save 1 million RMB in elevator construction costs but we'll have to employ a full-time usher for the life of the building. Sold!

I had a chance to walk around the old neighborhood (French Concession) because I signed up for a yoga class there. Walking around for 30 minutes got me so nostalgic, remembering my first trip to China, friendless, unable to get a taxicab, stuck drudging through the unprecedented snow -- good times! Every visit to China should include an extended stay in the French Concession.

The yoga class was taught by my friend Adele. We did a work project together in 2010 but this was the first time I've seen her in action as a yogi. Adele teaches her classes bilingually in a way that the words flow from her with ease, instructing you in one language and relaxing you in the other. She says sometimes a student will ask if they can record audio of the class because the sound of her voice in English - although they don't understand a word of it - is soothing to them. Whenever Adele would give the instruction in Chinese first, I could see people setting up the pose and then reinforce it with the English instruction - this worked the best for me.

After class, I mentioned that I had never tried "hot yoga" before, it was a first. You should see her reaction! Adele says it wasn't hot yoga, but for some reason the company insists on keeping the studio at 45 degrees. I must've misheard her, or maybe she was joking, because I looked it up later and 45 degrees is CRAZY HOT. Like surface of the Sun hot. Hot yoga usually maxes out at 40 degrees.

Photo taken at 9am. I had to take a few photos before I
got one that showed the sun popping through the smog.

We shared tuna tartare on avocado and stories of travelling and food poisoning. We were out pretty late and the subway had closed, so I had to take a taxi from the old neighborhood to the new neighborhood. The taxi driver got pretty lost near the end, he kept circling the area. I had a paper the hotel gives you to show to taxi drivers, it says "TAXI driver can take you to us easily with the Address in Chinese". Well that turned out not to be the case. I kept pointing "over there" but he refused to believe me. In the end I had to hoof if about half a mile - I'm starting to know Shanghai better than local taxi drivers.

China isn't known for its air quality. Well, I guess it is, but not in a good way. The US, and particularly the city of Los Angeles, have worked tirelessly for decades in order to keep smog at bay. That's what it takes. If China started then, the US would be taking advice from Beijing. Instead, it's the other way around. The US Embassy in Beijing has kept a Twitter feed since 2008 with hourly reports on the air quality as measured at their doorstep (irony note: Twitter is blocked in China). On days when the US reports air quality as "Very Unhealthy" or "Hazardous", the Chinese gov't air quality report has often listed it as a "Blue Sky Day". This came to a head this week when the air quality literally went off the scale at 534 micrograms per cubic meter - there is no name for this level of pollution, so the feed just shows it as "Beyond Index". Beijing announced it as yet another Blue Sky Day. Apparently they were only reporting on particulates 10 microns and smaller, where the US was monitoring for particles smaller than 2.5 microns, which is the accepted standard. Held up to scrutiny, China blinked and they are adopting the 2.5 standard over the next two weeks. Hopefully next they'll be taking corrective measures to reduce pollution. One can hope!

Note: this has been covered equally well in Chinese government-run and foreign newspapers, so you have to at least give them credit for that.

Passed yet another skyscraper under construction, the sign on the lot said "The Respiratory Financial Centre" - it doesn't seem to be a medical center or even a biotech center - I think maybe they were going for something like "a breath of fresh air in the financial centre" or even "breathing new life into the financial centre".

For dinner I caught up with a guy we met on the scuba diving boat in Australia. He gave me the full tour of his office (Google). He couldn't talk much about the Google/China situation, but it's clearly on their minds. I guess I'm taking a page from Olga's book of making friends while traveling and then meeting them in their home countries. It definitely gives you more authentic flavor/texture when you walk the streets with a local. Although he's not originally from Shanghai, but from a coastal town in the Southeast corner of the country. Maybe that's why he liked the dinner at Lost Heaven restaurant - most of my Shanghai coworkers find it too "spicy", which I think means it has too many interesting spices. I've seen them eat "hot" foods like Hunan and Szechuan, but balk at Yunnan cuisine, which I don't find particularly piquant.

Jan 9 2012 - a couple days in Shanghai

2012-01-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Vegetarian breakfast at the Oriental Riverside Hotel

On the first (2 hour) leg from San Francisco to Vancouver, I sat next to management consultant slash venture capitalist. It seemed he was very talkative, but it could've just been because I had stayed up most of the night and all I wanted to do was sleep. I slept through the entire flight from pushing back to wheels down. It's a shame because my neighbor seemed to be an interesting guy: French, living in Walnut Creek CA, residing in Shanghai most of the time. Later we met in passing in Vancouver, on the second leg plane, and at Shanghai passport control. I mentioned that I got a few hours sleep on the last flight and he called me a machine - I like that description - a sleeping machine!

My office has moved to a new neighborhood, not just new to us, but new in existence. I found a great photo (below) of what the neighborhood looked like in 1990 and 2010. The Pudong area around the Huangpu river is being built as a world financial center with massive bridges, tunnels, and 6 subway lines that all popped up during these 20 years (mostly in the past 5). The one thing that hasn't popped up is culture - waking and sleeping in this part of town these past couple of days has me longing for a material other than steel and glass - measured in more than height and RMB - some scrap of authenticity. I'm determined to find it!

Pudong Shanghai in 1990
and the same shot in 2010

I blog a lot about food when I'm on business trips because eating is often all I have time to do outside of work projects. For the past week or two, I have been experimenting with Pescetarianism, and if I can do it in China, the land of chicken feet and duck tongue, I can do it anywhere. In fact, it comes as a huge relief. In the US, where I can identify most meats and avoid the ones I am squeamish about, I find myself not particularly enjoying the ones I DO eat. When I travel, I find myself ordering very carefully and biting with hesitation. So far, eating pescetarian is the easiest thing I have done.

On Monday, the office was going out for sushi lunch and I wasn't able to refuse. I sort of felt like I was pulled in with a tractor beam. By my count, this is my 6th trip to Shanghai and I've been able to avoid sushi every time. In fact, I think I've been able to avoid sushi is most countries, I just don't feel comfortable having sushi while travelling internationally. It was actually a nice restaurant, there were a wide variety of dishes being passed around: all manner of stir fries, hot pots, sushi rolls, udon noodles, and fried rice dishes. The only meat that came up was in a soup - I stealthily ate the cabbage and noodles around some beef and pork. It's 24 hours later and I report no adverse reactions to the sushi!

One odd thing I noticed as we were winding our way through the luxury mall on the way to sushi is that the number of customers per store averaged out to zero. Is the Chinese consumer ready to pay full price for LV bags? Who is this mall even created for? Do these companies want to sell goods - or is it more like a model home? I walked through this mall once in October 2010, so I would think it would've gained traction by now.

South Pole seaweed salad and vanilla tea

For dinner, my coworkers found me a nearby vegetarian restaurant to try. Across the street from the luxury mall, there's the more middle class Super Brand Mall (actual name) with its "New Age Veggie" restaurant. I spent a really long time belaboring all 62 pages of the menu. There were such interesting-sounding things, I'd love to find out how they recreate salmon sashimi (the photo looks amazing), stir-fried spicy veggie kidneys, veggie pork steak with tomato sauce, fried veggie cod fish, veggie shark's fin dumpling. I'm a little disappointed in how boring my choices sound: Mixed seaweed from South Pole, Wild matsutake mushrooms, Rooibos vanilla tea, and chocolate rice pudding. The guy at the next table had the cold marinated veggie abalone, he said it was pretty good, but it looked a little too rubbery for my taste.

It doesn't say so in the menu, but the South Pole seaweed seems to be Szechuan style - at least that's what I'm hoping - it's the only reasonable explanation for why my lips went completely numb while eating it. The seaweed look like black olives that can been cut open by a corkscrew. They taste like rubber that has been marinating in the ocean for awhile. But don't let this dissuade you, they are actually quite tasty!

photo via reddit

Jan 2 2012 - Thoughts on a trip to Australia

2012-01-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

On the ferry on the way to Manly Beach

A day after celebrating the New Year in Sydney and getting a pretty full night's sleep, we took the ferry to Manly Beach. It's so neat being able to call people in The States from the beach to wish them a happy 2012 and hear their countdown, already having done our own countdown a day earlier and knowing how it will turn out :) And if we wanted, we totally could've flown back to California to experience TWO new years!

Standing room only in the ferry

The ferry and the beach were a complete mob scene, but an extraordinarily well organized one. The line to get on the ferry was around the block, and we were about to give up almost immediately, but then it started moving quickly and most people went to the end instead of butting in. On the boat, we were able to get a seat in the outdoor bow section, gladly getting sprayed a few times in the heat of the summer.

Great crowd on New Years Day

The Sydney beach scene was pretty crazy. You are allowed to swim only between the yellow/red checkered flags that are a few meters apart. Outside of that, the incoming waves and outgoing riptide are too dangerous and the lifeguard, in this case the Manly Council Lifeguard Service, aren’t watching. Even within that protected area, swimming is a full-contact sport, jumping over or diving under the super powerful waves that come in constantly, and avoiding the body surfers and their boogie boards.

Maybe a short nap before swimming...

While carefully swimming (alternating between standing in shallow water and jumping above 2 meter high waves) between the red/yellow safety flags, up popped a Court Jester out of nowhere. He was wearing a red and yellow striped beanie cap, identically uniformed shirt, funny old-timey sunglasses, and his face was painted white with zinc sunblock. He asked if everyone was ok - I was stunned for a moment and wondered if it was a weird costume contest or a candid camera trick - but moments later regained my composure and let him know everything was ok. Keeping the waters baffled for all Australians.

Manly has a wonderful foot wash... but
for some reason the fountains have randomly
changing heights so you're sure to get soaked

Australians use the word heaps, well, heaps. "Save Heaps" some holiday sale signage displayed. "That was heaps of fun" and "I've had heaps of those" I've often heard. It's a curious word that is completely understandable, but I'd never before found myself in a situation where I needed to use it. It seems to be analogous to "a ton". Perhaps Australia's connection to both the U.S. and U.K. make "a ton" confusing as you don't know if you like something a metric ton or a conventional ton. I like Australia one metric heap.

Darling Harbour on our last day

Sunday night our friend John took us out to dinner and I tried two more Australian beers. Redback, started as a small batch Western Australian brewery in 1989, is an easy drinking beer similar to Anchor Steam. It's named after a poisonous black spider with a red stripe on its back that hangs out under outhouse seats, waiting to sting unsuspecting preoccupied patrons. It certainly tastes better than it sounds!

A closer view...

I also tried Carlton Black, mass-produced but entirely decent Dark Ale style beer. I would say it's the instant coffee of dark beers: available everywhere, dark and strong aroma, but it's not going to change your day. Ironically, due to recent mergers, both beers (along with about 95% of beers we saw this trip) are produced by SABMiller group. Since we're on the subject of Australian alcohol, we did try a good sampling of Australian wines (mostly Shiraz). We went in knowing a good bit about West Coast U.S. Appellations/varietals, but on a short visit we were unable to figure out how to map it to Australian wine-growing regions. Next trip, we'll certainly do more formal wine touring/tasting. If anybody has any Australian wine advice, please let me know, I'd love to get a head start on the research :) I wonder if there's a shortage of natural cork in Australia -- 95% of wines we saw, including the really nice-nice ones, had screwtops. Maybe they save it for the exports!

Somebody's not happy about leaving Australia

John told us that voting in Australia is mandatory - not voting will get you fined. This dramatically changes the landscape of democracy as people with little interest or on the fence will probably vote moderate - and campaigns have to devote a considerable portion of their resources to the apathetic.

At the Sydney Int'l Airport observatory deck

Nobody asked, but I'll tell you anyway: we did have a Vegemite sandwich on the OceanQuest reef ship. Their kitchen was stocked with the infamous Australian vegetable extract, and we spread a thin layer on bread, which I think is all you need to officially call yourselves Australians. We even brought some back with us, so invite yourself on over, we'll just smile and give you a vegemite sandwich...

Olga has posted her thought on the trip as well http://plotkills.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-years-in-sydney.html

Dec 31 2011 - New Year is Happier in Sydney

2011-12-31T23:30:00.000-08:00

Hipsters will be prosecuted!!

Sydney takes its New Years celebrations seriously - and unlike a destination such as New York City - it seems to tell visitors "bring it on". NYC tries its best to discourage New Years Eve revelers: you have to get there mid-afternoon and stand in the sobering freezing cold for hours just to watch a ball move a meter in 10 seconds.

The "kids" 9:00 fireworks

Sydney has 9 choreographed fireworks displays lasting about 7 minutes, which are physically close enough together that you can see several of them simultaneously. It's like 3-D with Surround Sound. Even the skyscrapers get in on the action, adding the icing to the cake - and the cherry too.

Drinking Nelsons Blood and sending New Years greetings

In fact, Sydney is getting in the mood all evening leading up to the big event. At 9pm there is the "children's fireworks" which is supposed to be for kids, but from what we have seen, seems to be more for parents (kids would love to stay up to midnight). It's close in scale to the later fireworks, except they don't close and launch from the Harbour Bridge. Then at 10, 11, and 11:30pm there are little teaser fireworks so you can keep your excitement level up, synchronize your watches, and make sure your location is calibrated for optimal pyrotechnic enjoyment :)

The whole gang

Meanwhile we're staking out our home base. Location: Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. This is where we came after dinner and between/after each fireworks sortie. This is where we met up with Danny, our diving buddy from the reef. We also made new friends Adam (celebrating his 30th birthday) and Rachel - locals who didn't care to actually see the fireworks, Lev visiting from L.A., and the swinging Swedish couple. Lord Nelson's is the spot.

One of nine simultaneous wraparound fireworks displays

Our research concluded the best viewing location to be Observatory Hill, standing with thousands of our closest friends. It's a bit more sane (sober) than the madness down in the streets of The Rocks. Australians are so good-natured and well-organized that there was no trouble squeezing into a great spot at the last possible minute.

Danny, Olga, Rachel: happy new year!!

Back home at 4am, I went to sleep with the comfort of knowing we could sleep in, have a slow breakfast, and still be able to call folks back in the states before their own (quaint) new years.

Dec 30 2011 - Sydney - I come from a land down under

2011-12-30T16:51:00.000-08:00

Twitch has been fed!

This being our second visit to Sydney (after 4 days up in Cairns), we feel like locals and spent the day accordingly.

We're staying in our friend John's house in the suburb of Marrickville. Slept in until 10am (average wake-up time on this trip has been about 8am due to heavily packed plans). We're also feeding his cat. That's so local. Tourists don't feed cats.

Set of Nothing Personal

Shopped at Banana Joe's grocery store and made a healthy brunch of local mango, cherries, cucumber, hummus, cheese, multi-grain bread, and Greek pastries.

Visited the post office for stamps, but it's closed for the holiday. Picked up a tasty cappuccino instead at the Marrickville Post Cafe.

After an afternoon looking at world maps,
now that's all I can see.

Checked out the New South Wales Library to check out the wonderful exhibit for the 100th anniversary of the exploration of Antarctica. Probably the best part is the collection of Italian, Dutch, British, French, and even ancient Greek world maps in chronological order so you can watch the results of various nautical expeditions to the Southern hemisphere.

Patronized a local pub. The Harts Pub near Circular Quay serves only craft beer - we tried their own Rocks Brewing Co Cider and one outside beer: Murray's Dark Knight Porter from a nearby town called Bobs Farm. I enjoyed my Porter and Olga preferred her Cider :) We've now been to several pubs and I have never seen Foster's - not even once. Maybe it isn't Australian for beer.

Sydney Opera building from the ferry

After a small bite at Harts, we caught the comedic play Nothing Personal at the local Ensemble theatre in Kirribilli. The play was funny, barring a few local and Cricket-related references, and the cast was great!

Masterfully navigated our way through the ferry and train system back to our friend's house. It's like we've been living here for years!

Dec 29 2011 - Transitional day in Cairns Australia

2011-12-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

Cafe at the Cairns Botanical Gardens

There's a lot of pressure to keep one's travel blog interesting for faithful readers. Day one: arrive in an exciting town in an exotic locale, for example Sydney Australia. Day two: meet friends and have local dining experience, such as trying kangaroo sausage. Day three: try a new and exhilarating activity, perhaps scuba diving on a reef. Day four: try an unusual mode of transportation, let's say you ride a scenic railroad up to and a gondola above and down from a mountaintop rainforest. Day five is always going to be a letdown to travel blog followers - there's no way to keep up that level of activity.

Blue Sky Brewery in Cairns domestic airport

This morning we ran into another couple from the dive trip and walked to/through the botanical gardens and nature walk in Cairns. The nature walk was nice - a self-guided boardwalk tour through a few distinct rainforest and swamp ecosystems. It was nice to see our dive buddies - hopefully we'll run into each other in Sydney.

Tropical storm blew in as we were blowing out

The Cairns airport is really cute. The first thing we noticed is that they don't ask for IDs anywhere: at check-in, security, boarding, or when ordering beer at the local Cairns Blue Sky Brewery in the domestic terminal. They also don't check for liquids or carefully inspect shoes in the domestic terminal. It brings up an array of thoughts on the state of airport security, but my takeaway was how enjoyable the stout was at the airport brewery :)

Dec 28 2011 - Cairns Australia - so many characters!

2011-12-28T17:40:00.000-08:00

Scenic railroad from Cairns to Kuranda rainforest.
It speaks for itself!

Wednesday we took a packaged excursion: 2 hour scenic railroad up a mountain, 3 hours to walk around the town and rainforest of Kuranda, and an hour gondola ride back down. Reading the history of the railroad was probably more interesting than the ride itself. The line was planned and mostly built between 1882-1893 by 700+ men hand-carving 15 tunnels from sea level up to an elevation of 1000 feet. By the time they finished the line, the gold rush had ended and interest in the rail line was gone. Flash forward to 1978, some hippies opened a market at the top of the rail line in the town of Kuranda. They ran the rail line for a couple of seasons, then it was clear there was a lot of demand for the rail line and it was formally reopened. The view from the train was majestic, complete with a waterfall, view of the valley and sea, and a 180 degree hairpin turn where the front and back of the train have a direct view of each other.

A plane seems to have crashed in the koala
garden. Who's their decorator, JJ Abrams?

After some browsing in the market, we ended up at the Kuranda Coffee shop, which is split into two sides: members only (locals) and tourists. The members look like a cross between bikers and hippies. Very tan, long flowing clothes, leather jackets, long hair, big white beards. I tried to peek inside the members area, it looked like bikers sipping coffee and doing crossword puzzles, but apart from the tourists. The barista was a crazy character. We were asking about where the locals go to hang out. Half his teeth missing, he was teasing us mercilessly: 'Why aren't you staying in Kuranda for several days? Why haven't you hired a car? You need to cancel our arrangements and road trip around Australia! NOW!' He did make a mean macchiato though.

So many kangaroos to feed, so little time!

We ended up at the Kuranda Koala Gardens, where Olga fed a kangaroo and I cuddled with a koala bear. Here's how it works. Australia has laws limiting how much cuddling each koala bear may be subject to on a daily basis.

One minute of koala cuddling...
starts in... 3...2...1... ACTION!

To make sure everyone can (pay to) cuddle a koala, they have a huge stock of koala bears on hand. To feed sufficient koalas for cuddling, the park owns enough acreage to house many thousands of eucalyptus trees. So according to the park, our purchase of a koala cuddling photo directly resuscitates the koala bear species and habitat. Somehow it seems fishy, but he was fun to hold and the photo is super cute!

So much action in the rainforest!
or...
Once you start cuddling, it's hard to stop!

After you have visited one of the parks (koala, bird, or butterfly), you have enough time to so souvenir shopping or perhaps take a rainforest walk, which is what we did. It's a neat 1.5 Km (paved) walk through a rainforest rich with the sounds of cicadas, crickets, and tropical birds; views of tall trees and ferns; the feeling of a continual mist, and the smells of green freshness after a summer rain. There's also a spot where you can see both the Scenic Railway and the Skyrail gondola, so railroad geeks won't feel left out. The Skyrail gondola ride down is scenic and a fast 45 mins back down to Cairns where you will potentially share a gondola with a family from Texas who didn't have enough time shopping for souvenirs in Kuranda so they came back for a second 3-hour visit.

Skyrail gondola ride over the rainforest canopy...
it's not scary (you keep telling yourself)

We spent the late afternoon and early evening at Hides Coffee Cafe in Cairns catching up on downtime and online activities. Torsten, the manager/barista was a charismatic eclectic fellow from Hamburg Germany who travels the world seeking to simplify the complicated and complicate the simple. Next he's off to India to study computers and design (and give away) a new level for a for a 1st person shooter video game.

We see bugs on the menu everywhere
in Cairns, and they are one of the most
expensive things... doesn't sound very
appetizing to me!

We were sitting here and chatting with Torsten when I spotted Erika from our dive boat. Cairns - the gateway to the reef - is the kind of small town where you'll keep running into people you know. Olga and I had left the boat yesterday while most of the group stayed until today. She invited us to join the majority of the group for dinner and we had a great time chatting about dives and seafood and travels and smartphone apps and gelato :)

Dive group "reunion"

Dec 27 2011 - Australia - Scuba diving liveaboard at the Great Barrier Reef

2011-12-27T09:30:00.000-08:00

Olga and I just spent the past two days on a liveaboard trip with the wonderful Deep Sea Divers Den - I was scuba diving and she was snorkeling. The first two dives were on a small boat that took us out to the Great Barrier Reef, the other five were on a ship permanently out on the reef that moves from site to site along the reef. It was really neat having our own room on the larger ship where we could keep our stuff or rest if we wanted privacy - but of course we spent most of our free time in the various common areas hanging out with the different crowds. Below is a stream of consciousness I logged after each dive.

1st day, 1st dive:

Guide put a metal wand up to an anemone and it opened up like a blooming flower. Napoleon fish came and brushed up against us when we were just barely underwater. Held an elephant trunk fish that was lying on the bottom of the water. Ran out of air a little early, went back to the boat a few mins before the rest of the group. While I was waiting at the surface, a turtle swam right by! Sometimes snorkelers have the best perspective. Olga reports having a penthouse view of the reef, fish, and divers.

2nd dive:

Guide put his finger in a hole near a giant clam then waved his other hand near the clam and it slammed shut. There was a coral with 3 "eyes" and the eyes popped back inside when he put his hand near them. I later heard these are called Christmas Tree worms.

3rd dive:

First unguided dive. Paired up in a threesome with two buddies (Eugene and Robin). We followed a reef shark. Then we spotted that the bottom of the ocean - which is a white fine sand - had a spine and a gill that was breathing. Moments later it swam away - a stingray!

4th dive:

Night dive in a guided group. Guide kept shining a flashlight at spots and pointing at interesting things, but I couldn't see them. It was interesting just to be there diving in the dark, everything looks so different. Hung out by the boat mooring cable where they were shining a very bright light - about 10 reef sharks circled us. So exciting!!

Overnight:

The weather got nasty in the evening. When we were trying to re-enter the ship after the night dive, it was bouncing up and down about 1 meter - I'd be on the ladder one step above the water line and then all of a sudden I'd be 4 steps underwater. After everyone was back, they moved the boat, presumably to a quieter location or perhaps away from the reef for its safety. The boat kept rocking all night, it was tough to get a deep sleep.

Sharks circling the stern of the ship as the sun sets

2nd day, 1st dive at 6am:

No guide, buddied up again with Eugene. We dove towards the left and ended up swimming around a circular reef formation a few times. Stopped for a bit to help out a lost diver. While we were stationary at about 5 meters, I suddenly became positively boyant and couldn't stay put. Let the water take me up, took a breath of air at the surface, used this as an opportunity to note the location of the boat, and rejoined my dive partner underwater.

Dave and Robin ready for the night dive

2nd dive:

Eugene and I crept up on a reef shark, we were probably about 8 meters away, snapped a bunch of photos with his camera. Best dive so far in diversity, time, and my comfort in the water. Two clownfish were playing in an anemone, running across its bristles, back and forth and back and forth - adorable.

Just about to head into the water for a night dive.
Did you see those sharks?

3rd dive:

First dive where I was the leader - my buddy Cheryl just got certified yesterday. Didn't see much new (3rd time diving in the same spot), but it was neat to show her some tricks I learned such as the Christmas Tree worm and to point out fish I liked.

For Olga's experiences snorkeling, check out her blogpost: http://plotkills.blogspot.com/2011/12/lone-snorkler-at-barrier-reef.html

Dec 25 2011 - Christmas Day in Australia

2011-12-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

Breakfast at the Sydney Hilton

This morning we wanted to leave for the airport at 9am, so we had to hustle a bit to get everything in order. Catch up on email? Check. Pack up? Done. Breakfast? Where were we going to find a nice breakfast on Christmas day with less than an hour to spare? We started walking towards Chinatown, which is about a mile away. We passed several possibilities - a cupcakery, Hungry Jack's (Australian Burger King), cafes - all closed! Almost completely out of time and starting to get on each other’s nerves, we stumbled into the Sydney Hilton for a tasty and healthy breakfast of Muesli yogurt parfait, sour cherry muffin, and cappuccinos. I've never been so happy to find a big American hotel. Relief!

The bats take over Cairns at sunset

At the airport, the super friendly Virgin Australia checkin counter lady greeted us with "I want to say...Happy Hanukkah?" I wasn't sure how to take it and what to say. I corrected her with a one word reply: Festivus. "What's this festivus everyone's talking about?" she wanted to know. "It's a very American holiday" "Oh is that a general holiday that covers all holidays? You Americans are always coming up with ways to include everybody."

XXXX - the most popular beer in the
Queensland region of Australia. My new
slogan for them: "Four-ex. It's not bad."

When we landed in Cairns, the small airport is efficiently run. There are various shuttle bus companies that take people to their hotels. Actually they are more of a shuttle van than a shuttle bus - near-identical shuttle van with trailers. About 20 people piled into the bus - and 20 suitcases into the trailer. The van radio was playing a commercial for trailer companies - and I was thinking about why all the shuttles in this town use vans and trailers - is it because there is a low clearance tunnel? Or a tax on vehicle wheels? Anyhoo, the van driver was going about his business dropping people off, when all of a sudden he pulled off by a field. I thought "I wonder who's staying in a campground". Then the driver ran out and closed the trailer - it had popped open somehow. Meanwhile he wasn't communicating with any of us. Then he banged a u-turn and started driving back towards the airport. Guess whose luggage had skidded off the road? Olga's! It's a sturdy bugger with a nice road rash from Cairns.

I wanna give a shout out the Gelocchio - a shop on the Cairns esplanade that makes gelato and sorbet on a stick - optionally dipped in chocolate. It's all natural and a delight for the mouth!

Dec 24 2011 - Sydney: throw a kangaroo on the barbie

2011-12-24T18:10:00.000-08:00

you've got the cutest little pie face

On Saturday, we awoke at 7:30am in order to go online and have breakfast before a 10:30 Sydney free walking tour. Even that wasn't early enough because we misunderstood the starting location of the tour and ran to try to get there. Even though we were running about 15 minutes late, I figured we should just keep running because eventually we might catch up with them - and we sure did! It was a really wonderful walking tour. We started in the tunnels under Sydney, which are not as cool as they sound. There are tunnels that run under the city, some were built for fallout shelters and used for water storage, others have been made into malls. Those are the ones we visited.

entering a tunnel 5 seconds
before it became a huge mall

Sydney is like an alternate universe London. They have a Hyde Park, Kings Cross, Oxford Street, Liverpool St, and Paddington. Surrounding towns are Newcastle, Swansea, Belmont, and Victoria. Yet on the other hand, walking around the city during Christmas Eve is warm and exciting, unlike how depressing and desolate an empty and bitter cold it feels on the streets of London on Christmas Eve. The Sydney accent is less Paul Hogan and more Flight of the Conchords. It comes across very cockney (London commoner) because those are the people who were brought here with the first fleet.

the happiest protesters

Australian paper money is plastic. The Australians figured out how to make "paper" money last four times as long but only cost twice as much to produce. They pioneered this process and mint bills for other countries around the world. Australia literally have the license to print money -- even though it no longer grows on trees.

The only country that eats its national animal?
Kangaroo and Emu aplenty.

The Occupy Sydney area is a very quaint group of about 10 people, and the clean, well-spoken, friendly leader invited me back to have Christmas Day lunch with them. Apparently the social safety net is quite strong here and unemployed citizens can get $240 a week indefinitely as long as they demonstrate they are looking for work in earnest. I'm not sure what they were protesting actually. Too bad we won't have time to come back for that lunch offer.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Walking around the Darlinghurst neighborhood, we stopped by Dr. Schwartz Brewery Hotel to sample their half pints. The Schwarzbier is a disappointment - (tastes as if Gordon Biersch's Schwarzbier has turned) but the Hefeweizen is a little nutty with a hint of citrus and a bouquet of wildflowers. Yum! For those wondering, the older bars and brewpubs in Sydney are called Hotels, although few if any of them seem to have lodging space. I guess it's a holdover from an earlier era - such as in Inn or Lodge.

Liberal is a very relative term

Our next destination was the Bourke Street Bakery in Potts Point suburb (neighborhood), which Olga found on David Lebovitz's blog. We shared a dark chocolate raspberry marshmallow tart outside the shop and enjoyed all the fine weather Sydney has to offer - mostly sunny in the 70s-80s with high humidity and scattered daily rains lasting about an hour. The tart (and most food we've tried) was noticeably less sweet and buttery than its American counterparts. The same cannot be said of the people ;)

My goodness!

Our friend John called and invited us over for Christmas dinner "meat on the barbie" with his family. John and his daughter Katie gave us another driving tour around the city - it felt like pure pride in their city mixed with a love of driving. Along with Jackie and Sam, they treated us to an Australian feast of beef steaks, lamb and kangaroo sausage, greek salad, and I followed it up with Lady Grey tea (a blend of English Breakfast and Early Grey), Christmas cake (a yummy spiced fruit cake) with custard (brandy egg nog as a sauce on the plate), and some gingerbread wafers. So delightful! The Kangaroo sausage is a little gamey and spicy - I would say it's peppery, crumbly, and a bit like chopped liver - except that it hopped from the barbie to the plate!

Barbie time

Australians don't make such a big deal about marriage as they do in the US. Couples (regardless of gender/orientation) have full rights and tax status as a couple regardless of whether they are officially married. Funny story, John's family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for a few years - John and Jackie had to get married after having lived together for almost 30 years and having two kids - because otherwise the US wouldn't recognize John as a legal immigrant. The difference in attitudes between Australia and the US seem to be related to how/why the country was settled, with the US being settled by a Christian sect - and Australia being settled as a penal colony.

Dec 23 2011 - Australia is slightly less pale

2011-12-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

Olga and John at Bondi Beach

We flew out of SFO Wednesday evening, landing 14 hours later in Sydney on Friday morning. What happened to Thursday? They gave us one dinner and one breakfast. Why didn't I notice I was going hungry for an entire day? Maybe I slept through it.

Cutest recycling bins ever!

The first thing I needed to figure out is which direction the water swirls when you flush a toilet in Australia. So far we tried it on a couple of toilets and they all seem to flush straight down rather than swirling around first. Oh those tricky Australians trying to use their fancy toilet engineering to disprove to Coriolis effect

"It's stonefruit season...again!"

The Australian border patrol takes itself very seriously - after major infestations of flora, fauna, and rabbits over the past century or two, they have a quarantine system that rivals border patrol in any country we have been to. First they systematically wear you down with long meandering lines. Then when you are completely worn down and full from all the apples and oranges you brought and were told to destroy before entering the country, everyone is split into three groups based on some masterful profiling system: express exit, x-ray scan, or dog sniff. We had the cutest dog sniff our bags, and then when we lingered in customs a bit, he gave us another complementary sniff. Super cute!!

Roadside sign: "Stay left unless undertaking"

Vat of meatballs simmering in streetfood area on The Rocks

Our friend John picked us up at the airport and did a wonderful job showing us around Sydney by way of Bondi beach. Despite what Bill Bryson says in In a Sunburned Country

end of downtown, beginning
of botantical garden

Australians aren't all overly defensive or sensitive about their past as a penal colony. John proudly discusses his ancestors who were sent to Australia for a term of four years for forgery - after which they were given a farm. That farm is still in his family after the centuries. The wonderful Museum of Sydney - which had such a horrible review in our guidebook that we want just to check out the trainwreck - thoroughly discusses the currently-accepted view of history, which includes soldiers, criminal prisoners, and native Aborigines.

Look carefully, they are not coconuts
but Flying Foxes (Australian for Bats)

Our self-guided walking tour of Sydney brought us past Pancakes on The Rocks, which was recommended by a friend. My stomach said it was a bit early for their famous dessert pancakes, but I did enjoy a lunch of their buttermilk pancakes with hash browns and "turned over" eggs. As we were sitting down, Olga observed it was the most boring American thing to have at the most boring American-style restaurant. But how would we know Australians aren't obsessed with pancakes? As far as I know, it IS the most authentic food one can have in Australia! Anyway it was in an interesting area of the city (The Rocks) that was condemned and then razed in 1900 because of the Bubonic plague! COOL!

Epic happy hour scene next to the Opera House

After the museum and the botanical gardens, we ended up at Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. It's a fun place, but they were all of their Nelson's Blood Porter. We tried their Three Sheets Australian Pale Ale. What makes it an Australian Pale Ale? I couldn't find an official answer, so want to say it's "slightly less pale"!

Dinner at the Australian Hotel (no,
we didn't try their Kangaroo pizza!)

After a walk all around the city, and two failed attempts at finding a nice seafood place that didn't have a 2+ hour wait, we ended up having dinner right down the street from our lunch destination at The Australian Hotel on The Rocks. We gladly shared a communal table and conversation with a group of 4 slightly toasted Australian gentlemen who were discussing work, hunting, and genealogy - diverse interesting characters!

Midsummer nightmare (not really) - Stockholm June 24 2011

2011-06-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

Looks like a mob - on the outside is
people on bleachers - inside a group is
dancing around the Maypole

We received a list of Midsummer events from the TI this morning on a scale of completely touristy to traditional to wildly alternative hosted by "Miss Inga" (Martin Johansson) - we went somewhere down the middle. The events at Vitabergsparken were super cute, from the town aldermen raising the maypole (which was almost certainly made by the town women) to the music (an oompah band with Swedish singing - we haven't heard much Swedish this trip as everyone seems to try English first) to the ring-around-the-rosey type dance with hand motions of playing violins, laughing, and clapping. We're not sure exactly what was going on, but it was adorable.

Celebrating Midsummer with
jordbærret (local Swedish stawberries)

It's interesting to be celebrating an overtly Pagan holiday. Kids make garlands (crowns of flowers) and everybody eats fresh local strawberries. A lot of the Judo-Christian traditions follow along Pagan lines, but going to a nationalized overly Pagan ritual is amusing.

Went to Vapiano for lunch. It's described as a pizza/pasta/salad bar where you can add your own toppings and make whatever you want. You carry around a sort of library card and check out when you leave. The problem was - I selected a fairly plain pizza and tried to ask to add a few toppings - plus Olga and I were planning to share one pizza so we were finding out what toppings they have, negotiating with each other, and trying to get the chef to sprinkle it onto the pizza on the spot. It was really complicated! Olga sat down and I surprised her with what I could figure out for pizza toppings and salad ingredients. It all turned out well, although quite stressful.

Stockholm's Karlaplan metro station

The restroom at Vapiano is confusing as well. There is a common area shared by men and women for washing hands, and there are two doors that are marked for women. There is also a urinal area a corner and a couple of unmarked doors - presumably for men. An older woman wandered into one of the unlabeled doors and then through the urinal area - I didn't mind but she seemed embarassed. Later I saw her again while washing up. Using rusty English as a second or third language, she clearly said "I didn't see it". Does it refer to the signage? Or something specific she didn't see while in the urinal area? We'll never know!

The monstrosity Vasa

Headed over to Djurgården island for a visit to the Vasa museum. The museum is dedicated to one thing: the fully-preserved gigantic Swedish warship from the early 17th century they recovered in the 1960s. They have countless period accoutrement, a handful of skeletons, and several sails recovered from the ship - and a number of films depicting the recovery and preservation. It's really overwhelming as you walk around it - very close in dimensions to a Boeing 747. It's ornately decorated and have they recently have performed in-depth tests to determine which colors of paint were used - now they have detailed models showing what it looked like originally, colors and all.

Belgian ales in Stockholm

As Midsummer Eve was rapidly approaching, and everything on our contingency list turned out to be closed, we started walking different corners of the city trying to find an open restaurant. We'd walk a hotspot area, hop on the tram with our all-day-unlimited transit pass, walk around another restaurant we'd read about, hop on the subway, repeat. Eventually tried the touristy area of Gamla Stan because, hey, a tourist's gotta eat, right? We consider ourselves travelers rather than tourists, but we were getting desperate. Walked around in circles a couple of times until we found Hermitage vegetarian buffet. It's a perfect place for our last dinner because (1) it's open (2) it's inexpensive (3) it's heathy, tasty, and bottomless. It’s a family-run place, self-proclaimed “30-80% organic” – smorgasbord of lentil soup, barley salad, homemade hummus, a well-loaded potato salad.

Capped off the night at Belgobaren (Belgian bar). I ordered the Helcule Stout, which claims it is the only Belgian Stout. Although they have no competition, it's a really smooth stout, dark brown in color, with a very smokey aftertaste. I made the mistake of ordering Westmalle Dubbel for Olga, which she claims is reminiscent of sawdust and horse pee. Perhaps not the best way to end the trip.

Return to Sweden - June 23 2011

2011-06-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

Can you identify all of the
ice cream flavors?

It's so comforting to be back in Sweden - we already know how to read all of the signs and ice cream flavors - yet Stockholm feels so much deeper and wider - a true imperial city. Last night we walked for an hour after dinner and barely touched the surface of Norrmalm (downtown), Gamla Stan (old town), Södermalm (south town)

Our new friend Florian

Met for coffee with a friend of a friend (now a friend proper). He told us about some of the "alternative" Midsummer celebrations we can attend tomorrow, including one that has replaced dancing around a maypole phallus with dancing through a female c**t (his description, not mine). Then he gave us a Gay Map of the city, presumably printed for pride weekend. It should be fun visiting sights recommended by this map!

Metro station art

Took the free guided Stockholm metro art tour. There are 100 metro stations in Stockholm, 91 with art installations. We visited about 6. The art ranges from tiny subtle tiles to rainbows across archways to an exhibit on Carl Linnaeus Swedish father of Latin species nomenclature. I've seen really amazing photos of some Stockholm metro stations - in time I hope to return to visit more of them.

See-sawing at Kulturhuset

Stayed on the metro and popped over to Kulturhuset (culture house), which is a 7-story center of art galleries, cafes, small theatres, and a handful of kitsch shops. There was an exhibit on the Swedish artist and author Stig Claesson, I loved the 1960s video where they showed him painting, and you can look at the finished pieces there on the wall while watching him make them.

Dinner at Mest

On the way out, they wouldn't let us use the toilet - you have to use a Scandinavian cell phone to send an SMS/txt message to the toilet - you are charged 5 Kroners and the gates opens. Thankfully there's also a free toilet 6 floors up :)

Restroom with paid entry via cell

Walked around the city some more - it's a bit overwhelming because there are so many things to see and do. Ended the night at Mest bar & Restaurang in Södermalm. They make the most wonderful salmon dish cooked and served on oak planks - of course smothered in mashed potatoes.

Trying to steal the Nobel prize

The famous Edvard Grieg - June 22 2011

2011-06-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Breakfast sandwich,
Norwegian style

After authentic Norwegian open-face sandwiches for breakfast, we took the tram to Troldhaugen (troll hill), the summer villa of the famous 19th century Norwegian composer. It's a 20-minute ride and then a lovely 20-minute walk through the countryside (ok, suburbs) to his residence.

Olga repeatedly jumping to
distract Grieg at his writing
desk (click to view full size)

I'd never heard of Grieg before, but Olga says he's up there with the other Classical composers of his time, so I suppose he's particularly famous in Russia. In fact, the place was crawling with Russians, the likes of which we haven't seen so far on this trip. We caught a brief lunchtime performance, and I didn't recognize any of the pieces, other than the one Olga has been humming and a snippet I overheard in the gift shop.

Picnicing on Wasa freebies
at Troldhaugen

For the second time in a week, we had an afternoon snack courtesy of Wasa (the Scandinavian cracker company). They seem to be giving away their fruit cup + cereal snacks in tourist hotspots all over Norway and we're often in the right place at the right time.

Grieg mini concert

We've been hearing about the special brown Norwegian goat cheese, and today was our last chance to try it. I've never met a goat cheese I liked outside of Greece, but Olga was determined. We found a kiosk proudly selling the stuff in the fisherman's market, so I'd have something (different) to eat too. The young man selling it seemed surprised to prepare it for us. "Goat cheese? The brown stuff?" "Yeah..." "Oh wow, great!!!" He very excitedly donned what looked like gardening gloves and went to work sawing off a chunk for us (Scandinavians are famously leery of stinky cheeses). We found a place selling good rolls, and a sandwich was made! I had my crab/shrimp sandwich, Olga had her goat cheese sandwich.

The brown goat cheese!

I tried a bite, and the cheese seemed perfectly inoffensive. Afterwards, I saw Olga throw away the knife with which she cut the cheese, while a big chunk still remained. "Don't you want anymore?" Olga shrugged. "But why? You finished the sandwich." "Well, I added A LOT of mustard."

Bergen's cute but overwhelmed
airport (elevator dressed up
like British phone booth)

Uneventful flight from Bergen to Stockholm. Picked up the bag Olga had left in Stockholm - which seemed like a great idea at the time - but this past week she has had a very small variety of things to wear (one long sleeve shirt, sandals, no other shoes). It's hard to predict the weather for all of Scandinavia and narrow it down to just a couple of outfits.

Multinational dinner

Went to take a walk and grab a small bite. Almost every restaurant's kitchen was closed at 10:15pm, including one who seated us, gave us full dinner menus, then came back to take our order and were surprised we were ordering food. Ended up eating at Pickwick Restaurang. Olga noticed that were are American- and Russian-born travelers sitting in a British pub in Stockholm drinking German hefeweizen and eating traditional Swedish cuisine being served by a waitress from Gdansk Poland.

Exploring Bergen and Bryggen - June 21 2011

2011-06-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

The eagle's claw

This morning we were powerless. The intensity of the 5+ leg 14-hour fjord tour plus the sun and fresh air - this is where 'fresh' is defined - knocked us out. The only thing that got us out of bed at 9am was the singular notion that there are so many things to see and experience in Bergen - more even than Oslo - and we have only a day and a half remaining.

Pinup girl in the old
sleeping cabinet - Olga
providing the missing limbs

We kept forgetting to bring things and dropping jackets, bags, hats due to lack of mental and physical strength. After we managed to coast through a lovely breakfast where we shared an open-face jamón serrano sandwich and a vanilla cream Danish with coffees, we took the walking tour of old-town Bryggen.

Old Bryggen buildings falling
down quite spectacularly

Our hotel considers itself 'basic' because it doesn't have daily housekeeping, a phone in the room for a wake-up call, or a place to check luggage on your last day. What it does have - large space with fancy and useful new furniture, funny inspirational quotes on the walls, heated bathroom floor - more than makes up for it. Especially the heated bathroom floor.

You can't see, but there is a 10+ foot
drop immediately behind me to
the park below

On the Bryggen tour, we learned that the Hanseatic period assembly hall kitchen floors would get so hot, the young apprentices would wear Dutch-like wooden shoes as to not burn their feet. I have experienced my first and second heated floors on the same day. It must get REALLY cold here in the winter.

Why do they always come here?
I guess we'll never know
(cute toy store in Bergen)

The tour of old Bryggen was like a European Williamsburg, complete with the tiny cabinets the apprentices slept in (tops-to-tails, sitting upright) and the eagle-claw-laden rope the housemaster used to ring for help. Our tourguide had just returned to Bergen (and tourguiding) this week - as well as our bartender in Flåm). As the summer kicks into high gear, we see concerts series' starting a day or two after we leave, but we're happy to be able to catch both the Solstice in Norway and Midsummer in Sweden.

Ordering fish ball soup and
four kinds of fish cakes!

Tired of having museums close on us at 4 or 5pm, we went to the leprosy museum at 3pm, thinking we were plenty early.

What? foiled again!

The museum closure afforded us a little downtime, which meant some postcard and journal time for Olga and a nap and catch-up blogging time for me. We started at the hotel and then found ourselves attracted to the Chillout Travel Centre.

Cool free high-wire (actually low-
wire) in a park in Bergen

I am quite smitten with Chillout. They have everything a traveler might want: overstuffed couches, fancy coffees, an amazing chocolate-chili-fudge flourless cake, all kinds of gadgets from electrical adapters to sporks to TSA-friendly breathstrip-style laundry detergent sheets, gear including various sizes of backpacks and moisture-wicking shirts, and a very diverse collection of travel books for sale - oh and free wifi. Love this place.

Chillout Travel Centre

Up the funicular we went around 8:30pm, what would've been sunset had it not been solstice. But the solstice sunset - where the sun just hangs there reflecting off the harbor - is the most beautiful. The top of the mountain, 3 short minutes up from downtown Bergen, is like another world. The forest is cool but humid, still damp from the light rain yesterday.

FUNicular!

People are mountain biking, hiking, and eating ice cream. Starting our hike, a couple asked which was the direction back to the funicular. It seemed a strange question, obviously it's back downhill. Then a half an hour later, we found ourselves nearly lost as we wandered off-trail through the streams and mosses high above the city. The strange couple we had met earlier could've easily been an older version of ourselves trapped in a time loop.

View of Bergen from the
top of the mountain (8:30pm)

Dinner at Pygmalion cafe. The patrons (almost entirely female) seemed to be fanatical about the restaurant, the folk singer playing, and each other. The singer's accompanist reading the palm of a beautiful young lady. The older patron gushing over the dreadlocked possibly Haitian restaurateur. Perhaps they are all a bit tipsy. Ok, they were quite drunk.

Mountain nature hike
before heading back down
the mountain (9:00pm)

The food was excellent - all natural slash organic ingredients - we shared Norwegian smoked salmon, potato salad, roasted potatoes (they are fanatical about their potatoes), garlic bread, salad, and an open-face brie sandwich on spelt rye bread.

Dinner (10:00pm,
still light out)

Wandered into Garage bar - rock bands play the 6 nights a week - but Tuesdays are cheap wine nights. Wall to wall blonde cute college kids drinking their local Hansa beer and passing around 140 Kroner (very cheap) bottles of wine. Unsatisfied, and unable to find a good desserty cafe, we tried the 'if you can't beat em, join em' strategy and visited Vamoose bar(directly under our hotel) that we heard in overdrive last night.

Mad customers at the
Pygmalion restaurant (can you
spot the palm reading?)

Ended the solstice there with Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout (British) and an all Bruce Springstein montage in tribute to Clarence Clemons.

Pining for the fjords - June 20 2011

2011-06-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

Olga Kindling on the
Oslo-Ål train

What can I possibly say about the Norway in a Nutshell tour? It's a fun, tiring, breathtaking series of rides and views the likes of which I have never seen before. The fjords are so beyond compare, the only way I can describe them is that I was previously living in a 2-dimensional world and I just saw 3-D for the first time. Everybody should learn about the Norway in a Nutshell tour just to open their mind to the idea that something like this exists. It cost us each $200 end-to-end, which includes a train from Oslo to Myrdal, the scenic rail down the mountainside Flåm (including a stop at a Niagara-quality waterfall and tongue-in-cheek tempting siren show), a 2-hour cruise through the Sognefjord to Gudvangen, a bus ride to the closest train station in Voss (didn't have a chance to taste the water), and then we rejoined the train continuing to Bergen. What a unique, well-planned, thoughtful, well-coordinated daytrip!

Trying a Norwegian snack on
Ål-Flåm bus - consistency
of a dishrag with sugar,
butter, and cinnamon

The beauty of the fjords can't possibly be captured in photography (though many have tried), so here are some photos of the beauty of Olga overwhelmed by the majesty of the fjords.

Napping on the Ål-Flåm bus

The weather kept changing from sunshine with rain - to cloudy rain - to sunny - to dry cloudy. Olga kept promising rainbows, but sadly none arrived on demand. Sometimes it would drizzle and we'd try to figure out if it was coming from the sky or mist from the waves or the cascades of snowmelt from a height of 1200-1500 meters.

Reading maps on the
Myrdal-Flåm scenic railway

After arriving in Flåm via scenic train through an incline of 55 degrees, we treated ourselves to the Ægir Bryggeri (brewery). I had the porter, which has the consistency of chocolate milk with an airy cappuccino foam - delicious!! Olga's Wit (wheat) was a thicker version of Blue Moon with a noticeable built-in orange flavor. Please feel free to submit comments with your impressions of Olga's Wit.

Waterfall stopover on the
scenic railway - trying to
not be lured by the sirens!

Our path kept weaving through that of several other curious travelers. There's the family of four that seemed to be in dire straits in the morning, the father and two teenage boys sitting on one side of the traincar, the mother sitting on the opposite side and throwing only occasional sidelong glances at them, us never knowing for sure whether they were together until somebody mentioned being from Maryland, and both the father and the distant mother both replied "yeah huh" at the same time. They seemed to get along later in the day, but it was still eerie: every time we saw just the 3 guys, we wondered if something had 'happened' to the mother on the fjord cruise.

Ægir bryggeri in Flåm

There's the professor, living in Maryland, originally from Belgium, who had studied at Stanford and taught linguistics at a college in Pittsburgh. He's on sabbatical, with some time to kill, so he headed straight to Bergen, with plans to do a more in-depth visit to the fjords, while we did our one-day overview tour.

Munching on carrots during
the Flåm-Gudvagen fjord cruise

There are the 3 ladies from Colorado - two perhaps in their late 40s - and their mother - who were continually victims of circumstance. There was a change in the train schedule, which mostly affected only them as they tried to do a roundtrip in one day. First they were told there wouldn't be time to take the scenic railway and/or the fjord cruise, then they considered following us to Bergen but realized their luggage was still in their hotel room in Oslo, then they panicked realizing their rental car was abandoned in a 1-day parking spot in Oslo, and so on. The last we saw of them was in Bergen at 8:30pm, they were going to get a bite to eat and then take a train-bus-train combination back, returning to Oslo at 6:30am.

On the fjord cruise - knocked
out by the carrots

Then there was the Jewish couple from Lexington Massachusetts, daughter studying abroad in Europe, reuniting for this Norwegian trip.

Kindling on the
Gudvagen-Voss bus

It's like character development for a really bad movie. Our paths crossed a bit with a large Thai family, a few French people, some ~~Italian~~Spanish students, a family of four from Australia, but for the most part we seemed to be on a trajectory with other Americans.

Hot dogs and french fries on
the Voss-Bergen train

In Bergen, we found Dickens Kontoret (office), a Victorian-style hidden-away room tucked inside a major downtown restaurant. Contents: movers, shakers, wheelers, dealers, one Dave, and one Olga. Dark wood tables, vintage red leather upholstery with French brass tacks. You can almost smell the pipe smoke lingering from centuries prior. Business travelers from branches all over the world, coming for orientation at the head office, tentatively making their attempt at smalltalk, receiving tips on how to compromise, how to say hello in Norwegian, how to drink...

We made it to Bergen!!

Olga ordered the Ægir IPA (from the brewery we visited this afternoon in Flåm) - she says there's an openness to it, what one imagines chamomile pollen would taste like. I had the Nøgne Ø Porter, from Oslo suburb Grimstad, which proudly lists Grimstadvoss (water) as its first ingredient. My impression is of blackberry pie without the blackberries - and an aftertaste of shoepolish. I think that's what every porter strives to be - nice job Nøgne Ø.

Oslo to the rescue - June 19 2011

2011-06-19T23:44:00.000-07:00

In Vigeland's park in Oslo

We've had a terribly difficult time paying for purchases on this trip. In Denmark, it was almost impossible to pay using a credit card because I don't know nor have I ever used a PIN number. Why would I even have a PIN on a non-debit credit card?

The very few places that would take our cards would grumble and take it to the back office and work some magic before coming back and grumbling some more and giving me a few pages of documents to sign, and then kindly letting us know there will be a 1.25% - 3.75% surcharge. The Denmark's DSB rail took AMEX, thank goodness, which we used to travel around the country. The ATMs weren't much better: every time we faced a new ATM (which was often as our credit cards weren't seeing much action) we had to try every card we had before finding one that worked.

Vigeland's Daleks exterminate -
with monolith in the background

Sunday, our first night in Copenhagen, I spent an hour on the phone with the bank. I kept escalating up higher and higher through senior call center personnel. I'd be speaking with a new rep, they seemed to understand, they'd give a crazy theory or workaround idea, then they would demonstrate they were completely confused. "You're trying to make a cash advance?" "NO I'm just trying to make any purchase at any store!" They promised to send me a PIN number in the mail - and at the same time sent me off with this advice from his manager: I can go into any bank that takes Visa and change the PIN number there.
Monday all banks in Denmark were closed for the Pentecost holiday.
Tuesday all banks we went to were closed for no obvious reason.
Wednesday I went into a bank and was told I can't change my PIN there unless I already know my PIN. That makes sense.

Adorable tiny car behind
normal really small car

Thursday we left for Sweden and had no further issues with the PIN number. When making a purchase, just tell them you don't have PIN and they hit the 'no PIN' button. We still had to shuffle through various ATM cards before we could get cash, but it was much less urgent.
Friday we rode the rails to Norway. It's a very 'no PIN, no problem' country. I noticed when I was paying for my two beers at the brewpub that the bartender instinctively reached for the credit card machine. No more talk of credit card processing fees and international transaction surcharges.
Saturday my shiny new PIN number arrived in the US. As an experiment, I bought ice cream at the opera house using my credit card, and when prompted for the PIN number, I purposely entered the wrong number. It went through!!! In the afternoon, I paid for a cup of coffee with cash and received a smile and thoughtful 'thank you' in return - the barista was pleasantly surprised. At dinner with our friends, I reached into my pocket for cash to cover our portion - and my friend laughed at me and acted as though he had never seen Norwegian currency before!

Is this normal? Does Oslo run
soap through the fountain pipes?

Sunday we were in the mood for a beer as we wrapped on the Oslo portion of our trip. In Norway, alcohol sales in stores are forbidden by the church/state on Sundays, so we popped into a friendly neighborhood bar complete with porch swings and a creative energetic DJ. I tried any wrong PIN (there are 9999 of them) and it didn't go through. Then I tried my new PIN and it worked!

Norway is all about the plastic - there's such a strong credit card culture here. Now we're trying to figure out what to do with all of these Norwegian Kroners ;)

Oslo by foot - June 18 2011

2011-06-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

Walk inside a bubble at Aker Brygge

Our first full day in Oslo, the plan for today was simple: explore a few preselected neighborhoods, visit a museum, and meet with local friends for dinner and drinks. That was the plan.

Is this the opera house or the new
Holmenkollen Ski Jump museum?
You can tell what Olga thinks

Oslo is so small and easily walkable, it felt like we looped the city a few times in our walks. From Aker Brygge (similar to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf), you can see the opera house. From the opera house, you can see the train station. From the train station, you can see the up-and-coming hipster area Gamlebyen. From Gamlebyen, you can see just about everything. Every time we walked to a new neighborhood, it felt like we still had a toe in an old one and were literally looking forward to the next one. Very small city.

Is this the hop-on or the hop-off?

The new opera house is built on a pier on the harbor - and architected in such a way that it gently slopes out of the water, coming out like an iceberg. You can scale the roof, but before you do, notice that they sell ice cream you can take up with you. You don't have to limit yourself to 1 or 2 flavors or even one or two scoops - they charge by weight and you can get 1 morsel of 1 flavor, a chunk of another, 1 scoop of a third, a taste of.... Once on the inside, notice the whole place is reminiscent of the Fortress of Solitude. Eating ice cream on the roof of the iceberg while scanning the cityscape... this is why we travel.

Eating ice cream on the roof
of the opera house

We were having so much fun exploring neighborhoods that we completely missed the Munch Museum. We got there, went down to the basement, checked in our bags (they have tight appearance-of-security measures since two people walked in and out with two of their most famous pieces), and by the time we got back to the security line, the museum had closed. Fear not, they have long hours on Sunday - and also a fine free Munch exhibit at the National Gallery in Oslo.

Jousting at the ruins near
a Renaissance festival

For dinner, we met with our friend Re-Shir-Dan and his friend Victoria for tapas. We walked into 3 different tapas places in the same neighborhood before we found one that promised a table in 30 minutes - the others quoted an hour and 90 minutes. Almost two hours into a 30 minute wait, we were guided to our table. There are a few things going on here. First, there's a massive shortage of restaurants, especially in a popular neighborhood like Grünerløkka. Second, groups seem to stay at their table for hours and hours. People who seemed to be almost finished when we arrived were even more almost finished two hours later when we were seated. That's so European.

More milk, less cocoa? WHY?!?

Earlier in the day, we saw a toddler walking, pacifier in mouth, 'football' in hand. It seems here you learn how to kick a ball before you stop using a pacifier. Love the European priorities! Speaking of priorities, sometime after dinner we started talking about how many weeks of vacation and holidays Norwegians get, how they don't have to think about Medical care, how they have short working days, etc. Ours friends asked why we live in the US and for a moment I couldn't remember why. There's a distinct "work to live" mentality here, a huge lifestyle difference. They have figured out what's important to them and made it a priority. The pendulum seems to have swung back to Europe being the place to live for a relaxed satisfied life with work sprinkled throughout.

At the botanical garden: Antennaria
Neglecta from N-Amerika

Oslo has a really interesting zoning system. Zone 1 is all commercial - this is where most bars and nightclubs are. They're allowed to play loud music and have outdoor seating until 3am because nobody lives anywhere nearby (except unwitting tourists). Zones 2-4 limit noise to low levels / indoors after midnight. Nice system!

RSD and Victoria at tapas

After the grand tour of his flat, and much debate, we headed to Eilifs Landhandleri bar near our hotel. The atmosphere had been described as Swedish white trash where everybody sings along with the songs, which are all pop hits from the 70s, 80s, and the current decade. Everyone is either in their 20s or their 50s. This sounds like a place I just had to see with my own eyes. I have to say the place is much tamer than I imagined. There's a good amount of singing, and cougars, and grinding on the dancefloor, and the cougars... but still it never got out of control. A great time was had by all.

Horsing around at Eilifs Landhandleri

Goteborg to Oslo - June 17 2011

2011-06-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

Nice view!

The skipper ducking for a low bridge

Last night we saw Goteborg (and its lack of brewpubs) by foot, today we wanted to see it by water. We took a 45-minute Padden Boat tour through the canal and harbor of Gotebord. Here you can see the history of the city including an original corner of the city wall - and actually kingdom wall dividing young Sweden from Denmark. It's also a journey through time to imagine a time not too long ago (about 30 years) when shipbuilding was the primary industry of the area - before the industry disappeared overnight and companies like Ericsson and Volvo stepped up.

Bagle chips larger than your hand

Other than getting jostled about and splashed with both rain and seawater, the most interesting and scariest part of the trip is passing under the bridges - the last of which barely clears the top of the seatback - you have to lean over as far as you can. I was barely able to capture a photo without hitting my hand on the bottom of the bridge. Scary fun!!

Entrance to the Stadtmuseum -
love the ornamentation!

The Stadtmuseum was the last thing we saw before departing Goteborg for Oslo. The highlight of the museum is a rare preserved original Viking ship - also they have a good exhibit on what we know about the Vikings - their trade, shipbuilding, fighting strategy, religion, hygiene... Then if you walk the wrong way out of the Viking exhibit, you can see a weird exhibit on the decline of technology from the 1970s to 1940s, although I suspect they wanted us to visit the technology exhibit first and then wonder into the Viking wing.

Although it's the second largest city in Sweden, Goteborg is missing from major guidebooks, has a useless TI, and none of the locals can tell you what to see or do during your time there. On the other hand, there's a fun boat tour, the only original Viking ship in Sweden, the largest streetcar network in Scandinavia, and a veritable Ikea showroom hotel. We came to Goteborg with low expectations, and we were not disappointed.

We left Sweden after just one day, but we'll be back next week! It was just a taste to whet our appetites!

Not Fried Chicken??

Took a bus (they were performing rail maintenance) and then a train to Oslo. After checking in, we quickly found our way to the excellent new brewpub Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri. It's about a mile from our hotel at the beginning of the Grünerløkka neighborhood. It's in the cellar the several-decades-abandoned Schous brewery, with its brick-covered arched ceilings and walls - like an old brick ratskeller. The Thunder Bear Stout is rich with hints of coffee, tobacco, and chocolate - but it's not thick and could easily double as a porter. The Garden of Eden, billed as "a spiced beer with smoked black dates, lime leaves, coriander, honey and ginger", is "like a burst of sunshine" as Olga says :)

Who's more tipsy: the photographer or the photographee?

Thunder Bear Stout and Garden of Eden

Farvel Denmark, Hej taste of Sweden - June 16 2011

2011-06-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

Someone swimming in a
glass pool on the roof
of a hotel in Goteborg

Denmark has a chainstore called Tiger that is basically Ikea without the home furnishings. $6 folding camp stools with built-in insulated cooler? check. Dried apples? check. Marionettes? check. Adorable pictures frames, check. cute pattern ice cube trays, cooking spice packets, adorable tote bags? check, check, check. Sadly we could only pick up a few of these things. I think I would come here often if we lived any closer.

Some sort of problem with the train track between Copenhagen and Goteborg. They kicked everyone off the train and made us wait for the next one. The next train was a much higher class, so it was a bit of an upgrade and we were only about 30 mins late as it's a faster, more comfortable, more direct train. Yay for unscheduled maintenance.

Ling et al

Our hotel is so neat. It's in a mixed-use building: the lower-front section is a car rental agency and garage, the middle is an office building, and the upper-rear floor is a converted b&b - basically they put up some thin walls and furnished the place in an standard Ikea furnishings from the beds and sheets down to the forks and plates. It's super efficient, as you can imagine. Scattered throughout the floor are clean toilets and showers, and an efficient continental breakfast buffet at the end. It's like sleeping in an Ikea showroom. And such a great price!

They really love their
Fibonacci sequence in
Scandinavia!

Enjoyed dinner at Fiskekrogen, perhaps the first Michelin-listed restaurant we have experienced. Some stand-out courses, such as lightly seared Ling (North Atlantic sea pike) with a baked apple chunk, a dried apple slice, and duck confit. The scallop and the chocolate courses were spectacular. Michelin, I got you on my radar!

Two adventures trying to find a brewpub in Goteborg. First I did a search for Bryggeriet, which is Swedish for Brewery. Found a restaurant with that exact name a few blocks from our hotel, so we stopped by after dinner. Very disappointed to see it's just a typical restaurant and bar. "Do you make your own beer?" "Excuse me, sir?" "Do you make beer here?" "No but we have a nice Pilsner from Prague today".

Back on Google and found a place called Brew House about a mile away. Had a lovely time exploring the streets of Goteborg, passing an area where young men played soccer, sometimes it seemed multiple games at the same time (some playing North-South while others played East-West -- on the same field!!) As we walked through the lanes of the Valhalla University campus, we started to wonder what kind of brewhouse it would be. Apparently it's a commercial center, housing mostly video production companies, perhaps named after somebody named Brew. No beer here at all :(

Gemytligt little neighborhoody pub in Goteborg

There's one more place called Vega Bryggeri AB and it seems to be located on the docks. Might be worth a try if we're prepared for disappointment.

Ended up at a small local happening pub where I tasted my first Swedish beer: Abro. There's not much to it - just like simple Scandinavia design. It's light, clean, refreshing, nothing unnecessary. Olga adds that it's very drinkable, just enough bitter to be refreshing. If you're looking for a beer that goes with everything, this is your choice. Let's say it's The Joker of Beers. Olga tried the Via del Campo rosé, which she says is fruity with a body to it. I would add that it's a surprisingly respectable balance between sweet and tart.

The so-called "Danish Situation" - June 15 2011

2011-06-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

Here lies H. C. Andersen

I can't visit Denmark without recalling the famous article in The Onion about the so-called "Danish Situation": http://www.theonion.com/articles/syria-attends-mideast-peace-talks-for-free-contine,2360/

After some surprises yesterday, and it being our last day to visit Copenhagen, we planned out our ideal itinerary of what we'd most like to see and do. The process was so methodical: the bike tour we had put off, drop by the Danish Design Center museum, two hours for Tivoli Gardens, an avant-garde performance in the evening completes the scene.

Mike, who encourages people
to Bike with him

Joined the tour at Bike with Mike. In fact, we were the tour as nobody else had shown up. Mike explained that most of his business comes on weekends, so we got a free upgrade to a personalized bike tour of Copenhagen. It's a good thing too, because by our last day, we had walked around and seen many of the sights on the standard tour. We started off biking over the bridge most cycled in the world every day - I noticed a counter that shows how many people had biked that day. In Copenhagen, when you look at the census stats, something funny stands out: there are more bikes than people!

A small corner of Christiana

Pedaled through the cemetery to pay our respects to children's story author Hans Christian Andersen and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Apparently Kierkegaard absolutely despised Anderson, the attention he got, and the pop rubbish he created. Hopefully they have resolved their differences during the 136 years they have been neighbors.

We biked through Christiana, which is most decidedly not on Mike's official tour. Guidebooks refer to Christiana an "eye-opening" "hippie enclave" of 700-1000 residents. It was formed when some free-thinking "squatters" moved into an abandoned military base with poisoned land in the middle of the city in 1971.

Very healthy lunch in Christiana commune

Copenhagen's system of medical care, retirement planning, and education are socialist programs. No matter their background or the financial means of their ancestors, all citizens of Denmark have the right to such things: long healthy life, the liberty to enjoy their golden years, and the pursuit of happiness in any field of study. As such, the hospitals, doctors, diagnostic labs, retirement planning, primary schools, and universities are government-run. Well-run. Yes, government can run something well. Kids growing up in a village in the furthest reaches of Denmark will be able to read Hamlet in the original language. It doesn't matter where they live or what income their parents pull in. This is how it is done properly.

Within Copenhagen, the Christiana compound is an example of communism. Nobody owns any of the property, people can work as much or as little as they want - in any field they choose, and income is redistributed "fairly" as decided unanimously by the residents. As a result, we saw people working in cafes and restaurants, a famous bicycle manufacturer named Christiana Bikes, and a lot of people relaxing in their shacks, doing as they please. Most people live in what would be considered "squalor."

Biking around Copenhagen

As a side note, even the compound itself isn't formally owned - the group is in long-term contention with the government about legal rights to live there. There is a proposal on the table for the group to purchase the buildings of the commune (not the land), and because the group doesn't believe in ownership, a non-profit foundation would be formed to manage this for them, if the group is able to agree unanimously to do so.

The place seemed rather tame to me, something like Harbin Retreat minus the hot springs and nudity. Here you could really see the difference between socialism and communism, which is something I have struggled to understand for 20+ years. It's a neat stopover, definitely recommended for anybody with a couple days in Copenhagen.

Sweet Treats

The city is home to Noma, reportedly the BEST restaurant in the world. We waited, and waited, and waited on the waitlist for several months, but nothing ever came of it. Thankfully, Mike is fully acquainted with the affiliated shops from the co-owners of Noma, so we had a slice of rye bread (with whole grains, pumpkin seeds, half-dried cranberries, and other fun local whole ingredients) from Meyers Bageri - and a deliciously frothy and beautiful latte from Sweet Treat with European-style macaroons and chocolate-and-peanut-butter-covered nougat. If we can't dine at Noma, at least we can get a yummy taste :)

If Danes designed cars

We kept our bikes for a few hours after the tour and cycled over to the Danish Museum of Design. Our first experience was the bathroom, of which 3 out of 4 devices were not working properly (faucet, soap dispenser, and towel dispenser) - also my museum entrance pin fell off and disappeared immediately never to be seen again. I love the Scandinavian design aesthetic, really I do. Simplicity. Straight lines. Raw wood and brushed metal. Ikea. But looking through the exhibits - and the experience in the bathroom - leads me to call for a focus on function. Do you hear me, Apple? I wonder what that museum would look like.

How did Yogi get up there?

Returned our bikes and walked to Tivoli Gardens, complementary passes in hand, for a second attempt at having a good time. We caught a pantomime show starring Olga's favorite characters Pierrot, Columbine, Harlequin - and a random overstuffed bear! The mine ride was adorable (Olga wasn't too scared riding it) and the Rutsjebanen I rode myself - one of the oldest still-running roller coasters in the world at 97 years. Major success! Everyone advises going at night when the "kid stuff" ends, but I say the afternoon is best - the kids stuff is most of the fun, and the place closes hella early too.

Fibonaci Project, take a bow

Capped off our visit to Denmark with a performance of the traveling show called the Fibonacci Project. It's based on the Fibonacci numeric sequence, which is the basis of life itself. The show is part modern dance, part rap, part hard rock, part Laurie Anderson, part Cirque du Soleil, with a dose of Discovery Channel as the framework. Must see next time they're in your neck of the woods!

There's nothing like a Dane - June 14 2011

2011-06-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

Fun waiter in Herning - he's from Norway

Woke up in Herning, checked out of the hotel, popped into the cafeteria for smorgasbord, and saw a table full of Pink Floyd fans seated exactly as we had left them last night. I wonder how long they dragged out the unlimited hot dogs. It's actually a good deal for the hotel because they charge relatively high prices for beer (relatively high for Denmark): 50 kroner = $10 USD ... and how much could a vat of hot dogs cost? We've been told to be en garde as the prices are even higher in Norway and Sweden!

Boys 'football' team
playing guitar on the train

We had such a flamboyant waiter at breakfast. First he insulted me for taking the tiny saucer with my coffee rather than the small saucer (the tiny one is for collecting empty teabags and such). He asked where we're from, I said California USA, he replied "oh no no no" and ran away! He seemed very disapproving, but then came back to explain the situation: he is so in awe of places like that, and so underwhelmed by places like Herning that he couldn't believe we'd willingly come here for vacation. In the ten minutes we had for eating before running to catch the bus, we discussed all manners of travel around Scandinavia, language differences, authors and writing, and he even managed to get in a jab about my using the wrong spoon with a hard boiled egg. The guy is such a character, meeting him was the highlight of the day! He gave us a pile of Danish chocolate candies for the train, which really came in handy!

The Copenhagen Post has a spouse employment page in their newspaper. Immigrants with visas and unemployed spouses are encouraged to post their CV. It seems the goal is to cut down on further immigration by focusing on talent already in the country. Forward thinking!

Adorable cafe "Duckling & Sonne" or
so we thought. We were turned away with
a smile because it's a video production
company - I bet that happens a lot

Tried to take a guided bike tour of the city, but the tour operator was having technical difficulties with his bike. Instead we squeezed in mini quick tours of the Jewish museum and Thorvaldsens sculpture museum. To me, the most interesting thing about the Jewish museum is the building itself. The building itself is a portion of the old Royal Library, on former castle grounds, which is now a sprawling complex of interestingly unrelated museums. The museum is laid out in the shape of the Jewish word מצוה, meaning good deed. There are two great videos with the history of Jews in Denmark, the various waves of immigration and the class system that created within the Jewish communities -- and another interview with the architect of the museum: Daniel Libeskind. Otherwise the rest of the museum is lackluster.

Tasty!! -- or is it? Look closer!

Thorvaldsens museum has many pieces he plundered from ancient Italy, Greece, and Egypt all in the name of restoration - it seems he would take an ancient piece that is crumbling, create a restored facsimile, and sell it to the country that hired him. I'm taking some liberties here, but that's what I inferred from the artifacts, signs, and videos in the museum.

Strolled through parts of the very walkable Stroget and Nyhavn riverside area. They were a bit disappointing in that they are soooo touristy. Quickly decided to walk a block off of that route, which is quite lovely, has much more local flavor in the buildings/people/shops, and is not overcrowded or overpriced.

hmmmm (or hwwww)

Went to Streckers Bryghus (brewhouse) for a drink and light dinner. Olga ordered the Amber Lager - she describes it as "rugged slash watery" - I would says it's more "sour slash rotten". I had the Hvede (pronounced "Vel") unfiltered and unpasteurized wheat beer - I taste definite hints of cloves and heaven - Olga says honey and apricot. We are both quite pleased with our selections :)

Ambient music in the bryghus is an eclectic mix of N*Sync, Culture Club, obscure Bowie, and pop hits from The Cure. The place is cavernous - the bryghus is upstairs and downstairs in one shop - next door they have downstairs too (upstairs is a burger king) - and next to that is there cocktail bar upstairs and disco downstairs - all connected by tunnels - very cool! The waiter highly recommended the Nørrebro brewpub - hopefully we'll have time to check it out!

Olga became a little girl in H.C. Andersen's
flying trunk ride at Tivoli Park

Tivoli Gardens - the world-renowned 168 year-old amusement park - was an epic disappointment. Our guide book, the professional tour guide we met earlier, and the confusing signs at the park (or so we thought) encouraged late arrival, so we dawdled and arrived at 9:20pm. It turns out the place closes at 10pm, so with 1-day admission ticket expended, unused ride tickets in hand, and heavy hearts, we headed to the service center to beg for mercy. The guy was exceptionally rude, which really stands out in a country of happy helpful service-oriented folks. We got free entrance tomorrow so we can use up our ride tickets, but not without being made to feel like lying incompetent fools. Not fun. Please have some mercy on innocent tourists.

Today we learned to avoid anything touristy in the rest of Scandinavia - we're delighted with sipping a cup of coffee (or, I guess, munching on a reindeer sandwich), chatting with locals, and people-watching - than we are following the crowds and their guidebooks.

Copenhagen and Herning - June 13 2011

2011-06-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

Floor seats

Everything we tried to do in Copenhagen this morning was closed due to the Pentecost Monday holiday: Stroget pedestrian street, museums, general sightseeing and peoplewatching... Not defeated, we switched gears and boarded the train to start our day trip to Herning.

We got train seats for a moment
and were immediately overrun
by a parade of German bikers

The train was overbooked, so we sat on floor most of the way. So many people we have encountered in Denmark - even government workers - are so happy to be doing their jobs. One conductor made a little sing-song tune as he punched peoples' tickets.

Train coffee comes with a free
gold chocolate treat, a fellow
traveler had left hers behind!

When we checked into the hotel in Herning, we learned of a package for people attending the Roger Waters concert: 400 crowns per person for smorgasbord dinner, bottomless wine/beer before the show, nonstop Pink Floyd background music, transportation to/from the show, and hot dogs after the show.

Sadly...

We wandered around a bit to figure out alternative dinner and transportation arrangements, but it being a holiday, everything including the Bryggeriet brewpub is closed, so we gladly took the package.

The friendliest ticket scalpers
you'll ever meet

At the show, we met Mike (the friendly guy who had sold us our tickets) - he and his wife had bought a block of 4 on presale and they sat directly next to us (I think they gave us the better seats!). They recognized us before we even sat down because he had found this travel blog and was following our adventures.

Roger performing a duet with his younger self

The show was amazing, as always. If you ever have the opportunity to see Roger Waters The Wall Live, by all means, take it!!

Evil flying pig

On the way out, there seemed to be about 30 charter buses in the parking lot - we wonder if other hotels or groups have similar concert/dinner/hotel/transportation packages. Back at the hotel, munching on our unlimited free hot dogs, one of the best parts of the show was bonding with the fellow concertgoers, learning their stories.

Hot dogs for all!

Everyone we talked to was from Denmark, primarily Northern Jutland (the western peninsula Herning is in) - about a 2-hour drive. One American/British couple, living in Copenhagen for 15 years took the train over - they probably traveled the furthest distance of everybody we walked with.

Looks like somebody was making a
sign and lost their mind halfway through

Everybody was super easygoing, glad to talk to anybody at long as they had a fresh Carlsberg in their pilsner glass. Almost without exception, everybody took a hot dog or three. Middle-aged men and women, dressed up in eveningwear, with a Carlsberg in one hand and a hot dog in the other.