Jonas Larsson

The worlds most beautiful train ride

Jonas — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:29:48 +0000

At the moment I am riding what is supposed to be the most beautiful train ride in the world (according to Visitnorway.com and they are probably not the most objective viewer) but it is for sure beautiful. It’s not like any other train ride I have experienced so far! Great experience!

This is the train between Oslo and Bergen!

New York City – Second Time in a year

Jonas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:42:47 +0000

Last time I was in New York was in September and it was GREAT to be back. The place I was couchsurfing at with Pauline last time had moved to another part of Brooklyn, but a majority of the people and the same wonderful atmosphere still in place. The house is now in Williamsburg and it’s a very interesting flat which starts with a corridor for a couple of metres leading to the kitchen and two rooms. Then theres a spiral staircase down to the ground floor where the grand living room is. There was space enough for 15 couchsurfers but at the moment 11 where staying there. The US, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Butan, The UK and Japan was represented in the house during my stay. We had a great midsummer feast in the house. Bought a lot of stuff from IKEA and made a true Swedish midsummer dinner (there were three finnish girls from the Swedish speaking minority of Finland in the house).
We also went to a movie at the outdoor cinema in Bryantt Park. A great experience with over a 1000 people watching a movie in a park. What I found the most interesting though was the lightning system for the park. There was one HUGE light on top of one of the skyscrapers pointing down at the park and making it look like daylight even though it was almost midnight. I wonder how much power that light consumed… That’s the kind of things I like to have in my mind. : P
I was shopping around a lot for camping gear which has been one of my main interests lately, and I found great stuff. A western mountaineering caribou mf sleeping bag and a Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2. The sleeping bag weighs around 600 grams (1 pound 4 ounces) and the Tent (which is spacious enough for 2 people weighs exactly 1 kg (2 pounds). I have now got a complete home with tent, sleeping bag and air matress weighing 2 kilograms! That feels great!
I am longing to get back to the US and also to Canada. I want to go to so many places and see things and meet people. The people in North America are so talkative and that’s what I lvoe about it. I hope to get back next year and visit California, Colorado, Florida, New Orleans, New York, Toronto and Vancouver. That would be amazing. We will see how things turn out!

Car ride through New York State

Jonas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:34:36 +0000

My flight to Sweden was from not from Montreal but from New York City (or to be honest from New Jersey) so I was going to New York City for a couple of days before going home. I met some girls from New York State at the Ryla, so I decided to go with them and then take a bus from their home, instead of taking a bus from Montreal to New York City. I got to see some wonderful places of New York State and I really got to see the fact that New York is more than the city! We stayed at a place near Rachester and then went by the fingerlakes down through the state and stopped at a couple of winerys for wine tasting. 6 whines for $2 was a great experience! : )

I took the bus from Elmira to New York City and had a very pleasant time in the city of cities!

International RYLA and Rotary International Convention in Montreal 2010

Jonas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:22:48 +0000

I have been a very bad blogger lately. That’s mostly because the trips I have been to has been so packed with activities that I haven’t had a single moment to write about it. Now I will have to update the blog so my maps are correct, and doesn’t show that I’ve only been to Sweden and Norway.

So what have happened since I last wrote on the blog? I created a website together with a friend, to help people in the Volcano Ash Cloud Chaos. The website became extremely popular, retweeted and written about in newspapers all over the world. Since we met at an event organized by Rotary, we were invited to come to the convention of Rotary International in Montreal.

Montreal was great. Really a cultural city, bilingual mostly, but it was definitely good to know some french… The first three days we were at a pre-convention or conference called RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) where we together with 130 others from 32 different countries developed our abilities and global understanding. A great event, where I made SO many friends from all over the globe. There’s so many people I would like to visit that I could go on only doing that for years!

After the international RYLA it was the Rotary International Convention. A huge event with some 25000 rotarians gathering in the congress centres of montreal to get inspiration and energy for the coming year. There was so much going on in the city all the time, and the schedual was packed from 7 am to 9 pm. I would consider it one of the most interesting events I have ever attended. Some of the speakers of the convention were Greg Mortensen, author of Three Cups of Tea, Queen Noor of Jordan, Dolly Parton, off course RI president John Kenny. For the closing ceremony there were entertainment by one of my favourite singers Russel Watson, and the world famous Cirque de Solei, from Montreal.

Right now I am sitting on the train from Oslo back to Ullensvang and the Hardanger Fjord, and it turned out the girl besides me IS FROM Montreal, and lives in Sweden at the moment. She lived more or less at the same place as the preconvention was held (McGill Univesity) so I have shown pictures on my computer basicly from her block! It’s always a small world…
Stories of the small world we live in are always amusing. The last day at RYLA I was up very late and met the Caretaker of the university building we stayed in. When he got to know I was from Sweden he was happy because he had a very close friend from Sweden. They had been friends for over 30 years and always called each other for christmas every year. I asked where he was from and he was from Örebro – which is the place where I was born with around 100 000 inhabitants…

Back in Lindesberg

Jonas — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:43:39 +0000

I’ve gone back to my hometown to finish some things, and to get some more work to do during the summer! It actually feels good to be back! The first days after my return it felt awful, but after clearing out the office and putting everything to storage at my parents’ place I feel pretty entertained by spending some time here. I don’t have any place to clean, neither to pay for. The only monthly cost is the phone, mobile broadband and car which is A LOT less than what it’s been lately. Soon I won’t have these either which feels AWSOME!

A lot happened after I started this blog and went off to Norway to spend the summer there. I had already decided to return to clean the office and send off stuff that I sold on Ebay, but I hadn’t planned to be back for three weeks. I planned to be home for a week and then return to Norway. But it turned out that I’m going to Canada to visit the Rotary International Convention and the International RYLA (where I met Måns and a couple of years later we created VolcanoHelp.eu). Well I figured since I am only a couple of hours away from NYC I can as well go there for a couple of days, so after we’re done in Montreal i take the Greyhound Bus to New York. Awsome!

So at the moment – back in Lindesberg! Doing some work, and getting some more for the rest of the summer! It seems to be turning out very well!

So long!

Between Odda and Ullensvang

Jonas — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:05:02 +0000

I just wanted to share a video of the souroundings of Odda. I really do get the sound of music feeling out of it!

Can you get used to something this beautiful?

Jonas — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:15:37 +0000

The first thing crossing my mind when I came here to Odda, Norway was – how can a place possibly be that beautiful?! Well I have been to a lot of beautiful places before, but there are few of them competing with Odda in terms of unrealistic, sound-of-music-like, stunning beautiful.

When thinking about it a bit more it is easy to wonder WHEN you get used to something like this. Can you get used to something like this? I don’t know the answer to that question right now, but when I leave this place in four or five months from now I will write another post stating what I feel about this place. Who knows, maybe my opinions are unchanged and Odda is still to regard as the most beautiful place in the world or maybe I have gotten used to it and want to see something else!

Me between Odda and Ullensvang

Seagull against Statue

Jonas — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:56:45 +0000

In odda there is an old factory where they melted minerals, and it was closed in 2003. However there’s a statue reminding of those times on the main street and there’s a continuous “fight” between the statue and the seagulls hanging out on the statue.

Kakaa, I am the king of the statue!

Get off my friends head NOW! Or else...

Celebrating 17th of May in Odda and Ullensvang

Jonas — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:49:24 +0000

So the 17th of may is the national day of norway, as I am sure you do know! I have never before been in Norway to see the celebrations, so it was a nice day of arrival! There were two parades in Odda. One in the morning and one in the afternoon, and that seemed to be the case in most of the towns!

We watched the full parade in Ullensvang in the afternoon after “dozing off” for some four hours in the car… : )

Rödruss in Oslo

Jonas — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:30:28 +0000

When we stopped on the way to Odda, Where I am now, we encountered this interesting crowd. It turns out that in Norway all the students graduating throw a month long party which is called Rödruss.

What happens is we are sitting in our car drinking coffe, eating buns, and feeling more or less retired watching their party at the gas station. They
approach us and we open the window. Then two of the funnies convos comes up between Mattias and a Norweigan guy, called Norsk kille and later on a girl – Hanne.

Mattias: Ja, ja (Yes, Yes instead of Hi)
Norsk kille: Var är ni ifrån? (Where are you from?)
Mattias: Sverige (Sweden)
Norsk kille: Var i Sverige? (Where in Sweden?)
Mattias: Örebro
Norsk kille: Va?
Mattias: Örebro!
Norsk kille: Nej nej, jag är icke din bror (No, I am not your brother)
Hanne: (Gives us a couple of red business cards) Vi firar att det är Rödruss! (We are celebrating Red Rush)
Mattias: Jaha, men jag har inget kort till er… (Oh, but I don’t have a card for you…)
Jonas: Jag har! (I have cards, and hands out some)
Mattias: Varsågod! Vitruss! (Here you go, White rush!)
Very confused moment…

Well it wasn’t the party “business cards” that was rödruss, but the actual party. But we introduced Vitruss!

A movie of Rödruss:

And a picture of our friend from the above convo showing his grattitude for the Swedish snus:

Snuper Man