Travel Blissful

Recent Reads: Space Center Houston, Asian Street Stalls, and Thoughts on Bangkok

Erica Johansson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:33 +0000

Lola Akinmade shares her favorite shots from the Space Center in Houston.

Carrie Kellenberger gets inked at the Needle No 8 Tattoo Studio in Taiwan.

Joel Carillet reflects on what fortune-tellers cannot predict.

Darren Cronian thinks UK isn’t too hot for Wi-Fi hotspots.

Taylor Davidson tells us what he loves about street stall eateries in Asia.

And Matthew Kepnes now considers Bangkok home.

Living the Hawaiian Way

Erica Johansson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:43 +0000

Yesterday I came across someone’s thoughts on living the Hawaiian way and wanted to share them with you.

“Living the Hawaiian Way”

Never judge a day by the weather.
The best things in life aren’t things.
Tell the truth — there’s less to remember.
Talk softly and wear a loud shirt.
You can get rich by making more or desiring less.
The beauty of nature is rejuvenating.
Beauty is internal – looks mean nothing.
When confronted with humidity, forget neat hair-dos and makeup.
Without rain, there are no rainbows.

Clearly worth repeating.

A Suitcase of (Some of) My Favourite Books

Erica Johansson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:59:43 +0000

Inspired by Jen Laceda’s A Suitcase of my Favourite Books I decided to make my own. Obviously, Jen can take all the credit for the title to this post.

Lisa Jewell’s A Friend of the Family and Almost French by Sarah Turnbull.

Coast to Coast: Vintage Travel in North America

Grekland: Handbok för ö-älskare (Greece handbook for island lovers) and Thailands öar och stränder (Thailand’s islands and beaches).

Handmade Nature Cosmetics.

Because without these two books, I wouldn’t know how to drive properly.

Vegetariskt? Ja! (Vegetarian? Yes!)

Veggie Book

Mr & Mrs Smith’s UK/Ireland Vol. 1 and French Dictionary.

Aroma therapi for all senses and Den Stora Vegetariska Kokboken (The Big Vegetarian Cookbook).

Galen i grönsaker (Crazy about vegetables).

Peace, Love and Food by Renée Voltaire

Helena Nyblom’s Supermat (Superfood).

Music That Makes Me Happy: Enjoy Ya Self

Erica Johansson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:15:36 +0000

Slakah the Beatchild – Enjoy Ya Self

Enjoy ya Self from Slakah the Beatchild’s critically acclaimed album Soul Movement Vol. 1.

Photo of the Week: Bangkok China Town

Erica Johansson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:00:37 +0000

Bangkok China Town © Rob Barham

Food market in Bangkok shot by Rob Barham.

Halmstad – Gothenburg

Erica Johansson — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:59:28 +0000

For now, I have no permanent address. In a way it feels as if I haven’t had that since the year I turned 19, when I graduated, and left Sweden for a summer job overseas. Once I returned, about two months and two weeks later, I stayed at my parents’ house three days before traveling to France. The next time I returned, I stayed around three weeks. From what I can remember, I often longed somewhere else and their house mostly acted as a temporary place to stay in between trips/jobs abroad.

Following My Intuition

Regardless of where I travelled, I always felt a deep sense of faith that I did the right thing. For example, when I first saw the brochure about working as a counsellor on summer camps in the U.S., I knew where I would spend my summer. When I read the online ad for an au-pair job in Grenoble, I had no doubts whether I wanted the position. During a few hours’ stopover in Zurich on my way from France to Austria in 2004, I knew I would eventually live there. When I learnt that a family in Zurich looked for a new nanny, that all made sense to me.

On a weekend trip from Zurich to London, I felt I would live in Notting Hill someday. Later the same year I arrived in London. As I stepped into the entrance of an apartment building near Notting Hill Gate, I knew I would call that place home before having seen the actual apartment. During my time in London, I knew I’d move to the Swedish city Malmö the same year. For some reason, I’ve had many of these intuitive experiences.

In 2008, when reading a travel article on Christmas markets in Gothenburg, I got a feeling that I would live there the following year. Since I only had my sights on London at the time, I ignored it. However, when I got an apartment here last month and my intuition told me to move, I remembered that feeling.

View from my window

Finding an Apartment

I’m happy that I got an apartment, even though the contract is temporary, because getting a place to stay in Sweden turned out somewhat of a challenge. Let me explain… During my impulsive, shopaholic months in London in 2005/2006, I sold almost all my stocks and shares (which had increased substantially in value since I got them) and ended up with more income tax that I could pay. As a result, I failed to pay my taxes in 2007, and I failed to pay them in 2008. Not a period of my life that makes me proud, although it’s nothing I feel ashamed of. Like the challenges I’ve faced lately, it only helped me learn and improve.

However, anyone who doesn’t pay a debt on time will have their case forwarded to the Swedish Enforcement Administration. Consequently I got a mark called Betalningsanmärkning (non-payment record). Even though I have now paid off that debt, the law says these marks should be registered and stored for three years. This makes it nearly impossible to get a first-hand contract or even rent an apartment since basically everyone wants tenants without non-payment records.

Besides this obstacle (which ruled out the majority of the ads) I discovered that the demand was way higher than the amount of available rooms and apartments.

Two Weeks in a Hotel

As you may know, I lived in Halmstad during July and in Linköping throughout August. Partly since I missed the sea, I returned to Halmstad in September and moved into my grandmother’s summer cottage. I left in mid October before it got too cold to live there. Although I used the heaters, the temperature easily dropped during the night because of the chilly weather. Plus, my grandma worried that the water would freeze.

Since I hadn’t found an apartment, I considered living temporarily in a hostel and searched online for cheap rooms in various Swedish cities. First I stayed one night at my cousins’ house in Halmstad. My grandmother said I could live with her for a few days. As much as I love my grandmother, I declined. As I’ve very well noticed, we go on each other’s nerves if we live together for more than… a day. Hence, I moved.

Living out of my suitcase

In the end, I was lucky to get a room at a two-star hotel in Halmstad at more than half price off — on condition that I paid for a week in advance and cleaned the room myself. No problem. As I — seven days later — still hadn’t found an apartment, I decided to stay another week. When you get a private hotel room with your own bathroom, desk, comfortable bed with incredibly soft linens, two large wardrobes, complimentary Wi-Fi, shared (female only) showers next door, and free breakfast buffet plus four different newspapers every morning, you can’t complain. And the close proximity to the beach certainly made the stay sweeter.

Halmstad - Gothenburg

During my last week at the hotel in Tylösand, Halmstad, my intuition told me to search for a place in Gothenburg. I replied to an ad for a single room at a fifty-something man’s place in the neighbourhood Haga (a 17-year-old girl rented the other room), and got a phone call the following day. Even though Gothenburg felt right, that apartment didn’t. Eventually I heard from a woman whose ad I had recently answered regarding a student apartment at Chalmers University of Technology.

Bedroom/Living Room

You do need to study at Chalmers to live here, but since my contract only lasts a month (until the new student moves in), they could make an exception. The student residence I live in (which apparently has Sweden’s most satisfied student tenants) is surrounded by the buildings for Technology Management and Economics, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Fundamental Physics, and Microtechnology and Nanoscience. The others include Applied Physics, Mathematical Sciences, Materials and Manifacturing Technology, Product and Production Development, Applied Mechanics, Energy and Environment, Radio and Space Science, Signals and Systems, Computer Science and Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering. Not exactly my scene, although I don’t think I’ve ever lived around so many smart people before.

And I’m glad that I found a centrally located place. You can walk to the nearest tram and bus stop in a minute, and Götaplatsen and the famous Avenyn in about seven minutes.

Nearly empty desk

After a week in Gothenburg I had settled in alright, filled the previously empty shelves with some of my stuff, rearranged the furniture, discovered new parts of the city, and… not looked forward to having to leave after a month. I also spent a bit of time at Chalmers; pretended to be a student, walked around the area, and hung out at the student union house on campus Johanneberg. As the largest student union house in Sweden, it’s a popular meeting point for all students. Apart from a café, restaurant, pub and club, it has a pool, sauna, cinema, book store, and open spaces with comfortable seatings perfect for studying/working.

Since I didn’t went to Uni (the idea of living three years in the same city never appealed to me), I took the chance to experience a little University life — minus the studying. When not working, I have mostly checked out Gothenburg, though. Basically the only parts I had seen of the city before moving in early November include Liseberg Amusement Park (countless times) and the shopping center Nordstan (once). Thus, I had a lot of new sights to take in.

View from the apartment

Plenty of Things to See

One evening when my sister and her boyfriend (who lives a ten minutes walk away) hung out at my apartment, they asked if I’d seen much of Gothenburg.

“Not that much… yet.”

“There’s not so much to see,” he said.

What!? I could barely believe what I’d heard. Gothenburg offers plenty of things to see and do for all ages, tastes and personalities. As for me, I couldn’t wait to visit Göteborg City Library (mostly to get a library card to rent free DVDs), and The Röhsska Museum of Fashion, Design and Decorative Arts (which currently holds exhibitions of Finland’s queen of fashion, Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi, Coco Chanel and Vivienne Westwood). I’d also love to see the Göteborg City Theatre, Göteborg Museum of Art, the Göteborg City Museum, the Göteborg Opera, Pustervik, Röda Sten, Nefertiti Jazz Club, and Casino Cosmopol (as I’ve never set my foot inside any casino before). I doubt I will have time for everything, though.

For various reasons, I have avoided shopping — apart from once as I needed a new, warmer pair of autumn/winter shoes (my old cotton ones were too cold). Last Friday, before purchasing my shoes, I had another one of those intuitive experiences. Since I didn’t want to spend 500-800 SEK on a new pair of shoes, I searched online for Gothenburg second hand shops and found a map with 20-30 places.

“In which of these shops can I find my shoes?” I asked myself. The answer appeared after a few minutes. In Myrorna at Järntorgsgatan. Content knowing that my shoes waited for me somewhere in that shop, I hopped on my (sister’s) bike and cycled west.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes

Fifteen minutes later I entered the shop, went to the highest floor, found the shelves with shoes and — after eyeing a pair of black, too worn out boots — I saw them. Right there, in the middle of the shelf. Camel colour, about 2,5 inch heels, size 37, only 100 SEK. If I had seen my name written on them, I wouldn’t have felt surprised.

Later, as I looked at that photo of the shoe shelf, I realized it can represent all of life’s choices. Everyday, from morning till night, I’m faced with numerous options and decisions. But when something feels right, I know it. No doubts whatsoever. Moving to Gothenburg was one of those choices.

View from the apartment at night

How to Build a Travel Blog

Erica Johansson — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:16:32 +0000

I recently received Matt Kepnes’ new ebook How to Build a Travel Blog. Everyone who ordered his last ebook How to Make Money With Your Travel Blog got this new one as a bonus.

The Basics

After being inundated with various questions from readers, Matt decided to answer them all in an ebook plus add his own knowledge of Wordpress and the web. If you have already set up your own Wordpress blog, you’ll probably be familiar with most of the topics covered in How to Build a Travel Blog.

However, if you’re a complete beginner when it comes to creating blogs, this ebook will help you save time with challenges such as getting a domain name and server, setting up Wordpress, installing plugins, selecting and installing a theme, and tweaking your Wordpress settings. It also includes a short section with good resources and CSS/PHP/HTML help. The ebook combines text with screenshots which prevents misunderstandings and makes it easy to get the picture.

Very affordable

If you buy How to Make Money With Your Travel Blog, you’ll get How to Build a Travel Blog for free. If you purchase it separately, it’ll cost you $4. Why only four dollars?

In the post How to Build Travel Blog, Matt explains:

I offer no secrets that can’t be found elsewhere on the internet. There are thousands of websites that can help you create a Wordpress blog. This book is just meant to bring it all together to cut down your learning curve.

The four dollars is simply you saying “Matt, thanks for all the hard work. Have a beer.”

One more thing, do head over to Travel Blog Advice and read Anil Polat’s review of How to Build a Travel Blog.

Recent Reads: Chocolate Festival, NYC Skylines & The City of Brotherly Love

Erica Johansson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:01:22 +0000

Without further ado, the second part of the ‘Recent Reads’ series which highlight various great content in the blogosphere.

At everthenomad, Anja shares amazing photos of the New York City skyline.

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro reports from Gothenburg’s Chocolate Festival.

The folks over at the Smith Travel Blog discover cheese macaroons in Normandy.

Melissa of REVERIE shows us her new, utterly adorable business cards.

Felicia Shelton goes café spotting in Seoul, where she finds a new office.

Sandra reveals why spring time in Buenos Aires is so beautiful.

And Helen at Helen’s Travel Corner meets a local Philly artist who gives us an insider’s view of the City of Brotherly Love.

No Matter Where You Are, Refuse Boredom!

Erica Johansson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:55:43 +0000

Do you ever get bored when traveling, or when you’re at home? Except for during some classes in school, I can barely remember the last time I felt bored. If I’m not mistaken, it was in 2008 or earlier this year when I updated my Facebook status. (Hence, I haven’t updated my status since then.)

Someone recently told me, “People who easily get bored have high standards.” Partly true, but I believe that they also don’t make the most of the situation. Not getting bored is not a question of settling for anything. That’s not the case at all. I simply put the responsibility on myself to make sure I never feel bored — at least not for more than a few seconds. If I don’t enjoy something, I either do something/go somewhere else, or (if I am obliged to stay for whatever reason), I’ll make it fun.

Even if you’re stuck on a 7-hour train ride, a 25-hour bus ride, or a long flight, why give into boredom when you can have fun? It’s a mindset. Why don’t we just ditch the words “boring” and “bored” from our vocabulary and make the best of everything, no matter what?

To give you an example, not too long ago I saw a video on YouTube of a flight attendant who clearly didn’t want to work his shift. Yet, he chose to take matter in his own hands to cheer himself up and started rapping the airline safety precautions. The video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Tribune, but you can see a shorter version below.

Lesson learned: if you do something/are somewhere that makes you feel bored, change the activity/location or change your mindset.

Note: Video first seen at foXnoMad.

New York Beaches Worth A Day Trip From Manhattan

Erica Johansson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:14:10 +0000

If someone says ‘New York City’, the beach isn’t exactly the first thing that springs to mind. But you can get your share of beach fun on this stretch of the east coast.

On the visual travel guide and tour review site Ruba, I recently created a short guide titled ‘Best beaches in New York City, New York’. Ok, so I haven’t seen Long Beach or the Hamptons… yet, but these beaches do make for great day trips from Manhattan.

“If you don’t mind sharing the beach with kids, loud familes, improvised soccer games and portable CD players, you’ll probably like Coney Island as much as I did.”

To read the full guide, just click on the link below.

Best beaches in New York City, New York
Travel Guide By Erica Johansson

For other tips on things to do in NYC, do check out travel guides New York.

My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Erica Johansson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:13:07 +0000

Many thanks to Katie for tagging me in Tripbase Blog Tag, which aims to “unite travel bloggers in a joint endeavor – to create an amazing list of top travel recommendations, to share with the online travel community.”

Here’s what Katie writes in her best kept travel secrets post:

What’s interesting about travel is that the places / hotels / restaurants that everyone agrees are fantastic, are often not so fantastic.

And even if they are, it can all be a bit predictable.

Now what’s really fun is when you find somewhere obscure that is truly out of this world.

You can’t believe your luck to have stumbled across this travel gem.

Since I have lived in Sweden for the last two years and love to discover new foods wherever and whenever I travel, I want to share my best kept travel gems from my home country.

I bet you haven’t heard of these three places before:

1. Kniv å Gaffel, Linköping, Sweden

Along Drottninggatan, not too far from the city’s pedestrian shopping streets, I found an outstanding Greek restaurant. A sign on the wall said “All people consume food… but few know the art of eating!” In Kniv å Gaffel, chance is you’ll savour every bite.

3 reasons to eat at Kniv å Gaffel:

Super tasty food including a terrific selection of starters

Exceptionally welcoming, friendly staff

The comfy seating with satine pillows by the windows

2. Riccardos, Möllegård, Halmstad

How could I not have heard about this ice cream shop/café until recently? The owner Riccardo brought the Italian family recipes to Sweden and only uses the best products such as fresh pressed lemon, mango from Thailand and Piemonte hazelnuts.

3 reasons to visit Riccardos:

The most delicious homemade Italian ice cream

Large outdoor café

Beautiful surroundings near Möllegård Nature Reserve

3. Kaffe & Konst, Malmö

Kaffe & Konst, or Coffee & Art, is a music and art café that offers good coffee, innovative food, and about ten exhibitions a year. Everything from classical painting and illustrations to photography and graphical design.

3 reasons to drop by Kaffe & Konst:

Sandwiches and salads with rather unusual taste combinations

Their popular espresso

Music events and art exhibitions throughout the year

–

I nominate these 5 bloggers to share their top 3 travel secrets on their blog:

Monica Wong, A Pair of Panties & Boxers
Cheryl M. Cordeiro, Singapore – Sweden: Writings on Food, Fashion and Travel
Anil Polat, foXnoMad
Matthew Kepnes, Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site
Priyank Thatte, Final Transit

The final list of ‘Top Bloggers’ Best Kept Travel Secrets’ will be published in a special blog post at the Tripbase Blog.

Music That Makes Me Happy: Moving On

Erica Johansson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:50:01 +0000

Sarah Dawn Finer – Moving On

Studio version of the Swedish artist Sarah Dawn Finer’s “Moving On”.

Photo of the Week: Solitude

Erica Johansson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:44:59 +0000

A quiet moment by the Baltic Sea.

Preliminary Blog Post Schedule

Erica Johansson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:40:41 +0000

I feel there has been a lack of focus and structure on Travel Blissful lately. In an attempt to make the site more organized, I wrote a preliminary schedule with recurring topics/categories for each day of the week.

Preliminary Blog Post Schedule

Mondays – Photo(s) of the Week

Tuesdays – Music That Makes Me Happy

Wednesdays – Guest Posts (starting in December, until then mixed content or no posts)

Thursdays – Thoughts relating to travel

Fridays – Recent Reads/Blog Carnival

Saturdays – Reviews or Interviews

Sundays – Update of my whereabouts

Apart from these, I will consider posting various travel tips, travel stories from places visited, and a weekly movie and/or book pick. In the future I hope to add podcasts and vlogs (video blogs).

If there’s something else you’d like to see included, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Recent Reads: A Suitcase of Inspiring Books, Chicago Autumn Colours, and New Zealand Haunts

Erica Johansson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:17:06 +0000

Every Friday from now on I will highlight various blogs and blog posts I have recently read.

First up is Jen Laceda who shares a suitcase of her favorite books, all taken from her own shelf, at Folie à Deux.

Kari of peregrine by nature captures the beauty of autumn colours and makes me wish the colorful leaves will stay on the ground for another few months.

And Cate over at the Caffeinated Traveller revisits some of her favourite haunts and friends back home in New Zealand.

–

Happy Friday!