Common Sense and Whiskey

Arctic Travel Resources

Looking into possibilities for some Arctic travel this summer. Here's the early stages of an expanding reading list:

- Who Owns the Arctic?: Understanding Sovereignty Disputes in the North by Michael Byers

- After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics in the New Arctic by Alun Anderson

- Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sarah Wheeler

Some web resources:

- Svalbard Tourism - Cruise Handbook for Svalbard - Longyearbyen (capital of Svalbard) airport information - Tromso, Norway flight information - Wideroe Norwegian airline - Faroe Islands photography - Faroe Islands transportation - The Smyril ferry line - Arctic Small Ship Cruises

And related:

- Alaska bear viewing - The Northwest Passage (1, 2, 3) - Canadian polar bear tours - more here, including the aurora forecaster.

Prior to our August 2010 visit, our trips to the region have included Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The links are to their galleries at EarthPhotos.com.

Uh Oh. Check Those Party Plans.

We used to call it the party boat, and it looks like we weren't alone. The Silja Line is one of two companies (with the Viking Line) that ply the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia between Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.

It's an agreeable way to travel between the two capitals. You board in the afternoon on either side and arrive at your destination the next morning, and along the way enjoy the lovely archipelago in between.

These are huge cruise liners. The Silja Symphony, for example, holds 2,852 in 995 cabins. And it literally is a party boat, with entertainers in the main atrium, like men on stilts and acrobats (photo).

This time of year companies book their holiday office parties aboard. Trouble is, the Helsingin Sanomat reports that the Silja Europa is out of service until December first, and that

"This will affect the travel plans of thousands of people who have already booked their cruises. This is a busy period with many bookings for Christmas parties”, regretted Vice President Pasi Näkki of Tallink Silja."

All Silja Europa departures are cancelled until 1 December due to a rudder problem.

(See more photos in the Finland Gallery and the Sweden Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Sweden: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Stockholm holds the EU presidency these six months, and now that Ireland has voted yes to the Lisbon treaty on EU reform, the only (self-proclaimed) barrier to its implementation, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, is coming under the intimidating glare of the Swedish Minister for EU Affairs.

It's not something you hear every day, so enjoy it while you can: Sweden is knocking heads and taking names. They're twisting arms. They're turning up the heat. They're breaking out the big guns - that is, they've put Cecilia Malmstrom on the case.

Says she, "We are eager to get the Treaty of Lisbon into place relatively soon, so that the EU can focus on the important policy issues where we have to deliver, such as climate change. We also have to ensure the Europe can emerge strengthened from the economic crisis.”

The Minister herself has been dispatched to Prague to size up Mr. Klaus.

Some no nonsense talk from the Swedish Presidency's web site, quoting Minister Malmstrom: "...the very strong message from the Irish that they want this Treaty sends clear signals to Poland and the Czech Republic, which are the two countries that have yet to ratify it. Now it seems as if Polish President Lech Kaczynski will be signing later this week and... I hope that the Czech Constitutional Court soon concludes its examination of the text so that the President of the Czech Republic can also sign it.”

Positively withering.

(Photo of the changing of the guard at the royal residence in Stockholm from the Sweden Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Swedish Quirks

Nice post on the Swedish Blog titled Things That May Surprise You When Moving to Sweden, that also applies when visiting Sweden.

See the Sweden Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

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Finns surpass Danes as heaviest-drinking Nordics

Those Scared Little Noises

I can testify from personal experience that this is true, and it extends to Finland, too.