Common Sense and Whiskey

Travel Links

A few interesting links today:

On North Korea:

Kingdom Kim's Culinary Outposts

Off the Dictated Path in North Korea

Elsewhere in Asia:

Pictures of Laos

China's dams killing Mekong

Fine headlines:

97-year-old butter found at Robert Scott's Antarctic base

Swedish envoy in Russian pantyhose probe

Missing Aussie found at pub

Sweden: Sort of Like an Ax in the Head

Mentioned Sweden on Common Sense and Whiskey the other day. Here's an article from last month called When Sweden Rules the World, which might be worth your time.

It calls this Baltic-Scandinavian-Nordic land

"... this anomalous, oblong nation of 9 million, wedged as comfortably as an axe into Europe’s forehead."

But it's a really positive look at the Swedish character. Really.

Photo is the harbor and Strandvagen, downtown Stockholm, from EarthPhotos.com.

Cockpit Seats Must Be More Comfy than in Coach

And speaking of Sweden (day before yesterday), "The captain of an SAS plane flying between Copenhagen and Stockholm fell asleep last week, as the first officer was using the lavatory." The captain "claims to have only gotten four hours of sleep the night before, and it was his fourth flight of the day."

But still, come on, flights only take an hour and ten minutes.

Don't Like Your Name? Change it.

It seems Swedes are.

"... an immigrant family requested permission to be called Mohammedsson. 'Permission was granted'.

For more photos like the one above, from Stockholm, see the Sweden Gallery at Earthphotos.com.

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.)