Category: Articles

When you get to my age, you don’t expect to have many great adventures in life anymore, but, on the other hand, even daily activities can become an adventure. Especially if they are done in a different country or in an unusual way. Today was the day to buy groceries and recycle trash. We were…

We interrupt this travel documentary for a news update Finally, a bit of good news. Despite not declaring his vaccination status, Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic was allowed to remain in Australia (although it is not clear yet if he will be allowed to play, or if they will cancel his visa later on). Germany…

I attended a service at the small local church today. I don’t go so often to church these days, and in fact, I hadn’t attended mass in more than a year, but today the local small church, which is almost next door, announced through a sign that it was open and there would be a…

So today the idea was to skate over a frozen lake. I went with Håkan, who is a documentary film-maker from Stockholm that is visiting up here, and a very experienced skater. He’s been making movies all over the world, from the Himalayas to Hawaii. He’s also a former Navy Seal, or the equivalent of…

Yesterday I walked all the way down to Skeppsmyra, 5 km away, which is an actual beach with sand. I tried to go by bicycle, even though the roads were covered with snow and ice, and therefore not ideal for riding, so I did most of the way on foot anyway. But it was the…

A handy guide It is difficult, but not impossible. Sure, it is cold. Days are short. It can get lonely, especially if you are, like me, in a faraway region where there are no pubs, no bars, nor any kind of social life, or if you don’t practice any winter activity and don’t like much…

Just going back to that boring issue for a little moment I’ve been ranting like a crazy old man for almost two years against “lockdowns” and “vaccine passports”, and for the right to freedom of movement and to make your own health choices, in other words, to a life such as we had back in…

The Inuit supposedly have 50 different ways to describe snow. Do Swedes have 50 different ways of describing ice? The nearby lake is now completely frozen. It’s actually brackish water, as it partly mixes with water from the sea and so has some salinity content. I thought of going ice-skating one of these days, but…

There are many Scandinavian folktales about ghosts and witches. Mare, for instance, from where the word “nightmare” originates, is a type of evil witch or spirit who sits on people’s chests during the night and gives them bad dreams. Another interesting character is Pesta, a personification of death and pestilence in the shape of an…

The Scandinavian sea coast, especially in winter, is quite different from the ones I’m used to. I was born in Argentina. I grew up in Brazil. I lived in California and Sicily. To me, a coast means a beach with sand, sun, high waves, and lots of people including annoying sellers of all kinds of…