early spring

Just been a week to Paris with my new job, the same company :D The new position means even more traveling, so expect me soon in a city near you or even your city :) Paris again in January, then Padova, Barcelona (L*O*V*E*L*Y), Manchester, Dublin and Warsaw to make it Europe!!!!!!! Cheers for now and let me know what you are doing! Besos de Suecia!

you and how many of your friends...?

Con un saludo especial a Nuria!

Townsville, North Queensland, Australia

billabong

i've done it. it's illegal in the state of new south wales. it's not illegal in queensland, because today, in the billabong sanctuary i was holding a koala. it was beautiful, but not as cute as someone else.......

imagenes

the images from aussie snowboarding :)

2030m

fast hero

The secret of energy boosting. Find all Polish items in this image :D

snowboarding in snowy mountains

I have been traveling a lot lately and my computer has been doing very strange things, not even to be explained by the computer experts having spent several of their jouvenile years on the beautiful art of hacking. Still, my internet access is pretty restricted, not the fastest and most accessible broadband in the world I tell you :)

I have been to Brisbane, the Gold Coast, several small towns therearound and Townsville. The pictures will come as I will have the time to upload them.

Two weekends ago, me and Bastian, a German friend of mine, working in Australia on similar terms, went south to the Snowy Mountains, very close to the boarder of Victoria, but still in New South Wales, even though it's closer to Melbourne than Sydney... We drove through Canberra and got to Thredbo, which showed to be the most snoby ski resort in Australia, on Friday evening. Thredbo is full of nice cars, rich people and, during the wintertime, it is one of a few skiing bases in the Snowy Mountains. This weekend, the European population of Thredbo accounted for two, including my friend and myself. The prices are a bit high, we payed 75AUD per person per night in a 4-bed dorm room. Off-season, the same costs something like 20AUD. The day pass was following similar pricing strategy.... but who would say no to an opportunity of snowboarding in Australia? :D

The highest peak was at 2030m, with a very cosy blizzard at this altitude. The snow and the overall experience was much better than I expected, although there was no powder and much ice, it was great for a weekend. and for Australia :)

In the dorm we met a guy having a Swedish mother, he didn't talk Swedish though. And during our cosy evening, reading books at the fireplace and talking to a university professor from Sydney, we were joined by an Aussie, who had spent two and a half years in Östersund and was pretty eloquent in Swedish. Odd, but real :) It was a great weekend! We also saw a couple of kangaroos, and managed not to hit any of them while snowboarding.... :D

on the move again

I'ts Sunday afternoon and I am in the airport again. Returned on Wednesday night from over a week in northern New South Wales, the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise and Brisbane and going up to Townsville for three days. In the meantime my laptop stopped to be eager to connect to the internet and I had to have Windows reinstalled. I can't believe how addicted one can be to the internet :) Will write more soon and publish some pictures as well. Hope it's sunny in Townsville! Hugs to ya friends!

helylle

fresh news: a gym in malmö offered a special deal for couples, without defining the term "couple". when someone asked about gay couples and the gym representative wouldn't accept that as a "couple", they reported the case to homoombudsmannen, call it a ombud for the rights of the homosexual. sweden, a country where everything's ought to be right and follow the rule, whatever the rule might be. so very unspanish. so very helylle. so very lagom....

btw. i am in this very instant listening to sahara hotnights and consuming mandel spekulatius from aldi - german gingerbreads - they didn't have any glühwein, but it feels a bit Christmassy anyway, reminding me of the of December in Innsbruck....

el rei

click the image to view large

art deco riders

superb art deco guarding the art gallery of new south wales. click on the image to view as large.

australian marketing

found on the saturday shopping tour. did not know whether i should wave to him, laugh at him or kick him in the butt (he was certainly asking for it).

so i shot him. with a 4MB piece of arms. very pacifistic :)

even more mtb

a couple more photos from the mountains. btw, great game yesterday, ey :)

you talkin' to me?

drinking electricity

upwards....

where did the road go....?

everybody sing with lucky luke: I'm a poor lonesome cowboy.......

the ride

Andrew, the financial controller. also very skilled in breaking bicysle parts....

walk/runners. we passed them laughing going downhill and were passed laughed at when Andrews chain broke :) Grüss euch!

The source of energy. outperforms duracell. (Polish plum chocolate-covered plum for the ignorant reader :)

yes, there was a river to pass. no gators. i think.

suspension bridge and the coolest guy :)

bush mtb

last weekend I suprisingly entered the australian crazy mountainbiking association and joined our financial controller and his cool mates on a 41km tour in the blue mountains. he asked me to join them at 5pm friday afternoon, picked the redeyed me at 6am on saturday morning and we all went to katoomba, where a tour guide was waiting with the bigger version of a surfer's bus. the crazy drive ought to be able to cause a heart attack, but we arrived somewhere at 1500meters and did a crazy downhill for some k's, followed by very nice and steep uphills, stairs, gates, rocks, rivers and, a thrilling suspension bridge....

the bus of joy

rollin' rollin' rollin'....

hit the road jack!

the source of information

no posing here mates! just rudeboy bikers....

more pictures will follow :)

my lamborghini is fantastic

rudeboys

kiwis (new zealanders) and aussies (inhabitants of the world's leading vegemite-consuming country) like to kid about eachother....

amsterdam pht

swedish surprise

Found in a restroom in katoomba, blue mountains, new south wales.

First Ikea, then Volvo and now SCA. From Göteborg, Sweden.

proudly being irish

Just got this one from Frankie Knuckles here at work, crazy guy!

Oh' when the Irish eyes are smiling.......

Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon, I mean camera charger

The santa from hong-kong visited sydney and left a package for me!

May be because I was nice.

May be because I have a cool and masculine coffee cup.

I think the latter.

"What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?" said Pooh. "For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me."

state of art

origin of state of origin.

a big game was played in Oz tonight, a game of rugby. And not any rugby.

the game is a mix of football and fight club, and when it's played between the states of Australia, they call it state of origin. the players play for the state they started to play in. Hence the name. state of origin.

it's a huge thing over here. more than 50.000 aussies saw it in the stadium, and at least as many in my local pub. Queensland beat New South Wales (the state we're in) (didn't chemical brothers use this phrase already?) but beer in just the right ratios makes people happy anyhow. there's a lot of franziskaner in yours truly at the moment.

and he's got to work at nine. see you tomorrow! cheers!

Fredrik and Martin, try to get his cola!

united colors of benetton

It's autumn in the southern hemisphere.

It's getting cold in the city of Sydney. Extremely cold. Use your scarfs and everything.

Half of the staff in the office is ill. Even more, half the Sydney is.

This is certain when the temperature suddnly drops to 17C during nighttime....

How's the summer in la Europa? How are you guys? Emails, comments are well appreciated!

Still waiting for the new camera charger soon to arrive from hong-kong. Koalas comming soon

parrot brunch

One of the parrots joined me for brunch today. A big meal on the balcony, looking over Sydney harbour.

Sweet!

I didn't share my German herring, but rather offered pieces of citrus and kiwi fruit.

Does anyone know how to tell the sex of a parrot? Please, share the knowledge!

vintage

I cannot find the charger to my camera and even though i have seven batteries, they are unpowered - crap. i'll orderone from hong kong. meanwhile, i am going thru the already existing folders :) Barcelona.......

mission completed

Got up at four thirty this morning, had a cup of tea for breakfast, a second one for lunch and a 350g steak for dinner at five. the mission is completed. the isntrument is installed and runs as a jamaican and an ethiopian combined. i am back in Sydney and experienced the diversity of the local public transportation. it always takes you twice the normal the first time. but now you know how it works and that you shouldn't get off at circular quay if you want to go to north sydney station. it was a nice thirty minutes walk home over the harbour bridge with the opera house to your immediate right. now it's immediate bed time. yawn. goodonya!

installation

Hello good people. We have been working since the dusk with things that wouldn't make you very proud if you're a ve vegetarian. we have made it work much better then anytime before - it's great and the customer is jolly happy! ah, the place is called poowonga and is as pitoresque as a terrestial place can get, and the hobbits are great too! after the breakfast at seven am we had a cup of tea (sugarless) at one pm and first dinner at seven pm, with a dry martini before that. it's a hammer! and the food is five hundred times better than you think it would be in the (half) middle of nowhere. but then again, it's called the Bear House. and it's in Crainborn! and the wine is outstanding!

Victoria

Hello from the land of Victoria good fellas! I have been here a day now, we are installing a big instrument in a meat factory in a town called something like Powoonga or thereabout. Very interesting. And very beautiful landscape - just like I imagined New Zealand to be, very green and hilly, lots of cows and goats and shetland ponnies and creaks and ponds and meadows and hobbits. And this is very close to Melbourne. A beautiful place!

We are staying at a lovely little motel called the Bear House. They've got a big stuffed brown bear in the restaurant cottage looking at you. The food and the wine is amazingly great - I just had some kangaroo, very rare and nice. Great place! You should come here! Now the wine tells me to go to bed! :)

How are things in Europe mates? comments please!

Sydney airport

Just boarding the 06.45 flight to Melbourne. The hi-fi in the surfer store next to my ears plays some sweet dance music. What about a sunny happy remix of the Similou, All this Love! Sweet!

local news

According to a local paper, seven percent of the kids in the "rich" suburbs of Sydney meet the criteria of a person having gambling problems. If they have to much money, I can give them an account number to release their pain of carrying to havy a wallet....

oh, by the way, there is a big discussion here now whether they should build twenty something nuclear power plants or not. Australia goes green, but wtf, what about the solar power? You have it, use it!

7 minutes ago

the vew from my new apartment. the birds are my new friends, I just haven't learned their dialect yet - I speak Polish to them right now. can you see the harbour, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house? I see it very clearly :)

Welcome to Oz

So I'm finally here! Sydney! Sweet!

I arrived on Wednesday, six a.m., on ANZAC day (the day the Aussies celebrate all those countrymen which participated in any war - it's a day off here), and was despite the early time picked up by my boss. After a couple of hours of sleep I headed downtown and had lunch in the harbour together with my boss, his wife and two Swedish colleagues of ours.

The restaurant is in the old harbour - a district called the Rocks - which used to be a rough district when it all began. It's much more cosy now. The fact that I enjoyed some fresh fish looking at the Opera house might have had some influence. The wine helps too.

My first impression ofSydney is that it is much greener than I thought - and there is a lot of bushland still in the city. I had no idea it is this beautiful! And the view from my window? The Harbour Bridge, North Harbour and the Opera house. That is the first thing I see each morning!

Well, time to head downtown! Cheers!

Amsterdam view

Amsterdam

sweet to be here =)

Cheers from a city in bloom!

goodbye america

...you have been a mixed mistress.

now it's time for Europe.

ok, where is this?

p * a * c * k * i * n * g

packing.

again.

for the nth time.

starting to develop a routine.

one box to Australia.

one box to Sweden.

one suitcase to bring along.

very.

heavy.

boxes.

die Architektur des Bügeleisens

One of my two favourite buildings in new york - the flatiron.

mr celsius

The weather is a prankster. One week ago Eden Prairie experienced temperatures around -10 Celsius. It was windy too. Totaly uncosy.

Yesterday: +25 Celsius. I went out jogging around 6pm. In shorts and t-shirt.

sweet.

stockholm abroad

since i am leaving this country in a few days and the weather is exceptionally wunderschön, it felt like a sweet thing to do: a roadtrip.

a small one.

fill up the ford with gasoline - cheaper than anywhere else. half an euro per liter. sick! we don't want this, bush.

anyway.

i decided to go to wisconsin. driving to another state and all that you know, a very cool thing to do. right.

i had a big map of minnesota and wisconsin, with all the roads and bigger towns indicated. not the small ones. i headed south-east to cross the mississippi and visited such fun places as hastings, cannon falls and something i wanted to see: vasa. nothing much, just a couple of roads. many farms. and cows. like in småland.

the pioneers in minnesota were mostly german, scandinavian and irish. it is also what you can find in this towns: irish pubs and items of infrastructure called bavaria and småland road.

i got an icecream in one of the towns. the size was medium. the price was $2,12 - with tax - and the european size was xxxxl. it could feed a whole family on a sunday walk.

driving along the mississippi is not a boring thing to do in the springtime. the view is great.

i went on to wisconsin. it was dark already, 8pm, but still warm, 15 degrees C.

empty roads.

45, 50, 60 miles per hour.

then i see the sign.

Stockholm
Population 97

20 miles per hour. an open bar. park the car.

i walk into the pub. it is not difficult for people to recognize a stranger. i must smell alien from as many yards as visibility allows.

everybody says hi. very much like in the song of dawid bowie.

cool.

i get a beer. weissbier from munich. hehe, i'm home.

there is a band playing blues. a local band. the best f***ing band i've seen during the five months in this Godforgotten country. and they are playing in stockholm, wisconsin. population 97.

they are really f***ing great. they just need a producer. or not. i don't tell them.

i talk to two of the guys at the bar, they are both of german descent. we are laughing when i say that i am from sweden. the original one.

i get to look in the photo album that the bar has compiled. there are photos from all the special occasions of the last year. st. patricks, midsummer and all others. there is a cometogether on every midsommer when people come from far away. cool. interesting pictures. if you know the people on them. i watch anyway, turning two pages at once to make it go quicker.

one of the guys is drinking beck's light. Prost! -he says - we are both having german beer.

i drink up, shake hands and say goodbye. they say goodbye too. everyone is looking at me as i walk to the car. the whole town. everyone in stockholm. population 97. i hurry to the car.

in another hour something i am back in eden prairie. it takes only one hour from stockholm to eden prairie.

stockholm, population ninetyf***ingseven.

with some speeding of course.

stockholm

come around

a ty Bojan pozno chodzisz spac ;)

y tu Pere tambien. time for bed.

o brother

here we go

popular

according to stayfriends, i was the 32nd most popular person out of 90 in my year in upper secondary school Rudbeckskolan.

sweet.

james knows

did see james murphy and his lcd soundsystem at malmöfestivalen was it 2005.

pere hit the bullseye, ay!

congrats Pere, Szczecin it is!

now travis will sing you a tune.

clue no dos

ok, it's a city in Poland, come on!

and here's the second clue. it's an image taken last october and it pictures my grandma.

do you need more clues? :)

just few more weeks

guess da hood

ok, where is this one from?

next clue

here is another photo from the same place. or at least just a few hundred meters away. you should at least get the country right :)

spring in malmö

the spring is in the air and the ducks in the beautiful city of malmö show off.