Month: June 2007

Today my dear friend Pontus and I had planned to go kayaking in the center of Stockholm to celebrate that he recently turned 30. In the morning it was grey and boring but as we arrived at the kayak rental the sun came out and it turned out to be a fabulous afternoon and evening. The plan was to kayak around the island Kungsholmen on which the City Hall is situated (tower to the left in the picture).

Things do look different from the water. First we passed the area were I live and although I have walked along the cliffs many many times I still found a few new places I have not seen before. As we came to the bars along the water front we were tempted to try to get them to serve us beers in the kayak but the bartenders were too far from the water… After the City Hall we turned left into the channel between Kungsholmen and the City center. This is a calm, lush area which you easily miss hurrying downtown. Several marinas are situated in the channel where you see boat owners packing and getting ready to leave town for the weekend.

Eventually we made it back in time to return the kayaks and what would be better now than a champagne picknick in the park? Said and done, there was still a couple of hours of sunshine for us to enjoy. Fantastic! Thank you Pontus for a great day!

The flight back to Sweden from Munich was great. The weather was beautiful all the way up to Stockholm. I love sitting by the window on a clear day looking down on the countries we pass. It is like looking at a map but better and I love maps. It is fascinating to look at the small villages and how they are connected, the colour of the fields and by looking at buildings and how the cities are constructed you can see where the center of town is. This time we passed Berlin, Bornholm, Blekinge, we saw Öland and Gotland and I got the best view of the center of Stockholm. I could even see the building I live in. As we were passing the sea between Germany and Sweden I was looking at the boats and how the waves were progressing through the water and how the waves from several boats were interacting. This was one of the best flights I can remember.

It always surprises me when I realize that people actually know something about Sweden, we are after all a pretty small country. First thing that happened when I got off the plane at Incheon, Seoul was that I met an interesting immigration officer.
– “You Spanish?” he asked me.
– “No, Swedish.” It’s only there with big letters on my passport…
– “Ah, oh, Sweden. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I love Sweden!” Ok, he made a mistake but he doesn’t have to pretend to love Sweden just because of that.
– “Lasse Hallstrom!” (Famous Swedish movie director)
– “Oh, you know Lasse Hallström?!”
– “Yes, favourite director, great movies! Ciderhouse rules, Chocolat…”
– “Yes, I liked them too.”
By now he had finished stamping my passport and wished me a great stay in Korea. Funny how the people you least expect starts to talk to you about Lasse Hallström.

My last taxi ride today before going to the airport was an equally surprising experience. As soon as I had gotten into the car and explained where I wanted to go the driver asked me where I was from. His reaction was similar to the immigration officers; – “Oh, I love Sweden! Abba!” Since his English was just slightly better than my Korean this is where the conversation ended. But he immediately started to look around his car and eventually found what he was looking for, an Abba tape (yes, cassette tape..). He played the tape and together we sang along to Abba for the rest of the taxi ride. He looked very happy when he dropped me at the hotel and so was I.

Like in other parts of Asia the Koreans like everything to be cute and pretty. On our way to work we passed a road construction site where they had dug a deep hole in the middle of the street. To avoid accidents they had of course put fences all around it. This was not the unusual thing, what surprised me was the beautiful flowers they had decorated the fence with. In what other country would you find this? Also the motorway bridges were decorated with flower as you can see in the picture. Amazing!

Normally for us cartoons are considered a bit childish. Not in Asia. Even big serious companies have cute characters on labels and signs. The company I visited has a winking dog (picture) who is waiving his little finger on the tape that they plug all ports on your computer with (extreme security policy). What would a warning sign for a construction site look like in Europe? Probably it would just be text, maybe a sketch of a man without features and expressions falling down a hole or something similar. In Korea it is a cat wearing a helmet and white gloves telling you what to do and not to do. Different…

It is an experience to go by car in Korea. The traffic is heavy and crazy and I am glad I did not have to drive. Red lights for example do not have the same status as in Sweden. It is not uncommon that they drive although the lights are red as long as you let the pedestrians pass first and then drive very slowly. It is like if you sneak your way over the intersection no one will notice.
This morning we even saw an argument on the street. One taxi and one truck were driving onto the same road from different directions. I guess at least one of them was not following the traffic rules. They started shouting through the windows but this was not the end of it. The truck driver stopped in front of the taxi blocking both lanes and all traffic. He gets out and they start arguing on the street in front of us while we were waiting for a green light. It looked like the truck driver actually wanted to hit the taxi driver but he didn’t, instead he just left looking very angry. In Sweden just honking would be offensive…

This week I am on a business trip in Korea. They nice thing about travelling with work is that you get to stay at better hotels than what you would normally do. Although I was very upset when I found out that the sauna at our first hotel was for men only! What is that all about?? I know it is out of the question to have a mixed sauna, but men only?! Upsetting!