Nåttarö 2014 Part 2

Here are some more holiday pics from the Swedish island Nåttarö - I am afraid my camera died so a lot of the photos are taken with my phone and are therefor not of the best quality, but to be honest, its quite amazing how good photos you actually can take with a phone now!

Now I am back in a grey, polluted London and want to go back to the island and barbecue my dinner on various beaches every night and swim in the ocean every day and pro long the summer a bit. I think you appreciate nature, the silence and the fact you suddenly have space just for you and you alone even more when you live in a busy city as London that never goes quiet and were most of us are used to commuting on overcrowded boiling underground trains for hours every day. Here you can switch off and breath.

































Nåttarö is a nature reserve and I hope it will remain this way for ever, no one is allowed to buy or to build new houses on this island or turn it into some private holiday resort - people are instead welcome to come and rent cabins or to camp on the small camping and it has one small little kiosk selling ice cream, sweets and magazines in the guest harbour and a small shop by the other harbour that offers fresh coffee and freshly baked cinnamon buns and baguettes in the morning, even have vegetarian mince and sausages and pretty much everything you can want and need. And then theres the pub. That's it. And it's lovely.

But summer, you were way to short.

Nåttarö 2014 Part 1

I never posted any photos from my summer holiday, my camera broke and I can't afford to get a new one or to fix it but was lucky and my friend had a camera so I could borrow it now and then and also, thanks to today's amazing phone cameras, I could take some decent pics with my phone. So, welcome to Nåttarö, an small island in the Swedish archipelago, a nature reserve and my favourite place to go in summer. There are quite a few people who have found this lovely island and has returned to it every summer for generations, but still you can go and find your own little beach to hang out on, with no other people, no cars or traffic, just the endless ocean. A very nice break from busy, polluted, crewded London.



















From the top, me tkingphotos with my camera, photographed by Julia Hancock, my swim wear drying in the sun and the Nåttarö Pub.

I love this little island and have to go back every summer, this summer we were extra lucky and it was +33C degrees every day - the sad thing though is that a lot of the nations around the Baltic sea have polluted it for decades and boats and ships are allowed to dump shit straight in the ocean, so now if it gets to hot we get seriously problems with poisonous algy and its so sad to see how we are destroying this beautiful ocean. I hope they start doing something about it very soon.





And that's me, trying desperately to get my camera to work while being photographed by the superb Julia Hancock. Thanks Julia for letting me use your camera and to Jules & Nick for being great holiday companions!

Now I desperately need some morning coffee...

Swedish Summer: Nåttarö Part 2

Here are some more pictures from Nåttarö, my favourite island in Stockholm's archipelago;

I will end my picture series from Nåttarö there and with a picture of the last thing you see from the pier when you leave the island, the island's Pub, Nåttarö krog;

Swedish Summer: Nåttarö Part1

I love Swedish summer and my favourite island, Nåttarö. Here is how a typical day on the island can look like;

Started the morning with a swim and a nap in Morgon viken.

Left and went on a long walk through the forest,

Came to Vänviken,





Continued out on the rocky cliffs,

No people in sight, took a break and I went for a swim and I did it like a proper Swede, naked. Walked back and had a baroque on the beach by the pier while watching the sun set.

Sweden fever

It happens now and then, mostly in summer time, I get hit by Sweden fever. Suddenly I do not like crowds and the fact that I can get international food around my corner for hardly no money at all is no longer as interesting or fabulous as Swedish summers and running naked and jumping into a lake in a vast woodland.

I drift into my imagination, log onto Hemnet and look for my Swedish dream, my own torp. It should have a garden and no neighbours but the forest, be very close to a lake and of-course it is red and has white corners and a lot of character. I my mind I buy it, get two old fat cats, plant a apple tree, sit down by a type writer with a scoth and all of a sudden start writing bestsellers.

Of-course the fact that I cannot drive a car or have a drivers license and therefor would not even be able to get myself food is a petitesse, or the fact that I stopped writing 15 years ago. But it is nice to day dream, and look what you can get for the ridiculous amount of 225 000 Swedish Krona! And it is absolutely corrupt-London-landlord-free and you would pay as much for this place monthly as for a room in central London.

Oh, Sweden...

PS. Don't buy it though...it's mine.

Stockholm Summer 2012

I was wondering why there was red pieces of fabric hanging out of so many windows on Södermalm, apparently there are plans to take down one of the very old areas and build some new modern stuff. I totally agree, fuck of and leave the old buildings alone!

The superb bookshop Hansson & Bruce on Götgatan 37

Second hand shop in Gamla stan


Liquorice and salty sweets...

Here are some pics from my short visit to Stockholm, my old home town. Stockholm has an archipelago with hundreds if not even thousands of islands that you can visit and is surrounded by lot's of lakes and forests, no need for asthma spray in this town but if you want to enjoy a few pints I have to warn you, alcohol is very expensive in Sweden and instead of socialising by meeting up in Pub's like we do here in London, people go for a "fika", which means something like a short coffee break, and there are lot's and lot's of coffee places in Stockholm. It is a great summer town surrounded by water, when I lived there and took the underground to work I could sit on the train and watch people diving from the cliffs into the ocean. Winters are a bit different...

 I unfortunately have to say that I always get annoyed with the people though, they are unbelievably rude and elbow and push you in the underground, does not let you get off the train before they try to squeeze on, point you in the wrong direction if you ask for it and if you hold the door for an elderly man with a large shopping trolley, a kid and a dog he looks at you as if you are an idiot and says "Here in the big town we have buttons that opens doors". Fuckers. If you speak loud American or English, they will be very nice though as they love to get the chance to speak some English and feel continental but if you look like a "svenne" like me - you get elbowed and sometimes even walked straight into. But the town is beautiful never less. If you plan to go to Stockholm during the Christmas sales though, riot gear is recommended.

These pictures are from the Old Town, Södermalm and Koppla sjön. I have to confess that it does not feel that great to be back in a grey and rainy London, I start to realise that in this city there is just constant autumn - but at least people are very nice ;)

Smultron





Kantareller..mmm...

Beautiful old houses

PS. Is this the world's smallest house?

...and this is me looking awfully smug in an elevator, I hate being photographed so I always pull weird faces, the passport police often laugh at my passport as I have never, ever in my entire life managed to feel comfortable in front of a camera - I prefer to stay behind.

I had a great holiday but now it's time to get back to work. I have a pile here waiting to be dealt with so I should get started. Hope you all are having a great summer (if anyone's even reading this?).

PS. While I was gone a short interview with me was posted on the blog Almost Real.