When you suddenly notice that the entire city has been lit up like a Christmas tree, you realize that it’s that time of year again. As I walked around to explore the lit areas and compare them to the efforts of previous years, it struck me that this has been going on for ten years.
Suddenly I find myself spending the autumn months in Stockholm, a cold but beautiful city. Even though I’ve been here countless times during the last 30 years, I still find new places and I love exploring the crooked alleys and hidden paths lurking around the corners.
I spent the weekend on the beautiful island Öland, in the eastern part of Sweden. Among other things I found the time to wander through the forests of Halltorp, famous for the relict oak trees some of which are estimated to be 500 years old. Most of the old trees were chopped down in 1918, but a few are preserved and it feels like walking among the Ents of Tolkien lore.
20 years ago, I wrote the first lines of HTML code on this site. It was written in Emacs on a Solaris workstation and viewed in Mosaic, since this was before Netscape and Internet Explorer were even released.
Oops, I found myself back in France sooner than expected. Two months ago, I visited the Champagne region in northern France. This time the focus was spent on exploring two legendary wine regions: Bordeaux and Rhône valley.
Footage from Rio de Janeiro and other cities in Brazil can be seen all over the news these days, due to the FIFA World Cup, which brings back many fond memories. Ten years ago I visited this beautiful country, from the sprawling urban jungles of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to the soothingly tranquil Ubatuba, Paraty and more.
I just got back from a trip to the Champagne region in northern France. We visited several houses and it was very interesting to compare the giants of Moët & Chandon to smaller vendors such as P.M. Roger & Fils. Moët & Chandon has a large building complex in Epernay, but the most impressive feature is their underground wine cellars, spanning 28 km of tunnels!
I’m back in the city of lights. Paris, one of the cities I love returning to. During the nineties I got lost in the northeastern suburbs. During the 00s I sang from the stage of Moulin Rouge and imitated Quasimodo the hunchback in Place des Vosges. For some strange reason they decided to let me back in and here I am.
Several years ago, I went to a Nine Inch Nails gig in Stockholm, at the same time as my own world collapsed around me. Trent hit a special note and I was moved to tears, transfixed by the flame. Two years later I stood alone in the rain, surrounded by thousands, while Trent teared away at his equipment in the forest of Arvika.
Cheers from Copenhagen Beer Celebration 2014, where I’ve met my old friends Mikkeller, To Öl and more. (Carlsberg? What’s that?)
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