Call me crazy, but I thought it'd be nice to have a bit of a break from the searing summer heat and go someplace, erm, temperate. As it turned out, that place was Scandinavia. After a grueling flight on a budget Turkish Airlines 737 and an even more grueling 5 hour stopover in Istanbul (Attaturk International Airport is a bit of an armpit) Christine an I arrived in Stockholm on Sunday Aug 20th. Sweden was great even before we landed. First impressions - lots of green, tons of trees (the airport is in the middle of a lush forest), big white clouds, and even this crazy thing they have called rain. I can't tell you how alien the landscape looked - guess that's what happens when you live in sandland.
Stockholm is easily the best city in the world, the downtown is situated on something like 14 different islands and most of the buildings have kept their original historical facades. You can walk everywhere - another thing sadly lacking in the car culture that is Dubai - and in the Swedish Ikea tradition the entire city is impeccably stylish and well designed. Case in point, the hotel where we stayed, called the Nordic Light, had a runway fashion show in it's lobby our first night there to kick off Stockholm Fashion Week. But what was most memorable though was the people ... yes, okay, the rumours are true about the blondes, but that's actually not what I'm talking about here ... everybody there just seemed so content and calm. You can tell that quality of life is a major focus there, and consequently everybody just seems happy, another far cry from the bustle of Dubai, or even Toronto for that matter.
After six days of wandering the city, taking in some of the sites (the modern art gallery is fantastic), and doing a bit of shopping we took a short flight to Oslo and from there drove up into the Norwegian Fjords. I've always thought the Rockies were impressive, but I think the western Fjords just might have the trump card on that one. Big, dramatic cliffs surrounded by water dotted by 500 year old farms impossibly perched wherever the land is flat enough. It's an amazingly tranquil place to be. Rather than heading all the way to Bergen we ended up using the village of Flam as a base and then venturing into the nearby towns of Aurland, Gjorvan, Myrdal, and Gudvangen. Sadly we only had three days to try to take in all of the scenery, the weather didn't permit us to go kayaking but we did at least manage to hike up to one of the peaks with a fantastic view of the Sognefjord 1200m below. Norway's definitely a place I will go back to, next time I think I'll fly directly to Bergen and give myself at least a week to drive up to the northern fjords - apparently the scenery just gets better.
So then here I find myself back in Dubai. Getting away has given me a bit of perspective on this place and life here seems just a little nicer. Plus in the two weeks we were away the sting seems to be out of the summer heat and it's actually tolerable to wander around outside in the middle of the day. Methinks it's it'll be time soon to hit the beaches and hopefully catch some surf. Mahalo.
Stockholm is easily the best city in the world, the downtown is situated on something like 14 different islands and most of the buildings have kept their original historical facades. You can walk everywhere - another thing sadly lacking in the car culture that is Dubai - and in the Swedish Ikea tradition the entire city is impeccably stylish and well designed. Case in point, the hotel where we stayed, called the Nordic Light, had a runway fashion show in it's lobby our first night there to kick off Stockholm Fashion Week. But what was most memorable though was the people ... yes, okay, the rumours are true about the blondes, but that's actually not what I'm talking about here ... everybody there just seemed so content and calm. You can tell that quality of life is a major focus there, and consequently everybody just seems happy, another far cry from the bustle of Dubai, or even Toronto for that matter.
After six days of wandering the city, taking in some of the sites (the modern art gallery is fantastic), and doing a bit of shopping we took a short flight to Oslo and from there drove up into the Norwegian Fjords. I've always thought the Rockies were impressive, but I think the western Fjords just might have the trump card on that one. Big, dramatic cliffs surrounded by water dotted by 500 year old farms impossibly perched wherever the land is flat enough. It's an amazingly tranquil place to be. Rather than heading all the way to Bergen we ended up using the village of Flam as a base and then venturing into the nearby towns of Aurland, Gjorvan, Myrdal, and Gudvangen. Sadly we only had three days to try to take in all of the scenery, the weather didn't permit us to go kayaking but we did at least manage to hike up to one of the peaks with a fantastic view of the Sognefjord 1200m below. Norway's definitely a place I will go back to, next time I think I'll fly directly to Bergen and give myself at least a week to drive up to the northern fjords - apparently the scenery just gets better.
So then here I find myself back in Dubai. Getting away has given me a bit of perspective on this place and life here seems just a little nicer. Plus in the two weeks we were away the sting seems to be out of the summer heat and it's actually tolerable to wander around outside in the middle of the day. Methinks it's it'll be time soon to hit the beaches and hopefully catch some surf. Mahalo.