Month: augusti 2014

A fika at HTL Hotels with Stockholm Travel Massive

Yesterday after a half day of work in Nora I jumped in my car and went to Stockholm Travel Massive, a meeting for writers of travel. I finally met two blogger I have been following for some time Freedomtravelers with the amazing camper named Freedomtravel. Peter and Helena is planning a one year trip around Europe starting in November if they make it after spending a lot of their travel cash on renovating their boat this summer. They have both a blog and a instagram account. Very worth following.   But to another topic, the night was hosted by three Stockholm girls with the blogs: Resfredag, Slow Travel Stockholm och Fantasiresor who have traveled to more than one country. On the event I also met Katja Presnal. Katja run the Skimbaco Lifestyle Magazine where she and others write about trips. She (her daughters) and Sofia (Fantasiresor) is coming to Finland as well. I also met a guy from the Austrian tourist bureau in Stockholm (who knew that was even possible), a girl from the Visiting Board of Stockholm, another …

Preparing for Porvoo with a festival guide from Zalando and some soup.

Remember that I spoke of getting a mail about a festival gudie? The festival guide from Zalando is in Swedish but covers the festivals in Europe. Who knew that the biggest festival in Europe takes 3 million visitors and is situated in Vienna!? And that it´s first year only had 500 visitors? How cool. Martin and I soon started discussing our backpacking next year and how we could fit in a festival in all that. Tomorrowland is interesting.. Soon I am going to the Porvoo Jazz festival the 10th of September, which is soon, and I received an email for the checking up of the dates/trip this week from the travelhouse in Porvoo/Borgå. It is so exiting and an amazing schedule. Seems like the only thing I am doing this week is planning trips, but, well the award comes later when you actually get to go traveling. This weekend I am traveling to Stockholm for meeting friends and fellow bloggers. Tomorrow I am attending Stockholm Travel Massive. Will post photos of the weekend as they …

And the choice fell on – Hotel Eldorado – Paris

For two days now booking a hotel in France have given my stressed out nerves and not so much happiness. That was until I found out how Paris works and that the weird arrondissements is some form of areas. Am I right? That made the whole thing much easier so please don´t spoil my happiness now. After looking through the blog granntanter.se, the girls that are arranging the trip we decided to go for Hotel Eldorado which they suggest on their site and write fondly about. I think it is a bit of a perfect fit and wasn´t horribly expensive as the other hotels. Thanks M-R for all the tips as well! It is after you rabbling about about the arrondissements (must be the hardest word ever) that I understood that that was what you should look for. Found a old photo I published after my classmate went to Paris and came home with this candy eiffel tower which I snapped a photo off quickly before lecture. Found the photo pretty suiting for this post about …

Booking a hotel in France.

Yesterday me and my mother ordered the plane tickets for our trip to France in October. Today I´m trying to find a suitable hotel. Follow a lot of travel blogs and they always write that it is so amazing to book and browse new trips. I must say that I disagree. I browse through reading other blogs but then booking them, not so much fun anymore. Dreaming is fun. Practical planning not as much. Will get back to this tomorrow and look at my latest addiction, Teen Wolf. enjoy some pics from Gotland, me and my moms last trip. Katarina    

How wow was WOW?

Promised to get back to the Way Out West festival with a review of the whole event and comfortable and suiting enough, an email with a festival guide was send to me from a Charlotte Astroem from Zalando, named, ”Hur WOW var WOW?”. Isn´t that a suiting name for a e-mail containing a festival guide for the 80 biggest festivals in Europe. But, will get back to the guide in another post, this one is long enough I assure you. The Way Out West Festival took place between the 7-9 of August in Gothenburg Sweden and among the artists was Veronica Maggio, Icona Pop and Outcast. ”Oh WOW, I love the food, the atmosphere and the music. Good JOB Way out West! ” An intriguing and a bit discussed subject on the WOW festival was the food since the festival had gone a 100 % vegetarian. I LOVE. The choice was also a green alternative of drinks, where the beer (in most cases) where organic. My boyfriend crinkled his sweet little nose and said, ”I …

Attending Stockholm Travel Massive.

Going on new adventures, this time on Stockholm Travel Massive, meeting up some great travel bloggers and doing some networking. It is going to be so much fun! The event is hosted by four travel bloggers which I know two through instagram and their blogs. They are Lola A. Åkerström, Katja Presnal Sofia Zetterqvist and Annika Myhre. Katja Persnal run the Skimbaco lifestyle magazine and write about travels on a professional level. Sofia Zetterqvist on the other hand have the blog  Fantasiresor. I also follow both these girls on Instagram http://instagram.com/skimbaco and http://instagram.com/sofiazetterqvist. Is there any other travel bloggers out there that are attending the event? I know that the event has been hosted before and would love to have your experiences from before!  This years event is Happening next Friday on the 29th of August in Stockholm at the HTL Hotel on Kungsgatan, invite only, and will be a great warm up going to Finland since Sofia from fantasiresor.se is attending the Finland trip as well. Katarina Giving you this photo from Machu Picchu not published before. This is …

kimchi- a bad smelling, heavenly tasting, Korean coleslaw

Our fridge smells like a bad nightmare. The reason is Martins making of (korean I think ) kimchi. A while ago our friends from Stockholm (if you remember) Carro and Marcus came and visited us. The same day Martin tried out a new recipe of the Korean kimchi. A salad, leavened and spiced, left out for a day and in the fridge for about a week later enjoyed mushy and tasty. I love Martins cooking and normally I would have though that this was a good idea, but, well, after a week the fridge in August, the fridge started smelling a lot. And I mean a lot! Last weekend when in Gothenburg we enjoyed real kimchi on a asian restaurant in Nordstan and that was very pleasent. The home made, not so much, but as the recipe from Ica says ”Do not despair if your first attempt making your own Korean kimchi are not perfect. If it smells and looks good, you can always use it in cooking.” Making your own Asian food when educated …

t.i.r.e.d

Would say that I am tired, but that is a understatement.. Will post some more photos taken by Ulrica Hanson when I get them. Is is basically all I have from the big party. After that, there where no more photography for me. Had no time.. Katarina Photos by me, Karin Johansson and Carlos Benitez. Editing done by me. Canon 5 D Mark iii, 24-105 mm Canon lens.  

Celebrating my 30 years on earth.

This weekend my mother and I are having our 30+60 year birthday. Created this invitation in Illustrator to send out us an invite and it was send to friends and family late May. What do you think of it? And no, sorry, this doesn´t mean that your invited. But if you insist, you can always ask! 😉 Now we are heading back to Småland, around a four hour drive. But first som chocolate cake! See you in the end of the weekend with some birthday photos! The party is tomorrow.. Katarina

Way Out West- And it ends with confetti!

Now I am back home again after a long weekend in Gothenburg, having nice hotell breakfast and watching different artist. Yesterday we saw the hip hop artist Linda Pira with Ladies, until yeah, until we where soaked into the bones with Swedish summer rain, ending up in a return at the hotel where we where staying and later going back for Veronica Maggio and Robin & Röyksopp. And yeah, the other day I we where interviewed by expressen, a Swedish newspaper, and mum so nicely put the photo on her instagram account to be viewed here. I managed to snapshot the interviewer and as well post it on my instagram here. Will be back with a short film from the festival, maybe tomorrow or whenever I have the energy to edit it (not my favorite thing) as well as some deeper reviews of the whole thing for future travelers and festival visitors to dig into. Have a nice weekend, now I am off to bed! Ciao! Katarina Canon 5D Mark iii, 50mm Canon lens (f …

Way Out West- Icona Pop and Outcast

Yesterday came with nice weather, good food and the Icona Pop and Outcast concerts. I must say that I liked Icona Pop the best but I think Martin definitively favoured Outcast. Well, Miss Jackson was a highlight but Icona Pop was on fire throughout the concert. To have that amount of energy! Thanks for all the food discussion yesterday. Think I have to highlight this part (environment vs. meat at Way Out West) a little later in its own post to do it justice. Katarina Canon 5D Mark iii, 50mm f 1.8 Canon lens. Photos of me alone, taken by Martin Benitez. Photo of me and Martin together, taken by Emma Söderberg.    

Way Out West- A city festival with all veggie food.

Just gotten back to the hotel. Martin has already fallen asleep and it is only me up, editing photos. But now I am off to bed, exhausted. Enjoy the photos from the first day of the Way Out West festival in Gothenburg that is taken place between the 7-9 August, an all city festival where some of the concerts actually take place in different clubs around the city. The festival has all vegetarian food (Martin is mildly irritated, but I´m happy) and focuses on the environment. Today I tried out the vegetarian Meze plate. Yummie. Nighty night. Katarina Canon 5D Mark ii, 50mm Canon lens, lightroom.    

On the road to Way Out West

Now we are on our way to the music festival in Gothenburg. Am blogging from the road on the ipad. We are listening to the way out west spotify list and enjoying the sun through the car window. It is a bit of a ride and we started with a stop in Karlskoga for a visit to the bank, make-up store and for some indian cusine. Longing for the arrival in Gothenburg. Katarina Photos taken with ipad and edited in photoshop express

10 things to do in Lima – post 7- Larcomar

The seventh post in my series inspired by the Times list, 10 things to do in Lima, Larcomar.   First arriving in Larcomar you get fairly amazed. It is a bit special, this outdoor shopping area/ with a view over the ocean. Basic knowledge Situated in Miraflores on the Malecon, Larcomar is easily accessible. The area has restaurants like Tanta but also Pizza Hut or other fast food opportunities, even Peruvian fast food Ceviche as well as bowling, cinema and extensive shopping opportunities. It is fairly new and feels overall fresh. Me and Martin tried both the fast food and the Tanta restaurant and I really agree with the Tanta concept, which is one of Gastons concepts of Peruivian and western fusion. Shopping Larcomar has a big variety of shopping, though very much American or non Peruvian brands. One of my favorite Peruvian stores where Mentha & Chocolate where I bought some clothes during my stay and this clothes where found here in Larcomar. See my photo of the clothes on Instagram. During our stay in …

Preparing for Way Out West.

This week Way Out West is going down. Oh happy me that I get to go 🙂 Wanted to show you some photos from other festivals so dug down in my little chamber of secrets, the iPhoto library. Have been to a number of festivals, mainly Hultsfred since it is close to where I grew up but also the Emmaboda festival in Emmaboda (close to Kalmar) and Helsingsborgs city festival. This year, trying out Way Out West, the city festival in Gothenburg. Today before started the editing of this photos I went for a walk. I admit that it was a bit cloudy when I started my walk but when I was in the middle of the forest, the sky just opened and the thunder started rumbling. I swear that the lightening struck less than 500 meters from where I was sitting. The sound was awful. I was shaking like a little birchleave when sitting on the porch of someones house while the bad weather past. Still a bit shaken up, I´ll give it another …

Sicily- Taormina and Syracuse – Expensive shopping and hardcore catholics

Some years ago (the year 2010) I went to Sicily with my friend Caroline who was visiting me this weekend. Sicily then become one of my favorite places and I wanted to share where I went with you, even if it was some time ago. What I remember especially about Sicilly was the fact that they didn´t let me in in one of the churches since I had to short shorts. (haha) Yeah, that was it for me and religion. We didn´t suit eachother before, but then I did really understand why religion never could be anything for me. I might start believing, but I will never believe that the clothes matter for the GOD I believe in, I am sorry that you might not agree, but this is my standpoint. photos taken by me, my mum and Caroline in 2010 with some small compact digital camera, I think it is a kodak camera and also my iPhone3.   The beaches on the south side of Sicily where we stayed was ok. In Giardini Nazos …