Map of Stockholm showing local versus tourist photo locations

Here is a really interesting map of Stockholm comparing where locals (blue), versus tourists (red) take photos throughout the city. Yellow could be either tourist or local.

The results are pretty much what you would expect: high tourist concentration of photos around the main sightseeing locations in Stockholm, and locals in both the city centre, probably at bars and so on, and out in the suburbs.

I also liked Vienna:

You can see Schönbrunn out on the lower left hand side, with a huge concentration of photographic activity.

There are plenty more cities to check out – such as London, Moscow, LA and so on.

Vienna: Officially the World’s Best City

Beautiful Vienna has been crowned the world’s most liveable city for 2011.

It is great to see this amazing city take the top spot yet again. Vienna is so easy to live in, rental prices are reasonable and importantly, the rental market is accessible (unlike Stockholm), there is so much culture available to all (with standing ticket prices to the opera available at around 2 Euros for example, perfect for students), and a low crime rate (the city ranks as number 5 on the personal safety index).

The liveability ranking is based on factors such as access and quality of health services and schooling, availability of consumers goods and food (Vienna, make pumpkins a little more readily available when I want to make soup, and perhaps you could soar to even greater heights!), public transport, political stability, and recreational opportunities.

If Vienna is not your cup of tea, it seems your next best bet is to move to either Switzerland or Germany, countries with a huge number of cities at the top of the list.

Melbourne has come in at a respectable 18, somehow being beaten by Sydney.

My current home, Stockholm, is number 20 for liveability, and a very reassuring 6 for personal safety, despite what the newspapers might lead you to believe. I think if Stockholm was able to sort out the ridiculous housing situation, which has resulted in everyone I know that does not own an apartment having to move on average 3 times a year (with one friend moving 9 times), they could move up the ranks by a place or two.

The list is very Euro-heavy, with European nations making up over half of the top 49, and Auckland, New Zealand and Vancouver, Canada as the only non-European cities in the top 10. The US does not even make a debut until number 29 with Honolulu, closely followed by San Francisco at 30. Singapore is the first Asian nation on the list at number 25, and Tokyo the second, at 46.

You might want to put off moving to Baghdad for the time being, which unsurprisingly came in at the bottom of the list.

Adventures in Lapland, Sweden

Winter is here, and it is the perfect time to go on an adventure to Lapland in Sweden. The land on reindeers, of snow and beautiful, pristine wilderness, the ice hotel and an ideal place to see the northern lights. In fact Nasa has predicted that 2012 will have the brightest northern lights in the past 50 years, so now is the time to go if you want to see something spectacular. Lapland is also the region in which the native Sami people have lived for over 7,000 years, spanning across Finland, Sweden, Norway and a small part of Russia. Today some still retain a nomadic lifestyle, herding reindeers in districts which range between 1000 and 5000 km2.

Welcome to Lapland: From the moment you step off the plane, the icy wilderness awaits you.  The easiest way to get to Lapland is to fly from Stockholm to Kiruna, which takes around 2 hours. You can also take the more scenic route on the Lapplandståget (the Lapland Train), in around 20 hours.

We hired a car at the airport, and first drove to the industrial town of Kiruna.

After Kiruna, we drove to our accommodation at Abisko Tourist Station. As it was quite remote from any large towns, and located in a national park, we thought our chances of seeing the northern lights without light interference would be higher. On our second night, the clouds cleared and the northern lights came out to play. The view was spectacular and over an hour or so, light in green and purple danced throughout the sky.

We didn’t bring a tripod with us, so this is the best northern lights picture we managed to take.

The next day we decided to go on a snow-shoeing tour organising by the station. You could just sign up the evening before to any of the 7 or so various activities for the next day.

Beautiful views near Abisko in Lappland as we were snowshoeing through the wilderness.

We saw some wild elks, and I fell down the bank of a frozen river and became stuck in a tree.

Next stop was the remote Låktatjåkko Fjällstation, Sweden’s highest mountain station at 1228 meters high, perched in a pass between two mountain peaks and located at Björkliden Fjällby ski resort in Lapland.

When we arrived at the ski resort itself I found a sign up stating that Låktatjåkko Mountain Station had been closed over the last 3 or 4 days due to a huge snow storm. I asked at reception if we were going to be able to stay there after all, and as luck would have it, they said that a snow cat was leaving in 5 minutes to see if the road was passable, to take up supplies and also to bring up the lovely couple who worked there, as they had to return back to the main ski resort due to the severity of the storm. They asked if we wanted to hop in, but we were warned that there was still a large chance the storm had made the road impassable and that we wouldn’t be able to stay at the station.

Our ride:

On the way up

It took us about an hour to make it to Låktatjåkko Mountain Station, in almost complete whiteout, with only the tops of little red poles poking out of the snow to lead the way.

But luckily we made it! Then the door had to be dug out of the few meters of snow covering it, as you can see here (the station is a couple of stories high):

The mountain station was a wonderful place to stay in the winter, with a delicious dinner in the evening of reindeer meat (the most beautifully cooked I have had so far), and other traditional Swedish dishes, the highest bar in Sweden, a cosy fireplace and of course, a sauna. If you don’t want to take the snow cat up (which only runs once a day), you can ski there, or drive a snow-mobile.

Not to mention the famous Låktatjåkko Mountain Station waffles:

The sun came out on our way back down

The next day it was off to explore the Icehotel.

Beautiful icy details:

Yes, this is very pleasant and warm!

While I definitely appreciate the beauty of and work that went into creating the Icehotel, I really can’t imagine anything worse than sleeping in an icy room. One of the ladies who worked there said that people often have to change to a normal, warm room in the middle of the night.

Hungry?

We managed to fit quite a lot into a short time in Lapland, but i’d love to return, to visit a Sami village, and to see the northern lights again.

The Best Christmas Markets in Sweden

You can read my (very long) guide to the best Christmas markets in Sweden here.

Now I am off to Sigtuna, the oldest town in Sweden, to visit the markets there and have some glögg with friends. There is even a chance of snow tonight, so I am very excited. Have a great Sunday!

Gingerbread Snowflake Recipe

Here is my old recipe for gingerbread snowflakes. They are delicious and very cute, perfect for Christmas time.

You will need:

• 1/2 cups of brown sugar
  
• 130 g unsalted butter
• 1/2 golden syrup (or treacle)
• 1 egg, separated
• 3 cups of plain flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tbsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 200 g icing sugar
• Snow flake cutter
  

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine your butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and when smooth separate your egg and add the yoke into the mix and combine. Combine in the golden syrup.

Sift in the flour, bi carb soda and spices and combine with the rest of the mixture.

Knead into a smooth ball and wrap in cling wrap and then place in the fridge for at least an hour, but I would recommend a couple of days so the spicy flavours thoroughly infuse the dough.

After at least an hour (I left mine in the fridge over night), take the dough from the fridge and lightly dust a clean surface with some plain flour and well as lightly dusting your rolling pin with flour as well.

Take a little of your dough and roll it until it is fairly thin, no more that about 4 mm high and put them on trays covered in baking paper and place them in the oven for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

Repeat for the remaining dough.

Once the gingerbreads have cooled, it is time to ice them.

For the icing put your left over egg white to good use by using an electric mixer to mix it until it forms fairly stiff peaks and then sift in the icing sugar and combine. Add in a couple of drops of food colouring if you like. I used a couple of different bowls and added red to one, blue to another and left another white.

The icing part took me a looooong time to get the hang of – not only to get the correct consistency for the icing (add more icing sugar for finer details, water to thin), but also to be able to ice without the snowflakes looking like they had been iced by someone who had just had 7 bottles of vodka. Finally after a about 10 cookies that looked so ugly I made Geoff eat them so they would not see the light of day, I got the hang of it.

I am looking forward to making more soon to practice my icing skills (and because they are delicious!).