On the road

My 2012 Olympics experience

Okay, so I didn't make it to London for the 2012 Olympics.

I'm afraid that, until recently, what I associated the most with OL 2012 was London winning the privilege of hosting it back in July 2005. It was 6 July 2005. As I was working for Visit Britain at the time it was a day of much celebration, lots of media attention and long hours. Then came 7 July 2005 and the devastating terror attacks in London, and I've been unable to separate those two events in my mind since.

But as it happened I was in Bristol for a media blogging conference when London held its amazing opening cermony for the 2012 Olympics this weekend.

I flew in to Heathrow on the opening day, Friday 27 July, and the flight was buzzing with happy people on the way to see the Olympics and looking forward to it.

I'm not too surprised though, to read that lots of people stay away from London during the event, causing a surprising dip for the tourist industry elsewhere in London - it's exactly what happened during the total solar eclipse in Cornwall in August 1999. With all the media warnings about impeding traffic chaos and full hotels, tourism to the region was actually down rather than up that month compared to previous years. It's too early to tell if that will be the situation in London during the Olympics too, but I was going to talk about Bristol.

Because, as it happened, there was a huge gathering at Anchor Square at Bristol Quayside, a big screen broadcasting the opening cermony and the Olympics in general and a great atmosphere.

A perfect, and very unexpected way, to see the opening cermony for me.  

Here's what it looked like  on the eve of the opening cermony (I regretted not bringing an external blitz, only my pocket camera):

And here's what it looked like the following morning (when I was on my way from the hotel to the conference, and there was no Olympic sports on yet):

Oh, and it was the UK so of course the hotel room came with tea and coffee making facilities - which made me very happy.

What I was not so happy about was the internet set-up: £9 for 24 hrs wi-fi access or one hour of free wi-fi per drink purchased in the hotel bar. The latter, an hour of internet per purchased drink, was all new to me and I'm not so sure it worked as the hotel bar was constantly empty... or maybe those purchasing drinks there took their drinks straight to the hotel room to make use of the internet time. Strange policy.

Streets of London

I just got back from a working weekend in London, and after spending some 18hrs+ travelling from Oslo to London and back I can't fanthom how I once thought commuting Oslo-London perfectly agreeable.

It was good to be back in London, somehow the city will always feel like home, and yet on this trip I felt glad I didn't live there anymore. That might of course be down to how I've recently found myself the loveliest flat in Oslo, in an old wooden house from 1700.

I feel grateful every day for living where I live now: I have apple trees outside my window, a fireplace in the kitchen and a four-legged neighbour called Marlon Brando. Life's very good here, and even the insulation and plumbing, despite the age of the house, is great - something you can't say for much of London's housing.

And yet, I feel nostalgic whenever I go to London and always wish I had more time to just goof around and catch up with old friends and old haunts.

Talking of old haunts, I stayed two nights in the Grafton, where I'd eaten once or twice when my ex worked nearby, and the hotel was better than the food it serves;-) As the hotel is on Tottenham Court Road I thought it'd be in perfect walking distance from Centre Point, the venue I was due to be at Friday night, but as I was stupid enough to get new shoes for the do I still ended up taking a taxi.

Here's a very traditionally British scene I walked past on my way to meet up with a friend in Chelsea:

Also, I can't seem to get this song out of my head these days:

Visiting bear country

Actually, the only bear I encountered during my stay at "The Bear Park" in Flå, Norway, were ones made of stone, like the one below.

But my visit there last weekend was notable beacause it was the first time I've ever stayed in a hotel situated in a shopping mall. As a friend noted, having hotel breakfast in the mall while the first customers of the day invaded the stores was... well... novel. The rooms were okay though, and the company, I was there to give a talk on iPad to a regional branch of the journalist union, was great. But atmosphere? Well, I guess you could say staying in a shopping mall in the middle of nowhere is kind of exotic...

Robbet på Oslo S

I de maks ti minuttene det gikk fra lommeboka mi ble stjålet til jeg oppdaget det og sperret kortene mine rakk tyvene å tappe de for over 15000. Helt vanlig, sier politiet. Et klassisk triks, skriver VG Nett.

Siden jeg oppdaget tyveriet og sperret kortene mine så raskt gikk jeg til sengs onsdag kveld og tenkte at jammen var det dumt å bli frastjålet en lommebok men tross alt gikk det bra: tyvene tjente ingen penger på det. Så feil kan man ta, for da jeg logget meg på nettbanken dagen etter oppdaget jeg at over 15000 var borte fra kortene mine, og jeg var pengelens. 

Hvordan kunne det skje? Jeg har aldri skrevet ned bankkoder noe sted, og da jeg brukte det ene kortet mitt siste gang var det ingen personer bak eller ved siden av meg. Jeg mangler tydeligvis fantasi, for da jeg snakket med politiet sa de at de kunne ha stått med kikkert i trappa bak meg eller etasjen over meg, og at dette videre er en helt vanlig fremgangsmåte.

Jeg som har bodd så mange år i London trodde jeg var streetwise, men det ser ut som om jeg har gått på mer enn et klassisk triks. Det hadde seg slik at jeg kjøpte en togbillett fra automat, tastet inn koden min for å gjør det, puttet lommeboka tilbake i veska og dro igjen glidelåsen, før jeg skyndte meg ned til plattformen for å rekke buss for tog. I rulletrappa på vei ned til plattformen er det en øst-asiatisk mann foran meg med koffert som ser ut som om han mister solbrillene sine helt nederst i trappa. Jeg blir slengt mot ham, de bak meg mot meg, og jeg frykter at vi alle skal ramle overende.

Det skjer ikke. Han mumler en keitete unnskyldning og jeg haster videre til bussen hvor jeg oppdager at veska mi er åpen og lommeboka borte. Ikke nøkler og mobiltelefon, bare lommebok. Visstnok en helt klassisk fremgangsmåte. Hvis det er i den rulletrappa lommeboka ble stjålet har de klart å bruke kortene mine mindre enn fem minutter etter at lommeboka ble stjålet. Går det an?

En annen viktig oppdagelse for meg er at når sånt skjer er man fortapt uten venner og familie. For det hjelper ikke hvor raskt man handler når sånt skjer eller hvor godt forsikret man er: det er ingen som hjelper deg når du står der uten penger. Ikke bank, ikke forsikringsselskap. Du har vel noen venner som kan overføre litt penger, sier de i banken. Joda, jeg har tilfeldigvis det. Heldigvis. Men stakkars den som ikke har det...  

NB: f.o.m. fredag 21:00 forhåndsmodereres alle kommentarer inntil videre. Dvs de publiserers først når jeg er foran PC'n igjen og har lest gjennom og godkjent dem.

A hotel suited for business women

I've always wondered why so many hotels, even those claiming to be business hotels, are so ill equipped for the business traveller's needs, especially the female business traveller's needs, so I was delighted to stay in Stockholm's Scandic Malmen recently.

No, there were no tea- or coffee making facilities in my room, it was after all a Swedish hotel. Scandinavian hotels, especially Norwegian and Swedish ones, are very frustrating in this respect - especially to those of us spoiled by travelling a lot in the UK where even the simplest B&B usually has such facilities. BUT - and this is truly a big but - Scandic Malmen had hairdryers and ironing facilities in the room, which was a great surprise as far too few Scandinavian hotels have this.

More often the hotels I've stayed in in the region will only have a trouser presser in the room, and I've always wondered how you iron a shirt with that - cause even business men use shirts, right? Anyway, this post was not supposed to be about my frustrations with Scandinavian hotels as I actually liked hotel Scandic Malmen a lot. It even had a free coffee vending machine in the reception and sold diet coke in the reception too, which sort of catered for my caffeine addiction even if I had to go down to the reception to feed it.

Also, the breakfast was really nice with lots of fresh products, included freshly ground coffee, and the rooms were nice (held in old romantic Swedish style). A Lebanese friend even had her room upgraded to a Queen suite with no extra charge. All in all, I'd love to stay here again - it's a 30min walk from the central station, but it's a nice walk - that is, if I can't find a reasonably priced hotel with tea- and coffee making facilities in the rooms...

   

Photo by me from Gamla Stan (the old city) in Stockholm snapped with my mobile phone camera while walking from the hotel to the central station

Dårlige tider i NSB

Har du noen gang drømt om å skrangle gjennom tunellene fra Bergen og opp på fjellet i stummende mørke med småbarn som hyler og gråter i redsel?

Ikke? Det var ikke et scenario jeg hadde drømt om heller, hverken i gode eller vonde drømmer. Når sant skal sies hadde jeg ikke helt forestilt meg det som en mulighet før jeg tok toget hjem fra Bergen og Mediedagene tidlig i mai.

Nå fant heldigvis togpersonalet en bryter eller sikring etter mye om og men, for lyset kom på sånn omtrent da vi var kommet gjennom de fleste tunellene opp mot fjellet. Det var sikkert et uhell, og vi vet jo alle at uhell skjer de beste, men jeg fikk nok en overraskelse da de kom trillende med en serveringsvogn gjennom toget. For hva med restaurantvogna jeg hadde gledet meg til å innta middag i mens vi kjørte over vidda? Nei, slikt hadde de ikke på dette toget må vite (mot normalt: de har alltid kjørt med restaurantvogn de andre gangene jeg har tatt den syv timer lange turen fra Bergen til Oslo).

Togpersonalet beklaget det så mye, og beklaget nok en gang da jeg spurte hvorfor jeg ikke fikk opplyst om den manglende restaurantvognen da jeg bestilte togbillettene. Det hadde seg nemlig sånn at vi kjørte i et av de eldste togsettene til NSB. Det var videre tatt en avgjørelse om bare å bruke en serveringsvogn på denne avgangen i et par uker og togpersonalet hadde ikke nådd frem med ønsket om at det ble opplyst om dette ved bestilling av billetter. I det minste ikke på daværende tidspunkt. Faktisk ble jeg oppfordret til å sende inn en skriftlig klage, slik at de kanskje endret det.

Hyggelig personale, fantastisk tur - som alltid - men hadde jeg visst at det bare ble solgt tørre sandwich og sånn ombord ville jeg kanskje unt meg et par timer til i solfylte Bergen og tatt en senere avgang, eller i det minste kjøpt med meg mat på forhånd ... akk, ja... men utsikten kan ingen klage på:

 

Night train to Bergen

 

The train ride from Oslo to Bergen is so scenic that it's really a pity to sleep through it, but we drove through the night so it was too dark to see much until we were approaching Bergen at dawn  (this photo was snapped with my mobile phone camera somewhere close to Voss). I can't say I slept that well on this journey, but I was glad I reserved a bed for the night as it sure beats trying to sleep through the journey sitting upright. In either case, as I booked my trip to Bergen for the nordic media festival (nmd) when the volcanic ash crisis was at its worst, I thought it safest to opt for train rather than plane - not at least taking into account how hard I had to struggle to get to Bergen to cover nmd in 2008...

Scandinavian hotel WITH coffee in the room

In my experience, a Scandinavian hotel with tea- and coffee making facilities in the room is so rare a treat that when I discovered this perfectly agreeable tray with coffee, tea and a water cooker, I immediatly called down to the reception and booked another night. Seriously. I stay in hotels quite frequently when I'm travelling for work, and as I'm always there to work I get so disappointed when, even in business hotels, there's no tea- and coffee making faclities in the room because I tend to get up in the wee hours to write. I really need a cup of coffee to get going, and I quite like a cup of tea at the end of a busy day too. Of course, there was no milk to go with the tea, and now ironing equipment either, but other than that this hotel had it all, even free Wifi;-)

 

Ferry across the ice and other hotel views

Okay, so there was no ferry running when I took this shot of the view from my hotel (we're at Stabbestad, Norway, here, looking over at Kragerö), but you can see the tracks in the ice where the ferry is supposed to run (two ferries were in for repair when we were here, causing all sorts of inconvenvience for the locals).

Very nice hotel, though I have to admit I managed to spend 20 hours in this gorgeous SPA hotel without actually finding time to try out the SPA facilities. That's work for you, but work that puts me in such a splendid hotel with a fun crowd of journalists is nonethesame very agreeable.

As I headed down for dinner Friday night I was expecting that, dining with a group of local journalists, it would be an evening filled with talks about the latest cost cuts and general state of local journalism, but boy was I wrong. Instead much of the talk centered on who had fathered the children, and who were thought to have fathered the children, of various local journalists, in addition to other bits of gossip which made for an unexpexted, yet colourful, change of topic to what I usually find myself chatting about at media events.