Straight-up Scandinavia: Reindeer and a national holiday up north

by Anna Brones on

In the far north of Sweden lies Lapland, a place known for snow, the summer midnight sun, and lots reindeer. This is the land of the Sami people and today, February 6th, marks the yearly, festive celebration of their national holiday.

An indigenous group of northern Europe, the Sami inhabit large parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. They are known for their reindeer herding, a traditional occupation that has been handed down over generations. Unfortunately this year’s big holiday celebration is marked by a reindeer crisis; almost all of the grazing grounds having been declared disaster zones. Excess snow has led to much of the winter pasture land being inaccessible to the reindeer, and all but two Sami villages have had to apply for catastrophe aid.

The Sami are a strong people however — how else could you cope with almost all day winter darkness? — and despite the dreary reindeer situation, festivities are not being put on hold. Jokkmokk’s yearly market is a center of activity as people from around the region, both young and old, gather to sell traditional crafts to the hordes of tourists that flock in for the occasion. For this northern part of Europe that is stereotypically known for its calm and reserved personalities, the national holiday is an energized event. Elin-Anna Laber was quoted in The Local as saying, “Jokkmokk’s market is sort of a Sami equivalent to Milan fashion week.” Who knew the far north could be so crazy?

Man fakes his own death while surfing in Greece

by Iva Skoch on

At first, it sounded like a great, simple idea. The husband pretends he is dead while the wife collects his life insurance. She will send him money periodically as he assumes new identity abroad. It almost happened that way, Czech press reports.

A Hungarian man, Zoltan Rex, and his wife were vacationing in Greece in 2001, when Zoltan “disappeared” while surfing. Of course, the wife and a few friends were in on the scam and played along. The authorities proclaimed him dead after about a year, but they never found his body. The insurance company, however, refused to pay the roughly $1.3M, because they found it strange that a man would take out several life insurance policies and then disappear. (Note to self: When faking death, remember that insurance companies are not stupid.)

Poor Zoltan escaped to Crete, then Italy, and finally ended up in the Czech Republic, where he lived under the name László Boros until his true identity was discovered last year. The plan never really worked the way they intended. His wife lost hope of ever getting the money and got remarried in 2005.

Now, Zoltan’s only hope is either a) reality show, b) book deal, or c) flourishing career in Eastern European politics.

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US Dollar in 2008: a comeback for the greenback?

by Anna Brones on

A low dollar is incredibly depressing for someone who, much like myself, enjoys traveling to Europe. In order to not fall into the black hole of a personal economic depression last summer when I was living in France, I actually stopped doing mental conversions and just accepted the prices in euros as they were. Example: “That shirt costs 25 euros? Great, that’s close enough to $25” (FYI: it’s not). The situation would have been even worse if the shirt’s price tag was in British pounds. Needless to say, by the end of the summer when I checked my bank account, I got a nice little shock.

Don’t think that all Europeans have been jumping for joy with the low exchange rate. Despite the fact that weekend trips to the good ole US of A now have a nice price tag, tourism is a two way street and Americans visiting the old continent have taken a decrease. The BBC reported today that in December 2007 tourism in London had fallen by 4.1%, which was accredited to the low dollar rate.

Some economists however are currently speculating that the dollar might make a year end comeback towards the latter part of 2008. Jeremy Stretch, the senior currency strategist at Rabobank, gave Americans and the global economy some sense of reassurance when he stated that the dollar could go as low as $1.50 to the euro, but that come the autumn months it could bounce back to $1.35. Add to that a high UK trade deficit and a weakening housing market and those tourists might soon come flocking back to London. As for Americans touring the rest of Europe, we will just have to wait and see.

I want to be excited at the prospect of the dollar regaining some strength, but even at $1.35, that 25 euro shirt is still…. well, I am not going to go there.

Migration junkies, unite.

by Iva Skoch on

Migration Information Source (migrationinformation.org) was started as a hobby by its an American-born editor, Kirin Kalia, 32, who describes herself to the NY Times as “half Dutch, half Indian, 100 percent American and total migration geek.”

The Source covers a wide range of migration topics: from giving advice to asylum seekers through listing the top migration issues facing the world today to focusing on Tajik construction workers in Russia, Latvian mushrooms pickers in Ireland, farmhands from Burkina Faso who pick Ghanaian crops and the Peruvians who take jobs left behind by Ecuadorean workers who have migrated to Spain.

There are about 200 million migrants in the world (probably a record in both relative and absolute terms) and more than 80 percent live outside the United States. I can’t wait ’til we live in a world where everybody is a migrant. It seems like it would eliminate a lot of issues. Go migrants!

Prague under wintry (read depressing) skies

by Iva Skoch on

I was reading the Sunday NY Times article called “Under Wintry Skies, A City Revealed“. It’s just what you would expect: an American writer who lives there is trying to justify living there by telling everybody that the winter there is “really not that bad.” He is listing all the advantages of going to Prague in the winter, as opposed to the summer. They range from “It’s not as touristy” to “It’s not as touristy.”

There is a good reason people don’t come to Prague in the winter. It is cold and gray. It doesn’t snow that much in Prague, so your chances of seeing the Gothic spires covered in snow are slim. Unless this is your fifth time visiting Prague, you have seen all the sights and are just going for the concerts, pub-crawls or food (yes, Prague is emerging as quite the foodie place!), don’t do it!

You often hear people say that the Czech Republic has the same climate as, say New York. This is not true. The biggest difference is the number of days with sunshine. It is not uncommon not to see the sun in Prague for several weeks at a time. Although it might be just as cold in New York, it is much sunnier. If you come for a day or two, you might not find it so depressing, but I usually start going crazy around this time of year…