GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of November 26

by Adrienne Wilson on

Am I the only one who can’t believe it is December 1st? Where did November go? Where did the year go? How time flashes! If the end of the week managed to sneak up on you as fast as it got me you might want to review some of these posts found here over the week.

5. ABBA Museum to Debut in 2008:
Come on! You can’t tell me you’re not excited by the news. Get your dancing feet to this one to find out the details on the new Sweden based museum.

4. Maps of the World:
Erik brings our attention to the poor quality of maps too often found in guidebooks and then provides some good resources to finding good maps to take on your trip. AAA and another site new to me called, Just Maps are the only two that he mentions, but it’s a good starting place if you’re completely lost.

3.Magnifique Martinique:
Considering how popular the islands become once winter storms start pounding less tropical lands I thought this piece on the French Caribbean island of Martinique needed extra mentioning. It’s high on my travel agenda for that particular region of the world.

2. Garlic Card:
As a child I was never a fan of garlic, but this is mostly due to my aunt draping it in my window to protect me from vampires. I kid you not. However, some people can’t go a day with seasoning their food with a pinch of garlic. Neil brings us information on a Garlic card that can be used to help bring extra flavor and taste to your meals while camping in the great outdoors. I’m sure it will protect you from vampires in the woods as well, if you buy into that stuff.

1. Space Tourism Details Start to Fill In:
Everyone ready to go to space? More and more details are starting to come in on Space Tourism and it even looks somewhat affordable. If you think about $200,000 is a lot more affordable than $20 million bucks.

ABBA Museum to Debut in 2008

by Adrienne Wilson on

Dancing queens and kings get ready to pack your bags and jet off to Stockholm! In 2008 an interactive museum dedicated to legendary Swedish pop group, ABBA will open, allowing fanatics to see the clothing, learn the history and record their own ABBA songs in a studio. Are you dancing yet? Are your feet moving wild with excitement? CNN reports that even though the band hasn’t recorded an album since 1982, ABBA still remains one of the most successful bands in history. They’ve sold 370 million albums worldwide. It took two years to convince the band members that it was a good idea to open an ABBA museum and though they will donate materials for exhibits, they will have no further involvement in the project.

A location is still sought out by museum organizers, but they are sure that when the doors open both the museum and Stockholm’s already ABBA popular city streets should see an impressive number of visitors. I wouldn’t doubt it either.

Word for the Travel Wise (10/22/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Jazz – the music that really gets the gears in my head shifting and my mental motors running. Whenever I put on the music I feel as if I want to do great things, create great things and be great things. Sadly, I’ve never even made my way to a great jazz festival. The Umeå International Jazz Festival taking place in Sweden from October 25-29 looks pretty promising though and will feature artists from all over the world. Wish I could be there.

Today’s word is a Swedish word used in Sweden:

kändisar – famous people

Phrasebase has a decent sound library for several language translations. The downside is I couldn’t find the Swedish equivalent to the English words we already know in written form. I struck gold with this long list of words and phrases used in the country. It includes the good and the bad so be prepared. BBC has the usual mp3 download for the basics. One can find several Swedish radio stations listed here. As always there’s Lonely Planet and their handy pocket phrasebooks.

Past Swedish words: ett askfat, invandrare, bortrest

Swedish Tacos

by Neil Woodburn on

Swedish Tacos?!?!

Whatever happened to meatballs and smorgasbords?

I suppose the answer is globalization yet again.

Gregory Rodriguez, writing for the LA Times, dwells on how the quaint little taco made it all the way to Sweden where the Nordic country is currently undergoing a “taco craze.”

Rodriguez points out that foreign foods are often introduced to local cultures by way of immigrants. Not so with Tacos in Sweden, however. The country has very few Mexicans. Instead, the yummy corn tortilla treat was introduced mostly through American TV shows and movies. Somehow the craze caught on and now, according to one Swede interviewed for the article, local families eat the Mexican specialty at least once a month.

Sweden, once so lily white and homogeneous, can only benefit from such ethnic foods and diversity. I’m such a taco snob, however, I’m not going near the things next time I visit Stockholm. I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe that some blue-eyed Viking named Sven will be able to dish out the same spicy, mouth-burning masterpieces I find at home in Los Angeles. Nope. It’s going to be meatballs and smorgasbords for me. And, maybe a Corona.

Cool Subways

by Erik Olsen on

I ride the New York subway nearly ever day and you know what? I’m not that impressed by it. In a artistic, aesthetically pleasing way, I mean. Sure, there are a few lovely stations around the city. The 79th Street A/C station is amazing. It sits right outside the Museum of Natural History and the interior of the station is decorated with tile mosaic art of various animals, fish and extinct lifeforms. It’s very cool. But take a look around the rest of the city and there’s only a handful where the city has really taken the time to do anything interesting (another cool station is 14th street where the artists Tom Otterness has installed several hundred little brass cartoony statuettes).

But this art-spartan attitude is not the case in other stations around the globe, as in evidence by this post over at coolhunter that shows off some of the more artistically-inspired subways around the world. I have to say in taking a look at these photos that I am most intrigued by Moscow, Munich and Stockholm, none of which I have visited personally…much to my dismay.