Swedish Nerd Vs. The World

I thought Georgia, the country and not the American state, would be heaven on earth since I saw the pictures of the capital Tbilisi. It combined old with modern, and it seemed both cultural and vibrant and everything I love about a city. Maybe I even move there one day I thought, that was until I went there. When we arrived at 05.00 in the morning without being able to sleep during the night flight, we were welcomed by someone shooting fireworks at the parking lot at the airport. Then we took the bus that would take us into town and we realized that half the bus were homeless people who used the bus as shelter during the night. When we got off the bus I realized how worn down the city was and it reminded me of Chișinău in Moldova, which is the poorest country in Europe. When we got down to the center of the old town it suddenly became what I had seen in the pictures and maybe we had just seen the worst of it on our way down. But it turned for the worse again as quickly as w...

I already knew the answer would be no when I asked my friend Andreas if he wanted to go to Georgia, because he's not crazy like me. Instead of saying no he asked if we could go to Azerbaijan too, so he could see the Caspian Sea, so I guess he's the crazy one. We arrived at the Azerbaijan border in a 1st class cabin on the night train going to the capital Baku from Georgias capital Tbilisi. Custom officers were searching the train with dogs and asked questions like "have you been to Armenia?", the neighbouring country that they don't see eye to eye with. It felt like being in old Soviet Union with officers not showing any emotions accompanied by German shepherds and we had to sit up for hours in our beds to show respect. Officers were lurking outside the train in the dark too if anyone would try to escape. We got called into another room and got photographed and answered some questions while we showed our e-Visa and passport to a guy who had some kind of compute...

My friend Andreas and I had recently been to Azerbaijan when we arrived at the Armenian border from Georgia by car. We knew we would be questioned about our trip to Azerbaijan since Armenia don't see eye to eye with their neighbouring country and even though the war has pretty much ended, you can tell that the conflict isn't solved. The custom brought it up when they saw the stamp from Azerbaijan but it actually went much smoother than I had imagined and soon we were on the way to the first stop on the road trip in the northern parts of the country. Haghpat is a small village which is notable for Haghpat Monastery, a religious complex founded in the 10th century and included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The monastery is a magnificent example of medieval Armenian architecture and the surroundings are beautiful with high mountains and deep valleys. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been too and I had also enjoyed the harsh surr...

I had a feeling that my friend Erik, who would go with me to Vienna, wouldn't enjoy my architectural interest in Austria's capital. Most people don't want to go around looking at houses, so I was happy to hear that he had the same interest. Erik had arrived earlier than me since he was flying from Denmark's capital Copenhagen while I flew from Gothenburg in Sweden. He had already been to some of the museums that I had no interest in when I met him at our hotel. We hit the streets and we went to the Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment house built after the idea and concept of artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who is my favourite Austrian designer.  The house features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a divine melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it...

It's the world's smallest country and they even call it Vatican City and not Vatican Country themselves. I wouldn't even call it a city, it's more a part of the Italian capital Rome that is dedicated to Roman Catholicism. It's home to the pope and about 1000 others, and the tourists are as many because of famous paintings in the Sistine Chapel. My ex-girlfriend Felicia and I went to Rome for a weekend and we rented a room in an apartment close to the Vatican. I had heard that there was a dress code for women that they have to cover up to enter the Vatican and not be lightly dressed. Felicia was in her summer dress so just outside the Vatican she would change to a sweater and pants to cover up, and she hated to do so because of the heat, and of course because it's ignorant to not let people wear what they want to.  I knew I couldn't go there in shorts either but I always wear black jeans no matter how warm it is, so it was no trouble for me. After ...

As soon as I stepped out from the airport in San Francisco it felt like coming home. It was like I was inside all those movies I had seen through the years, everything felt familiar even though I had never been there before. On our way into the city, Christian and I passed by the ghettos in a minibus and it was clear to me that the difference between rich and poor is a lot bigger than in Sweden. Our hotel was one street off from the heart of the city and that street was full of homeless persons strolling their carts, while the police sirens were on 24/7. As soon as you got passed that street you were suddenly in a big city center where you couldn't even believe there was something called poverty. The contrast was so big. The first thing we ate was pizza and it was disgusting. I would quickly understand that USA is the home of burgers and not pizza. The vegetarian burgers were amazing, especially at Denny's. Big isn't always better Since San Francisco is so ...