New hair cut

My mother sent me to her hair dresser this afternoon. Since I've been moving around quite a lot for the past years I haven't quite found a hair dresser of my own, where I go regulary, I've mostly been trying out new ones each and every time. However I would like to tell everyone to go and try this guy out, he's pretty amazing; Urban at Ikon in Göteborg, Sweden.
I'm so very happy about my new color and cut, it's exactly what I was hoping for and it's really cut to fit me!

Photos from Lysekil Women's Match

As promised yesterday, here are some quick shots from Lysekil and the short time the girls actually got to sail in the afternoon.

The boats at rest between winds

Stephanie Roble, USA (with my friend on the crew!^^)

Linda Rahm, Sweden

Camilla Ulrikkeholm, Denmark

Waiting for start

Linda Rahm, Sweden

Caroline Sylvan, Sweden

You can follow the racing live here.

Evening snack

After a beautiful day at the Lysekil Women's Match I came home to a tasty evening snack; crayfish. Yummy!^^

Although we arrived too late to see any real match racing today, we did get a great day at the sea, and we actually did caught a few minutes of sailing when a small breeze came in. I'll add some photos tomorrow.

After sunshine comes rain?

False alarm!^^ we got a rain attack and with it the wind went away... So back to zero again.

Out sailing

Here we go! The girls seemed more than excited to finally get out on the sea... And so are we!

Wind... Maybe?

Arrived in Lysekil. We've found my friend and even got to spend some time with her since the wind is next to inexisting...

Many of the sailors just went down to the boats, maybe there's wind coming in?

Ferry boat

With brazilian lounge, and sun in our eyes we're now waiting for the Ferry to get over to Lysekil... Almost there!

Breakfast

On our way to Lysekil, bunkering up with gas, food and coffee.

Lysekil here we come!^^

Göteborg harbor

Today's walk went down towards the city harbor. And even though I started out quite early the sun was giving me a hard time, so once again a shorter city tour.

A) Vasakyrkan; When I went to Hvitfeldtska high school we used to gather here to celebrate that school was over.

B) Kungsportsavenyn; I think it's so funny to see these almost guard like statues outside Systembolaget (the state owned liquor store).^^

C) Bältespännarparken; (or belt tightener's Park). The statue gave this park it's name. I mostly remember it because we would go ice skating here when I was a kid. I think you can still go ice skating here in winter time.

D) Östra Hamngatan; Over the door to a small sweets shop you find this drawing, showing the street in 1890, before the channel got filled up in 1898. It's quite different don't you think? I prefer it with the channel.

E) GöteborgsOperan; In summer time they have a beautiful terrace restaurant over looking the harbor.

F) Götheborg; This sailing replica of 18th century East Indiaman is the world's largest operational wooden sailing vessel and is now to be admired in the harbor next to the Mongolian Barbeque Restaurant!^^

Ramadan Moubarak

A quick post to wish you all good luck, and lots of warm thoughts for the Moroccan start of the Ramadan.

Photo: Virginie Vézia

Ramadan Moubarak!

A walk in the shadow

As soon as we got back from the island, I felt it was time to go out on another walk around town. It looked like it was about to start raining so I dressed to keep warm and went out.

After about five minutes the sun came out, and you could see the roads fume from rain water condensing in the sunshine, beautiful!
Anyhow, this made me change plans and stay in the shadows as much as possible. One of the reasons why my walk is quite short, and slow. I'll do better next time!^^

So since last time I only put out the map of my walk, I thought this time I'll add a few photos to show you at least a little bit of what I passed by.

Don't mind the numbers, but the letters

A) In Slottskogen you'll find many different species; moose, deer, peacock... and swan, amongst others.

B) When I exited Slottskogen and walked towards Stigberget I noticed several pretty courtyards. Don't forget to be curious and look up on buildings or peek in through portals, you'll get surprised by the beauty of this city.

C) This is the back side of one of the luxury Spas in town; Hagabadet. In the old days, it used to be a public bath and the old name is kept over the doors "Renströmska Bad och Tvättanstalten".

D) Parallel from the above street you'll find the main street in Haga (old town) with plenty of cafés and cosy shops.

E) And to show off at the end, I ran up the stairs between the two Fogelbergs streets. Below these stairs you'll find one of the city's best Hot Dog at "7:ans".

Back to the city pulse

Our little weekend here at Åstol is over and it's time to drive back home. We've been so lucky and have had a more than perfect weekend at the sea, but it's always nice to back in the city pulse (at least that's my opinion) I love when there's lots of people and traffic!^^

Photo source

Good bye Åstol!

Last visit in our old house

Started out the day with a last visit to our old house. I hope the new owners will have many happy moments there just like we did.

Sunset dinner

When you come to Åstol, you can't leave without trying either the smoked shrimp or the smoked salmon. Every summer Åstols Rökeri (Smoke house) organizes delicious smoked shrimp dinner with live music and people from all over the country come here to enjoy these events. Tonight, an Irish group "West of Eden" went on stage with perfect weather conditions.

We only went there for their delicious smoked shrimps, but I must admit, I was quite happy I didn't have to choose (we didn't order a table, and they were more than fully booked so we could only order from the bar menu) because I would have had big problems choosing between the shrimps and the salmon, they're both delicious. And I'm far from being the only one to think so. The Åstol Smoke house has received rewards for being at least Northern Europe's Best Smoke House!

The white houses with black roof at the far end of the photo is the Smoke House.

A beautiful day at Åstol

This is probably the last time I'll ever visit Åstol; this tiny island between Tjörn and Marstrand that from far away only looks like a huge bunch of houses in the middle of the sea.

We've had our summer house here since I was born, and I've spent many summers here growing up, but now this chapter is over and I'm here to enjoy it one last time.

In the harbor

A fisherman's shed

Typical Åstol houses

The old school (no longer in use)

Fire station

Sea side weekend

We're off on a weekend at the sea side with beautiful weather and a light sea breeze... This is why all Swedish expats come back home during summer!

Korean Bulgogi

The dinner is over, the guests seemed happy and the dishes are done ... and I'm stuffed!^^
As I said earlier we; it was Korean beef Bulgogi on the menu tonight, with side dishes like Marinated Turnip, Zucchini with grilled sesame grains and of course cabbage kimchi.
But you don't need to make plenty of side dishes to have Bulgogi, you can definitely do it more Westernized with maybe some rice and a salad or so.

Here's how it's made: (6 persons)
- 1 200 g sliced beef (nice and tender piece)

Marinade:
- 4 garlic cloves (squeezed)
- 3 tablespoons of leek (finely chopped)
- 1 tea spoon of black pepper
- 3 tablespoons of sesame oil (or corn oil)
- 6 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

Mix the marinade and put the finely sliced beef in over night.
Next day; heat up some oil in a frying pan (or if you have a real bulgogi frying pan). Add some chopped yellow onion and finely sliced leek (if possible the green parts), add the meat in small portions to avoid it getting to wet and boiled instead of fried.

See... I told you it's easy... and 정말 맛있다!^^ (REALLY yummy!^^)

Korean Family dinner

Tonight we are inviting my aunts and uncles for Korean Bulgogi, and of course to show off my Hangeul skills, the name tags are in Korean!^^

Discover Göteborg by foot

Well, the power walk didn't kill me, and as they say anything that doesn't kill you, makes you stronger... which is probably a very suiting thing to say about sports and exercise!^^
This Endomondo function is, by the way, a lot of fun when you're out walking. Every kilometer it tells you your speed and elapsed time to keep you motivated.
I ended up walking 8.79 km in 82 minutes. And yes, I need to brag about this since it's probably just as much exercise in one day that I managed to do in maybe the last 6 months altogether!

Anyhow, this wasn't really the main idea, bragging about by physical condition... I've discovered a lovely, and healthy, way of discovering my home city and I've decided to make a new route every day (or maybe not EVERY day) in order to see something new and exciting every time i exercise.

Today's path

Today I spent walking to the neighborhood where I grew up, walking my old path to school and rediscovered quite some childhood memories, and like always, a lot of new routes I didn't know existed!^^

From the time in Stora Gårda; Örgryte

Endomondo; walking buddy

Second day in a row; I'm out power walking! My body already hurts from yesterdays walk... I really need to exercice more often than one week per year.
This year's resolution; start exercising... Haha!^^