WE ♥ COPENHAGEN - An Inspo Essay

The beautiful thing with having a steady full time job in Sweden is that on public holidays, you get to be paid for doing whatever you want, since you are free for those days without it having to affect your paycheck. This might be old news to some, but for us youngsters, at our first few years in the grown up world, this is nothing short of magic.

Good thing number two with living in Gothenburg, Sweden is, even though the winters are pretty much monkey poop and the people are shyer than any other culture's most introvert people, that there are great possibilities to flee the country for a day without breaking the bank.

A few click and we had booked our trip to

COPENHAGEN, 
DENMARK 

a day for photographing, increasing our HRC-pin collection 

and losing Felicia's Christiania virginity - entering the grounds, we mean! 

....? 

The day in pictures, are you ready? 

INSTAXPIRATION EXTRAVAGANZA

Our little baby is now about 2 months old and it's crazy how much we've already grown fond of it. We might have spent... 800? (Or is it more?) SEK already on feeding and a couple of bucks for accessories. 

But it has been worth it. The feeling when the picture slowly appears on the piece of shiny paper is nothing short of magic. 

One of the few white walls at our place had to act gallery for the best snapshots of Barcelona. 

OUR WORST TRAVELING EXPERIENCE

Okey. So I've dragged myself from writing this story, but I think it deserves to come out to the light, finally. Partly because it might turn from a terrible memory to one we can laugh about, and partly so we can shread some light over the poor police system in China. Or the poor system in general in China.

But it was an experience. It sure was. 

See? Still pulling myself from doing it. Only now, I can't possibly deliver a story that lives up to the level of horribleness I've led on, so I better just tell it. 

THIS IS THE STORY ABOUT 
HOW WE GOT LOCKED IN A NATIONAL PARK 

...IN INNER CHINA 

PROJECT FIKA: Princesscake - Mission failed

We are now at part three of our Fika project and the idea was to widen our testgroup a little by adding the third Axelsson sibling: The 16 year old Victor aka. our baby brother.

The five of us were going to explore the old Swedish luxury-ish konditori ("patisserie") Ahlströms and snap some pretty pics of the very photogenic Princesscake, a creation of 50 % whipped cream and layers of jam, custard and spongecake, drapped with a luscious green marzipan cover.

ALL OUR BEST PICTURES FROM BARCELONA

To make it easier for y'all, we now give you the opportunity to either just scroll down, look at the pretty pictures and be done with inspiration-gathering (after you left a comment, off course!) 

OR 

you can scroll down, be inspired and explore more of Barcelona on Suitcasepacking by clicking the teal links. 

Greeeat right? 

As ush, click click click to make the pictures bigger!

AT THE BUNKERS DE CAN BARÓ

When having done their research prior to Barcelona, they thought they had all the great places nailed to their bucket list. You know, Park Güell, Sagrada Familia, Montserrat...

So when Dani in the lobby said he liked to give them tips on what to in the city, they said yes just to be polite.
...Yes, the heroines of this story can be a tad too smug sometimes... Because Dani of course had a whole list of off-the-tourist-track things to do, like the hidden bar behind the sandwich shop Pastrami and the Bunkers de Can Baró.

Bunkers? Like in the war? The girls were intrigued, and accepted his google maps-print outs, adding it to their checklist for the trip.

HOW MUCH CAN BARCELONA 4 DAYS REALLY COST?

As you know by now, we are no so keen on living on our very lowest financial limits. We do love to live cheap but get the most out of it, aka traveling Suitcasepacking style,
and I'm proud to say we kind of have an excellent example of that from our recent Barcelona trip.

- DO TAKE NOTICE! - 

This budget is accounted without flight prices. 

The reason for this is that we have readers not only from our home town, so that information would make this budget useless for a many of those who will read this. 

ART DECO meets WONDERLAND: Introducing PARK GÜELL

Pinterest sure has been a bigger influense in my plans and goal than it maybe should have. After finding amazing pictures, I pin them to my board "Oh the places I wanna go" and then they're stuck. I have no choice but to go there. 

That compulsive behavior led us to the inner China last year, seeing places I didn't even know exsisted for real before pinterest showed me they did. 

So even though I had been in Barcelona once before, I had no idea this kind of scenery could be found outside a Disneyland before I found a picture on Pinterest. It's quite an amazing world to live in compared to a couple of years ago. Before internet, there are just so many places I wouldn't have had the chance to see. 

But enough sentimental blabbering now. If I were you, I'd ask me to shut up and just keep the pictures coming. If you are looking for info on how to get here and stuff, there is a section for it in the end.

DAYTRIP: MONTSERRAT... & tapas & wine

Up on a mountain, long ago, a priest found a carving of a virgin mary. The priest wanted to take this holy piece home to his chapel to increase his power and wealth, but as farther he came from the place where the virgin was found, the heavier the statue became. Eventually, the statue became so heavy he could not carry it one bit further, so the priest realized that God had told him that the statue's rightful home was where he found it. The priest carried it back and instead started to build his church around it.

"And that is the story about Montserrat." our guide Francesco told us as we drove on the winding roads in the shadow of the mountain's ridge, on our way up to the legendary castillo. The mountain itself was impressive enough, towering like the back of a dragon.

"Monserrat mountain was Gaudí's biggest source of inspiration." Francesco continued and my heart purred in the chest. Gaudí had already become the biggest source of inspiration in my imaginary future carrier as a painter, so to see the place that made him create such beautiful pieces was going to be breathtaking.

Also, we were going to get wine. Which might not at all have something to do with the level of pepp we were feeling when the bus finally stopped in the scenic area.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.

BARCELONA FROM THE SKY

THE FIKA PROJEKT: Eating the gigantic KANELBULLE of Haga

THE FIKA PROJECT: PART TWO

In our attempt to try and mastering the art of Fika in Gothenburg, we were bound to cross paths with this famous mutated baked good at some point. 

The concept is really simple - you take the typical Swedish cinnamon bun and make it about 4-5 times bigger. When we started The Fika Project, Felicia pitched ideas on what to eat and where to Julia and Jonas, and when she said "..Oh, and so the gigantic kanelbulle in Haga, naturally..." Jonas admitted He. Had. Never. Been. In. Haga. 

THAT WAS THE UTTEREST FORM OF DISGRACE TO YOUR GOTHENBURGIAN HERRITAGE, 

Julia and Felicia thought and off course also told him so, and the next stop on the Fika-map was set. 

WHEN LIFE IS LEMON-ISH, TAKE A WEEKEND TRIP - 24 hours in Stockholm

Although Gothenburg is The Best Swedish Town - true story -, we do come second in one area: the musical scene, as in having more than one musical currently playing. Because of that, we had to go all the way to the grand capital to see the Swedish production of Book of Mormon. 

We had the fortune to stay at relatives, as Jörgen, Felicia's mother's boyfriend, so kindly opened up his home to us. 

When trainprices are what they are, our two night stay resulted in only one day in Stockholm, as the cheapest train left from Gothenburg at 8 pm friday night and the return trip started early sunday morning. But even though that, we had time to spend 24 great hours in Stockholm. 

Here's our day. 

SWEDISH TRADITIONS: Celebrating 'Semledagen'!

Sweden isn't known for being particularly nationalistic - actually quite the opposite. The national anthem has been changed and banned several times and many swedes don't even know when the national day is.
But what Swedes lack in engagement for the calendrial holidays, they more than make up for with their excitement for the.. The calendrial sweetdays.

One Swedish tradition in particular is celebrted with banners and fanfares - and with good reason: 

SEMLEDAGEN

JULIA & JONAS PRESENTS: TAIPEI IN PICTURES pt 1

This is a part of our series 

TRAVEL CORRESPONDENCES, 

where our friends provide us with pictures from their fantastic trips abroad to help us spread inspiration.

This digital postcard comes from JULIA & JONAS, Felicia's sister and her boyfriend Jonas, from when they were in Taiwan this autumn.  

After enjoying the many quirky cafées and bustling city of Seoul, Julia and Jonas had a more serious agenda to take care of; 19 years ago, Jonas got adopted from Taiwan, and this was the pilgrimage back to see if he could get in contact with his biological parents. 

Did they succed in finding his birth parents? 

THE FAULT IN OUR TRAVELING GENERATION

We live in a fantastic world in a fantastic time. Boarders are open, a lot of people have the economy and social media opens up to new views we had no idea about.

In our whole life, we have know we were bound to leave at some point. We saw these possible futures with stars in our eyes, only thinking about the sights we were one day to see. I remember being 9 years old and saying that I will one day move out of here, to learn languages and meet new cultures.

THE ULTIMATE QUICK-GUIDE TO SOUTH EAST ASIA FIRST-TRIPPERS

- PLEASE NOTE! POST STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION! -

Mona called Felicia one day.
"Hey, I looked at your blog for some inspiration on South East Asia in general now when I'm going to Singapore, but... I kind of just want a post with the most essential tips. Do you guys have anything like that that I just havn't found yet?"

Sadly, we were forced to respond with a no, we don't have that on our webpage. Yet. But it was a really inspirational idea and we sat down immediately to sketch on a post.

The thing was, there is sooo much to know before going, there could be a whole book about it. And there is. Countless of them. Therefor we decided to boil it down and personalize it up a bit from the ordinary backpacker's guidebook - after all, we are not your ordinary backpacker. 

Even though we are being typically-Swedish-modest, this (awesome) GUIDE still INCLUDES

- Personal fails and how to avoid them

- How to trick both cookies and swindlers

- How to not be The Dumb Tourist

- 

Here we go. 

ALKEMISTEN - A Café Story

THE STORY ABOUT THE SUMMER PALACE IN BEIJING

Once upon a time in China, 

two Swedes were on a tourist trail,

searching for the not-at-all-hidden treasures 

and ended up in the Summer Palace in 

BEIJING

What waited them was not lurging mystery 

or etheral fog tucking the grounds in 

with acients stories, 

no, 

because the two Swedes had been out for quite a long time now

and were frankly quite tired of old buildings 

so they did what they do best

and strolled and strolled and strolled 

and took staged photos and ignored the signs in broken English 

and ate one or two really disgusting hotdogs

(seriously China, what do you put in those?!?)

and the day was not perfect 

or forever memorable, 

but quite nice and comfortable 

and visually pleasant 

and that is certainly good enough