Awesome weekend

The weekend is almost over and that is always sad, no matter how much you love your work. But at least I have a day off to look forward to on Thursday when Netherlands enjoys one of its few national holidays. I spent today in the sunshine and burnt myself in my efforts to build up a protective layer of tanned skin for my adventure outside of Europe in June. Fail… Besides that the weekend focused on food and friends.

Fish main course with aubergine brittle on top

Saturday lunch was spent at my favourite restaurant in Haarlem: Lambermon’s. Love it! I had the set lunch menu and chose fish as main course. Especially the aubergine brittle on top seemed to get a lot of attention, sometimes being mistaken for paper. But of course the lovely staff was there to explain.

Starter with gambas, scallops, salmon and hollandaise sauce

The starter has the so far most beautiful presentation I have seen in Lambermon’s. I love the colour of the plate…

Dark chocolate brownie covered with a crème of almonds and clementines. Served with a grapefruit and Underberg sorbet.

This dessert has been the least intriguing for me but I was not disappointed by it. The clementine crème was delicious! But the favourite dessert so far is the one with coconut in it. Then again, I still have to convince someone to try the Grand Dessert with me. Any volunteers?

Updating the blog

I have decided to add some pages to the blog giving tips to anyone planning to visit Haarlem, the Netherlands or Sweden. Myself I always like to look through blogs for travelling tips. Even though there are many websites collecting travel tips it seems that the usual touristy things always pop up at the top of the list. Probably I will not be better but hopefully someone will find the pages useful. The plan is to let the lists grow longer as I find more fantastic places and link my posts to them. Enjoy!

Prototype 2 – The Power of Revenge

I feel that the movie trailers aren’t delivering, they don’t convince me to see more or learn more about the story. Instead it is trailers for games that amazes me and fills me with a need to see more. Watching this trailer on TV I dropped everything I was doing and just watched the story develop in front of me. I get the story, I feel the grief and devastation. And the need to lash out and take revenge.

When is the last time you felt the same about a movie trailer? I can’t remember. Maybe the mainstream movies are too focused on promoting their stars and settles with close-ups of famous faces instead of actually telling a story.

Too bad that most computer games gives me motion sickness…

Take a walk on the Dutch side

Scarecrows in Haarlem

Being nearsighted I saw this in the distance and assumed it was an art installation. Getting closer I realized it is a field protected by colourful scarecrows. Nonetheless, it was beautiful! Walking a bit further I came upon this view… Holland – fantastic despite the moody weather in April.

Dutch surroundings

AMS-CPH

Belonging to the south of Sweden my best option when going back home is travelling between Schiphol (Amsterdam) and Kastrup (Copenhagen). I then take a train from Kastrup to my hometown in Sweden.

As far as airlines goes I prefer SAS (the other options are KLM and Norwegian)for one simple reason: they give you Swedish newspapers (there are also papers available in Danish and English). Oh, the joy of crawling up in bed and for once not being faced with a challenge of paying close attention to what you are reading. The flight is after all short enough to prevent me from reading all the articles in one go. Besides winning me over with a set of newspapers SAS are now handing out coffee or tea for free, yeay!

Newspapers & magazines from Sweden

I also took the opportunity to add two magazines “Mat & vänner” and “Baka”. Obviously they are both about food. I have read “Mat & vänner” before but “Baka” will be a new adventure.

Reading fantasy

While the media is filled with the Hunger Games, Game of Thrones and Twilight I’m dusting off an old fantasy serie.

The Eye of the World, Book one in The Wheel of Time

I started reading the Wheel of Time series when I was a teenager and reading it for the second time it is still fantastic. There are so many details and stories that I want the books to tell me more about. Apparently the last book in the series is planned to be released early 2013, hopefully I’ve gone through the other books by then.

Dutch spring

I guess anyone moving abroad goes through phases that are both good and bad (try fantastic and horrible). That is just what happens when a person becomes an expat or whatever you want to call it. There are things that I don’t understand, things that I really miss about Sweden and things that the Netherlands are awesome at.

Flower field in Lisse

The Netherlands gives you spring like no other country. Flowers show up early and in such numbers to make the countryside smell like perfume. It is simply beautiful! Even when the weather lets you down…