snapshots from stockholm & utö

Before I head to another destination this coming weekend, let me close the chapter of my recent Swedish soiree. As most of you would know, I was in Stockholm for a week to attend the Europride and just enjoy the Scandinavian capital I fell in love with the first time. It was raining sporadically during this holiday but that didn’t stop us and a throng of thousands from viewing the Pride Parade. We also managed a bit of shopping, sightseeing, and dining. 

I have mentioned in an earlier post that we were to watch Kate Ryan in concert, but tickets were sold out. We, however, were able to see some of Sweden’s biggest artists like the handsome Jude Law-ish Måns Zelmerlow and 90’s duo Right Said Fred (yeah, you read that right) at the Pride Park grounds.

A couple of days were spent out in the Stockholm archipelago on a beautiful island called Utö. Sadly, the weather was not as beautiful as it rained the days we were there, but we managed to entertain ourselves indoors with a boardgame and a pool table.

Here are some photos (this number is nothing compared to the actual number I took) and this is a heavy post, so I hope your connection allows you to enjoy these images of Stockholm and Utö.

   

 

 

           

 

 

  

Thanks for looking!

in transit: stockholm & utö, sweden

Knut and I will fly to Stockholm tomorrow and will be away for one week to attend the festivities of Europride 2008 including a concert of delicious dance music singer Kate Ryan at the Cafe Opera. We’ll end the mini-holiday with a two-day respite at Utö, an island east of the Stockholm archipelago.

Here’s Kate Ryan’s latest single, a dance-ified version of France Gall’s Ella Elle L’a. Enjoy and see you all in a week!

iphty

I haven’t been in the mood for blogging lately that I probably haven’t told you:

That Oslo Pride or Skeive Dager happened the last week of June and all activities led up to a Pride Parade, which was followed by a Eurovision-inspired show and competition in the Pride Park. The colorful event also marked a milestone in gay history. Norwegian legislation passed a law that grants gay men and lesbians in Norway the same rights as heterosexuals to marry and to adopt children. This called for dancing and we took our heels to Rockefeller, site of the official Pride Party. The concert venue was transformed into three halls of dancefloors catering to different tunes and spinning DJs, and labyrinths of interspersed light and shade, dance and stance.

   

That I went to Tusenfryd, an amusement park just right outside Oslo with Neil, Axel and Arild and we had an afternoon of fun in the sun, well, just right before the rain showered us while watching Alejandro Fuentes in concert.

That I finally got to see Sex and the City the Movie and Knut and I had a little New York-inspired early evening prior. We hailed a taxi which took us to a tapas and champagne bar called Champagneria in fashionable Frogner. We had tapas of spiced meatballs, sesame-seared scallops on shallot marmelade, chorizo with estragon-preserved melon and patatas bravas. True to Carrie & Co.’s trademark, we finished the meal with Cosmopolitans.

That I was issued a 6-month multiple entry tourist visa to the UK and that Neil and I are going to London the 4th weekend of August. We’re booked at the fashionable boutique hotel Threadneedles in The City.

That Mamma Mia is probably this year’s feel-good summer movie and that Meryl Streep was just adorable playing the role of an independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island and got the surprise of her life when her soon-to-wed daughter invited three of her former flames in the hopes of finding her real father. It’s sentimental at times, but is ultimately funny. It will probably make you sing a tune or two. And make you wanna go to Greece!

That I got nominated in the 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards for Best Pop Culture Blog, Best Travel Blog and Best Blog of All Time. If you feel you enjoy reading my blog and I deserve a vote or two, please head on over to the BCA website and cast your lovely votes!

bravo! bravo! bravo!

Mona Lisa. Marilyn Monroe. Gene Kelly. Stevie Wonder. Eminem. Gloria Gaynor. Maria Callas. Snow White. Ozzy Osbourne. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Nancy Sinatra. Bollywood Star. The Supremes. Whitney Houston. Tina Turner. The Three Tenors. Peggy Lee. Doris Day. Dolly Parton. Madonna. Celine Dion. The Titanic. King Tut. Cher. Gregorian Chants. Elvis Presley. Liza Minelli. The Statue of Liberty and more. All in 6 minutes.

Ennio Marchetto is brilliant!!!

Source: OMG

manila, philippines: the next seven days

Thanks for dropping by and for all your comments in my previous entry. The weather here in Manila has been completely fine, with sparse cloudy and sunny days. The last week has been a whirlwind of activities, what with three of my friends from Norway swinging by Manila from their holidays in Pattaya and Cebu.

Tuesday, I coerced (haha!) Liz to join me for dinner at Bebang’s new house in Marikina, and we were expecting several others to come but everyone seemed to have fallen off the gutter one by one. Anyway, it was so sweet of Bebang to prepare food for the night, carbonara and chicken lollipops with salsa. Liz and I brought with us sticks of barbequed pork, so we were all stuffed at the end of the day.

Thursday night my friends Keng and Stein arrived from Thailand and my brother and I picked them up at the airport. Call it the famous Filipino hospitality. :) They brought with them Knut’s Christmas gift from Oslo, and I just can’t wait until Christmas to open it. Haha! Friday saw the three of us meeting at their hotel in bohemian Malate and heading to Mall of Asia, where we had lunch at Bangus (milkfish) – Keng got the Bangus Bistek (fish belly in soya sauce and onion rings), Stein got the spring chicken (haha! he’s the seafood skeptic), and I got Bangus Sisig (flakes of fish served on a sizzling platter with chili, seasoned with soya sauce and lime).

Boys, boys, boys. We’re looking for a good time.

My other friend from Norway, Neil, joined us later that day for dinner and a nightout in the gay streets of Malate. We had a table at Cafe Adriatico, a dining institution in Malate, that serves Spanish and Filipino delicacies. I ordered Salpicao (tenderloin chunks in olive oil on a bed of garlic rice), Keng had tiger prawns, while Neil and Stein both ordered Adobo, probably known as the national dish of the Philippines. Afterwards, we headed to the O Bar on Orosa Street for some outdoor drinking. Just a warning, ask your waiter what’s available before you order because they don’t have most of the items on their menu. We ended up drinking beer, tequila and vodka cocktails, and glasses of margarita. My friend from Manila, Dict, joined us there too.

Before…

Afterwards, we headed to the club Bed, where half-naked men gyrate on the stage and people dance to the lights and sounds and get lost in a sea of smoke. It’s better than Oslo’s gay clubs London and Elsker, with its mezzanine, tank-topped servers, and nicer toilets. We all had fun. We all danced on the stage beside those sexy, sweaty boys. We all had coke rum for drinks. And we partied in Manila Central that night.

… and after.

With only a few hours of sleep, I picked up Keng and Stein at their hotel Saturday and headed to Makati for some shopping at Greenbelt and Glorietta. Keng wanted to take the local mode of transportation in the roads of Manila – the jeepney – so we took one along Taft Avenue, before transferring to the cool confines of a taxi for the final mile to our destination.

We had late lunch at Recipes in Greenbelt, where I had a hurried chance encounter with Dats. Afterwards, we stormed Glorietta and the two just started buying clothes and shoes. There were so many nice shoes everywhere! And they cost only the third of the price in Oslo. I’m thinking of buying myself another pair, I’m eyeing a tweed Puma slip-on in light brown. I left them at 5 pm, when I met another friend Nickko and the two of us headed to meet my brother at Market! Market!, and later my family at the Duty Free Fiesta Mall.

We ended late that night and got home around 3 am, after having late dinner at TGI Friday’s in Bonifacio High Street. Sunday, shopping at Trinoma. Monday, wrapping Christmas gifts at home. And today… Today! My sister-in-law gave birth to her and my brother’s third daughter. Welcome to the world Bernice Phoebe! I saw you from a distance today, you were so cute when you were stretching your arms and legs. You might grow up to be quite as active and restless as your uncle. Gee, I sound so old. Haha!