September 11, 22:12 | Comments (2)
Based on my three stays at hostels in London, New York, and Chicago, I'm inclined to believe that there's a correlation between the quality of the rooms and the quality of the social interaction with the guests. The nicer the room, the less social interaction.
London: Camden Inn
From the pictures posted at their website, the Camden Inn looks like a bargain. Cheap, good-looking, clean rooms. Reality disagrees. The rooms are extremely small.
I stayed together with three other people at what would pass for the size of a bathroom in most hotels. The bed charged tossing and turning with metal squeaking so loud it wasn't even funny. The showers resembled vertical coffins more than places to take a bath. And from 8 am you could hear every single door slam as if it was your own.
But. The people I stayed with were really nice. There was the Danish couple from Aarhus and, of course, the lovely Julia from Lund, Sweden. The interaction was pleasant, polite, and even interesting. It was good.
 New York: The Big Apple Hostel
The Big Apple Hostel had rooms at least twice the size of the Camden Inn fitted with the same number of people. The bathrooms were clean and suitable sized. The location perfect (two minutes from Times Square). Not having air condition (in 35 degree weather with close to 100% humidity) and no elevator (when you get a room at the sixth floor) dragged it down a bit, though.
Social interaction was markedly reduced, though. I had a chat with this rather cool Canadian punk rocker the first day, but that was pretty much it. And when the Italians moved in and started to use my towel, it kinda sucked.
 Chicago: Hostel International
With four floors and room enough for five hundred guests, Hostel International Chicago was by far the largest, cleanest, and most professionally run hostel of the three. Every room had it's own bathroom and shower. Every bed had it's own power outlet. There was air conditioning. The beds was as squeaky as anywhere, though — it seems to be a hostel requirement.
But everyone was really, really old. It had anything but the feeling of a youth hostel, and the atmosphere showed it. Everyone went to bed early and rised equally so. Little to few words were exchanged with anyone. It had the personality of a hotel.
As a lone traveller, I'd take the Camden Inn over the Hostel International any day of the week. If I was going with someone else, I'd probably reverse my preference.
September 05, 18:22 | Comments (0)
August 29, 19:30 | Comments (14)
It's been 21 days, the calendar says. But somehow that single bit of information feels inadequate to describe the feeling of time gone by. Some things seem so very far away, others instantly close.
It feels forever since I've set foot in my apartment. The kiss and carres of that girl equally so. But it feels like yesterday that Curtis picked me up from the airport in Minneapolis and gave me the whirlwind tour of the Twin cities. Discussing Beth Orton with Swedish Julia in London equally so.
The human mind is not a weblog. Memories aren't inserted and sorted by time. The feeling of time is rarely in synch with a calendar.
August 29, 19:20 | Comments (12)
I couldn't have asked for a better way to finish up the four-city tour than to invade the lives of Curtis and Jody for a week. However impressive the scenery and setting of Minnesota, it paled in light of the royal treatment I enjoyed during my stay.
We went dazed away to the jazz of Stacy Kent, marveled at every kind of food on a stick at the State Fair, raced go-carts and dry-land sleds, laughed at banjo-playing, ate Vietnamese, Greek, and fine Minnesotan steak grilled in Curtis' garage.
It was grand. Inviting and delighting. I could easily see myself living in Minneapolis.
August 27, 20:52 | Comments (20)
 Coming from the narrow, crowded, dirty streets of New York and London, Chicago was a pleasant surprise. There was actually green spots generously located all over. Flowers, trees, grass. A most welcome change.
But it wasn’t just the change in scenery that made Chicago a wonderful place to walk around. The temperature was also adjusted to make it bearable to walk around for hours without being soaked in sweat. A good thing indeed, when you don’t care for the commute by subway or bus in sunshine.
Slowing down
 The environmental change brought along with it a change in mentality as well. In New York and London, I had been packing my schedule with around three items of art, comedy, entertainment, and sight-seeing every single day. It was time to slow down.
Hanging out with Jason (my employer on Singlefile and coconspirator on a long range of upcoming projects) was the perfect excuse for doing just that. Taking his amazing black turbo Audi for spins around the city, dining thai, middle eastern, mexican, and hanging out in the 37signals office kept us busy in the nice relaxed way that doesn’t give you stress from rushing from one visual experience to another.
Visual experiences still present
 I didn’t totally shun the visual experiences, though. Most noteworthy was the Earth From Above exhibit that had seven years worth of photographic travels Yann Arthus-Bertrand on display and the Chicago Institute of Arts. The former was in Copenhagen about a year ago, but very rewatchable. The latter was slightly overwhelming in the depth of their many exhibitions, but equally impressive. They even had the original Picasso “The Old Guitarist" that I have hanging on my wall as copy back home.
Arcitecture
 Another amazing feature of Chicago was the architecture. The city burned to the ground in the 1871, which prompted a complete rebuild of the city according to the leading architects of the time. And it shows. Walking around downtime is an experience filled with leaning back my head and awing at the tall results of inspired architecture. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it onto any of the guided tours (Jason was telling me about this 3-hour boat tour that should be really great), so I had to rely solely on my own random walkabouts to see it all.
All in all, Chicago appeared to be one of the most liveable cities of all the ones I’ve been to in the States. Should I ever think about moving over here, I’d certainly have Chicago at the top of my list for destinations.
August 27, 7:44 | Comments (11)
August 24, 6:41 | Comments (8)
The final stop on my four-city tour has been reached. And what a great place to finish off. I've "upgraded" my hostel status from the previous cities to that of enjoying the hospitality of my good friend Curtis. Actually, I've taken over his regular bedroom and send him along with his lovely girlfriend Jody up on the first floor. Hehe.
The house is really nice. According to Curtis, this is a small US house. Two bedrooms, large living room, computer room, entertainment lounge in the basement, etc. Small, yearh. I also got to meet the neighbors yesterday. Pleasant people.
Curtis gave me the sceneric tour of the Minneapolis lake area (ungodly beautiful) and downtown last night right after he picked me up from the airport. As we we're driving around, I commented on how wonderfully spaced out everything seems to be in suburban Minneapolis. "This is actually about as dense as it gets here," Curtis replied, "Oh, and this is the city. Not the suburbs."
The itinerary for the week hasn't been cast in stone yet, but it's definitely going to include seeing the State Fair (every kind of food imaginable served on a stick!) and biking around the many lakes in the area. Perhaps even rollerblading, if I decide to pick up a pair.
August 23, 1:00 | Comments (12)
My brand new Canon S30? Dead pixel. Got it exchanged (after waiting 45 minutes) today. My brand new iBook 700mhz? Dead pixel. Going to have it exchanged when I reach Minneapolis. When does a guy get a break from dead pixels?
I am glad that I'm learning this before going back to Denmark, though. Being stuck with an ocean between buyer and seller is a bad outlook for dealing with dead pixels. But still, fuck!
August 22, 10:00 | Comments (10)
 I'm a Macintosh owner now. The proud keeper of a 700mhz iBook complete with a DVD-drive and a burner. Not to mention 640mb of RAM. Oh, and it's running the latest and greatest version of OS X — The Jaguar. It's absolutely stunningly beautiful. The hardware, the OS, the applications, are all wonderful seen seperately, but together it's a masterpiece.
But, less talk, more tinkering. Must explore all
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