Tales of Trips

Chasing tornadoes in the USA again

June 6, 2017 / By Christoffer

I am back in the US again for my 7th season of chasing tornadoes. Something that started off as a curious adventure trip in 2009 has turned into a full blown passion and I long for these trips months in advance. This season I am chasing with David Williams of Tornado Alley Chasing again. I chased with him in 2015 and 2016 as well and we had a blast, outside of the fact that I never seen a tornado while chasing with him…yet!

This trip started off really slow though and the weather has not been very friendly to us. The whole season of 2017 has been really bad but we will start with almost a week of down days, which is really boring. Fortunately, we have been able to spend those in Colorado so it is really not all that bad. Yesterday we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and had a great time. We actually saw a thunderstorm with some lightning and hail but also some moose, elk and experienced the scenic beauty at 12.000 ft.

If you are interested in reading more about my daily adventures chasing tornadoes, check out my blog at StormChasingUSA.com.

Other,

Today, 1.137.802 people saw me almost naked

October 19, 2016 / By Christoffer

I have not been blogging much here the last couple of months, mostly because I have not been travelling but also because I have been quite busy. Today, however, I have something interesting to tell.

About two years ago I was visiting my best friend Oskar in Dubai and we went to Abu Dhabi over the day to “Jas Waterworld”. Jas Waterworld is an amazing water park with several, really cool water slides. The best, and scariest, one is called the Liwa loop and it goes something like this.

You walk into something that looks like a transparent coffin and you hear a voice countdown: “3…2….1…” after which the floor opens and you fall some 10-15 meters down a hole, inside a water slide, you make a loop (!) and come out in the open after about 10 frightful seconds.

I filmed this, from the inside, with my GoPro:

This video used to have some 3.000 views but after a re-location I lost them. The other day, however, I put it on Reddit and this caught the attention of Unilad. Unilad’s Facebook-page has 19 million followers and when they published the video (or a ripped version of it) I got over a million views of my video in one day! I have experienced viral stuff before but nothing of this magnitude! Pretty cool, huh?!

USA,

Storm chasing in the USA

May 24, 2016 / By Christoffer

I was only back home in 10+ days before I returned to the USA again, this time for something completely different: Storm Chasing! Storm chasing has been a passion of mine since my first storm chasing trip in 2009. This trip is my 6th and I am getting more and more excited about it every year.

When I chase storms I usually go on organized storm chasing tours and I only chase storms in the USA. Usually, these tours are between 5-14 days long and you go with professional tour guides who knows how to find the storms and knows how to keep you safe.

I really love chasing storms, and especially tornadoes, because it is an amazing adventure, you can see some absolutely stunning things but more importantly, it shows me a side of nature that is literally incredible. Sometimes, I can almost not believe what I am seeing!

As I am writing this it is our 5th day of chasing and we have had some amazing days already! Our first day we ended up in Leoti, KS, where we ended very, very close to a tornado that passed just behind us. You are obviously not supposed to get that close to tornadoes but it formed very quickly and close to us.

Check out these two videos, the first one is the one I shot and the second one is from the car behind us, filming us.

Tim Purington’s video of us:

The next day we went down to Texas to chase, since the tour

USA,

Wine country and Wildwood retreat center in northern California

May 7, 2016 / By Christoffer

When Oskar told me about the seminar I was not really excited enough to book my flight ticket but when he mentioned that we could go to Napa afterwards I was all in. After the seminar ended that was exactly what we did as well.

I had recently seen the movie Sideways which obviously felt like a very suitable theme movie for this part of the trip. On my flight over to San Francisco I also saw Brokeback Mountain, which turned out to be quite relevant as well, but I will get back to that.
Wine tastings
We rented a car in San Jose and drove down south to Santa Cruz on a detour to drive the picturesque Highway 1 up north. It was well worth the extra time. Highway 1 is the most western highway in the US and goes along the winding Pacific coast. The views from the highway are ranging from awesome to breath taking! We stopped frequently to take in the environment and some time after dark we took in at a Motel 6 along the way.

Our next day was wine tasting day so we continued inland towards Napa with the goal of going north to Santa Helena and Beringer vineyards. Beringer is a wine I have been drinking many times at our summer house so it felt really cool to actually see the vineyard that had fuelled so many summer nights. We went for the Reserved Wine Tasting which turned out to be an excellent choice! The wines

USA,

Visiting Brendon Burchards “Experts Academy”

May 2, 2016 / By Christoffer

About two monts ago my friend Oskar told me he had an extra ticket to a marketing seminar called Experts Academy with someone called Brendon Burchard. I had never heard about Brendon Burchard but it sounded like something up my alley. I was planning to read up on the event or at least see some videos but the week prior to the trip was very hectic for me so I never took the time. The result was a bit of a shock.

Brendon Burchard is a rising star in the marketing speaker/trainers segment. He has worked with Oprah, Anthony Robbins, Usher etc. earned a few millions of dollars on e-mail marketing selling pretty much the idea he was going to teach me and the other 800 people in the audience.

Brendon Burchard focus a lot on video.The content of the seminar was about what I expected but the way it was presented was something else. It seemed at times more of a rock concert than a marketing seminar. When we entered the seminar it was to the tunes of up-tempo dance music and people were dancing, shouting and clapping. At the crecendo of a song Brendon came in clapping, dancing and jumping to the cheers from the crowd. Everyone (well, not everyone) were dancing and clapping along. The energy in the room was high but for me not knowing Brendon’s style it was kind of weird.

In addition to the dancing Brendon also had a lot of interaction with the audience. Frequently, he

USA,

Three unexpected types of in-flight entertainment

April 28, 2016 / By Christoffer

I flew from Stockholm to San Francisco today. It was a long but quite ok flight and did not feel nearly as long as it actually was. It was probably due to some unexpected “in-flight entertainment” I experienced.

I am very excited about nature phenomenon in general but sky phenomenon in specific. So, when we flew over France and I saw the peculiar image above I was really amazed.

As you may see there is a circular “rainbow” and the shadow of our plane in the center. Some helpful people on Twitter helped me out in understanding this is an optical phenomenon called a Glory.

Leaving Paris and while ascending I saw another phenomenon that is much more common. Yet, I still appreciate it every time I see it.

Lastly, and quite unexpected, was that the in-flight safety video from Air France actually caught my attention. I have seen and heard those hundreds of times and nowadays they are usually in your entertainment system. At first I did not realize it was actually a safety video, or if it was a serious one but it sure was.

The safety video was made to be “chique” and I guess they managed to be that. On one hand it felt like a new approach to boring safety videos but yet again very old in the way of skinny, pretty models talking about how the safety belt adjust your waist line. Hmmm…

Now I am finally in my bed in San Francisco. We are staying on Oskar’s bonus points

USA,

Going to Brendon Burchards “Expert Academy” in San Francisco

April 26, 2016 / By Christoffer

Tomorrow morning I am heading off to San Fransisco and I feel so unprepared. It feels like I just came back from Sri Lanka and I have been working 24/7 in March and April since I will be doing so much travelling in May/June.

The reason I go to San Francisco is to participate in a marketing course called “Experts Academy” by Brendon Burchard. I got invited by my friend Oskar Andermo who works with personal development. The goal of the course is to become better at market myself as an expert in areas where I have very insightful knowledge (like the topics of my websites). It would be a bit far fetched to say that I am excited since I feel mostly stressed at the moment, but I am very sure I will be once I am on the plane.

After the course me and Oskar will also do a bit of travelling around San Francisco which was what finally convinced me to go. I have been in that area before and loved it! We plan to drive a bit of Highway 1 and visit the vineyards of Napa.

What I am not too happy about is getting up at 3.30 a.m. tonight to catch my early flight. But hey, the ticket only cost SEK 3.300 (about $400), so what do you do!

Also, I am very excited about what may happen in Kansas/Oklahoma today but that is a completely different story of which I will write a LOT about later on in

Other,

Talk to a random Swede at “The Swedish Number”

April 6, 2016 / By Christoffer

I just got an email from “Svenska Turistföreningen” (Swedish Tourist Association) who is starting a campaign that sounds like fun: The Swedish Number. Call the number above +46 771 793 336 (i.e. “+46 771 SWEDEN”) and you will be connected to a random Swede who, in turn, has signed up to answer on The Swedish Number.

A fun initiative to let foreigners learn a little bit more about Sweden!

If you want to join, as a Swede, download the app “The Swedish Number” and follow the instructions. You can choose when you want to participate and answer etc. Read more at TheSwedishNumber.se.

Sweden,

Double rainbow over Malmö – it’s a sign!

March 30, 2016 / By Christoffer

One thing about me you will hear a lot more about is my interest in storm chasing. Ever since I lived in Kansas in 2003/2004 I have been fascinated by storms and tornadoes. This turned into a major interest in 2009 when I went on a storm chasing tour, which was absolutely incredible. I ended up creating a storm chasing website called StormChasingUSA.com which is the #1 website to look for storm chasing tours in.

The other day I ordered a box of merch for this website; a box of business card to distribute during this chase season, t-shirts and a baseball cap. I just got home and unwrapped everything to take a photo of it. Then I looked outside and saw this:

Actually, when I looked outside it was only one very bright rainbow but once I came out on the balcony it had turned into a double rainbow. I was amazed, not only because of the beautiful sight but also because of the timing for my merch-selfie-photo!

This is a good sign for this year’s storm chasing season!

Malmö, Sverige

Sweden,

Cold bath house and an exclusive breakfast buffet in Båstad

March 29, 2016 / By Christoffer

I used to live in Skåne (the southernmost part of Sweden) and at that time, my ignorance led me to believe that Skåne was nothing but fields and small towns. Last summer I went to Österlen in the eastern part of Skåne and learned that this was not true. When my dad moved to Båstad last year, I realized that the area around Båstad is just as nice.

Båstad lies near Hallandsåsen which shapes the entire landscape with hilly roads, amazing landscape and a constant sea view. There are plenty of beech treas in the area making it perfect for a Sunday drive or a walk.

Båstad is mostly known for its tennis and the “Tennis week” in the middle of the summer when tennis enthusiast and, more commonly, rich brats arrive at the small town to drink champagne. The town of Båstad is quite different in the other weeks of the year but still has a bit of luxury and exclusiveness touch to it. It is quite pricy to live here as well.

In other words, it is not all that surprising that you would find a hotel with a spa and an exclusive cold bath house here. While visiting my father we decided to give it a shot.

In Malmö, where I live, there is another cold bath house which is completely nude (but separate for men and women). I expected this to be the same so I did not bring my swimming shorts. In fact, I was not really expecting to

Sverige

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