Bonn

Have been at a conference in Bonn in the beginning of this week. Arrived to Bonn directly from S:t Petersburg. It was mostly work, but I made some pictures at a "social event" when visiting Linz and Unkel.

Vadja 40

This weekend we have been visiting S:t Petersburg and Roshino to celibrate Vadja's birthday. Thank you for a very nice party!

ARTES Summer School

I am at ARTES summer school this week. It started with a one day seminar at KTH (Royal Technical University) in Stockholm this Monday, and then continued with lectures on Nässlingen (a small island in Stockholm archipelago) until Friday (I only stay until Thursday evening).

Lars Winnerbäck Concert

Tonight we saw Lars Winnerbäck's concert at Zinkensdamm in Stockholm together with 18.000 other in the audience. It was the last concert of Sweden's best artist's summer tour. He performed for almost 2.5 hours and appeared to be in a really good mood, and very inspired by the big audience (his biggest ever).
For us, it was a fantastic concert to watch! In particular we like that he - as usual - played many old songs including Inte för kärleks skull and Kom änglar from his first album, Pollenchock och Stjärnfall and Kom, and new versions of Kom ihåg mig and Söndag 13.3.99 - the latter being one of his very best song.

Read more:
- Aftonbladet 2006-08-13: Publiken ville aldrig gå hem
- Expressen 2006-08-13: Han är årets publik-Winnare
- SVD 2006-08-13: Folket älskar honom innerligt

Hurghada, Egypt

Just returned from two lovely weeks in Hurghada, Egypt, where we have been diving, diving, and diving ;-) We also celebrated Elena's birthday, visited Cairo, and had two lazy days on the beach.

Diving: At home we ordered a four day Padi Open Water course from Colona Diving Center. It was an instructive course that made us certified open water divers with the right to dive in open waters on 18 meters depth. Our teacher during the course was Ina Hahn - one of the best teachers we ever had (and we both had many teachers). A few days later we also became Padi Enriched Air divers under Ina's supervision. It allows for diving with Nitrox (i.e. air containing over 21% oxygen but max 40%). This in turn allows for longer diving times that makes it easier to stay within recommend time limits. We also found that we both feel much better after diving with Nitrox. Yesterday we completed a third diving course with Ina, called Padi Advanced Open Water that allows us to dive deeper than 18m. During the course we practiced deep diving, under water navigation, drift diving, wreck diving, under water photography, and to use dive computer.

During our 13 dives in the Red Sea we have seen many spectacular things, including a great number of fishes and corals in a clear water, mostly with 25m depth of sight. Perhaps the best sight was a Sea Turtle on 32m depth, or a 1.5m Giant Mouray we saw on shallower water. It was also interesting to meet other divers, and to develop our diving (both individually and as a buddy team). We are very grateful to Ina for generously sharing her diving skills, everything she taught us, and for the very nice farewell dinner at Fish Mo.

Elena's birthday: One of the first days in Hurghada we stepped into Love Egypt Travel - the best travel agency in Hurghada - where a nice guy named Alex works. He later arranged a superb birthday party for Elena. It started around midnight with a short bus trip with some 15 other friends to disco Le Garage. Here we had drinks and smoke big water pipes. Alex also arranged with birthday songs for Elena and a giant birthday cake. A very memorable night for all of us!

We later met Alex again several times. We bought a snorkeling boat trip, a dive day, and a trip to Cairo from him. We very much appreciate his hospitality, the non-nonsense negotiations, and the fair prices. We really recommend his services!

Cairo: It started 0200 (a.m.) with a 500km bus trip. When we woke up in Cairo we first visited the Egyptian museum with many interesting peaces, including Tutankhamen's gold mask and other treasures. After lunch and a stop at a papyrus shop we continued to a panorama view of the pyramids, the pyramids themselves, and of course the sphinx. All with tough and extremely energetic Egyptian business men in our tails. We then stopped at a perfume shop and continued to Hurghada where we arrived at 2300. It was an intense but very nice day and trip to Cairo.

To see our pictures from the trip, click the title Hurghada, Egypt above.