"I was born curious!" Sjalen's Profile

* When a VT tip of someone's bum is rated higher than real tips of that city...
* When a member with a very anti-US membership name is allowed to stay on but someone asking for his deleted friends and having a silly sense of humour is not...

Then it's time to take a break. Sure, there are childish people in the world but are we not all childish at times? And should we not be treated equally in that case? I thought there were no cliques on VT but some get away with murder.

After this loooong break, I have come out with the decision that VT will never mean as much to me as it used to but also come out knowing that some people miss me and for them and for the sake of my writing practice in English and remembering my fresh feelings for places I visit, I have decided to create some more tips when feeling like it. Nothing more, nothing less. From time to time I'm wondering where everyone has gone since no one seems to look at tips anymore, and realise that VT probably, like so many other sites right now, suffer from a bout of facebookitis. Hopefully, things will stabilise later.

Durdle Door

Newest pages:

Currently working on Bern, Luzern, Fribourg and some Swiss mountain pages slowly.

Could become huge if inspiration strikes:

East and West Looe - great south Cornish base
Polperro - the prettiest village I ever saw in England?
Polruan - The Birds
Fowey - more Du Maurier and other literature
Mousehole - seaside cosiness

Jurassic Coast - Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove and other fascinating scenery
Lyme Regis - fossils and films
Corfe Castle - a great castle village

Worth Matravers - iandsmith, I cannot thank you enough for leading us here and this might be the one page I'll actually make despite being sad!!!

Åhus - great summertime beachlife
Eskilstuna - fab family destination
Sala - fascinating silver mine
Örebro - lovely riverside setting and Sweden's most child friendly town

Brighton - pier and pavilion

And smaller pages could be made on:

Saltsjöbaden - Pimms on the jetty by the swanky hotel
Skövde - historic transport hub
Skara - medieval cathedral city
Hjo - wooden house heritage
Falköping - cheese, mounds and motorbikes
Varnhem - one of Sweden's most famous abbeys

mini Newark, UK page
Hull - finally got back to get some pictures...
Helston - Flambards

Riga - Latvia's warm, fun and complex capital


When the mood strikes me, I will also update:

Visby massively, including winter pictures (yup, so good we went back)

Nynäshamn - gateway to Gotland
Råshult - Linneaus and Swedish Midsummer
Oxelösund
Kristianstad - a Scanian hub
Stockholm
London
Lincoln, UK
Linköping - cathedral and air force memories
Skanör and Falsterbo
Richmond - Pimms by the river
Zennor - South West Coast Path and more

My pages on Malmoe and Copenhagen where I live and work as well as my native Stockholm, Skåne (Scania), Kronoberg, Sweden and Denmark will never be ready I suppose. Other pages I constantly work on since I often return are Göteborg as well as United Kingdom, York, North Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, London and various parts of Germany. Finally, we have now been to Cornwall three years in a row and always included our newfound love St Ives in those visits so that is also a constant update.

In the Black Forest

are probably about the places I like the most, as long as I had a camera when I went there, or cities I have lived in. One of my absolute favourites is probably York where I spent a year. I also feel proud of my Stockholm page as I have a special feel for the city I was born in, and Gothenburg where I grew up. Those three therefore also have lots of local insight tips compared to many other pages. As for photography, Jukkasjaervi with its midwinter light is special and so is our passion St Ives in Cornwall.

I also recommend my pages on Agrigento, Nurnberg and Åre and feel generally happy about my pages on Verona, Robin Hood's Bay, Sigtuna and Berlin. Very often you will find that I have created pictures about destinations too unusual to be rated on VT but with loads of information, such as Simrishamn, Västervik, Ystad, Växjö, Östersund and Middleham.

Then there are emotional pages which seem to write themselves almost effortlessly such as photogenic Venice and World Heritage Visby, or the islands of Sicily, Ven and Bornholm and my newfound passion St Ives.

Rapid engine, National railway museum, Gävle

life as the mum of a footballer in the "make it or break it stages" of her possible career with an elite club, since she is talented and has reached the age where it is important to attend all trainings if you want to improve and get selected in future too. Therefore, there will be less travel than usual for a while, but this does not mean that we will stay home all year.

Autumn half term break 2011 saw us discovering Slovenia which was a fantastic experience due to all the friendly people and great scenery.

New Year saw us returning to our beloved St Ives for the fourth time, and it is really bizarre for someone like me to just go to the same place again and again, which just goes to show that I have finally found the paradise I as a restless soul need. When I am in St Ives, I have now reached the stage where I hardly want to make daytrips anymore. Just sit in the harbour and watch people having their pasties snatched off them by huge seagulls, seagulls wandering into art galleries, the weekly launching of the lifeboat...

Since hubby doesn't fly, it takes some doing actually getting there though, so if we've only got a few days, we go elsewhere but yes, St Ives is the place we hope to retire to. New Year had a good reputation and yes, it exceeded our expectations with its huge street costume party. Now we know what winter can be like here too, and yes, we plan our next return as usual. Those of you who know the place will understand. Many come back again and again throughout life.

If we can spare some time for places outside England, a place high on the agenda for me and my daughter right now is Barcelona. Let's see if we can get the whole family there and not just the two of us...Exploring the beautiful scenery of Croatia is also high on the list, as is the Dresden area and Prague, and of course, numerous places in Italy as well as the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

Slowly, we are also starting to think about places further away, as our daughter gets more interested in the World around her and is getting more independent even during the football season. New York has a particular allure these days, but also Canada and all sorts of corners of Asia if we find that extra travel time.

Beloved Sicily

Having written all the above, ego related, I thought I would tell you that I enjoy what others write too :) Here are some of my favourite VT pages that other members have created:

Sabsi's Helsinki page. It shows that she loves the place and stories like the carpet cleaning episode is what makes VT fun!

Ben-UK's Yorkshire Dales page. His is the most informative, and reminds me of why I love this part of the world so much.

Mariajoy's London page. Maybe it really IS because she's a Londoner - this page glows with both knowledge and passion for the city we all love, including its flaws.

Please help my imagination and tempt me a bit by making pages of the following which disgracefully have NO page whatsoever on VT despite being known for sights that make me want to go there:

GERMANY: Gotha
ITALY: Capo d'Orlando (Sicily)
SWEDEN: Nora (the one in Örebro län), Grythyttan, Laholm, Mariestad, Lidköping

There are also existing ones but with only tiny VT pages and worth much more, such as:

GERMANY: Mühlhausen, Lemgo
SWEDEN: Mora, Ronneby
UK: Shaftesbury, Bamburgh, Helmsley

Come on! What are you waiting for? :))) I know I'll do my best with the Swedish ones...