The Passenger

I just saw this new editorial for Out Magazine and love it!

It's entitled "The Passenger" and reveals a humble and delicate-looking Mathias Bergh who happens to be a pretty boy from Sweden! God knows I love'em!

It reminds me of my traveling in Scandinavia last summer and the summer before and makes me realize how privileged I am to be traveling the whole world while some people are stuck in their home-countries and might actually never get the chance to travel abroad, escape or wish for a better/different life.

I like the fact that Photographer Giampaolo Sgura was able to capture the essence of the classiness and composed presence Bergh provides us in these pictures! Enjoy!

Jag älskar Sverige!

Snus or My New Love Affair

For those of you who don't know what snus is, well it's actually the Swedish version of snuff. It basically is tobacco "powder" if we can call stuffed into a little pouch similar to a tea bag. The way to consume it is to place it below your upper lip and that's how you will get the nicotine from it. The nicotine is then transferred into your blood stream via the blood vessels in your gums. I know it sounds nasty but it's kind of fun actually. My Norwegian friend Nizza is the one who introduced me to Snus. I don't think she would be super happy to read that but hey, that's the truth and she might eventually fall on this article and read it lol!

I'm actually pretty glad she introduced me to snus as it relaxes me a lot after work. I try to take one pouch a week and not exceed that since it's not really good for your health but at the same time, I don't think a bag a week is gonna kill me! When I was en route to Norway last July, Nizza had asked me if I could stop at the Duty Free in Oslo and buy her some snus. At first, I didn't even know what snus was so I had to google it lol! When I saw what it consisted of I was completely grossed out and never thought I'd dare to try! It seemed so disgusting to me to put real tobacco on your gums! Nizza and I traveled together from Norway to Sweden and then to London without me ever trying snus.

When we reunited in Lisbon, Portugal in August, I was so tempted to try it one night that I sticked a pouch of Stark portion of Skruf under my upper lip and waited until I could feel a thing. The heck was it was a 3 on 4 in terms of strength and trust me, that lil'm pouch got me pretty high! I even went on to take two in that same evening and Nizza warned me to take it out as soon as I'd feel dizzy otherwise I might throw up. I felt okay until I took the second one. I have to mention that I had drunk a bit between the two so it might not have helped but I ended up so wasted that I almost crawled back to my dorm and was rolling on the floor at the foot of Terrine's bed! She kept on asking me if I was okay and I would just utter weird sounds as I was almost unconscious!

On our last day in Portugal, I asked Nizza if she could lend me a can of Skruf and she was like it's okay as she knew I would probably not take it all and share with friends back home in Canada. What she didn't know is I actually like snus a lot more than expected and after I finished my can of Skruf Stark Portion, I went online to try to find websites where I could order snus online and have it shipped to my house in Canada. Initially I thought it was illegal but it turned out to be legal as I received a can of eucalyptus-flavoured snus by a Swedish brand called Catch. Nizza wasn't so proud when she got to learn that but she was like hey, I can't forbid you to take snus especially if you're in Canada and I'm in Norway!

The website I used is called http://northerner.com and is pretty user-friendly. So for those of you who don't live in Scandinavia and that like snus or have never tried and would be willing to, you can order online on this website. Snus is very trendy in Scandinavia and everybody takes some when they go out clubbing. If you want a "physical" pick-up line for hot Scandinavians -whether girls or boys- you can just pop your snus can open and wink at them ;-)!!! I'm not done with my can of Eucalyptus yet but would recommend it a thousand times more than the regular strong Skruf as it makes you dizzy after 5 minutes, burns in your mouth and doesn't taste good. Eucalyptus is a much better choice. Guess what I'll order next time: Skruf TRANBÄR! Of course I gotta try me some tranbär ;-)!

BTW: Terrine and I tried to find some snus in the US (we went to Plattsburgh, NY) and all we found was a can filled with tobacco powder but none with tobacco in pouches like Swedish snus so for my Quebec fellows, don't bother crossing the border just to get snus; order it online and you'll have a much wider array of variety and choice. AMEN.

Catch brand, the green cans are Eucalyptus-flavoured

Swedish Skruf brand

A Swedish mama stuffing her upper lip with a snus pouch

Skruf Tranbär! The Cranberry God

First Day of Tha Big Trip!!!

After a whole night (okay 7 hours) spent in the Corsairfly Airbus (I chose it ‘cause it was the cheapest flight) that was scheduled to bring me to Paris-Orly departing from YUL, I ran like crazy to get my luggage back and find the RER station to get to Charles-de-Gaulles, the biggest airport.

I have to say that I was already über tired and had to run my life to get there on time to catch my flight for Oslo. My first flight had been delayed by an hour and 20 minutes and my second flight was being delayed by 45 minutes. I wasn't that stressed out anymore (too much fatigue probably) but I knew for sure that I wouldn't be on time to catch my flight for Stavanger.

When I got to Oslo, I hurried the fuck up to get to "baggage drop", and pass security in order to catch my last flight which was supposed to be quick'n smooth. Unfortunately, the moment I showed my boarding pass to the SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) counter agent, he told me I couldn't hop on my flight to Stavanger as I was coming in too late. Not only did he announce me that incredibly frustrating news, he also gnarly asked me why I was so late. Goddamnit was I pissed it! I was like "Vennligst you dummie but both my flights are with SAS, tain't my problem if YOU guys brought me in so late! I'm from Canada, I traveled all day, I'm on jet lag and I didn't sleep since 48 hours so could you fucking accomodate me?!".

He seemed to suddenly be willing to cooperate, use his best judgment and help me pull my shit together to get to Western Norway. He gently asked me if I would prefer take the next plane in an hour but with no certainty of boarding or wait two hours and be assured to get on board with this flight. I was so pissed that I preferred to wait two hours instead of taking a chance and be sure that I'd leave than have high hopes to board after an hour, be refused and get a third boarding pass for the same flight!!!

My final flight was okay and I landed at the very cute and charming Sola airport located west of Stavanger. It was sunny and warm when I landed and Nizza was already waiting for me in the hall even before I got to "baggage claim". I was more than thrilled to reunite after a whole year! It's so nice that her and I kept in touch for that long even if we had met at a hostel in Nice and didn't even spend that much time together! I guess that's what the old saying means: "quality, not quantity".

I was overexcited to be with Nizza and her dad as they were bringing me to her place just a little bit south (Bryne) illico. I got to see her artsy and hipster appartment, have a chat and gossip about our forecasted trip, adventures and misadventures of course!

That first night, I might have been on jet lag but I didn't want to be a bullet to Nizza and since it was friday night, we decided to go out on the town of Stavanger. I was instantly shocked to learn that taking the train was 18$ for a one-way trip and this, after the student discount had reduced the price by 25% or so!!!

The town was very exquisite at night and truly had that Viking's haven type of feeling but as I was tired and felt a bit overwhelmed by all that travelling in one day, I didn't really feel like partying. I could see that Nizza really wanted to go so we went to like two bars in a row. The Scandinavian people might be cold and reserved, alcohol warms them up rapidly and they get utterly hyper and impulsive when they've drunk!

That evening, I could hardly keep my eyes open and all I remember is that the booze was overly expensive (like 16$ for a beer), everyone was screaming and shaking dust all over the place and that we met a friend of Nizza's called Ingrid who was leaving for Greece the following day. I don't remember much more than that lol! We ended up taking the last train at 2h35 am and went to bed at 4am! Killer day lol! Nizza and I were meant to strive accross Europe! Love U hon'!