Ion Ciorici

My 2008 trip to Lappland was one of the most unforgetable trips and I strongly recommend to have a look again .

Everytime winter season was approaching during the past years I was considering to visit again Lappland. However such trips require in advance planning, since airtickets are sold already since summer and accomodation and activities are fully booked.

This year I didn’t have anymore excuses, especially since my brother with his family was visitig me in Stockholm, so we booked night train tickets to Kiruna.

Have a look a some selected photos and I will get back with a more detailed update about our key learnings from this trip.

> 7 years > 70 mini, midi and maxi projects > 700 great colleagues

Few picture from 2015 edition of Gumball 3000 race.

Check as well the 2013 edition.

One last BBQ with Moldovan Ambassador before the end of his mission in Sweden. By the way the Romanian word for BBQ is “Gratar” – most probably a misspelling of English “Greater” .

All photos are available here

I usually do not write about visited castles, palaces, fortresses etc. – it’s boring for me and most probably for the reader (yes, most probably this blog has one reader – my brother when fixing all blog bugs).

However yesterday I took one of my favourite shots in long time and coincidentally it was inside a palace – Häringe Palace, about 40 KM South of Stockholm.

Forget about the photo quality, light, editing etc. just look how busy it is : – somebody is dancing with a dog, which is actually hold by another somebody – somebody is walking in circles – somebody is giving the evil eye to the amateur photographer

I guess I shall sell it to the owners of Häringe Palance , however they already have quite an impressive gallery.

I recommend visiting this place, since it is quite unique: – It has Sweden’s oldest swimming pool – You will find also Sweden’s oldest bowling alley from the 1930’s. – The serve probably one of the best Afternoon Tea in Stockholm.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that realistically I will not become a car designer or engineer this year, however it is important that we educate ourselves continuously in the hobbies we enjoy the most. Therefore I signed at the beginning of the year for a proper photography course with SHAW ACADEMY and Thomas Woods.

After many late evenings engaging live webinars I am officially a paparazzo .

At the end of the course you are taking a 100 questions test and based on the results you are awarded even with a diploma. I strongly recommend this course, since it is very engaging and teachers at Shaw Academy are very professional and friendly.

However the coolest part of this course is that the course teacher, Thomas Woods together with his team selected few photos which were uploaded on their Facebook page to reflect what we actually learnt during the course. Guess what one of the 5 selected photos was mine – yeaaaah . It is a photo with Vaxholm Fortress, located new Stockholm, which I took during the Swedish white nights. This is the second time when somebody appreciated my work .

If you liked this photo, feel free to download the original one:

Well, it’s that time again — time to start rolling out this year’s resolutions. Some of us will vow to eat less, exercise more, live in the moment, be more grateful.

I promised my self to do a favor in 2015 – spend more time on the not-to-do lists. Strategy is the art of sacrifice. Our time is a treasure to be invested. Creating a list of things that you are not going to do, allows you to invest more of your treasured time on the few things that matter the most.

After spending good time over the past months with my parents, grandparents, but also with good mates who have exceeded the age of 70 years, I can conclude that they always talk about 2 things most meaningful in life: A. Do not relax – Live an active and rich life full of personal experiences. By not relaxing they do not mean not resting, not at all . It is so impressive to hear stories like “I was skydiving for the last 40 years and at the same time and I was doing horse-back riding”.

B. Fulfill your wishes – Make sure you act even on the simplest wishes. Do not over-complicate them. I went yesterday to a Car Premiere event in Stockholm, where most of the attendees where people above ~70 years. There I met Arne who was 74 years old and who came at the event to subscribe for a racing training. He simply told me “Oh, at the beginning of this week I was thinking about the idea of improving my driving skills and here I am”.

Do not get me wrong, I do like to have family related resolutions, professional resolutions, however besides them in 2015 and hopefully onward I will make sure to take more clear actions on those simple wishes, which in fact become truly experiences of a lifetime.

For the moment I have 3 simple wishes for 2015, which actually date back from my childhood :

1. Travel as much as possible and if feasible even to the “end of the world” – unfortunately I did not know in my childhood where is the end of the world (perhaps due to Communistic censorship), so for the time being, let’s assume that “end of the world” is Canada .

By travelling I do not mean only the experience of seeing new places and new people. I especially enjoy seeing my family, friends in these new places.

2. Educate my self continuously in the hobbies I enjoy the most – Realistically I will not become a car designer or engineer this year, so for the time being I have just signed for a proper photography course.

3. Attend a truly international car fair – as simple as it sounds, however not even my 4 passports were a good reason to travel in the past to International Motor Show in Frankfurt or Geneva Motor Show or Paris Motor Show.

In the next post I will write more on accomplishing these simple wishes and I can promise you that the days around these events will be filled in nicely. I also promise you that you’ll have something to look forward to and the life that happens during your vacations will be precious.

As you may know Santa Claus is also known as the world’s most generous home-invasion artist. He bears gifts to millions of people around the world on Christmas day for a small fee.

Most of the people around 30-40 years old begin to doubt and even deny the existence of Santa. Since I have finally reached this magical age, I thought why not taking my brother, his wife and their lovely daughter Emilia for a short 800km trip to Santa World, which is presumably the permanent Santa’s residence according to Swedish Tax Authorities.

Santa World or Tomteland as the local vikings are calling this place, is the Swedish response to the much famous Finish version of Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi. Most probably the Swedish Tourist Office could not convince the Swedish blond ladies to demonstrate their skills as well during the winter, so they came up back in the 1984 with the idea of creating a wonderland where Santa Claus alleged moved from North Pole.

Santa World is located near Gesundaberget just south of Mora in Dalarna. Please notice that most of Stureplan residents in Stockholm will most probably need Google Maps to find Dalarna, a very detailed map to locate Mora and most probably a compass to find the exact position of Gesundaberget.

Living the jokes aside, this post will be a serious one for people who believe that Santa exists.

If by any mistake you are in Sweden during Christmas for approx. 1 week, then I would recommend to organize a 1 day trip to Santa World, which is approx. 300-350km far from Stockholm. Stockholm during Christmas is not always invaded by snowflakes, so conducting a trip to the snowy hills of Santa World near Mora is definitely recommended.

Our trip contained the following details: – left Stockholm at around 09:00 – took the high-way towards Gävle, which is approx. 50km longer than the route via secondary roads, however we believe it is faster and more comfortable. – from Gävle to Falun there are many portions of 2-lanes roads in each direction, which makes the trip even faster – we reached Santa World at 12:45, however it is possible to arrive even earlier, since we had few stops and a quick snack on the way. – from 13:00 till 16:00 we had plenty of time to visit all the beautiful places in the park, including feeding the reindeer, having long and amusing discussions with Santa, attending different theater scenes and enjoying a lunch at the local cafeteria.

Quick interview with Santa about his age and his wife(s)

Already from the first encounter with Santa we were very pleased with his sense of humor, openness, but also with his substantial body mass, as he confirmed that that he spends the majority of his time eating milk and cookies in order to prepare his body for a long night during Christmas. However, Santa Claus is an active opponent of obesity, and actually spends the majority of his time exercising. There are no pictures of him in peak physical condition, but Mr. Claus has claimed that he is “essentially a white Michael Jordan” .

Feel free to enjoy a small photo gallery and let me know if you have any questions about this trip

How many times have you had the opportunity to watch the premiere of a movie with all the actors in the same cinema hall ? Me, so far only one time . However this “one time” was definitely a special one, considering that his excellence Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was just sitting 2 rows in front me.

VIP-premiere of the movie “Two Women” was held in the Concert Hall Barvikha Luxury Village in Moscow. The event was attended by the whole crew, including himself Ralph Fiennes. To see the movie as one of the first besides myself was also the famous Russian singer Alla Pugacheva with her toy Maxim Galkin.

Movie director, Vera Glagoleva and producer Natalya Ivanova mentioned that the movie “Two Women” is a joint project between Russia, France and Latvia. It is noteworthy that the famous British actor Ralph Fiennes has played a major role in the film entirely in Russian. Apart from Fiennes, actors starred in the movie was the winner of two awards “Cesar”, the French actress Sylvie Testud, and the German movie and theater actor Bernd Moss.

If you want to spot me running around like a real paparazzi, have a look at min 1:00:

Yolo, or ” You Only Live Once” is a restaurant offering a vibrant creative cuisine with roots in Swedish flavors. We liked the: – friendly personnel – creatively delicious food – home atmosphere. Yolo is only three months old, but has the class and confidence of an old timer!

I will be honest (most probably for the first time on this blog) I was really excited when I got a call from a friend if I am interested joining him for conducting a test drive in a Tesla Model S. Excited, because this was actually my first ever test-drive in a +100K $ car (of course I have driven other more expensive cars in the past, however they were “test-driven” for the purpose of being stolen, rather than for the purpose of enjoying them as in the case of this Tesla ). Also I was excited, since I was looking forward to driving like a maniac (read like Clarkson) for a very long time .

This post as usually will be a serious one, since I am a serious person, NOT . There are thousands of serious reviews of the Tesla Model S which I can google them for you and keep you satisfied with boring facts, e.g. how many Teslas caught fire .

Below I will just share my amateur statistical simulations (read “feelings”) about the experience of driving/touching/smelling/hearing a Tesla Model S.

First impressions – First of all you get some hugs and kisses from the Tesla sales representative (however these days you can get such a treatment even at the Swedish dealer for the Chinese car brand such as Fuqi).

– Then you realize that finally there is a car brand which belongs to the XXI-century, which surprisingly is not coming from the UK or Germany. Everything experienced about Tesla (not only the car itself) indeed looks from the future (or should be part of nowadays as the Tesla representative stated). 1. As an example is the registration before conducting the test-drive. Forget about filling any paper forms or leaving your wife as a guarantee as in the case of conducting test-drives at BMW or Mercedes. You are given a tablet and you are just requested to answer if you are allergic to electricity or fast acceleration.

2. Another example is the customer approach and care for the environment. No, Tesla does not have any paper brochures, however they are sending you a digital one, immediately after your registration in the magical tablet.

Next impressions: 1. All Tesla Model S come in white colour, however you are giving the opportunity to pick whatever colour you want for the shirts which they also sell in the store. Unfortunately this information was not confirmed by the Tesla sales representative.

2. Even though the Tesla logo can be misleading and give you the impression that you will deal with the quality level of a TATA or TRABANT, actually the level of attention to detail is very good. Expensive is not the word you will use for describing a Tesla, but in the end you do not buy a Tesla because of the leather stitching or the Alcantara smell. You buy it, because it is innovative. For sure it has lower quality than the latest Mercedes S-klasse, however it has a very nice trimmed interior, nice leather and Alcantara combination, all buttons from Mercedes, Aluminum interior door handles and no cheap plastic.

Driving Impressions Tesla Stockholm dealer in Täby Centrum has usually couple of cars available for test-driving. After a little bit of begging and trying some Moldavian tricks we were given the chance to test the most interesting Model S – 85 kW·h Performance.

Tesla’s parking lot in Täby Shopping Centrum

1 client drove all the way from Norway to charge his car

“Our car”

Tesla Model S automatically turns on the lights when sees/feels/smels a Moldavian around

The key is black, even though the car is red

The most fascinating about Tesla as a car is the acceleration, the immediate acceleration. Reaching 100km/h in just ~4 sec is something astonishing, especially in a such a simple way as the P85 Performance version does. Of course we have never exceeded the speed limits, below is the evidence from driving with max. 100km/on the high-way

Other impressive experience is the intuitive approach of using it super-mega-ultra-huge-display.

Anyhow, Tesla was fun, friendly, informative and environmentally friendly. I’m officially a fan now, ALMOST .

Finally I decided to visit Tallinn. Tallinn is the capital city of Estonia, which is happily located between Poland and Greenland, just considerably left from China and slightly above the middle of earth. Moscow has nothing to do with Estonia.

As the title of this post suggests, each letter is duplicated in this beautiful Baltic city. I do not have an assistant to duplicate each letter in description of each beautiful sight which Tallinn has, however at least I can provide a photo gallery with no photo duplications .

More photos are located as usually HERE.

Few colorful and less-colorful photos from my latest trip to Chişinău, capital city of Republic of Moldova.

The process of applying for Swedish citizenship is quite straightforward, as long you are married or sambo/mambo/särbo/tango with a member of the Royal Family, like me or at I least I saw the queen once, which makes me quite relative to her, I hope .

The process according to my excellence is quite straightforward, especially after experiencing the application process for the Czech, Romanian, Transylvanian, Transnistrian, Tongan, Togolese, Tunisian, Tanzanian citizenship or in any other countries or wannabe countries starting with a “T”.

In Sweden you usually apply for the citizenship after 5 years of slavery for any of the soon to be bankrupt companies or after 2 years of 50:50 way of living with a Swedish partner. I do not know what is “50:50 way of living”, I just heard on the news .

Assessment of the application from the submission date till final decision usually takes 7-9 months. In my case it took exactly 7 months, because I was nice to Migrationsverket.

In a straight line the process looks like this: 1. You submit the application and a copy of your passport (preferably not a fake one) 2. You wait 7 months 3. After 7 months they will contact you to send the original of your passport (preferably not the fake one) 4. You will get the passport back in max. 1 week 5. In approx. 1-2 weeks you will get the official decision, which could positive, negative or a positive decision with minor corrections like changing your hair colour to blonde, starting wearing red paints, lather jackets etc.

The citizenship confirmation looks like this

After receiving the citizenship, you can easily apply for the Swedish passport, which gives you the privilege to travel to IKEA without a visa.

The entire citizenship process culminates with a massive party, which is usually organised by the district/city where you live. Since I live under the bridge just opposite Stockholm City Hall, not surprisingly I was invited to show my dancing skills at the Stockholm City Hall, where the famous Nobel banquet is also organised.

The ceremony took approx. 2 hours and the only requirement was that we had to bring our own booze, like at every typical Swedish party. Within these 2h.: 1. Stockholm mayor held a speech about Stockholm being the best place on earth, like everything in Sweden

2. Caroline af Ugglas and her large choir sang the Swedish National Anthem “Wake me up”

3. Cinnamon-buns with 2 meatballs were served to all the people higher than 1.95m Sorry I do not have any photos with the meatballs, since I am just 1.93m and I was not qualified for them.

Swedish National Anthem for foreigners is called “Wake me up”

Swedish National Anthem for vikings is called “Du gamla, Du fria”

At the end of the ceremony an envelope will be given to everybody which contains a welcoming letter from the city mayor and few entrance tickets to different museums. Do not try to take 2 or more envelopes , since the city authorities figured out a solution how to prevent such Eastern European behavior. They will ask you to hand over your invitation letter in exchange for an envelope. In case you are really determined to get free tickets for all your cousins, just print in colour in advance the invitation letter, however you have not heard this advice from me .

The letter from the mayor of Stockholm which literally says “Stockholm city welcomes you as a Swedish citizen”

Entrance tickets to Skansen and other Stockholm museums, unfortunately no entrance tickets to Systembolaget

Couple applying via match.com for the Swedish citizenship just minutes before the ceremony

Happy faces before the meatballs announcement

Happy face before the meatballs announcement

The labyrinth to Swedish citizenship

Stefanet Brothers Orchestra & Geta Burlacu performed in Stockholm, 15th of May 2014 at Musikaliska.

The concert was part of EXPERIENCE MOLDOVA a project offering a taste of Moldovan musical culture & wine!

Full photo gallery is available here.

Teaser for Lexx Bodylev‘s movie about the beauty of Moldova during the four seasons. The movie will be ready by the end of autumn 2014.

Enjoy!

Songkran is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year’s Day. Few photos from the Songkran festival celebrated at Wat Santiniwas temple in Haninge, Stockholm.

More photos here.

Art on Ice is the unique, colorful interplay between Olympic and world champions on the ice and international music stars performing live on stage.

Luckily, Stockholm was also included in the 2014 European Tour. The event was really packed with stars, such as the band Hurts, the pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, the singer Loreen, who won the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest performed. The stars on the ice are Stéphane Lambiel, Sarah Meier, Kurt Browning, Joannie Rochette, Aljona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (bronze medal pairs Sotchi 2014), Gev Manoukian, Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov (gold medal pairs and team Sotchi 2014), Nathalie Péchalat & Fabian Bourzat (4th ice dancing Sotchi 2014), Adelina Sotnikova (Olympic champion Sotch 2014), Viktoria Helgesson and Alexander Majorov.

Enjoy the gallery!

Impressive images from the Northern part of Moldova. Lexx Bodylev shot several areas in the North, which would be worthy of being visited firstly by locals and tourists. The hills, the rivers, the villages are just a few attractions.

Enjoy!

STAGE 3: Drive through Romania to Moldova Stage 3 also can be entitled “Make sure you don’t hit a horse carriage”

In this post within shortly I will answer below questions – Which road I recommend to follow when crossing Romania and why ? – How long time it took me to pass both customs between Romania and Republic of Moldova ? 11min. or 11h. ? – Shall you a take a right or left when reaching this intersection ?

– If Romanians are using Wind Turbines for cooling down due to the warmest winter ever or if they use them as a bird scarer to dissuade birds from eating planted arable crops.

Lastly I will post some amateur photos taken quickly when driving through Romania, like this one:

This stage is about driving from Hungary via Northern Romania to Moldova: 1. cross the border at Petea village between Hungary and Romania 2. drive through Satu Mare, Baia Mare, Dej, Bistriţa, Vatra Dornei, Gura Humorului 3. cross the border at Sculeni or Leuşeni, between Romania and Moldova.

One of the main reasons for choosing a route via Northern part of Romania, is due to less traffic and better road conditions. This was a strong recommendation from my brothers who have previously tried several routes to cross Romania.

I was presuming that this stage would be the most difficult, due to no highways in the Northern part of Romania and due to quite intensive traffic (lorries, horse carriages etc.) Frankly speaking this stage was as easy and enjoyable as the previous ones.

As you would imagine I waked up very early – which was 9:00 and reached my parents home in Moldova at about 21:00 (for US readers that’s 9:00 PM) .

I can confirm that it is realistic to cover 800 KM with enough breaks for photography, meals and customs and no need to drive like a maniac – remember I was driving the laziest and slowest car in the World .

Few key points on this stages: – From the hotel in Tiszavasvári I took immediately the highway M3 towards Satu Mare – this highway is completely new, so you would really enjoy a nice ride for about 150km

M3 highway in Hungary

– From M3 highway there will be clear signs which will lead to Satu Mare – unfortunately from exiting the highway till the border with Romania there is a portion of really crappy road of about 80KM

– You will cross the border between Hungary and Romania at Petea village – there are no actual customs checks, however you can stop if you want to declare any drugs or Mexicans in your trunk.

– As soon you enter Romania, driving will not be that easy, since you will have to know exactly what is your next nearest destination – there will be no signs such as: 700 KM left till Iaşi or 800 KM till Chişinău, unfortunately you really need to remember the above intermediate listed cities.

– I was driving through Baia Mare, Dej and Bistriţa at rush hour and I could state that it went quite smoothly – however remember that this was in January, when most probably there is less traffic.

– Driving through this part of Romania is really rewarding, since most of the roads are new, not so much traffic as written above and the villages are really special.

Road conditions in most of the villages in the Northern part of Romania

– From Bistriţa to Vatra Dornei there is a really nice portion of about 30KM mountain road – I would strongly recommend to drive through these small mountain villages during the day light, since the scenery is truly spectacular

– From Vatra Dornei, you just need to follow the road to Gura Humorului, Fălticeni, Paşcani and lastly Iaşi – make sure when exiting Gura Humorului not to go to Suceava, otherwise this means approx. 100 extra KM.

– I decided to pass the border between Romania and Moldova at Sculeni – mainly due to the fact that I presumed that this crossing point will be less demanded during the 11-13th of January, when many Moldovans are visiting Moldova in order to celebrate the Old New Year.

– The entire crossing of both customs took me about 11 min. – yes that’s correct-I timed it – it was approx. ELEVEN MINUTES . This could have taken me even less time, if I wouldn’t showed off all my passports and Mexicans in the trunk . The customs officers at both customs were really polite and professional. I guess they were quite amazed to see one of the first Moldovans with a Swedish pass and not changing the surname into Cioricisson.

This is it for this time and I hope these travelling recommendations were useful for you. Looking forward to see an increase in the number of road trips from Sweden to Moldova and vice versa .

If you want to read again the first parts, please access the below links: STAGE 1: Night Ferry from Nynäshamn (Sweden) to Gdańsk (Poland) STAGE 2: Drive through Poland and Slovakia to Hungary