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Vilma Núñez de Escorcia awarded the Stieg Larsson prize

Vilma Núñez de Escorcia has been awarded this year’s Stieg Larsson prize for her contribution to human rights in Nicaragua.

She has been fighting for human rights in Nicaragua since being a student during the time of the dictator Somozas. Today she is still fighting for human rights as the president and founder of the CENIDH organisation.

The Stieg Larsson prize was founded two years ago by Stieg Larsson's brothe and father, as well as the Norstedts publisher. The award goes to a person or organisation that follows Stieg Larsson's own work to fight racism and oppression.

Vilma Núñez de Escorcia has been awarded the prize for her fight to improve day to day life for women in Nicaragua.

The award ceremony takes place in Stockholm today 9th November.

Experience a Swedish Christmas fair in London!

Don't miss the traditional Swedish Christmas Fair at the Swedish Church in London!  Come and enjoy Swedish mulled wine, saffron buns and gingerbread snaps, traditional handicraft and lots of yummy Christmas food.


Where:
The Swedish Church in London
6 Harcourt Street
London
W1H 4AG
United Kingdom

Map:
Map to The Swedish Church

When:
17th November, 11am to 8pm.
19th November, 11am to 6pm
20th November 12noon to 5pm.

Enterance: £1 for all three days

St Martin’s Eve, celebrating the goose in Skåne!

Fried goose breast with brawn on the thigh wıth black pudding and berries.
Jakob Fridholm/imagebank.sweden.se

As the days are getting darker and the thick autumnal fog covers the fields in the Southern county of Skåne, many people start to look forward to the goose feast on St Martin’s Eve 10th November.

St Martin’s Day was an important medieval autumn feast, and the custom of eating goose spread to Sweden from France. This is the time of the year when seeding is completed and goose is ready for slaughter. Many countries celebrate St Martin’s Day and traditionally 11th November marked the start of fasting so at St. Martin's Eve, people ate and drank for a last time before they started to fast.

A goose dinner takes a long time to cook and it is incredibly rich. Traditionally you start with a bowl of "black soup" (svartsoppa), made from goose blood and goose broth. The goose is often stuffed with apples and prunes and you eat it with seasonal delicacies like cabbage, apples and potatoes. Very often you finish with an apple tart and vanilla sauce.

Have you ever been to a goose feast? What do you do to celebrate St Martin’s Day? Let us know!

Speaking of innovative...

Three members from the Swedish vocal group Erato sings Call Your Girlfriend. Originally by Robyn, it is now performed by Ebba Lovisa, Amanda Wikström and Petra Brohäll - using spread (?) packages as instruments..!

Innovative Sweden

One hundred years ago Sweden was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Today it's ranked as the world's most innovative country, and a world leader in many research areas. This is a journey through some of the fields in which Swedish research excels.

Stockholm hotel offers room exclusively for bloggers

Blogger’s Inn is the next step in the Nordic hotel chain, Scandic’s, effort to raise the living standard in their hotels. With the help of Frida Ramstedt, who runs the design blog Trendenser.se, Scandic has developed a ”Blogger’s Inn” room at the new lifestyle hotel Scandic Grand Central in Stockholm, Sweden.

Bloggers and entrepreneurs who have job related errands in Stockholm may apply to live cost-free in the concept room being tested at Scandic Grand Central. Frida Ramstedt of Trendenser, a highly acclaimed blog based out of Sweden, has been a part of the development and thought process since the beginning, helping Scandic develop a market research survey and plan for outfitting the room.

The room’s amenities and fixings, carefully tailored to the needs and desires of digital entrepreneurs, reflect the results of a thorough market survey. Scandic circulated a survey of questions regarding hotel habits and demands among 200 of Sweden’s most influential bloggers in the following categories: fashion, family/mother/father, design/interiors/photo, lifestyle, music/film/literature/computer games, food/drink, PR/advertising/social media and sports/hobbies.

A survey showed that approximately 6 of 10 bloggers (56%) stay in a hotel when they visit Stockholm. 7 of 10 of the questioned bloggers (70.1%) have been forced to turn down invitations to blog events, press days or trade shows in Stockholm due to the high cost of lodging. The bloggers’ most important tools during travel are their laptops, digital cameras, chargers and USB-cords. Only 15.2% travel with an iPad/e-book reader. However, 82% of the questioned bloggers would use an iPad/e-book reader if it were available in the hotel room.

The hotel’s acoustic bar has every chance of becoming Stockholm’s best cocktail bar, with live performances several times a week. If you enjoy people watching, this is the place to be!

For more information, please contact:

malin.nyberg@visitsweden.com

About Trendenser.se

Trendenser.se is a daily website dedicated to home and interior design run by the
Swedish editor Frida Ramstedt. Launched in September 2005, Trendenser features
store and product reviews, trend forecasting, design hotels, travelling-, city- and gift
guides, DIY projects, recipes, and personal reports from different interior design events
in Scandinavia. In addition Trendenser also covers international design trends from
furniture fairs around the world. The site/blog is updated frequently (with an average of
2-3 posts a day) and attracts a core group of devoted readers who are interested in
interior design. Trendenser's audience stops by on a regular basis to check out the
latest news, reviews and recommendations for products and services. The site/blog
currently has 40.000-46.000 readers each week, mainly women between the age of 25-
45.