I think it’s great when a town shows a bit of age. A few cracks here and a little rust there creates character. Knowing this, it’s no surprise that I’ve fallen in love with Batumi, the popular seaside town on the southern tip of Georgia.

The air feels Mediterranean, the streets are wide, the homes are properly run-down (not crumbling, but romantically cracked) and the sun doesn’t stop shining. OK, it goes down for a while at night, but in the day it’s divine.

Sadly, I’m not the only one to discover Batumi. The bigwigs (Hilton and Sheraton) have moved to town. Their massive hotels are due to be completed in 2011. It seems the town is following suit with a frenzy of rebuilding and refurbishing. Most of the town remains in character with beautifully rusted facades, flanked by impossibly tall grape vines, but change is in the air.

To illustrate my point, I’ve put a photo gallery together that shows both sides of the town – Batumi, new and old.

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The Valborgsmassoafton festival takes place every 30^th of April. It’s big Swedish hello to Spring (aka a day-long party followed by bonfires at night).

Today’s SOOPic was shot in Uppsala at, oh, around 3pm. I’m willing to bet they didn’t get to this year’s bonfires.

Welcome to the Spring, Sweden!

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Picture of the Day (or week, or minute – some people are seriously fast with their updates).

Everyone knows that there are some seriously great photos out there. The world is, after all, an amazing place. Well, considering the measly, poor-excuse-for-a-camera we’ve been carrying around it’s hard to compete in the photo beauty contest. So I’m instating a Seatofourpants style Photo of the Day (or week, depending on how hard we’re traveling at the time):

The WTF SOOPic (Seat of Our Pants Pic) of the Day (aka: all things weird, wacky or that just made us laugh)

Photo quality won’t be guaranteed, but we hope it brings a smile to your face.

Swedish game - circa 1970s

Without further ado, I give you today’s SOOPic: The game we just pulled out of storage at Martin’s parent’s house. For those of you who can’t read Swedish, here’s a translation: Lusen means Lice. The player’s sole purpose is to build a Louse out of little plastic pieces.

Who came up with this? Of all the beautiful bugs in the world, this company went with a Louse.

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The Mighty Ganges at Sunset + Powerline

Seriously, Is wireless electricity too much to ask for? While the world’s engineers work that out, I seem to be doomed to document power lines all over the world.

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