Text and Photo © 2026 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
February is not the obvious month to visit southern Norway. The days are short, the harbour wind has teeth, and the summer crowds that fill Kristiansand’s famous Fiskebrygga are long gone. But come in February for one very specific reason: skrei.
Continue reading “At the Fish Wharf in Winter: Kristiansand and Skrei Season”
Text and Photo © 2026 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
Shanghai, October 2025
Some days are perfectly choreographed without having the need to plan much. An October 2025 morning in Shanghai began with ancient porcelain and ended with the glittering skyline reflected in the Huangpu River, a journey from 8,000 years of ceramic history to the electric pulse of modern China.
We arrived at the Shanghai Museum East Campus in Pudong just after opening, beating the mid-morning crowds. The sprawling 113,200-square-meter building on Century Avenue is a world away from the iconic bronze ding-shaped museum at People’s Square. Where the original building evokes ancient ritual vessels, the East Campus, opened in late 2023, is all soaring ceilings, natural light, and the kind of spaciousness that lets you actually breathe around priceless artifacts.
Continue reading “Through Old and New Shanghai: From Museum Treasures to Bund Lights”
Borrowed a qipao, found a new timeline. Couldn´t resist having an Old Shanghai moment — 1920s film-noir mood on Nanjing Lu. Slipped into a qipao, grabbed a feather fan, and let the street turn into a movie set.
Text and Photo © 2026 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
They say the best way to see Shanghai is to leave it, if only for an afternoon. Not for another skyline, but for a place where time is measured by the quiet push of a boat pole and the patient repetition of hands at work. In October 2025, I took the easy one-hour trip out to Zhujiajiao and found it wasn’t a postcard version of the past. It was a living town, layered, textured, and gently awake beneath willows that moved with the breeze.
Zhujiajiao in autumn doesn’t need dramatic sunshine to feel beautiful. That day, the sky was more like a thin wash of watercolour, soft and overcast, with swirls of cloud-white. The humidity of summer had lifted, replaced by air that felt clean and light on the skin. The canals held a calm green, the willows stayed green too, and the whole town seemed to lean into a quieter palette.
Continue reading “Where Shanghai Slows Down: Zhujiajiao in Autumn”
Text and Photo copyright 2025 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
A Swedish julbord is often described as “a lot of food,” but it is also a meal with a recognisable structure and a set of shared habits. Many guests begin with something warm to drink, then move through the buffet in a familiar sequence, cold dishes first, warm dishes second, dessert and coffee last. Julbord is commonly eaten in “rounds,” with several smaller visits rather than one large plate.
On the Swedish west coast, the julbord is often framed by the sea, both literally and in the menu. In Gothenburg and the archipelago, Christmas dining is frequently described in terms of herring and salmon variations, and, in some settings, more pronounced seafood and shellfish elements.
At Långedrag Värdshus, the julbord is presented as a classic “julbord by the sea,” with views over Göteborg’s archipelago. Their description highlights several kinds of herring, salmon prepared in different ways, cold cuts, and warm staples such as Jansson’s frestelse, boiled Christmas ham, prinskorv, and homemade meatballs, followed by a large dessert table.
Continue reading “Julbord on the West Coast: Herring, Ham, and Holiday Rhythm”
Europe has many beautiful Christmas markets, with some of the most famous found in Austria and Germany. Cities like Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck in Austria, and Nuremberg, Cologne, Dresden, and Munich in Germany are globally renowned for their historic and atmospheric Christmas markets. They are often seen as the heartland of the tradition. When I planned a week in Brussels, I realised I hadn’t heard much about its Christmas markets at all. Brussels is often associated with the European Union, conference rooms, institutions, and polished modern buildings, so I assumed the holiday season might feel more formal than festive. I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised.
Photo & Text © 2025 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
It’s a warm July afternoon. Low clouds drift lazily over the archipelago. Beneath them, the granite cliffs of Smögen rise from the sea, a sculpted memory in pink-grey that is sea-worn, and timeless. The town’s wooden boathouses, painted in reds and mellow yellows, lean against each other in an uneven row, anchored by the bustling boardwalk, parts of which snake along the harbor.
It’s here, outside a popular seafood restaurant called Göstas Fiskekrog, that a steel-hulled yacht appears to have sailed out of another chapter entirely.
Continue reading “Sweden’s Coastal Frontier: Where Seafood, Science, and Sustainability Meet”
Photo & Text © 2025 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
Across Europe, the concept of a circular economy (CE) is gaining momentum as cities strive to reduce environmental impact and build more resilient systems. Unlike the traditional “take-make-dispose” model, the CE framework reimagines artifacts, products, buildings, and processes as part of a continuous loop, where resources are reused, repurposed, or regenerated.
A 2022 Europe-wide study introduced the ASCÉ framework to assess how robust these CE systems really are [1]. While many European countries score well on political commitment and citizen engagement, the study found a lack of structural embedding: fragmented governance, inconsistent data systems, and limited institutional coordination often hold back real progress.
In this context, architecture plays a pivotal role in accelerating the circular transition. The built environment is responsible for roughly 40% of global carbon emissions and over one-third of total waste generation, making it both a critical challenge and a powerful entry point for CE implementation [2,3].
Photo & Text © 2025 JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro
This past week I visited the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a space where the 20th and 21st centuries collide in forms that are sometimes luminous, sometimes reverent, often dissonant, and occasionally maddeningly ambiguous. It’s not a museum that asks for your agreement. But it does demand your attention.
The Stedelijk is known for its impressive collection of modern and contemporary art and design. That reputation becomes immediately clear, not through spectacle, but through a thoughtful, often intimate curation. The collection moves fluidly between movements: De Stijl, Bauhaus, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and into the chaotic openness of contemporary installation and conceptual art. Continue reading “Refractions of Modernity: A Visit to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam”
Photo & Text by CM Cordeiro © 2025
I was last in Shanghai in 2014. Back then, Zhujiajiao, Shanghai’s historic water village, was already one of the city’s most visited destinations. It had the feeling of a lively maze, with cobbled alleys and canals animated by local life. I remember browsing street stalls that sold everything from skewered meats to handcrafted silver trinkets. Wooden boats glided slowly through narrow waterways, giving visitors a sense of the town’s centuries-old rhythm. Even then, Zhujiajiao felt like a place evolving, slowly navigating the space between heritage and modern tourism.
More than a decade later, Zhujiajiao has transformed. Its historical architecture remains beautifully intact: stone bridges arch gracefully over the canals, while Ming and Qing-style shophouses still feature the latticework windows I’ve always loved. But the atmosphere feels more curated now. There’s a calm elegance to the way the town carries itself. The rhythm reminded me, curiously, of modern-day Chinatown in Singapore that was orderly, connected, and rooted in tradition but polished by contemporary touch.
Continue reading “Hidden Café Gem in Zhujiajiao: Shuyue Tower 舒阅楼 – Best Café of 2024”