The Titanic Awards

Name Sture Bjarnelind
Who? Travel editor of Aftonbladet, Sweden’s biggest circulation newspaper. Spent 15 years as sports editor and, as a result, always tries to watch a live football (soccer) match wherever  he travels. Visit his newspaper’s travel section. Or this version in English (via google translate).
Age 48
Countries Visited 30+

Titanic Nominations
1. Worst Hotel The Sheraton in Bologna, Italy — for the price, at least. I was there for the annual book fair and all the hotels jacked up their rates. I guess I was expecting something decent for $250 a night with a major brand hotel, but it felt more like a cheap hostel.
2. Worst Food Iceland’s Hákarl. I was curious to see how the Hákarl compared to our Surströmming (formented Swedish herring). It was much, much worst. It made  Surströmming seem like lobster.
3. Worst Tourist Attraction Empire State Building. We waited for two hours, then there wasn’t much to see once we arrived at the top. Would have rather spent my time and money at the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
4. Worst Car Rental Europacar in Geneva. We got the car with about a quarter of a tank of gas, but they still demanded we return it full. And we pointed out several bumps and scrapes on the car before leaving, but they still charged us for them.
5. Worst Wine Virtually every Chinese wine I had in China.  The only bottle I recall specifically was “Great Wall” — easy to remember and nothing great about it.

Famous Travelers