On Sunday morning most people enjoyed a lazy morning after a hectic week. We packed our bags and checked out of our hostel at noon. Fortunately, the hostel was kind enough to let us leave our bags there and most of the group headed out to explore the city one last...

After a week of productive meetings across Tbilisi with both the public and private sector, the travel group was happy to catch up on sleep and rise a little later than the usual time during the week. It was time to discard the formal attire from out meetings for more...

Friday started with a visit to the Swedish Residency, where we were greeted with enough cinnamon buns, croissants and other pastries to feed a small army. And a small army we were. By coincidence, both UPF Lund and UF Malmö were in Tbilisi at the same time, so 34...

The first meeting on Thursday was probably my favourite meeting of the trip! We met with the deputy foreign minister and the main negotiators for both the EU and NATO. Georgia is extremely EU-positive with 85% of the population wanting to join the union and at any...

After the previous day’s tour, it was time for the first meeting with a Georgian NGO. As early as 9:00, the travel committee was at the office of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). Shortly after the presentations were made, the...

Unfortunately, we could not meet anyone on Tuesday, as it marked a national holiday in Georgia. The holiday commemorates 9th April 1989, when the Soviet Army fired on anti-Soviet demonstrators in Tbilisi, killing 21 and injuring hundreds. We decided to make the best...

We arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia late on Sunday night. On the bus from the airport into the city centre, we got our first impressions of Tbilisi, which were entertainingly influenced by our long nightly journey and lack of sleep. One of the first things we noticed were...

  Last but not least, Friday, the final day of our study trip in NYC! The schedule today offers two very interesting meetings including the US mission to the UN and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). At the US mission to the UN we were welcomed...

  We kicked off our day with a meeting at the Commission on Human Rights. The Commission is the city’s agency to enforce the NYC Human Rights Law – the city’s own civil rights law, and one of the most comprehensive in the United States. We learned about how the...

  We started off quite early on Tuesday morning. Our first appointment was at the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce where we met Anna Throne-Holst. You might know her from “Sommar i P1” this summer where she hosted and talked about her earlier career. She’s...

  We started our day at the Swedish mission to the UN. It is situated in 1 Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, which happened to be in the building right across the street from our hostel. We were warmly welcomed by Inga-Lena Bengtsson, who had been working at the mission...

  Saturday morning lots of us went for bagels, my personal favourite was an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese. After a week in New York you learn how to order, in the beginning you spend your time looking at what everybody else is eating to determine...