Nice day in Umeå

Enyoing the weather in the central park

Chris ate Paella and i ate Tapas

Me and Chris decided to drive to Umeå for the weekend as we both had the whole weekend off. It turned out to be a gorgeous day with 25 celsius degrees. We went to the farmers market, did some shopping, ate delicious lunch, walked around and sat in the park. We ate dinner at a supernice Spanish restaurant. Then the plan was to see a movie but there was no good ones playing so suddenly we decided to drive back to Lycksele instead and luckely only chris had had a beer so i could drive. Really, really nice day after all!

London weekend

Millenium bridge with the St Paul's cathedral in the back

We took the train to the romantic Notting Hill and...

the Portabella market which had tons and tons of stuff...

Like all kind of bread and cakes,

olives,

Fruit...

I ate Falafel (and yes you could acctually wear shorts)

Sharminy in of London's many parks

New Zealand top 10

1. The tongariro crossing, North island

2. The routeburn track, South island

3. Trekking up Ben Lomond, Queenstown, South island

4. Champagne pool in Wai-o-tapo thermalpark outside Rotoroa, North island

5. Wellington, North island

6. Lake tekapo, South island

7. Cathedral cove,Coromandel, North island

8. West coast, South island

9. Nevi's bungyjump (2nd highest in the world), South island

10. Sailing outside Pahia, North island

My dad asked me to write down my favourite places in New Zealand as one of his co-workers were about to travel there very soon. I loved New Zealand from the moment i stepped out of the plain to the moment i left 9 month later. New Zealand has everything you need in one country. Dessert, fiordlands, beaches, wine yards, great trekking, lot's of activities, culture...
This was my top 10 list of New Zealand but could have made it alot longer.

Wait a minute...

I just red what i wrote here earlier and i realized that it's quite funny how i suddenly find a 6h drive extremly long after travelling in Asia for up to 40h on trains and buses on the worst roads you can imagen. Not to think about the cages with chickens, constantly staring men, puking children and 3h long stops in the middle of nowhere without explanations; that you have to put up with. Here i freak out if the bus is 20 min late. Over there it's more likely the bus will be 3-6 h late. But i guess everything is different when you're home, back in the punctual reality.

Sleeping bed. Your lucky if you get the top one because if you don't you'll probably end up having illegal train riders sitting on you during the night.

Hours after hours of constantly staring men.
Don't be blond in india.

We arrived in Delhi on my birthday after a 40h train ride (not the same as above). This time we acctually ended up next to a nice Indian familly. I think both of the young girls got a crush on Chris.

Chinese trains are an upgrade. People are serving you tea and classical music is playing in the morning.

My favourite busrides is the one on the top of buses, like here in Nepal. The most thrilling ones are also the most dangerous ones. Nepal have the most bus accidents per capita in the world.

The roads in western Tibet is not great. Count
on getting at least 5h late.

Chris looks happy but this is probably the worst busride i've ever done. 35 h on a horrible, dirty, bumby bus going from 1200m above sealevel in western China to 5200m in western Tibet. A German guy died doing this illegal trip the year before. I had never herd about altitiude sickness. I have now.

For the first time in 4 years...

The Taj Mahal, Agra

The holy river Ganges, Varanasi

The streets (and people) are changing color during
the holy festival, Pushkar

Me at the top of Stone mountain, Atlanta

My boyfriend is in Atlanta, my brother is in India...and I'm stock here in a grey, dark and cold Norrköping. This is the first time in 4 years that i'm not travelling! 3 years ago i was in New Zealand, 2 years ago in Nepal and last year in Texas...
So i posted some pictures to remind me that i've also been to those places...

Thinking of Tibet..

Potala, the central monastery in Lhasa

Lhasa

Prayer flags and prayer cards

Monks painting a monastery

Prayer wheels

Tibetan woman

So my brother's travel continue and he is for the moment in Tibet. I think it was about 2 years ago me and Chris visited that very special and original place on earth. I want to call it a country but as it is a part of China now and probably always will be i have to call it a Chinese province. Chris ones toled me that every country you visit you'll feel a special connection to and everytime you here it on the news etc you'll listen extra carefully. Tibet will always bring up emotions for me and i feel very strong for the people living there.
Not only did me and Chris sneak in illegally from the west, a place tourists rarely get to, but we did it on a bus going from 1200m above sealevel to 5400m. For those of you who've never herd of altitude sickness, i'll tell you this is risking your life big time. Well we didn't know by the time and if we did we would probably never have done it.
Well Tibet was amazing! I've never seen such blue sky or clear lakes. Tibetans are one of the friendliest people i've ever met. I think it's impossible to travel in this country without getting very emotional. Everywere you go you'll see ruins of monasteries destoyed by the Chinese government. You can't help but notice that the Tibetan culture slowly is dying and the Chinese is taking over. You'll hear horrible stories allong the way about Tibetan munks getting beaten up by Chinese police, Tibetans getting shot when they trying to escape to India...
It's so sad because they have such a beautiful religion and even though you're just a tourist walking around the "kora" or spinning the prayer wheels they smile to you; your a friend even though you don't believe in the same things.

I really hope i will go there someday again. I'm just scared there wont be any Tibet left at that time..

(I haven't got any photos from the west on this computer so the ones above are only from Lhasa and around.)

China...

Itmightbeboringfortheotherdrivers

A careful snake is dangerous...

Recycled - for your used pet-bottles
Organism - for your used pets...?

I still have alot of work left going through all the photos i've taken during the last 3 years... I found these photos from China as i was going through that album and i couldn't help but post them...
It's so funny how the Chinese translate words into English and i remember how weird we thought it was that they didn't care hiring an English speaker for that job. In China you are studying English for 9 years, the same amount as we do in Sweden but still our English is 10 times better... I think one of the reasons we talk so well is because we don't dub all the movies or TV-serie into Swedish. So kids get home from school and watch friends, simpsons, 70's show etc with the real sound. We have subtitles but even though you read it i think you automatically listen to the voices aswell. This is not how it works in China...
My brother is travelling in China now and i envy him, it's a very special but beautiful country.

Visiting Lidköping and Örebro

Läckö castle, Lidköping

Me, Chris and my parents took a little roadtrip to Örebro this weekend to celebrate my cousin's baby daughter at her "name-giving-party". This was acctually just the beginning of Chris 1120 km drive up north to Storuman the folowing day. Anyway it was a way to break up the drive for him and a chance for us to meet up with relatives we don't see so often. We made a stop in Lidköping on the way there to see one of the most beautiful castles in Sweden, Läckö, and to get some nation wide famous pastries.
Chris left this morning and i wont see him until his parents get here in about 5 weeks. This is the longest time we've been parted for 2 years.

On the road again...

Stockholm

(pictures from last year, forgot the camera this time...)

Uppsala

As the company Chris had his interview with paid for the transportation to Stockholm and back he decided to go by car so i could join. And way not do some stops on the way as the gas was already paid for?!
The job, it turned out, would only be for the summer and for an australian goldmining company in Storuman. Storuman is located 12h north from here, the same distance as it is to Amsterdam.

Chris met up with a professor at the Uppsala university the next day to discuss the possibility to study for a Phd. Uppsala is a beautiful city 40min north of Stockholm. It is the oldest university city in Sweden with tons of students all over the world. We stayed with my friend Johanna (picture) and her boyfriend in their huge appartement right in the city. Johanna is going to work and stay with her parents in Grebbestad during the summer so we will hopefully be seing more of eachother.

We continued the next day to Västerås were Jojo lives. Jojo visited us in Texas last autumn, a trip which turned out to be awsome. It was the first
time i stayed with her in her cowboy inspired appartement. I think of all my friends, there is no one i laugh as much with as her.

We took the car from Västerås south to Norrköping, were i will be studying after the summer. Norrköping turned out to be a beautiful city with water running through, lots of parks and old buildings. The day were mainly ment for apartment viewing and so we did. I acctually decided on a small one room flat, very central and for a very good price.

On the way home we made a stop in Örebro to visit my mum's brother and sister (a good time for Chris to practise his Swedish) and in Karlstad to visit my friend Madde. Madde used to be one of my biggest highjumping rivals and together we have been competing all over Sweden. She now had a 2 months year old babygirl, a dog and a house together with an other highjumper. Wonder what kind of sport the daughter will be doing...

Bye bye Texas and America...

Field of Texas bluebonnets, 290 Houston - Austin

My last 10 days in the US has been great! I arrived here 13 pounds lighter then when i left  and Chris mum did her best to put the weight back on my bones. I was, after some fantastic American meals and a couple of good nights sleep, ready to attend one of Chris' old friends wedding. This was a wedding with a capital w, a traditional American 300 people wedding. To be honest it wasn't that great. The reception was hold in a fancy hotel with not enough seats for everyone. The food was a big disappointment, a buffet with gravy and roast beef. After Chris had seen just how many of his highschool friends whom gone bald or fat we sneeked out to celebrate Karyn's birthday at a nightclub. That was fun! Great music, great people and cheap drinks.

I couldn't leave Texas without saying goodbye to Austin and all the great people i've got to know there. So we took one last roadtrip, through fields covered in Texas bluebonnets, to Austin - one of my favorite cities in America.
The first day we keep busy bouldering and then meeting up with Clint and Julie. I love this couple, they are so nice to each other you can't ever imagen them arguing on anything. I have enjoyed there active lifestyle with snowboarding, climbing and running and will truly miss them. 

The next day were ment for shopping and so we did. Spending our last American dollar on jeans, shorts, tops...and then Kyoto and the best sushi in town with Kristen, Chris' good friend from college.
One thing i love about this city is the access to all the great outdoor activites. And for us this mean climbing and more for me then for Chris; sportclimbing! I had my best climbing day ever ascending my first 5.10!
Last evening and it was time to spend it with Chris bestfriend Brandon and his girlfriend (and our good friend) Amanda. We invited Katy and Peter and i made salmon with feta cheese and fudge and ice cream for dessert...
I can't even recall how many nights we've been staying with Amanda and Brandon, drinking wine and talking...anyway it's been great and i know i've made some really good friends which i hope to keep. Hopefully they will visit us in Sweden someday...

It also feels sad to leave Chris' parents, they are such a nice people and i've had a good time staying with them in Kingwood. But it's time for Sweden and the studies waiting for me there!

All by myself..

Mayaruins overlooking the Caribbean, Tulum

The Caribbean sea, Tulum

Sunset, Flores

As me and Philip really didn't face any complications along the road i guess it was only a matter of time. My minibus left Guatemala at 5 am as planned but instead of going straight to Chetumal (Mexico) there was a big detour through Belize. So instead of arriving to my final destination Tulum at 1 pm i arrived there at 10 pm; a 17h drive with not a single stop for food.  

I was, after grabbing an enchilada on the street ready to crash in my 20-bed dormatory.

My night was horrible as i soon realized i shared bed with a ton of bedbugs. When the morning finally arrived was i not only lacking about 7h of sleep but my eyes had reacted with the bites and i looked like Quasimodo. 

This didn't stop me from exploring Tulum, a city half way up on the Caribbean coast of the Mexican peninsula Yugatan. Me and Hanna from Boston walked along the beautiful turquoise shoreline and visited mayaruins just overlooking the ocean.

It was nice for a day but to many tourists on a to small area doesn't really do it for me. Due to my horrible look the owner of the hostel offered me an extra free night in a clean private room.

After about 30 min into my now very needed sleep the first bug bite. This kept repeating through the night with my changing room again until i finally got an hammock and could sleep a couple of hours in the garden. The owner tried to blame it on my blood type but gave me a full refound. 

I took an early bus to playa del Carmen a city with good location for reaching the airport the following day. I simply can't understand the beauty of this popular place; it's crammed with rich (american) tourists and the streets sell expensive tacky souvenirs. The best thing was the street tacos which unfortunately made me throw up and having fever the whole night.

The flight back to Texas went smooth except that i once again have to spend a couple of hours in the homeland of security room along with 20 middle eastern looking men. 

I would be lying if i wouldn't say i'm happy to be back after the last couple of days. But i do believe in "what doesn't kill you make you stronger" and as long as the complications are minor as bedbugs and food poison i'm perfectly fine with it!

Coffee and mayaruins in the north

Coffee plant with it's berry and flower

Tikal

Sunset over the main plaza, Tikal

Watching the sunrise over the jungle from one of the temples, Tikal

We continued our journey through Guatemala by taking another ¨safe¨ minibus to the very centred Cobàn. Cobàn is known from producing the country´s finest coffee due to it´s colder climate and high altitude. The city itself wasn´t pretty at all; dirty streets and alot of fast food chains. But as the main income didn´t come from tourists people were nice and friendly - and of course the coffee was excellent!
We toured a coffeefarm together with two Americans and learned, thanks to one of the girls´s fluent spanish, everything there is to know about coffee. Cobàn was also a perfect ¨break up the drive¨ on our the way to the magnifique Tikal - the mother of all maya ruins in the very north of Guatemala.
We got into the park on the following day´s ticket to watch the last hour of sunlight slowly descend from the ancient stonetemles in the middle of a jungle.
We rented a tent, as this was by far the cheapest way to sleep outside the park, and got in at 6am the next day before the big hords of tourists rolled in.
Tikal was the greatest of all maya kingdoms and it really is impressive. The location in the middle of a jungle with temples to climb up over the tree tops gave it a magical feeling (no wonder starwars was filmed here). But compared to Copán ruinas in Honduras Tikal lack the fine details carved by hands and all the decorative statues and reliefs. The beauty lies in it´s location and size.

The mayapopulation in Guatemala goes up to around 60% but they are an economical and political minority. The whole country´s money basicly lays in the hand of a very few. The police is very corrupt and there´s lots and lots of unsolved crimes. 2/3 of the cocaine supply to US from South America travel through Guatemala and you´ll see alot of men with machine guns checking the traffic.
Guatemala has alot of issues and is a step behind it´s southern neighbours which lately is increasing in wealth and democracy (don´t know about El Salvador).

Me and Philip will go separate ways tomorrow. He will continue west into Mexico and I will also go there but to the northeastern part and finally fly out from Cancun on Wednesday if everything goes as planned.