Out in the garden

Yes, spring is finally here! 3 weeks without rain and the trees and flowers are blooming!

Not only dislikes...

I have to make something clear here; i don't hate America. Someone toled me that what i write here is abit "anti" America and after reading through my notes i can see where this is coming from. This might come as a suprise but America is acctually one of the countries in the world i can see myself living in. So instead of writing about the things i dislike about it i will write about the things i like.
What i like about this huge country the most is probably the people. I've almost only spent time in the south but the hospitality in these parts are incredible! People make contacts with others everywhere; in the line to the post office, on the bus, in the super market... When you're walking and catch someone's eye you nod your head or say hi. We got invited home by so many poeple we couldn't possible say yes to everyone. This is something you wont see alot of in Sweden. I can understand why we can be seen as "cold" people. Do not seek eyecontact, do not sit next to someone on the bus if there is other free seats, do not start talking to someone in the super market etc...
I also love the diversety; of the landscape, the people and the food. That last one is a big one for me. Man, i miss being able to have incredible ethnic food from all around the world. America is not just fast food as we Swedes tend to see it, America has it all and you don't have to go far...
One of the things which keeps me from living in Sweden is the weather. The weather in the winter is awful, awful! It's miserable, wet, cold and it never ends. It's just something you have to get through and you wish to be enywhere else then just there.

I could probably list a bunch of other things i like but it's getting boring and you´ve seen my point. I will countinue writing how i feel and it might not always favour America, or Sweden or something else..

Nice weather and good climbing

The trees are starting to get leaves/Cris after ascending a 6b

Spring had come to Grebbestad

Chris on his way up a 7a

Ingrid on a 6b

I really, really starting to enjoy climbing. Who would have thought there would be such a use for all the granit i've been growing up around?! It took Chris a long time to convince me about trying this sport, more then a year to be honest. I don't like to be convinced things. Plus i think it's import that couples have different interests. If you'll do everything together you become one person. But here i'm loving the sportclimbing and the challenge it brings.

The beauty of the sport is that it can suit all kind of people and bodytypes. Maybe a guy with lot's of arm muscles and core strenght can manage one "problem" while a tall and light girl can manage a much more balancy "problem" with the same rating.
To go climbing in playses like Smögen, Grebbestad and Gothenburg when the weather is like now is fantastic. I love the swedish spring weather when it's not raining.

We've done our forst weekend working. Great! feel good to finally make some money again.

This is hilarious!!!

Freedom can have the shape of a blue honda

Honda next to my mum´s flowertree

Kikki and a glass of wine at avenyn

Emma was happy the sun was shining over Gothenburg

Even though Sweden's public transport system is 10 times better then the American you'll get tired (and ruined) by taking buses and trains wherever you want to go. So after pity Americans big need of (at least) one car per capita we ironicly felt that a car was just what we needed. So we searched the web a couple of days and came across a honda civic from 2002 at a very good price. The problem was the distance to the dealership, Staffanstorp in the south of the country is about 5h drive from Strömstad and with train and buses it's even longer. We decided to give it a go anyway and that decision was the right one. I love it! And i like to drive it to, which is a rare thing when it comes to me and cars.

So we took our new honda to Gothenburg to visit two of my good friends Emma and Kikki. It was great meeting them again after so many months apart. They were both done with their study but surprised me by knowing even less then me what to do next. We had a great time together cruising the streets of Gothenburg with all it's charm.
I have to admit i'm a bit shocked by how extremly stylish swedish people are. In America i found myself pretty well dressed and never out of style but here on the streets of Gothenburg i was lost in an ocean of guys with skinny jeans, girls with suspenders, make up and hair style. Jesus, i have to get back on track, buy some Elle magazines or something...

We took a couple of days staying with my cousin Matias and did some climbing not to far from his house. It was so good! I climbed my first 6a (v10 american system) so i was pretty happy. We were planing to move on to Smögen the following day but the rainy weather made us drive back to Strömstad again. After all a very good roadtrip with a freedom only a car can provide=)

Home sweet home (?)

Rossö

Granitboulder, Rossö

Blåsippa, Strömstad

I've realized now that there is just so many things you can do to save money. Taking 4 flights, a taxi and a ferry to get from Houston to Strömstad is not one of them. Especially if you misread Ryan air's contract about bringing extra bags and have to ship them from Dublin to Sweden for 200 bucks a bag. Horrible, horrible journey. I got about 3h of sleep, Chris 0.

When i think about Sweden in April i picture it green and sunny. The Sweden we got back to was everything but green and sunny; grey and cold. My parents house was abit upside down aswell as they renovate it and there's paint and wallpaper everywhere.
The last couple of days has been sunny and if the climbing shoes were here instead of Dublin we could have gone climbing. So what have we done then? Sitting in our room with a la ptop each looking for study options (me) and used cars for sale (Chris). We haven't find a car yet but i've decided what to study. 4 years of thinking and you can think i would have made up my mind earlier...Anyway I will apply for graphic design, a 3 year program in Linköping. The problem is that Chris wont get a job there and might study for a PhD in Uppsala, 2,5h north of Linköping. And no, there isn´t any graphic design programs closer to Uppsala than Linköping at least none of where i can get in to.
So are we going to live apart after Chris moving across the Atlantic to stay together with me? We might have to. Seems depressing but 3 years it not to bad and we'll see eachother every weekend.
It's hard for young people to get job here right now, degree or not, and Chris might not get anything at all. I'm grateful for the restaurant job i have to earn some money during the summer when so many of my friends can't get anything.

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.

The southern highlands in Guatemala

The yellow streets of Antigua

La Merced church, Antigua

Woman in traditional maya clothing selling vegetables at the saturday market, Antigua

Making lunch from what we bought at the market, Antigua

Magma flowing out of volcano Pacaya

On the way up volcano San Pedro, Lake Atitlan

If i will remember Nicaragua because of it´s very open and friendly people, i will remember Guatemala because of the country´s markets and volcanoes. I can´t really say to much of it´s people when we due to security have to take minibuses for tourists and stay in places we´re there is more foreigners than locals and the locals mainly work in the tourist business.
But is this the price you´ll have to pay for travel in this country without getting robbed, I´m willing to pay it.

Our first (and maybe last) experience outside the tourist path came from the Saturday market in Antigua were we ot lost in a world of tropical fruit, colorful flowers, grains of all kinds, vegetables, meat, cheese, nuts... We bought a huge lunch for something like $ 1 each including goat cheese, giant avocados, bread, green beans, tomatoes and mango. We ended that same day with a hike up the activ volcano pacaya and even though you had to share the necessary security guide with 25 other more or less slow walking people the reward was one in a life time. Magma flowing out right under our feet, never seen anything like it!

We took a bus to lake Atitlan were we´ve now have spent 3 days climbing a volcano and just enjoyng the slow pace of a Guatemala village (with tons of other tourists). It´s hard to believe so much crime is going on here but just outside the villages gangs operate on robbing tourists and you´ll meet travellers who´ve go their passport stolen more than one time.

So soaking up the sun on our roof top is pretty much what we can do now which really isn´t that bad when it´s snowing back home!

Honduras very briefly

steep cobblestone streets, Copan

Early morning at the mayaruins, Copan ruinas

amazing carvings and details, copan ruinas

A two day, 10 buses trip from Masaya, Nicaragua through Honduras didn´t seem like a good time at all and it wasn´t all that fun to begin with. We changed buses cramed together with the locals and our big bags through the border crossing and had to spend the night in a scatchy little town right on the Honduras side. But the following day, through the country in a pretty upgrade bus looking out on a very diverse and green hilly landscape with kids jumping on the bus selling fresh cola nut cookies made it a very pleasant journey.

As Honduras was US´s puppet in Central Amerika for alot of years the country hasn´t had any civil wars (compared to it´s neighbours) during the last decades. Since US pulled out of the country the local currency has lost alot in value and Honduras is now quite cheap to travel in.

We arrived to Cobán, a little town in the very west which sits on the country´s nr 1 tourist attraction (except the Caribbean beaches) Copán ruinas (AD 250-900) one of the worlds heritage sights and greatest maya ruins.
We got in early, before anyone else and it was trudly amazing to wonder around the majestic ruins before all the big tour groups rolled in.

We´ve been crossing our 4th border together today to spend about 10 days in Guatemala. We´ll mainly spend our time in the south aroung Antigua and the highlands.
There´s been alot of crime towards tourists here during the last couple of months which makes me abit nervous. But hopefuly just by being aware and careful )and lucky= we´ll have a very good time in this country.

Lovely Nicaragua..

Sunset over the main cathedral, Granada

Fruit and vegetable market, Masaya

One of the twin volcanoes, Isla de Ometepe

My week in this through history troubled country is sadly about to end. Nicaragua was a very dangerous country a couple of years ago with a civil war between the left and right side. As a tourist you wont really notice this and the very friendly inhabitants make sure you wont. It´s important that you have a good time here and the reputation will bring more tourists in the future. Most of the time you´ll get a fair price and don´t have to feel tricked.

I really like this country (if you haven´t noticed) and would love to go back here, a week is far from enough. The food is great, everything is pretty cheap and the tourist scene hasn´t turned in to something like Thailand.

We spend 3 days on the volcano island and after hiking and hitchhiking around the island as crazy i feel like we did the most of our time there. We took yesterday in Granada, the conservative city with beautiful colonial buildings in the middle of three volcanoes.

I´m starting to get used to Philips tempo. Getting up at 5.30 to see the most of the days has it advantages and it´s not hard falling a sleep at night. The one thing which bothers me abit is that i can´t really make any friends because the next day we´ll be gone doing what we´ve planed in another city.

We´ll be taking buses to a city in the north west by the border tomorrow and hopefully the next day we´ll get all the way through Honduras to the maya ruins in the west corner of the country.

all the best/andrea

ups & downs - Panama to Nicaragua

The old original part Casco viejo, Panama city

overlooking the modern part, Panama city

Plaza de la independencia, Panama city

So I did meet my brother and we did made it to Panama city but it was far from as easy as i had hoped. After waiting for my brothers flight for about 3 hours i made the conclussion that he wasn´t on the flight... Helpful airport staff toled me he got stocked in Colombia because his lack of a ticket out of Panama (which neither of us had) but got on the next flight tomorrow morning. As the time was pretty late by now and Panama city is not the safest for a blond single girl at night i decided to spend my 13h on the airport sitting in one of the uncomfortable, unsleepable chairs...

I really liked Panama city. The contrast between the modern buildings and the old colonial settlements, the excellent food stands and the very helpful inhabitants made it a pleasant stay.
We explored the canal during one day and got the luck of seeing a ship passing through the locks, pretty cool! You could tell the canal has made Panama city richer since US pulled out 1999, the city is booming and people are smiling!

The busride from Panama to San Jose in Costa Rica was okey but not great. The border crossing went over all expectations and in 2 days we made it through Costa Rica to Nicaragua and Isla de Ometepe. I can say this much after travelling with my brother Philip for about 5 days. He wants to see as much as possible on as little time as possible and it should cost as little as possible. I do prefer this way of travel and admire his energy (he has done this for about 6 months now) but have to put down my foot at some point when we haven´t eaten in 9h or are planing to sleep on a busstation in one of the most dangerous cities in central america...

Costa Rica is the richest and most americanized country in Central Amerika, with other words the most expensive . Nicaragua might be the poorest of the 8 but from what i´ve seen with happy and very friendly inhabitants. It doesn´t hurt that it´s very cheap too...

So, we will climb one of the volcanos on this twin volcano island in the middle of the country(!) tomorrow. The plan is to stay here 3 days before heading to Granada north from here.

If everything goes as planed i´ll be writing from there or possible Honduras next time.
(I will upload photos here when i get back to Houston)

From San Antonio to Austin and New Orleans

The capitol building of Texas, Austin


The Alamo, San Antonio


Hamilton pools, Austin


Jackson square, New Orleans


Statue in the french quarter, New Orleans


The cemetery above ground, New Orleans

Just got back from leaving my parents at the Houston airport. They had a busy 9 days stay here were we've been visiting Austin, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans.

One of the best things about their visit was how well they got along with Chris' parents. They even did things on their own as going to a NBA game, visiting jazz clubs and playing tennis.

Chris parents are planing a trip to Norway and Sweden in july and all of us are really looking forward to their stay!

It's evening now and in the morning i will leave Chris for about 3,5 weeks of traveling in central america with my brother. It feels really strange as the two of us literally has spend every (almost hour) day together for the last 6 months. But Chris can spend all this time climbing in different locations without worrying about me getting bored (though i really enjoyed climbing myself in the end).

Next time i write i will be somewhere in central america. So long until then!

Happy birthday to me!

Pretty awesome when your parents travel to the other side of the
world to greet you with a homemade strawberry cake! Did manage to escape the traditional
waking up ritual with birthday singing and cake while still in bed...
Well 23 do sound better then 22, but it also sounds like
i should have accomplished more then finishing high school and surfing around the world for God knows how many years now..
I would like to point out that i've seen incredible places and met incredible people who have been effecting me and who i am today in a lot of different ways.
Who could have thought a couple of years ago that me and my parents would celebrate my 23rd birthday with an American family in Texas??!

I will post some photos of their visit here later on (we still have New Orleans on the schedule).
I also have to start thinking about my next trip with my brother to Central America in 5 days.
Just one more thing; seems like me and the Oscar jury have the same taste in movies;p