Some general observations

As you very well know, this summer I went on InterRail with my best friend Ingrid. During this month we visited 13 European countries, stayed at 19 different hostels, saw 17 cities, went to about a 1000 museums and never stayed anywhere for more than 5 days. I kept a diary all through this immense journey and now I want to share some of my experiences with you. I am, of course, not planning to re-write my whole diary on my blog (I mean, come on...I need to preserve at least a bit of privacy), however I will summarise the days in "some general observations" for each country. So here goes the first one:

Some general observations about Amsterdam:

- The city has a very distinctive smell. A kind of interesting blend of weed and piss.
- The alleys are filled with some dodgy shops
- It's an island
- People live in houses built on the river
- There are far more bicycles than cars, hence you are more likely to get hit by a biker
- You are expected to know the art of walking through walls as various signs point directly into one
- No real concept of winning and loosing (we were there the day after Holland lost in the World Cup and there were a 1000 fans all in orange celebrating the team's homecoming)
- Getting lost between the channels is a piece of cake as everywhere looks the same
- Awesome parks

Easter Eggs

Just came back home for Easter holidays. Already met up with two of my friends, which is better than expected (no offence). Is good to be back but every time I visit there seems to be so much news I need to catch up on. Relationships ending, relationships starting, people who start working, people who quit working and start school in stead, and also people who stop talking to each other for some obscure reasons. Sometimes it feels like I've fallen so far behind I can never catch up. It's like I exist in a different world and when I come back to this one I am an alien who has to accommodate to new rules and customs. It can be quite annoying sometimes. It's good to have my friends there to make the transition go smoother, but I wish I could be better at keeping in contact with them while I'm away. That is something I definitely need to improve on, specially since I have every opportunity to do so as they are all frequent facebook visitors.

This Easter I have great plans to actually finish planning my inter rail trip for this summer. I need to look up ways for us to get to our first destination, order all the tickets and hostels etc., and look up recommended tourist attractions in each country we're going to. It will be a challenge to find all the places we want to see and ways to get there, but I think it'll be alright because both Ingrid and I can be very organised at times and so hopefully together we can plan something that will end up being a wonderful trip :) I also want to get in shape for Hadrian's wall as it now seems that I am coming along to that as well. Don't even fully know what Hadrian's wall is or where it is but apparently 8 days will be enough to see it. Those 8 days have been promised to me to be filled with a lot of walking, so I kind of need to prepare for that in advance, so that I don't collapse on the first day and have to go home immediately. That is why I plan to start running 3 times a week. Hopefully I'll stick to my plan this time.

Somewhere in between all of the jogging and planning I also have to work and revise for my exams. All of my exams are crammed into 2 weeks so once again I will have to resume to living in the library. Seems like it's my permanent habitat, that place. Oh and I have to write a lab report while I'm home too, man this is going to be a busy holiday. Life is never easy, is it?!

Feeling gay on Christmas Day

Gay as in happy. Christmas is finally upon us, our saviour is born and all the world can rejoice for his coming. First of all I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, I hope that wherever you are and whomever you're with you will enjoy this day to the fullest.

For me Christmas day was a boring one, but only because Norwegian customs call us to celebrate Christmas eve in stead. So after work I came home, helped my mother pack the last present for our cat and put it underneath our tree, before I started on the turkey (I am the only one who knows how to stuff it right, so they just let me do it ;p). After dinner we gathered round the beautiful tree and opened our presents.

I got everything I wished for with a few surprises as well. For example, this year Santa gave me a potato peeler :D I think he's trying to send me a message, but I'm not sure whether it's "you've been a naughty girl this year so get started on those potatoes to redeem" or "you're such a good girl and you're cooking is wonderful - here's something to make it easier". Oh, and did I mention that the it peels the potatoes itself? No? Well it does, and that's why I absolutely LOVE it :D No more potato peeling for me, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Gonna turn Irish and have potatoes every night ;)

What did you guys get? Anything fun?

Anyways, gotta go....potatoes are waiting for me :P

The Hot Cyprian Air

Didn't save me from getting a cold. In fact, it actually contributed to it, in a weird way. 36 - 38 degrees all week led to us setting the air conditioner to 18 degrees over night. Which of course meant that bathing in the windy sea for 2 hours the next day was a bad idea. Nevertheless, I did, and got sick for the better part of our holiday. Of course, that didn't stop me from having a great time!

We arrived in Cyprus on monday, feeling very much like stuffed turkey that had suddenly been crammed into the oven, very tired and somewhat hungry. At the hotel we had to wait two hours before we could check in, so we took a stroll along the beach, suddenly realising that all our tiredness was being swept away by the warm sea breeze. The view was amazing, and so was the hotel! That same day, after moving into our apartment and swimming in the sea for a while, we went on into town exploring. I soon realised that this was a family/couples resort place, and that we were the odd ones out. But that didn't really bother me because the whole place had a very nice atmosphere.

During the first few days we didn't do much more that relaxing. Mostly I was just reading my book in the sun, and sitting on the rocks in the water (note: I can swim, BUT the sea water is salt, duuuh, which means - it irritates the skin on my face...so basically my face is allergic to it but the rest of my skin is fine and since sea water is so good for the body I found rocks in the water I could sit on). We also did some paragliding and pedalboating (was great fun!). Sometimes there were activities going on in the pool, like water gym, water polo, water volley etc, that I willingly joined in on. And after a while I befriended the entertainment guy so I knew exactly when all the fun stuff was happening. I even participated in the table tennis tournament! I lost, of course, but I wasn't far behind and I was playing against the teacher :D

By the end of the week we were getting a bit bored with just laying around in the sun, so we went sightseeing. Travelled across the border to the north, Turkish occupied side of Cyprus. Two words - flags everywhere. I guess someone really wanted to make it clear whose land it was. I think someone was trying too hard.

But anyway, the trip itself was about two castles and one church (monastery). One of the castles was build over centuries, finally finished in the 14th. It is very beautiful, high up in the mountains, and it looked more like it had just grown out of the mountain itself, rather than someone having build it on top of it. Apparently Walt Disney (who, by any account, had a great imagination cause I sure couldn't have imagined it and still can't see any resemblance) got the idea for Snow White's castle after seeing this one. As a matter of pride we, as always, climbed to the very top of the building. Took us about an hour with all those crooked steps, but we made it, and were rewarded with a magnificent view.

The other castle was less impressive. The only good thing there were the chambers of torture and the 4000 year old ship they managed to lift from the bottom of the ocean. The monastery was far more interesting. The chuch there was the only greek orthodox chuch that still had all the original icons (because during the occupation people barricated themselves in it for a year and after a while the turks just couldn't be bother to rob it). And the monastery, although roofless (due to colonists that smashed it to get building materials for the english channel), was very well preserved. Anywhooooo, I liked it, and although my feed were bleeding from my new shoes (yh yh, I know, silly girl in her silly shoes...but they're so pretty!!), I enjoyed it.

Last few days were all about souvenirs, eating at local tavern's, and packing. We went to "Cyprus night", and got to see lots of national food and dancing. It was great, they even made us dance :p I won't say anything about food portions, only that after the 9th plate I couldn't even look at it anymore.

We left on monday, our favourite tavern being Marco's, where the food was awsome, the portions less overwhelming and thus eatable, and the menues were in russian :D

I'll miss Cyprus, but now it's back to work.

From Russia with love

Busy 2 weeks indeed. Had a lot of things to do and not nearly enough time to do them :( During the first weekend I was busy running around making plans for the rest of my stay. Handed in papers for my new passport, fixed my sandals and bought a new handbag <3

As soon as the new week began I headed out to our summer house to do some painting. Was easy and got help from Andrey (who was nice enough to come with, even though he had the flu), but as soon as we were done with the first layer - there was a storm. It was pouring down for four days straight! And although I got to meet up with my brother and my two oldest friends, after thursday I gave up waiting for the sun and went back into town.

Tried to squeeze in some cultural stuff, but failed as all the theaters were either closed or fully booked. Had three good, rainless days where I didn't get soaked as soon as I walked out the door, and used those to 1) walk around town and eat sushi *love*, 2) travel out to the nearest island "Kranstadt" that was used as a fort during the two world wars keeping the enemy away from our shores, and 3) to collect my passport and meet up with people I had no time for earlier in the week.

I really liked Kranstadt. I'd never been to a fort before and Julia (a friend of Andrey who lives there) was kind enough to show us around. We saw all the main sites, drove around on rollerblades *DESTROY now and never look at again*, and klimbed the fort walls. The day was nearly perfect (except for the fact that we didn't get into any of the museums and that those rollerblades made me hate the world, my life and the certain someone who thought it would be a good idea to scate around town).

Meeting the family was good too. I'm glad my father stayed away though, don't think I'd be able to handle him. Was a pity that I didn't have more time so I never got to meet my other brother or my granfather, but at least I now have a motivation to come back sooner.


I'm glad everything turned out the way it did. Even if it means that life will be more complicated.

Hunting in the jungles

For a job that is. Because although I'm not exactly short on money, the matter of fact is: I'm bored. My mother left for Russia today and I am now the single occupant of our house for the next three weeks. Sure I could find something else to do with my time, like cleaning or reading or chasing after my cat trying to get him to spend time with me (although it's useless really, he always manages to get away somehow). However, all those things only take that much time...so what do I do with the rest of it? The weather is gloomy as well...so I can't go swimming or sunbathing :( And all the rest of my friends are working.

Anywhooooo, I decided to finally get off my bum and start looking for a job. I went to all the stores and cafès around the area distributing my very short and highly unimpressive CV and a dreadfully dull application. On my journey through our town I found out that nobody really needs help now, and that I should've probably applied a while back :( There is one place I have some hope for though. Very close to home and in need of a person who can work other holidays as well. So hopefully I'll get that one!