let's be alone together
Got back from Stockholm a couple of days ago after being there for almost a week! I swear I spend more time there than the people actually living in Stockholm.
I started my week there by meeting up with Lisa!! I think I've written about Lisa on here before but for you newbies and english speaking people I met Lisa when I studied in London for a while when I was seventeen! We were living together in Twickenham with a host family (scarred for life) and she is one of my closest friends. We met up one last time before we both are going abroad for a year. She showed me her university and then we went to a museum where we found out we have enormous sharks in swedish waters. Jeez I think I could have lived my life without knowing that. I thought I never had to be afraid of sharks here in our cold country but I guess I WAS WRONG. Traumatic experience.
We also went to this really cute café that is basically just selling chocolaty stuff. I swear it was not a dream, totally true. Best hot chocolate ever. We easily spent some hours there just talking about memories from London (omg) and about nothing and everything.
Besides hanging with Lisa I have been to the movies, eating a lot of nice food, I accidentally did some shopping and then I watched a horror (read scary thriller) movie for the first time in my life. I am never watching a horror movie ever again. I might consider it if I have my very own private bodyguard. Then maybe. I could barerly sleep that night and man I am such a weak person. I do prefer non scary stuff like... uhm... like the Olympics!! Much better. Oh god speaking about the Olympics. Okay. So we were watching the mens gymnastic the other day right? And there are some very young people competing? Anyways I made a comment about how one of the guys only were eighteen years old. And then from nowhere my little cousin (who is eight) just looked at me dead serious and said "he's younger than you, are you gonna...." *wiggles her eyebrows* "and..." *makes kiss sounds*. She totally gets me. I love her.
"Nugatti is not the same thing as Nutella"
So after hiking for almost a week we drove up to Åre to end the trip there. We started off by staying at a very cute small hotel in the middle of the town. And this is where my body started to completely shut off. Apparently when you haven't been able to sleep for two months and then push yourself to max, it comes with consequenses. Who knew?? It felt like I had been hit by a truck multiple times and I had nosebleeds four times a day BUT HEY I wouldn't let that stop me. And thankfully after climbing a mountain for seven hours and sleeping in a tent for a week I could finally sleep when I got to a comfortable bed. I actually think I could have fallen asleep anywhere. So if you ever have trouble sleeping just climb a mountain and I promise you that it will get better. So easily done and everything. Not being sarcastic at all. Anyways. Getting on with it.
The day after we arrived to Åre we took the car and drove over to Norway! There is a town called Trondheim and it is truly one of the most beautiful cities ever. We had some lunch, walked around and of course we bought some things that you simple can't leave Norway without. Nugatti Air and Stratos. Seriously I don't know what I would do without it sometimes. And I don't want to hear anyone telling me that Nugatti is basically Nutella because it's not. You think I would cross borders to get Nugatti if it was just like Nutella? Don't think so.
After two nights at the first hotel we moved and checked in to a hotel called Copperhill. I have been waiting to get back there for a whole year. It is my favorite hotel in the whole world. It is located on top of an old copper mine and also on the top of a hill therefore it's name. The view from the rooms are breath taking, especially at sunset. Since Åre is kind of a ski resort there isn't that many people there during the summer which is great for us because the hotel isn't that busy and somedays you even have the whole spa section to yourself. Which is awesome because then you can eat as much of the free fruit that you want and no one is there to judge you after your seventh apple. Score. And you even have Zlatan as your neighbour. Sadly he wasn't home so we weren't invited for tea this time.
Besides just being at the hotel (you really don't want to leave it) we did some trips to small villages around Åre, had some really good lunches (favorite one was my noodle sallad omnomnom) and I posed in the bathroom because I thought the light was cool. Yup. No shame in that. One day I got to join my cousin to the kids club at the hotel. They had a little get together for the kids and they got to make their own popcorn cones and then got free popcorns. I think I was more excited than my cousin and thankfully there was a guy in my age there as well who made his own cone too so I wasn't totally alone surrounded by kids. Free popcorn is always a great thing.
Another day when the others went down to spend the day at a swimming resort thingy I spent the day at the hotel room playing Need for Speed. Totally worth it. I then got to teach my eight year old cousin how to play it. I can now proudly say that I learned her the proper way how to get rid of the police while driving reckless and how to smash other cars. What a role model I am!!
Another great thing about Copperhill is the hotel breakfast. I mean wow. Being able to eat both yoghurt, sandwhiches, eggs, bacon AND pancakes at the same time is so nice. I want to have it that way every day. Eat breakfast kids. It's good for ya. The hotel also has a really nice gym that was basically empty at all times which was perfect. I was there every day to watch "The Great British Bake Off" while running on the threadmill. That is how I stay motivated. Having a cake to run towards. It's great, you should totally try it. Sadly all good things comes to an end. After a week in Åre we packed our things, stole the cute little schampoo bottles from the hotel and started our long journey home.
1797 meters above sea level
After more than two weeks on the road I am back home again. It has been so much fun and I miss it already.
We started two weeks ago by leaving Stockholm and driving about seven hours up in Sweden. There, in a small town, we begun our hike up to Helags! It's about a six hour hike to the mountain station and the walk is so beautiful and uhm, a bit hard at some points but mostly just beautiful. Last year my backpack was about eight kilos but this year it was more than sixteen kilos. It might not sound that much but when walking uphill for six hours it is A LOT and I had bruises on my shoulders and hips afterwards haha. Like imagine doing squats for six hours straight with sixteen kilos extras on you, that's how it felt. Anyways, we had great weather and me and my little cousin made it to the station first *flexing my non-existing muscles*.
The mountain station is just below Helags (the big mountain in the picture above) and it's such a cute place. The people working there are so nice and their food is so amazing. We celebrated midsummer up there which is kind of different from what it normally is but I like it. Since the station is so high up they have a helicopter that fly everything they need up there so even we got our potatoes, harring and meatballs on midsummer eve. Woop woop. The day after midsummer we made a trip half way up to the top. It was way to foggy for us to continue so we took a different way down and found the most magical place ever. It was a small lake just below the glacier where the clouds were so low, everything was quite and it was just us there. The pictures I took doesn't even give the place justice but I can assure you it is now one of my favorite places in the whole world.
But then two days later we looked outside and the weather was nice again! It was sunny and no clouds were low so we could see the top of the mountain from the station. So we decided to give it a try and get to the top. We started to walk up and man I tell you it was STEEP. At some points I was actually climbing on all four. It was very windy and we actually witnessed small tornados (I sound like such a drama queen but it was like the non-deadly ones, like super tiny) that made such a weird noise when they made their way over the mountain. It took us many hours but we made it to the top!! You could see all the way in to Norway and wow, the feeling up there was amazing. After seven (!!!!!) hours we were back at the mountain station again. It didn't take us that long to go back down since we could slide down on the snow hehe.
The day after our adventurous climb we walked down from the mountain station and back to the car. It was so cold that day and it was raining like crazy and windy and omg I never walked so fast in my entire life. The only picture I took on the way down is the first one below. I think it symbolize the hike down very well. Five hours later we were all cheering on the parking lot that we made it. The second picture below is me posing with some cars and smiling trough the pain in my legs and my back. I never have to workout ever again after this trip. Cold and tired we jumped in to the car and started driving towards Åre! But more about that another day.
i spill my heart from to coast to coast
För en vecka sedan kom jag hem från att ha spenderat 11 dagar i London. Det var så himla bra och eftersom vi var där så länge så hann vi med att göra otroligt mycket också.
Det började med att vi blev fast i Oslo med vårt plan. Vi mellanlandade där innan vi skulle vidare mot vår slutdestination. Det var snöblandat regn som ställde till det och flygplatsen var tvungen att stänga av luftrummet för att det var för halt på startbanorna. Efter att banorna sprutats med någon slags kemikalie och även efter att vårt plan blivit sprutat med något kunde vi lyfta och två timmar senare landa på Heathrow.
Vi började vår vistelse med att bo på ett hotell vid Lancaster Gate. Vi bodde på översta våningen i ett förvånadsvärt stort rum med utsikt över bakgården. På bakgården hade vi besök av både papegojor, rävar och ekorrar. Ett stort plus för detta hotell var den lilla hyllan utanför vårt rum som varje dags fylldes på med olika sorters kakor (bland annat macarons som är det bästa någonsin) och jelly beans som man fick äta hur mycket man ville av helt gratis woop woop.
För första gången hade London spärrat av områden inför nyår. Förra året hade det blivit kaosartat med 500 000 personer som försökte komma så nära fyrverkeriena som möjligt så detta år hade 100 000 biljetter släppts. Jag och Selma hade bestämt oss för att inte köpa biljetter och påbörjade därför klockan nio på nyårskvällen en jakt på bästa platsen för att se fyrverkerierna. Vi lyckades få en plats vid The Monument där vi såg London Eye klart och tydligt. Vi hamnade bredvid ett gäng från Schweiz som var väldigt pratglada och bjöd oss på pretzels.
Vid tolvslaget drog fyrverkerierna igång och alla skrek gott nytt år till varandra, skrattade och vissa riskerade att bli arresterade (det blev dom också) genom att tända bengaliska eldar bland folkmassorna. Att ta sig hem efter showen var över blev ett äventyr i sig då a l l a skulle hem samtidigt. Det bor nio miljoner människor i London och gatorna var packade med folk. Även bussarna var packade vilket gjorde att vissa bara åkte förbi utan att kunna ta med fler. Efter 2 timmar var vi äntligen tillbaka på hotellet och jag tror jag somnade på ca 2 sekunder.
Efter nyår hade vi bestämt att det var en sak vi absolut skulle hinna med i London. Och det var att mata ekorrar i Hyde Park. Det finns ekorrar i varenda hörn och väldigt många är relativt tama. Vi köpte med oss en påse nötter och så fort vi satte oss ner på huk kom ekorrar hoppandes från alla håll. Vissa är så pass tama att dom praktiskt taget sitter med deras tass i ens hand medan dom äter nötterna. En dag såg vi även en man som matade duvor. Selma bestämde sig för att testa och efter många om och men testade även jag. Tillslut hade jag 4 duvor i handen och en på armen som åt nötter och jag kände mig som fågeldamen i "Ensam hemma 2". Dock får man räkna med att ekorrarna blir avundsjuka för rätt som det var hade en ekorre tagit sats och hoppat upp på ens ben och krävde lite mat och uppmärksamhet. Men jag menar, vem vill inte ha det.
Vi hann även med att besöka British Museum, Westfield och att gå ut en kväll. British Museum var så himla roligt och eftersom jag älskar historia var det extra roligt att se smycken och keramik från den minoiska kulturen. Vi fick även se självaste Cleopatra och massor av mumier. Westfield var lika mysigt som förra gången och vi spenderade en hel dag där som avslutades med Snog.
Fredagen efter nyår bestämde vi oss för att dra till Libertine. Tydligen är det väldigt stort att gå ut på fredagen efter nyår (maybe för att alla turister fortfarande är kvar) för kön var otroligt lång och stammisarna sa att det inte alls brukade vara så mycket folk. Dock hade vi lite tur och lyckades bli framflyttade närmare början på kön och kom in relativt snabbt. Med glada människor och glow sticks blev den kvällen en av dom bästa kvällarna någonsin.
Sedan bytte vi hotell och fick en fantastisk utsikt från vårt rum. De sista dagarna gick otroligt fort och vi avslutade resan med att återvända till ekorrarna med en stor påse nötter. Resan var helt underbar och vi hade så kul. Älskar London så mycket. Efter denna resa har jag nästan blivit lite resgalen. Har så mycket inplanerat nu och just nu måste jag bara fokusera på att spara pengar så mycket som möjligt för till hösten/vintern är det jag som drar utomlands igen och igen och igen och igen.
so here we are, back on the road again
Och så var det ju det här med att man hade en blogg...
För nästan exakt en månad var jag i Skottland med hälften av min familj. Vi bodde på ett så mysigt hotell som låg precis vid älven. Tyvärr regnade det otroligt mycket både i bergen och hos oss vilket resulterade i att River Dee svämmade över och gjorde det svårt för mig och min bror att fiska. Träd kom flytandes ner i älven och strömmarna blev för starka. Dock fick vi sista dagen göra några kast så jag kan nu stolt säga att jag fiskat i River Dee. Dock gjorde inte det så mycket då vi istället kunde koppla av på hotellet och upptäcka omgivningarna runt den lilla staden.
Dagen innan vi skulle flyga hem återvände vi ner till Edinburgh och gick lite på stan och åt på Jamie Olivers italienska restaurang som serverade världens godaste pasta carbonara. En otroligt mysig resa och jag känner att jag saknar Skottland lite varje dag.
this is london baby
Kommer alltså befinna mig i denna stad imorgon med Selma och är ungefär så taggad man kan bli. Ska även träffa Lisa imorgon, har saknat henne så. Dessa tre dagar kommer bli helt underbara.
