Peru part four - Lake Titicaca to La Paz

After a well-deserved party in Cuzco we left for Puno and Lake Titicaca which was our last stop before the trip ended in La Paz. Puno was a boring city. It wasn't very pretty either, as they have a stupid rule here saying if you don't finish building your house (i.e paint it) you don't have to pay tax for it. So you can imagine how pretty all the houses looked...
We spent the afternoon shopping for our hostfamily, having dinner and watching Germany kick some English ass in the world championships.

The next morning we boarded our boat and set sail for Taquile, the first island we were to visit. Lake Titicaca is really beautiful, it's the largest lake in South America and one of the highest navigable ones in the world, sitting at 3800 meters above sealevel. The trip to Taquile took about three hours. We walked across the island and looked around the main square before we had lunch. I'm glad I had my big lense, as I got to take some sneaky pictures of the locals ;)

After lunch we carried on towards Iquitos, where we were spending the night at a local family's house. We were met by the families when we arrived, and they played music for us while we walked up to the school. We were assigned to our host-mum or -dad, before we played some football. Great fun, but very tiring running around as we were so high up! After that we walked up to our house, I was sharing a room with Maxa and Cyndi. We dumped our stuff and went to the kitchen/living room which was actually a house by itself. Unfortunately none of us speak very much spanish, so we tried to communicate by gesticulating and pointing. I managed to say I was from Norway and was 25 years old and that was about it. But our family was really nice so there was a lot of laughter in spite of not managing to communicate properly. We helped prepare dinner by peeling and cutting potatoes. Then the youngest girl came home, and showed us her drawingbook, where we drew our self-portraits among other things. Dinner was delicious, and we all rolled out afterwards.

Then it was time to get dressed up and go dancing! Our mum and the three daughters came to our room with clothes, and we were dressed up in the local costume. It consisted of four skirts layered on top of each other, a shirt/jacket, wide belt, cloth draped over our shoulder and on top a bowler hat. We all looked beautiful! Then we were guided down to the school in the dark where we met everyone else. All the girls had the same costumes, and the boys had pink ponchos, a cocaleaf bag and broadbrimmed hat.

First the locals performed a dance for us, and then we had to dance like them. It wasn't that difficult, and it was great fun! We were at the school for about two hours dancing and watching the locals dance. We even tried to teach the young girls how to dance to Saturday Night! A lot of fun :)

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to our family and head back towards Puno. On the way we stopped at Uros, the floating islands. Very interresting, everything is made of a type of straw, even the houses and the boats! It was strange walking on the island, the straw sank down as you walked, and it was actually quite hard work! They had a pool on the island with an island on it where they kept the guinea pigs :)

Back in Puno we were even more bored than before, because it was a bank holiday and most of the shops were closed. Maxa, Alex, Dani and I found an open restaurant where we had chocolate cake and lemonade before we went to get a manicure and pedicure. It was the worst one I've ever had... The woman doing my pedicure didn't know what she was doing and was constantly asking the other woman what to do next. To top it off poor Alex and Dani got a fake 20-note as change!

The next day we took a bus to La Paz which took almost all day. In La Paz we went out for a last dinner at a very nice restaurant, and out for a drink afterwards where we also met up with Hugh, one of the guys from our Lares trek. I think I picked up something in Puno cause I was quite ill that night and the next day, so spent all morning in bed. At 2 o'clock I managed to have a shower and go sightseeing for a couple of hours. Then Maxa, Hugh and I went for dinner before we said goodbye to Maxa and met up with the others who had done the Death Road that day. Went out for one last drink with them before I went to bed and left for Trondheim the next morning.

A great trip with great people! Hope to see you all again someday :)

Peru part three - Lares trek and Machu Picchu.

So it was time for the big challenge! The one we all were looking forward to, and wondering the most how would go. The Lares Trek. I was originally going to do the Inka Trail, but because my original trip got cancelled I didn´t get the permit for the Inka trail cause we got there on a different day. It didn´t really matter too much though. We started off from just outside Lares town, with our daypacks, walking sticks (oh yes the proper ski-pole-like ones) and Coca-leaves.
The first part wasn´t very difficult, we walked through really nice landscape, lush and green. Had a couple of hours hike before lunch. The food on the trek was amazing, we had our own cooks who made three-course meals for both lunch and dinner.
We started off at about 3400 meters above sealevel, and our camp for the first night was at about 4200 meters. Which meant we had some climbing to do, which we discovered not long after lunch. We had just walked through a little village when we came to a steep hillside. I thought "no way we´re going up there??" But oh yes we were! It was almost vertical and we were all out of breath before we´d walked 20 meters... But we all made it in the end, I´m very glad I had my walking sticks and my mantra: "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"
We started hiking at about 11 am and reached camp at about 5 pm, and went to bed at about 8 pm... I didn´t sleep very well, it was really cold, even though I had thermals and a woolly jacket. There was frost on the inside of the outer tent and the water in the bowls outside were bottomfrozen the next morning. Nice! It warmed up quite a lot when the sun came though.
Before we started hiking we got invited to visit a local house next to where we had camped. It was very simple, no electricity or water, and just one room. One part was the kitchen and the other the bedroom. In the bedroom there were loads of guinea pigs running around. And no, they were not pets...
The first part of the second day hike was quite hard as we had to go over a pass which was 4500 meters, and again we had barely started when we came to an even steeper hillside than yesterday. Yup, we were going up! Coca-leaves and walking sticks are priceless...
It was worth it though, the view from the top of the pass was amazing... Untouched mountains as far as you could see, a lake at one side and Llamas and Alpaccas grazing all around. The whole of the trek was pretty amazing actually, we only saw 4 other tourists, and only for about 5 minutes, and then nobody else apart from locals and animals.
After the pass it got easier as we were going down again. By 4 pm we reached our second camp which was also the end of the trek. It was really good to get there, everybody had sore feet and knees, so the rest was very welcome. We celebrated with a couple of drinks and cardgames.

The next day we went to Aguas Calientes, which is the town of Machu Picchu, where a couple of the girls and I went to relax in the hot springs for an hour. Mmm... Got up at 4 am the next morning to get an early bus to Machu Picchu. We got there in time for sunrise, and man, it´s amazing! It´s such a big area and all the ruins are intact, it´s really impressive. And it wasn´t as touristy as I thought it would be (at least not that early), it was actually quite peaceful sitting there watching the sun come up over the mountains. Then we had a guided tour of the ruins before we hiked up Wayna Picchu, the mountain next to Machu Picchu. Only 400 people are allowed to do the hike every day, so we were lucky! But it was HARD! It´s a really steep mountain, and the path consists of steps winding themselves all the way up to the top. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the top, but it was worth it! You get such a great view over Machu Picchu, and all the surrounding mountains. Back at the bottom I wandered around by myself for a bit exploring before we set off back to Cuzco. Went out for dinner and drinks and had a wonderful night to celebrate that we all made it! Definately one of the most beautiful things I´ve ever done.

Peru part two - Arequipa to Cuzco

After Nazca we went to Arequipa, a really beautiful old town, with lots of old white houses. We spent a couple of days there, visiting churches and museums and eating good food. I tried Guinea Pig! It does actually taste a bit like chicken, I quite liked it.

Then we went to the Colca Canyon, which is the deepest canyon in the world. We stayed in a little village near Colca town, a really nice countryside place next to some tall mountains. We did a hike on the first day to acclimatize our bodies as we were at about 3800 meters. It was quite exhausting, but I just told myself "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" and it helped :)
The next day we went to the actual canyon which was really stunning, it´s so deep, and the walls are so steep! We saw about 10-15 Condors which were really cool, they are huge birds, about 3 meters wingspan. One of them came really close, and passed just a few meters above us. Cool!
In the evening we went to some hotsprings and had dinner at a restaurant where they played traditional Peruvian music and performed dances for us.

Spent a day in Arequipa before getting a nightbus to Cuzco. I really like Cuzco, even though it´s quite touristy. There was a festival going on so lots of people in the streets, prosessions and dances and fun. Spent the day wondering around markets, and visiting a convent with some old Inka-ruins in it. In the evening there was a concert and dances in the main square, and some great fireworks at the end!
The next day I went on a guided tour of the Sacred Valley, where we visited two different Inka ruin sites. They were both quite impressive. The last stop was an old church with beautiful paintings in the roof and on the walls, and lots of gold. A bit weird to find such a decorated church in a little town in the middle of nowhere! Came back to Cuzco and went to dinner at an English pub, before we had to pack for the Lares trek.

Peru part one - Lima to Nazca

I´m travelling again! This time doing a trip from Lima down to La Paz. I started off in Lima with a daytour of the city and the Pachacamac (?) ruins. Lima is an okey city, not as bad as I thought it would be. I stayed in a hotel in Barranco, about 20 mins from downtown. On the citytour we visited Barranco, Miraflores and the downtown area, saw a few parks, lots of beautiful colonial style houses in lots of different colours, and the San Fransisco church with the catacombs underneath.
I met up with the group later that evening, they all seem very nice. Mostly English people, a couple of Germans, a couple of Canadians, a Kiwi and an Aussie. I´m sharing a room with Maxa, one of the Canadian girls.

The next day we headed down to Pisco where we spent the night, and the next morning we went on a speedboat trip to the Ballestas Islands. They were quite amazing, thousands of birds (mostly Cormorants and Peruvian Boobies, and some pelikans), sealions and penguins. After that we visited a Pisco factory, where we were shown how they make Pisco, which is the Peruvian spirit. We also got to taste quite a few different varieties...
In the afternoon we headed down to Ica where we had lunch, I tried a classic Peruvian dish, Ceviche. Ceviche is basically raw fish marinated in lime and onions, served with sweet potato, normal potato and corn. Quite good actually! Then it was time for sandboarding! You wouldn´t believe it, but Peru has some of the biggest sanddunes in the world! We drove around them in a buggy which was so much fun! It was like being on a rollercoaster :) And the sandboarding was great also, we slid down huge dunes on a board that looked like a snowboard, face first on our stomach. Great fun!

Next stop was Nazca, where we went up in tiny 6-seater Cessna planes, to get a good wiew of the Nazca-lines. Nobody knows who made the lines, what they mean or why they are there, and they depict a lot of figures only visible from the air. Fascinating! We all felt a bit sick after the flight, so it was nice to just chill by the pool the rest of the afternoon. In the evening we went to a traditional Pachamanca seremony where we got served amazing food cooked underground.

More to come!

Roadtrippin

It was very sad leaving Sydney and WakeUp, a few tears were shed as I said goodbye to all the lovely people there. But my three months were up, so it was time to go! I had a weeks holiday before it was time to return to real life in Norway, so my friend Jack and I flew over to Perth where we were to start our roadtrip.

I met Jack on my Kathmandu to Beijing trip with Dragoman last year, and he'd been staying with me in Sydney for about a month. In Perth we met up with John from the Drago trip aswell, and it was great to have a little reunion! We had the weekend in Perth before picking up the van on Monday, so we spent the days watching the RedBull Airrace which was great fun, and doing some sightseeing. How those pilots can fly! Wow.

On Monday we picket up our HiTop camper and set off, destination Exmouth! Western Australia is really beautiful, although some parts can get a bit boring with all the long streches of straight road. But there are some nice beaches, and we stopped several times for an afternoon swim. The first night we camped by a beach which was really nice, and got a good nights sleep after some spaghetti bolognaise and wine. The next day was our major driving day, we did about 800 km! It was a long day, but our cruise speed was about 120 km/h so it wasn't too many hours. Not far from Exmouth we stopped at Coral Bay, which is one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! We went for a swim in the crystal clear warm water before driving the last bit up to Exmouth. About 110 km away I realized we didn't have a lot of petrol left and there were no petrolstations before Exmouth. 50 km away the lamp came on... It was pretty nervewrecking! So for the last 50 km I was gassing, cluthcing and rolling, gassing... We rolled into the petrolstation in Exmouth and filled 60,2 liters on the 60 litre tank... Phew!!!

The next morning I was picked up early as I was going out snorkelling with whalesharks!! First we snorkelled at a good reefsite at the Ningaloo reef before we went looking for the sharks. After about 15 minutes we found one! But he wasn't very social, so not long after we got into the water he dived. Luckily we found 4 others who were a bit more friendly! It was amazing swimming with them, the largest one was about 6 meters long! They are the biggest fish in the sea, so they won't move for anything, something I kinda realized when I went in the water to swim with one and didn't see it at first, turned around and it was right in front of me coming straight towards me! Help?
We spent about 5 hours cruising around and swimming with the different sharks before heading home, finishing off with a glass of champagne. A wonderful experience I would recommend to everyone!

We started our drive back to Perth in the afternoon. On the way back down the coast we almost killed a kangaroo (or it almost committed suicide by jumping out into the road in front of our van), saw a stingray and what we think were dugongs from a lookout, went to Monkey Mia but didn't see any dolphins, went to Shell Beach which is as you guessed a beach made of shells instead of sand, saw some amazing sunsets and visited the pinnacles which is a strange desert area with pinnacle rocks sticking out of the ground.

3160 km later we arrived back in Perth on Saturday, dropped off the van, spent the rest of the afternoon in Freemantle before Jack and John dropped me off at the airport. 30 hours later I was back in Norway! It's good to be home, but I miss the warmth...

Sydney update # 2

I've meant to update so many times, but I never seem to have the time!!! Only a week left in Sydney now, then a week in Perth and then home to Trondheim. I don't want to go home, but I don't want to stay here either if that makes sense... I am looking forward to getting home to family, friends and my own flat though.

I'll start from where I last left off and try to recap from there. Mardi Gras was great fun! About 3 hours of loads of gay and lesbians parading the streets, in everything from lifesaver speedos to full on Thai "ladyboys" in flamboyant dresses, "Dykes on bikes", singing, dancing, people in leather thongs whipping each other and more "normally" dressed people just having a good time. It's one of the biggest events in Sydney so a LOT of people in the streets!

In conjunction with the Mardi Gras Spencer Tunick came and did an installation in front of the Opera House. Guess who was there? Yep! Together with 5200 other people at 4 am a cold Monday morning. A bit of waiting around before we stripped off just after 6 am when the sun came up. It was a weird experience being naked with so many other people, but at the same time very liberating and fun! Everyone was in a good mood, cheering and waving to the ferries going past. There were people of all shapes and sizes, even one man with his whole body covered in tattoos, and I mean ALL of it (apart from his head), and he even had piercings in his you know what!! Weird... After the outside session we filled up one of the concert halls and had a photo shoot inside. Kinda strange having naked people sitting on each and every seat in the hall and lying on the stage. And don't worry, we got plastic bags to sit on...

I went on a daytrip down to Jervis Bay, a beautiful place a couple of hours drive from Sydney, where we visited a beatiful beach, went on a dolphinwatching cruise (saw 3 dolphins and a couple of sealions), and stopped by a huge waterfall in Kangaroo Valley on the way home.

The weekend after I went on a surfcamp! Mojosurf took me up to Cresent Head, a really nice place about 6 hours north of Sydney, with a beautiful deserted looong beach and lush forests. The camp was 5 mins walk from the beach, and it was really nice. There were a lot of very loud obnoxious Americans on the trip which wasn't that nice... But I made friends with the other 10 "non-Americans" so we stuck together and had a good time. And the surprising bit is: I stood up on a surfboard! On my first try!!! I was so surprised I fell off... Last time I went surfing I just gave up, I couldn't do it at all. I thought I would go up and check out the camp and just relax on the beach for the weekend, but I had to have one lesson as I promised Ronnie (Mojoguy), but I actually ended up having all three of them. So now I'm a pro! haha...

I've also been out a few times with the crew here, one restaurant we went to was a Brazilian barbeque one where you could eat as much as you wanted, and we eat! The food was delicious, and everyone rolled out afterwards...

A couple of weeks ago I went horseriding with Louise in a place called Glenworth Valley, about an hour from Sydney. We had booked to go out for 6 hours, but we gave up after about 4 as our legs, thighs and bums were so sore we could hardly walk... But it was a really nice day, we rode through lovely lush rainforest, the horses were great and the sun was shining.

My Dad, stepmum and brother has been visiting for the past 10 days, so been doing lots of touristy stuff around Sydney with them. Visiting The Rocks, been to see La Traviata in the Opera house, dinner with more family living here, climbing the Harbour Bridge pylon, Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour and so on. We also hired a car and drove up to Port Stephens for a couple of days, a beautiful place a couple of hours north. If you ever come to Australia, go there! We stayed at Melaleuca backpackers, they have dorms, cabins and tents set in a campground/forest 5 minutes walk from the beach, with their own pet kangaroo named Josie jumping around. One of the mornings there was even a wild koala climbing up the tree right next to our balcony! Of course I was in the shower so I didn't see it... We spent the days hanging out at the beaches, going for walks and eating good food. On the way back to Sydney we drove through Hunter Valley which is a famous wine district, and we stopped at Mt.Pleasent, Lindemans and Rosemount vinyards.

Sorry for the way to long entry, I'm impressed if you've made it this far without falling asleep...

Sydney update

Ok, so time for an update! I know I haven't been very good at updating, it's just that time flies so fast and it kinda feels like there hasn't been that much going on since last time I wrote.

It's about 37 degrees today so melting away, but it's better than the rain! This weekend I went to the beach for the first time since I got here! It's been raining every weekend and I work every day during the week so no chance to go before. On Saturday I went over to Manly to meet up with Henriette, my friend Solveigs sister who lives here. It was really nice to meet her, and we had a delicious lunch before she had to go to work and I went to Shelley beach for a couple of hours. Then on Sunday I went to Bronte which is about a 20 minutes walk from my apartment. So lovely to just soak up some sun!

Last week I went over to my Grandpas cousin for dinner, it was great seeing them again as Nora and I stayed with them when we were here six years ago!

Other than that I've been to the cinema to see Valentines Day, been to a couple of work functions meeting other people from the business around Sydney, and of course working. Tomorrow I'm off to see Avatar on the Imax with some colleagues, I'm really looking forward to it as I still haven't seen it and it's the biggest Imax-screen in the world! And this weekend is Mardi Gras, so that should be fun!

Australia!

So I made it to Sydney! I've been here a couple of weeks now and I love it :) All the flights went well, no delays, appart from my luggage which didn't arrive until 3 days later...

The first 5 days I stayed at WakeUp, which is the hostel where I work. I actually wasn't very jetlagged so that was good. I arrived on Sunday and started work on Monday. The first days weren't very hard, I went on a City Walk and a Beach Walk which they do for free here at the hostel a couple of times a week. Met a lot of nice people on the walks, but they've all left now... The first week went past very quickly, getting to know the people who work here, going out for a couple of drinks and learning all the new stuff at the travel desk.

I moved into the apartment the Kilroy-people stay in on the Friday. It's in Bondi Junction, so about 50 minutes walk from WakeUp, or 12 mins on the train. The apartment is okay, I've had some cockroaches so that sucks, but I've set of a "control bomb" and I've bought bait and vacuumed all the cracks and under the sofa so hopefully they'll disappear soon.

On the Saturday I went to The Big Day Out with one of the guys I met on the beach walk, and it was brilliant! We saw Lilly Allen, Groove Armada, Jet, Muse, Kasabian and some more I hadn't heard about. All in all, good weather and great music!

Last Tuesday was Australia day, so kinda like 17.mai at home. It was nice, really good weather (my nose got sunburned) and lots of people! First I headed down to Circular Quay to watch the ferrython, basically it's just all the ferries racing against each other and they're all decorated and full of people. Then I met up with some girls from WakeUp and we had a beer and some food and just peoplewatched.
In the evening there was a show on in Darling Harbour with speaches and performances and a boat parade, and it all ended in some spectacular fireworks! It was great :)

On Saturday I went surfing. I'm not made for surfing. I've got a big burnmark on my knee and my body is aching all over. I managed to stand up maybe three times for 2 seconds. So yeah...

On Sunday I went to the Botanical Gardens to see Where The Wild Things Are at the outdoors cinema. It was really nice, sitting there with Sydney skyline, the Opera house and the Harbour bridge in the background while watching the film.

So it's been a pretty good first couple of weeks here Down Under! The weather hasn't been great all the time but oh well who cares. At least it's still warm ;)

Tokyo

Finally we set off for our last stop, which was Tokyo! We got there around 10am and found our really nice posh hotel. We weren't able to check in that early so we left our luggage and took our money and camera and set off to explore. First stop was Shibuya, where the worlds biggest and most busy pederstrian crossing is. I must say I thought it was going to be a bit bigger... But it was better when we came back in the afternoon!

We had lunch at Starbucks overlooking the crossing, and then we took the underground to Shinjuku where we went looking for "alternative" people, you know the ones with lots of make-up, red hair and lolita clothes. But we didn't find any :( Our guide said they were probably taking the day off because there was a big sports arrangement or something nearby. We did find a couple of really cute little girls in kimomos!

Then it was shopping time! First destination was Akihabara, or Electric Town as it's also known. It was crazy! Huge shops everywhere with everything you could imagine of iPods, cameras, telephones etc. I was looking for a new lens for my camera and I found a really good and cheap one. Then Astrid and I went back to Shibuya where we shopped till we dropped (we did actually drop onto our beds first thing when we got back to the hotel!). I ended up with a lens, two everyday dresses (from H&M actually...), Adidas shoes, two pairs of earrings, a very cute white fluffy hat, and lots of other stuff.

Then we all dressed up and went out for a last sushi-meal, karaoke and party! Great night! Not so great flight the next day.

Mt.Fuji

So, it's probably time to tell you about our last couple of days in Japan. After Kyoto we set off for Hakone, a nice little town in a hilly area, where we were to stay in an Onsen, a traditional Japanese spa. Before we got to test the spa we set off to find some lunch and then to see if we could catch a glimpse of Mt.Fuji. Our guide wasn't so sure we'd be able to see it because of the weather.

So after lunch and some souvernir-shopping we took a train up the mountainside, it was quite steep and my ears kept popping. Then a funicular railway and at last a gondola. The gondola went quietly up the hillside, and then suddenly we reached the hilltop and everyone gasped as we went over and suddenly we were hanging 130 meters or so over a valley with smoke coming up from the ground and yellow patches of earth and a perfect view of Mt.Fuji in the distance! Seiko even said it was the best view she'd had of the mountain!

So we got off and took pictures and admired the view of the volcano with snow on top before we got on the gondola and ended up by a lake which we took a pirate-ship (!) across, and then a bus back to Hakone. It was dark by the time we came back and we were quite tired, but we didn't have much time before dinner. And dinner was quite and experience! We got a whole mackerell (or how you spell it), sashimi style, so the sides were cut off into little pieces but the rest of the fish was lying there looking at you. It tasted excellent though, with a touch of lemon! We also got miso soup with eel, hotpot with tiny mushrooms and sardineballs, tofupudding, pickled veggies, some small appetizers, fried fish, a very strange sticky rice thing in a cold jellylike soup, and for dessert almondpudding. It was a big meal... And they just kept things coming! We almost rolled out afterwards, and figured it was time for a bath in the spa.

In Japanese onsens you have to be naked when you're in the pool, but (luckily?) they have separate pools for women and men. It was really nice to lie there and let my body be soaked up in the water full of natural minerals. We decided to sit in the outside pool, so all the girl had a nice talk while relaxing under the stars.

The next day we set of for Kawaguchico, a town much closer to Mt.Fuji. After 6 different trains we finally arrived. We checked in and decided to go for a walk, so we headed towards the lake, as there was supposed to be great views from the other side of it. And there were! We took loads of pictures, some with our Kilroy t-shirts, and then we looked at a markedplace while waiting for sunset. It was worth the wait, because it was really beautiful! So after more pictures and more posing we went back to town to get some dinner.

After dinner we went looking for a place to have a drink but the town seemed rather deserted so we bought a couple of beers and went back to the hotel. I don't know if you know but Japan has very fancy toilets! I mean the actual toilet, not the room. All of them have buttons to wash your bottom and some of them even have buttons to make noises like a waterfall so other people can't listen in on your business... Malin and I decided it was time to try the washing-part, so three-two-one and we hit the button! We screamed and started laughing as the waterspray hit with quite some force right in the private part. It was really funny and tears were running down my face from all the laughing. And it never stopped! At last I hit the stop-button, and I thought it was going to dry me off aswell but it didn't. So what's the point of washing your bottom when you have to use paper to dry off anyway?

Kyoto

Kyoto was a lovely city, I really enjoyed it! We arrived in the early afternoon after travelling from Koya-san back to Osaka and then by the Shinkansen bullettrain from Osaka. The trainride took only 12 minutes, and we travelled almost 50 km! First stop was the Fushimi Inari shrine, which was a big area with different shrines spread out and sort of tunnels running inbetween them in the forest. The tunnels were made of wooden pillars painted a bright orange with inscriptions on one side.

After wandering around here for a while we took the train and underground to our hostel near Gion and the city centre. We checked in and freshened up a bit before going out for a walk to Gion, the geisha-area in Kyoto. There were lots of nice old houses and quiet streets, and it wasn't hard to imagine how it was in the old times, as this is the setting from the book Memoirs of a Geisha. We were lucky to see a couple of geishas aswell!

In the evening we went out for dinner at a very small local restaurant where I shared some traditional barbeque food with the Finnish guys. After dinner it was time for a little surprise, we were to learn how to perform a traditional tea ceremony! We were seated around a big table with our own teapot, cup, teapowder, wisk and napkin. After the Japanese woman and man at the end had demonstrated we had a go. It was very difficult, as there were so many rules about holding the cup, what hand you had to use, where to put the wisk after it was used in a very specific way etc. But it was fun! The green tea didn't taste too good though...

The next day was our big sightseeing-day. We started off with Nijo castle, home of the Tokugawa Shoguns. It had very nice traditional sliding doors, but the floor was really cold! The gardens were beautiful and we had a lovely walk through them. Then we carried on to the Kinkakuji shrine, a huge shrine set by a little lake and it was layered with gold all over. And I mean all over! Quite impressive. And quite an impressive amount of tourists there aswell. Last but not least of our attractions of the day was the Imperial Palace. We were very lucky to be able to se it, as it's only open to the public 10 days a year. We weren't able to go inside any parts of it, but the style of the buildings allowed for viewing inside through big open doors.

Then we had some free time which was spent shopping and curling up under our duvet with a movie and a bottle of wine (at least for Astrid and me), before heading out for dinner. And what a dinner! We went to an awesome sushi-restaurant which had the sushi coming past on an assembly line! Then you just pick the plates you want as they go past. You could also order pieces from a screen by the table, and then they arrived on a miniature Shinkansen-train which stopped right in front of your table. Very fun! Our table ate the most, with 34 plates. We were four people on our table and the plates had 2 pieces of sushi each, some of them 4, so that would be an average of about 20 pieces each. No need to say we were stuffed afterwards!
Then a couple of drinks and off to bed. A very nice end to a very nice stay in Kyoto.

Osaka and the mountains

We made it to Japan! But it was only just, because there was so much fog at the airport in Trondheim that the plane we were taking tried to land three times before it finally managed. So we were almost two hours late, and the flight to Amsterdam was supposed to take 2,5 hours and the onwards flight to Osaka was leaving at 17.25, so we were a bit stressed when we finally took off at ten to three. Luckily the winds were in our favour so the flight was only 1 hour and 50 minutes, but we still had to run like hell as we landed on the furthest runway and it took 10-15 minutes before we we out of the plane. Amsterdam is quite a big airport, and we landed at one end and were leaving from the other, so we were all nice and sweaty by the time we met the others.

So, landed in Osaka, and Astrid and I obviously looked very suspicious because we were taken in for an inspection in another room where they went through all our luggage. So once again, we held up the group. Fun! We finally made it to Osaka city where we checked in at a really nice hotel. Went out exploring the city after a nice shower, and had some sushi before we hit a bar for a drink.

The next day was our secret day, and we were surprised when we heard we were going up in the mountains and living in a monastery! We took a train up to the mountains, the scenery was really nice, lush and green. The last bit we took a cablecar straight up the mountainside, then a bus to our monastery. We stayed in nice rooms with tatami-mats that we slept on. It was really cold up in the mountains so we were glad we brought some warm clothes! We went for a walk in a cemetery which was really nice, and looked at a couple of temples. In the evening we had a traditional meal served by the monks, all vegetarian, with deep fried vegetables, tofu, pickled something, and of course rice. I slept quite well, even though the bed was a bit hard, as it was basically a thin mat on the floor.

Then off to Kyoto! More about that later.

Japan

Tomorrow I'm off to Japan on my studytrip! It's going to be so good to get away from the cold weather here, it's currently 22 degrees in Osaka :) And I'm looking forward to eating proper sushi! Yummy!

So the itinerary is as follows:

Oct 31st: Fly Trondheim - Amsterdam - Osaka

Nov 1st: Osaka

Nov 2nd: Secret day

Nov 3rd-4th: Train to Kyoto

Nov 5th: Bus to Hakone

Nov 6th: Train to Kawaguchiko

Nov 7th: Tokyo

Nov 8th: Tokyo and home

We're visiting hot onsens (a kind of local spa), Mt. Fuji (not actually climbing it though), temples, travelling by bullet-trains and hopefully spot some Geishas, eat some good sushi and do some shopping! 

Finally

Almost 6 years after it was bought, it's up on the wall! I love it.

Rain rain rain...

Is it never going to stop? I must admit I am getting a bit tired of it... 

Looking forward to warmer weather in Sydney in January! Just hope there won't be any more sandstorms.

What a great week!!!

Guess what? I'm going to Sydney!!! :D :D :D Wohooooo!!! I was so dissapointed that I didn't get the job the last round that I haven't dared to think about it this time.  And then today I recieved the news that I got it! Wow. I'm still shaking. So from the end of January untill the end of April if you want to see me you'll have to come Down Under!

Oh, and I'm off to Japan the first week in November on a studytrip! Landing in Osaka, then on to Kyoto, Mt.Fuji and a couple of other places before we fly home from Tokyo. Really looking forward to that aswell!

Aaahhhhh, life is good!

Swineflu?

I'm ill. It's boring. I've been lying on the sofa since Tuesday afternoon and still no progress. It started off with a sore throat, fever and aching joints, and it has evolved into not so much fever, itchy throat, coughing and aching body. I suspect the swineflu, but my doctor doesn't want me to come into her office so I guess I'll never know.

Luckily I've earlier borrowed all the seasons of Gilmore Girls from a friend, and I've made good progress. Am now in the middle of season 6, so only one to go. I hope I'm well again by the time I finish season 7!

Sydney, birthday and festival

So, long time since I've updated anything here! Sorry about that. Not that anything much has happend anyway. Something exciting might happen though: I've applied for a job in Sydney! It's only for three months, so don't worry, I won't be gone long. Kilroy (the travelagent I work for now) has an "office" at a hostel there where a staffmember from Kilroy works on a three-month basis. I originally applied for the period from late October till late January, but I didn't get it. They are however deciding the next round, late January till late April, pretty soon, so my application still stands. *Fingers crossed*

I went over to England this weekend to attend my Grandpas 80th birthday. Very nice to see the family again, but unfortunately my Grandpa had been ill all week so he missed the lunch. I think that's the first birthday-celebration I've been to where the guest of honour actually wasn't present. Luckily everyone came back to the house afterwards so we continued the party there. Lots of good cake ;)

This weekend my friend Solveig is coming to visit wich will be nice, I haven't seen her for quite a while. And there's a festival, Pstereo, going on Friday and Saturday which we are going to. We went to Hove together, another festival, just over a year ago and had a blast, so hopefully this one will be a success aswell! The weatherforcast isn't too good though, so think I have to dig out my poncho.

Bits and pieces

So, not much interesting happening at the moment! I'm all alone at work untill Wednesday because people are away on holiday, and there aren't a lot of my friends left in the city in the summer either. I had quite a productive day yesterday though, first at work, then going to the hairdressers and then cleaning my whole apartment afterwards! (Not that cleaning takes that long, but still...) It was nice getting a haircut cause I haven't had one since last August! So now I look like this: The weather hasn't been too good lately so that kinda sucks. But I've borrowed all the seasons of Gilmore Girls from a friend of mine, so I'm not bored! :)

It's three weeks since I came home, and I'm amazed how fast time flies! And thinking about it, it's three years since I went off to live in New Zealand! Still miss you guys and hope to see you in the not too far future.

And last but not least: I want to go off travelling again...

Quarterlifecrisis?

I reached the milestone of being halfway to 50 yesterday! Doesn't really feel any different than two days ago I must say. But according to my lifeplan of 5 years ago I was to have a stable relationship and kids when I was 25! And well, I'm as single and childless as one can be.

So new plan is: No plan!

It was a nice day though, I made the most amazing trufflecake, it was divine... With raspberries dipped in melted chocolate on top. Mmmmm! My Mum, stepdad, Grandparents, cousin and uncle came over and helped me eat it. And I managed to convince my brother to get on a plane and come up aswell!

As for everyone else, don't worry, I'll make a new cake for the official party which I'll throw a bit later when more people are back from their holidays.