Melbourne vs Stockholm

Over a month has passed since I left Australia. I'm back in Stockholm with all that comes with it; family, friends and work. It didn't take long until I was back in old routines. The monday I got back I started working at Ericsson. 8-5, 7 days a week. Working, dogwalking and babysitting is now part of my everyday life . Things that were so far from the life I was living in Australia I almost made myself believe I would never have to go back to it. Looking back at the trip makes me want to turn back time and re-live it all. Over and over again. As amazing as Stockholm can be it will always fade in comparison to Melbourne in my eyes. It felt great being back in Sweden the first week, but since then I've missed Australia everyday and wouldn't hesitate a second if an opportunity to go back came up. Not having any plans for the autumn lets me dream about going to uni in Australia. But unfortunately Swedish unis are free and Australian ones aren't.. :P

The thing that makes it OK to leave Sweden for long periods of time to travel is that it is always exactly the same when you come back. Some people like that. I on the other hand, find it extremely depressing. Nothing ever changes! It is as if the time has been standing still whilst I've experienced a whole new world on the other side of the planet! Stockholm will always be my hometime. Its where i was born and bred. But I will always be longing for the next time I get to visit Melbourne. Its atmosphere, weather and people will keep me coming back as often as I can for the rest of my life.

Melbourne, we'll be back before you know it!

After 13 weeks of traveling our trip has finally come to an end. We have had an amazing time and it will take time to adjust to the reality that awaits us at home.. Our last week in Melbourne has been awesome. At one point we were sure we would have to go home a week earlier than planned because of the incompitent people at the different travel agencies we were passed around between, but luckily we managed to get a seat on the plane that we wanted, and had time to do all the things we had saved for this last week. We spent two whole days just strolling around the city, looking for presents for our families and sucking in the last of the melbournian atmosphere. We even made a trip to great victoria market (jag tankte pa dej, mamma! :P) We also made sure to go out a last time on saturday night. To the club in St. Kilda where we had gone on our very first night out 3 months ago. As an extra bonus my old best friend from when i used to live here, Kylie, came back from Florida on Saturday. So i met up with her 3 times and saw her family again. (I stayed at their house for a few weeks last time i was here). It was amazing seeing her again. And of course i made sure to spend some more time with Kara and Loren as well. Kara actually made us a going away dinner tonight. She had put in such an effort and we were served champagne and everything. Thank you Kara for taking care of us ever since we got here!
It sucks that everytime i come here i have to say good bye to everyone again. Why cant everything and everyone just be in the same place for once? Oh well, det e val bara att gilla laget? :P (med prickar pa a:et)
Awaiting us tomorrow is a 42 hour journey home (door to door) so I'm gonna try to get some sleep now.. because previous experiences tell me there wont be enough of it taking place on the plane..

My gorgeous friends Kara and Loren! (they had had their make-up done for a competition that night and looked even more beautiful in real life..hard to believe, i know!)
Amazingly enough Kylie came back just in time for me to get to see her before i left! I'm gonna miss all of you like crazy! again...

Back where it all began

We have now been back in Melbourne for a couple of days and are enjoying the last week on our trip before heading back to swedeland. We are staying at Sarah's again and it feels so good to not have to sleep in dorms with complete strangers (who smelland snore) anymore! Unfrtunately we were forced to spend two whole days trying to change our flight home. Rebooking a ticket really wasn't as easy as we'd thought it would be. We were passed around to 3 different travel agencies and were told different things at every single one. We even had to call Sweden to get the people at Kilroy to help us.. But two days and 400 aus dollars(!) later, we finally got a ticket that will take us all the way back home.. So now we have time to enjoy our last weekend in the greatest city in the world! Woohoo! No more backpacking! My backpack weighed about 15 kg when i left Melbourne, and 23 when i got back... strange i know..
Jossan har antligen hittat ett skafferi stort nog att bosatta sig i. Praktiskt va?
Now we just have to find a way to get all our junk back to Sweden... (I doubt Josefin will look that happy when she realises we soon have to carry it all..!)

Skydiving and the great barrier reef

The last two days have been truly amazing! Yesterday's skydiving was just insane. I don't think ive ever been that nervous in my entire life! I was actually shaking. It started off as an empty suggestion and turned into a spontaneous "let's do it!". But i don't think we actually realised what we were getting ourselves into until we were at the office, filling out the forms warning us about the risks of skydiving and that accidents can, and often do, happen! (yes thats exactly what it said) After that everything went really fast. After about 45 minutes we were out in the plane and attached to our skydiving instructors. We thought that if we were gonna do it we might aswell do it from as high up as possible (14000 ft!) so after a while we saw the others jumping out of the plane, disappearing into nowhere! It was only Josefin and I that continued up the extra 4000 ft. But strangely enough, as we were sitting in the door, looking down out of the plane we didnt feel nervous anymore. Or maybe we were just too scared to be able to think straight! But next thing we knew we were falling at 300km/h for 60 seconds! And i thought fritt fall pa grona lund was bad... It was such an amazing feeling though, and we would both do it again, without a doubt! But it was lucky we did it yesterday and not today as the first thing we saw when we got back and went on a computer to put up the photos was an article on aftonbladet about a 25 year old whose parachute didnt open up so he freefell all the way to the ground and suffered serious internal injuries..! ironic? we probable would have chickened out if we'd read that the night before! But hey, everything went well and it was awesome! You should all try it!

After we had recovered from the adrenalin rush of the skydive we started preparing for today's adventure; the great barrier reef! We left the reef terminal at 8 o'clock this morning and didnt get back until 5 in the afternoon. We stopped at two different reefs and a little sand island in the middle of nowhere full of birds. The snorkeling was great, but we were a bit disappointed that the reef wasnt as colourful and lively as we'd expected. But at least we saw a shark! it was a rather small one (a little bigger than a meter long) but still! It took about 3 hours to get to the outer parts of the reef so we had plenty of time to sunbake on the deck. (and be really sea sick). It was a shame the waves had to be so big cus they had a really good lunch buffet that i was too sick to enjoy! :P It still feels like everything is rocking! :S

We are both so happy that we made this trip up the coast, its been unreal! Tomorrow is however our last day and after a week in melbourne we're off back to swedeville again and the swedish summer.. It feels really sad that everything will be over soon, but we are looking forward to seeing all of you again! :)

Cairns

We've now arrived in Cairns, our last stop! :( We've saved the best (and the worst) for last and have the weekend all planned out. I cant wait until sunday when we're gonna have a whole day of snorkeling in the outer barrier reef! we'll see if we survive saturday's adventure though... i wont tell you now what it is, but i promise i'll put up some cool photos here on sat night! Anyways, i have to get back to the hostel where josefin is waiting.. she cant stand it when im on the computer for an hour just to post a blog entry and photos... hehe. I put up a new slide btw, not sure if it works though, but if it does you'll be able to see some pretty australian animals..:) and if u wonder y all the animal photos are of me its because all josefin's ones are on her camera (which isnt digital..)
ill write more on saturday!

From Surfers Paradise to Magnetic Island

Our trip is coming to an end. We have travelled all the way up to Townsville and Magnetic Island, which is our second last stop before we fly back to Melbourne from Cairns. After staying an extra night in Surfers, we decided to travel all the way up to Magnetic Island without stopping anywhere, to make up for that extra night. We were dreading the 26 hour (!) bus trip (we could have gotten to Sweden in less time!) but we managed to both get over 12 hours sleep. A certain magic cookie may have helped.. but still.! After going out three nights in a row in Surfers paradise we were quite happy to get to Magnetic Island, a quiet little island with just animals and beaches, and not at all as many tourists as we've become used to in the last couple of weeks. We spent all of today soaking up the sun at the beach and by the pool at our hostel. We are staying in a little wild life park, so tomorrow we're planning on taking the tour and holding a koala, salt water crocodile, wombat and snake! I'm running out of time as theyre sucking the last pennies out of me at this expensive internet cafe, but i'll write more next time!

Vi hittade oss en liten bög!

Ahh, Surfers Paradise. Imagine the perfect holiday resort, and times that by about 100 and u get Surfers paradise! Good beach, good shopping and good clubs. :) And the shops r open til late so we can shop when its dark! its all very exciting.. :P Plus theres none of the seedy guys that u get in Greece/Turkey/Spain. Its excellent. We've been here for two nights now and are leaving tomorrow (unfortunately). We were too tired to go out on our first night here but made up for it last night. And we met the cutest little gay guy ever! Ive never met anyone so homosexual in my entire life! haha. Today we're off to do some serious shopping. The weather is perfect, cus its cloudy so it doesnt feel like we're wasting prescious sunbaking time. and tonight we're heading out for a big night out before we have to leave tomorrow morning.

Our extremely gay new friend

Nimbin

Hej Ebbis! Har ar en liten bild till dig! Onskar att du hade kunnat vara med och simma i vagorna med mej! Skrev ett meddelande i sanden men det gick nog inte att se ifran Sverige... Saknar dej!Yesterday, after spending almost a whole week lying on the beach doing nothing, we decided to rora pa flasket and walk up to the lighthouse on the hill. It took us two hours to walk up there (as we walked through a "rainforest" walk) and about an hour to get back. We are both a bit sore today but it was totally worth it. We got to see wild dolphins, sea turtles and sting rays. And when we went swimming we were only about 100 m away from the dolphins! :D (the little black thing to the right in the photo is me, and the blurry black dot in the background is a dolphin) i think its crystal clear, but thought i'd point it out for you just in case.. :P Today we went to Nimbin on a little day tour. We skipped the car rental and went on a bus that also stopped at a waterhole and for an afternoon bbq in a park. It was great. Nimbin was very.. interesting. We only stayed in the town for an hour but that was enough to see it all. It really was a little hippie town. Apparently thats where all the hippies settled down in the 70's for a more laid back lifestyle (and because of the good climate for growing weed). hehe we saw hippies everywhere and about 99 per cent of them were trying to sell us marijuana. The town is known for its hasch brownies and cookies. Both Josefin and I felt really homesick the day before yesterday but after the last two days it feels a lot better. We only have 2,5 weeks left in the country so we've realised that we really have to make the most of it now!

The world really isnt that big after all...

The last couple of days we've been bumping into the same people everywhere! We got a bit freaked out when our roomie from Melbourne walked past us on the street here in Byron Bay, just after seeing one of our other isreali friends on Bondi Beach, Sydney. And the same night we met our roomies from Sydney at a night club here in Byron... It seems like everyone is doing the same trip at the same time - or is the world just not that big a place after all..? Or maybe we've just shared rooms with way too many people... hmm..

Byron Bay

Time really flies.. we got to byron bay last sunday (a week ago tomorrow) and after tonight we're off to a new destination - Nimbin.

So what have we done in Byron bay? well.. we started off with sleeping on the pavement the night of our arrival, as we arrived at 3 o'clock in the morning and all the receptions were closed. (one of the lowest points of my life) :P and ended up having to walk around to about 4 different motels and hostels in the morning trying to find one with vacancy... not exactly what we wanted to do after a 15 hour long bus trip from Sydney... But after that we've basically been in heaven. We live right next to the beach and spend most of our time soaking up as much sun as our skin can handle. the weather has been perfect. around 27 degrees every day and clear blue sky :). We're getting a bit tired of sharing a room with other people though. i could have killed our room mates when they stumbled in to our room at 5 AND 6 o'clock one morning and turned the light on! So our plan now is to rent a car for a day and drive to Nimbin - Australias little hippie town. After that we're off to Surfer's paradise and Brisbane. It feels a bit sad to think that we only have about a month left (less even!) but i think it'll feel good to come home too.. at least for a day or two....

Sydney

Our trip has finally begun! After 15 hours on a bus from Melbourne to Sydney we went for a walk down Darling harbour and to the Opera house. After that we attempted to take a short power nap before heading our for some clubbing.. but passed out completely at 6.30 and woke up 13 hrs later... So the next day we were fit for fight for some serious sightseeing and headed out before noon (!) We went on a 1.30 hour cruise in the harbour and stopped at a little beach on the other side of the water, with a really nice view of the city. At night we put on our skimpy black dresses and hit the bars. We started the night at a cosy bar with a live band not far from our hostel and ended up in the red light district at Kings Cross... I have never seen so many stripclubs in one place in my entire life.. (haven't been to amsterdam yet) We got dragged into a couple of them but managed to find us some normal clubs too... But it was some good sightseeing.. we saw everything from strippers and prostitutes to different kinds of homosexuals and transvestites :D

After that we walked through the whole city in our high heels back to the hostel and got a couple of hours of sleep before heading out to bondi beach today... except we never got there. We ended up philosophising in hyde park instead. We'll give it a new attempt tomorrow :)

Josefin's 21st

Last Thursday was Josefin's 21st b-day. And turning 21 here is a BIG thing. The Clark's took us out for dinner at a realy nice italian restaurant on southbank, overlooking the river. When we arrived they had already ordered in champagne and after dinner they had organised for the waitors to come in with a big mud cake, singing happy b-day to her. :)
After the restaurant they dropped us home to Josefin's surprise party. She really had no clue. So she was shocked to find all our housemates gathered in the kitchen surrounded by candles and discolights singing happy b-day and handing her a bottle of champage! The plan after that was to go out to St. Kilda to continue the celebrations there, but after all the booze they had bought for our "pre-drinks" we ended up just partying at home and passed out happy and safe in our own beds :)

The Great Ocean Road

Today is our last night in Melbourne before we start our trip up the Coast. Yesterday Sarah took us for a drive along the Great Ocean Road for some sightseeing before stopping at her relatives' house in Camperdown. We left around mid-day and stopped for lunch in Lorne which is a little surftown about 2-3 hrs from Melbourne and saw a couple of my old friends cruise past in Karas car. And freakishly enough we bumped into her again on the freeway on our way back to Melbourne today. She was abit shocked when my head popped out of the window of the car next to hers... I guess the world isn't such a big place after all.. Anyway, we got to the twelve apostles just in time for the sunset (and we weren't the only ones.. i don't think ive seen so many japanese tourists in my entire life) The rest of the night we spent bumming in front of the TV in Camperdown, watching the searh for the next pussy cat doll :P. Tonight we're repacking our bags and leaving about two thirds of our stuff at Sarah's. We've decided to give the whole backpacking thing a shot after all.. :P We'll see how good friends I am with my back after carrying a backpack around half of Australia.. But at least we'll be renting a car for our way back from Cairns. I think Sarah is happy she's not coming with us. We educated her with enough Swede-music to keep her traumatised for life!

Long time no post...

Not much has happened since our last blog post. We have been living a pretty basic day-to-day life here in Melbourne and have even gotten ourselves a job. We mingle for money! hehe. we work as promoters for a big club in the city and work the mailing list there on saturday and monday nights. which basically means we get payed for talking to people and get free drinks all night(!) With only about 7 weeks left before we leave for L.A. we have decided on a date for our trip up the east coast. we leave on the 9th of March and are planning to travel for a month, which leaves us with a week in Melbourne before we fly to America. The weather is still hot thanks to the global warming :) and we have been going to the beach at least once a week.
I have finally picked up the camera cord from Sarah's house so if everything works there should be a new slide up here today! And there will be more interesting blog entries up here as soon as we start the "real" trip ;). So for now you're just gonna have to settle for some pics!

our vicious circle...

After two weeks of constant drinking and shoppping (aka spending money) we again find ourselves on chapel st! its like a drug. we just cant quit. last night was a white one however. we had our second jewish fest, and god did we eat!! after living with the israelis and irish for over a week now we're actually starting to like it. and we've even gotten used to sharing that broken bed of ours. last night was one of the irish guys' b-day. josefin and i got him a cake and a very interesting present.. lets just say we wont be there when he tries it..... on sunday they are organising a fancy dress party. we havent decided on what to dress up as yet.. but we're thinking about going for the stereotypical swedish look... (not the slutty one though!)
sheisse.. i just realised i have to hurry up if im gonna have time to shop before kara comes and picks us up for a night out in st. kilda! i have so many photos to put up here.. but i clever as i am, i left the cord at sarah's house... but ill put them up as son as i get it back!
hasta la vista

Finally in Australia!

Today is Friday which means we've already been here for a week. The reason we haven't posted any blog entries yet is because we've been busy "house hunting". We did that, without exaggerating, everyday, all day, for 4 days. but the effort finally paid off and three days ago we found a place to stay. So now we're living with a couple of irish guys not far from the city. Luckily we had a place to stay in the meantime - with the Clark family! Thank you so much for having us! Especially Nola who even took us to Healesville Sanctuary for some quality sightseeing before driving us to our new house. ! :D (I took that picture myself!! *proud* haha but the koalas didnt put up much of a show for us unfortunately..)
At 11 o'clock tonight the Israeli owners of the house are throwing us a big jewish dinner *scared*. We haven't really had time to get to know them yet as we have been going out every night since we moved in. Kara, an old friend from when i used to live here, has been our personal guide, taking us out to a couple of nice bars. And our plan is to leave for a better place in a week (just off an awesome shopping street) so we'll see how much they'll like us after we tell them that... hmm.. anyhoo, Josefin is getting restless again so i'm gonna write more later. but at least now u know we're still alive.. :)

singapore's airport - our second home

woot woot
we're back at singapore's airport with another 12 hours to go until our plane leaves for melbourne so we've parked ourselves and our massive luggage load at a cafe, trying desperately to find an apartment to rent in melbourne. could anyone possibly get any less organised than us ?! From what it looks like right now, we'll be arriving in melb with absolutely no idea of what to do or where to go. hehe. its great.
we havent been able to put up any photos yet but hopefully we'll get a chance to do that in melbourne. now we're off to grab some food. wish us luck with the apartment! ;P

Last night in Bali

Bali hasn't quite been what we expected. but today we took matters into our own hands and rented a car + driver to take us away from the touristy streets of Kuta. We drove to a much less crowded beach further south of Bali and on our way back we stopped at a Hindu temple surrounded by little monkeys :D. As we didnt eat anything all day we treated ourselves to some luxury food at one of Kuta's fanciest restaurants... and paid about 100 kr for both our meals (entre, main and drinks) ! its unbelievably cheap here.
After writing this blog entry we're off to enjoy our last night out in Bali. Because we're leaving on wednesday morning we're planning on taking it easy tomorrow night.. (we have gone out every night since we got here). So this is it for today! next blog entry will be written on our second (!) 12 hour long wait at singapore's airport...
toodles!

Bali

hola!
We arrived in Bali two nights ago and are trying to adapt to this new "culture".
there are little bali people running around everywhere trying to drag us into the stores/restaurants and offering us transport every 5 seconds.
we have gone out both nights and slept past breakfast both mornings.. which is sort of annoying as it is included in the hotelprice..!
Josefin looks like an olive skinned latina and i look like a sunburnt diana ross from the supremes. life really is unfair...
we have met a couple of fun aussies but other than that not too many tourists.. unfortunately.
we were a bit worried the weather was gonna be bad here (rain season) but the funny thing is that even though its really cloudy, the clouds never cover the sun.. its not like in sweden where a single cloud will cover the sun the whole day..
the humidity is killing us. and the ocean feels about 30 degrees warm, so there is really no place to cool down apart from the hotel room. im so glad we paid for AC!
anyhoo.. we're off to get swarmed by little yellow people again and look for some glasses for tonight's pre-drinks.
so bye for now!
/diana ross and penelope cruz (!)

Singapore

After almost 24 hours of traveling we have finally reached Singapore. And with 10 hours left until our flight to Bali leaves we've become experts at airport cruising. we are already becoming comfortable enough to get changed out of our nasty travel clothes at a semi crowded cafe and joke about the massive stash of coke we're smuggling into the country even though there's a death sentence for drug trafficking here.. sheisse. i sure hope no scary little thai criminal decides to put anything suspicious in our bags... and thats another thing..! the people here really make us feel like big giant heffa women when none of them reach higher than to our belly buttons....
We have been flying for a total of 14 hours already and slept for about 10 of those! the only times we woke up was when we smelled food.. hehe.. and we got the best food ever on the plane!
so go austrian airlines :) and it felt good to hear some pretty german again.. lol. the funniest language. i bet we'll get to use one of the few phrases we know in german sometime during the trip. "Ich habe keine geld" can come good in handy when we get mugged by a big scary Hans with nazi tattoos in the back streets of melbourne...
ooo i just looked out the window behind me and noticed the sun has come up! ( its still early morning here). so there, we're off to soak up some singaporian sun before we get back to eating a second breakfast. (our bodies are so confused..!)
Bubye for now!
/Linda & Jos-mos

D-day

It's now less than 6 hours until we leave for the airport. I have still not finished packing (as my suitcase currently weighs 22 kg and my handluggage weighs 12 kg..!)

We are both completely exhausted from running around all day trying to fix everything in the last minute, like the vaccination for example.. but with 2 hours left until Josefin picks me up i think i will be all set!

It feels completely insane to think that we are gonna be in Bali in 24 hours. I dont think we will believe it until we actually get off the plane!

There are two things I feel I'm gonna have a hard time leaving behind for 3,5 months:

1. Ebba (I wont be home for her 6th birthday!)

2. My room! (Jens has been counting down the days for when he gets to take over my room! I am dreading the horror my poor room is going to have to put up with when Im gone - 8 sweaty and smelly

teenage guys playing world of warcraft against each other surrounded by empty coke/red bull cans and junk food. I dont think it'll ever be able to recover from that...

But other than that I dont think I will get too homesick. 3,5 months will fly away.. right?..

Anywho.. i have to get back to packing.

The next blogpost you read will be written from the other side of the globe! galet.

Hej då Sverige!

packing issues

woohaaa! i finally got my driving license! last night i went on my first drive alone. aaa it was awesome. picked up a friend and drove into town for a coffee. but woah how do people manage to get to where they want to go?! i got lost at least 7 times! it took me twice as long as it should have... its good they taught me how to turn the car around. :P today is wednesday.. which means its exactly two weeks until we leave.. sheisse..! i have been slapping myself on the fingers for over a month now, trying not to pack my suitcase! but this weekend im doing it! aah i cant wait.. haha josefin is a bit more relaxed about the whole thing. she's taking it aussie style.. :P but how we will fit all our junk into a 20 kg suitcase each remains a mystery.. we are most likely gonna have to re-pack it all at the airport... mm.. looking forward to it.

Our Travelplan

The 7th of Feb is the day when it all begins. D-day. It's the day when we leave the country of "falukorv" for a 5 day fryingholliday in Bali, a homeless night in Singapore, 3 unplanned months in Australia, and a week of "Im yust a sviidish tourist, pliis don't kill mii" in downtown Los Angeles. You can see our travel plan in the picture above (pretty, isnt it?!) *proud*
This is the plan as of now. But this could easily change as we are planning on making this trip a very spontaneous one! :)

Welcome to our travel blog!

Today is a very special day.. we have officially passed day 20 on our countdown towards the start of our trip around the world! yay. its all really exciting.. but also nervwrecking... seeing as we still dont have a travel insurance or a place to stay!.. haha we r extremely unorganised atm and have heaps left to do.. even though we have been planning this for about 5 months now...!
But one thing's for sure; theres gonna be some serious sightseeing going on - so beware!
And we're planning on posting it all on this blog.. (well almost all of it anyway...)
So stay tuned for some juicy blog posts and crazy pics!

/ Linda & Jos