A sauna isn't always what it seem to be, so thank god, a bar is always a bar

Yesterday after updating my blog, and after some lunch/dinner we decided to hit up a sauna close by. Leuuwarden is freezing with all the snow and ice, and they have a special offer for students in the window to the sauna, so why not? I only expected it to be one or two different saunas, maybe a dry one and a steam one, but it would be great to just sit there and get warm and relaxed all the way through!
We arrived and the girl checked us in through the computer and then she showed us the way to a room with lockers. She open the door and the first thing I saw was a naked man standing there shaking of the water on his back against a towel. Ooops. Immediately I made eye contact with the girl again but she showed no signs, that she'd been opening the wrong door. Instead she looked at us and said; "Here's your lockers. When your done getting undressed, you can just come out here". She pointed through the next door were we could see a few pools and tubs. "Ehhhm okay..." I answered and before I knew it, she was gone. And there we stood. A quiet second and then I turned around to my dear friend with a little bit of a surprised face. "Great... something tells me I shouldn't have freaked out about finding my swimsuit?" What none of us had known as we walked in 5 minutes earlier was that the sauna was a naked spa.

Monday night, our last real night out together, was spend at Fire with good friends, okay music and -yay- cheap drinks! I can't believe how cheap it is to go out everywhere - but in Sweden! I'll miss that now when I go back... It's not cool that the drinks are 1/3 or or less, of the price they usually are back home. After clubs and bars, it was time for the after party and the after the after party-party. It was fun and I got to hang out more with all the cool people I've met here. Some had more fun then others, what's up with people always forgtting not to pass out?? Let's just say, that someone went through a really nice make up session this morning... and that I now 5 minutes ago, told him that he still got a blue nose and waterproof masara under his eyes.. Rule #1, if you can't stay awake, tell people you're out, so then they can't mess with you. Got it? I will really miss them. It's a quiet happy crowd. Maybe I should come here and study as well? I just got offered a room and everthing, it would be all cleared out for me to move in when the semester start in January.. What do you think about that?

Leeuwarden, Holland

I made it here too! You have no idea how awesome it was to step of the train and find my best friend standing there waiting! How I've missed that crazy hair and those eyes! Weeeeeii! And that voice! I can just listen for hours to all his stories :) My whole stay here I've been in my little happy bubble. First Milana and now Tobias, before I'm going back to see my family in Sweden. These weeks are just amazing!

I am currently sitting in Tobias room, waiting for him to come home from school. He had a meeting to go to, so after checking out his college, I explored Leeuwarden and did some shopping!

His college was really nice and a little fancy. At a first look the outside didn't appeal to much, I was a little bit skeptic to that this would be something special. But I was soon proved to be wrong! never judge the outside, right? They had everything in there, even a hotel, and the design was just awesome! For the first time I was walking around at a college really caring about what I was seeing, interested, wanting to know more and see more. It's a really nice school people!
The only other college I've been to that gave me that feeling was LSU, where Corey took me a couple of weeks ago. Their campus was amazing, unfortunately I hardly got to see the inside since it was closed. What I did see of the inside tho, was really cool, new and modern, just like here. I'd like to check that school out more at some point. Their campus still gave me the #1 feeling, tho Leeuwarden is really close behind.

I love the street markets! I went here
7 am at the after party to get some
straw berries for a snack :)
Also, look at the building and all the bikes!

Now to the city, I walked around for a couple of hours and you just gotta love this place! It's amazingly pretty and beautiful and it got so much character!
The streets are small with no pavement, instead they use different types of bricks. Now, you'd think that kind of suck to bike and walk on, but I've used my heels all over and I never saw anyone falling of the bike! It's great!

Tobias also took me to a block where the streets are covered in graffiti. It was pretty cool to walk around in the small alleys in between the houses and just look at all the art, some artists are pretty darn good!

Walking around just house watching is a nice activity itself. All the houses look different from each other with their own personal architecture and style.
The city also got hundreds of bridges big, small and tiny which adds up the fairytale cosy factor with 110%. There's even houses on the river- here people also live in houseboats!

Tobias house is pretty old but really nice! It got steep stairs, and it's high up to the ceiling. The architecture on the inside is also pretty old fashion with details in the ceilings, light colored walls and built in window benches and fireplaces (not longer in use). He shares this place with two other really cool German guys; Hannes and Konrad. I find it so funny to randomly walk in to three guys everyday life! I get to see them grocery shopping, cook, bake, clean, make the dishes and do the laundry! And we aren't talking easy food as hamburgers and mac n cheese, we are talking healty food! Vegetables and fruits! Pastas with different meats, sauces and spices, wooked meat and vegetables with rice and so on. What guys! Maybe I should stick around a little longer...? It really suck to just have a week with your best friend when you've hardly seen him in 2½ years..

Baking some brownies with the guys

Last but not least; the nightlife is pretty awesome too!! There's plenty of bars, cafés and coffee shops and they all play really good music. Everything from main stream radio to techno to reggae. It's just to pick your place and enjoy. I got to see my first official joint menu too. They all had such interesting names! Some were named after Disney characters, and only to read their names in dutch was a trip..!

Now Tobias is back and it's time to make some late lunch, but I will Hoi at you all later!

Србија - Serbia

FINALLY! After a long flight from LA to Germany, surviving a freaking long lay over in Frankfurt - 12 hours! I finally finally got of the plane that took me to Belgrade, Serbia! The flight was late, I grabbed my bags and ran through the glass doors, and there she was, my Mima! We start laughing almost screaming, hugging and kissing! After such long time I finally got to see my best friend live! :D

I spend 10 days in Serbia. We traveled back and forth between Novi Sad and Sid, we also went to S. Mitrovica where we met up with Brana and her 10 month old son. It was great to see her again and her son was so cute!

In Sid everything was the same, I remembered every street, every store and  every café I fell in love with during my first visit three years ago. Serbian hot chocolate, finally I would get it again. Yummie! Oh how I have craved it!

To see Milana's family again was amazing! We were so happy to see each other and they were all more excited about speaking English this time. They were not as shy as before. Minja, Mima's younger sister really tried hard and improved her skills a lot during the week, especially at the house parties! Haha
I love going out in Sid, it's so relaxed. The house parties this year was really cool. Held in an apartment with black light's and stuff, really cool. Going out clubbing was just like I remembered it, so crowded and pumped to a thousand.

Most of our time we spend in Novi Sad, Mima was so excited about this. She goes to college there and it's a big difference to Sid. Novi Sad is a bigger city, the architecture is beautiful and the café life and night life is amazing since it's a student city. We spend the days sight seeing, shopping and catching up and almost every night we went out at the cafés and just had a blast! Awesome with girl time! But I had totally forgotten, how freaking long it takes for two-three girls to get ready! Oh my god... I got nothing on Mima and her room mate! Just so y'all know.

I also had the luck to catch up with Miki again, both in Novi Sad and in Sid. When I was in Sid, he took me out to the village where his family lives and I got to meet them all for a Serbian Sunday dinner and later we went to the lake. Pretty cool. It was so much food! I thought I was done two or three times, but then the next thing came out to the table! Not to complain tho. We had a lot to catch up on, and we didn't have time to cover it all.

I could write a whole essay about Serbia, what we did, were we went, who we saw. About the life, the food, the drinks, the people and whatever you'd like. But my internet access is kind of limited and I don't want to spend too much time on the computer as I am visiting my friends :)

But I will have thousands and thousand of stories to tell y'all when I get home! No doubt about that!!!

Singing and dancing barefoot on the streets of Santa Monica!

"When I woke up all alone on 'the wrong coast' of America. 

I would never had guessed, that my last day would be so magic! 

That I would play in the water, see a sunset by the ocean 

and make fun friends, while dancing barefoot on the beach and on the streets of 

Santa Monica!"

I was waving good bye to my Mom in the cruel AM... ughh... poor her who had such an early flight!

After waking up a second time and eating some 'knäckebröd' with 'makrill', I decided to change my plans from a lazy girl day to a new adventure. I will have plenty of stay-home-days soon enough! Where to go and how to get there was the big questions of the day. It ended up being Santa Monica by bus :) I was so excited! I thought I would have nothing at all to do when my Mom was gone.. turns out I was wrong, now I only wish she could have joined me on this last American adventure. It was my last day in America - for this time. Crazy!

The bus ride to Santa Monica was nothing special, I had company from an old man who used to live in the UK. He was very helpful, almost too helpful! I  thought he never would let me go! I needed to be so careful, and remember this and that, and did I bring a jacket? Cause the wind would be really chilly once the sun set..! Oh, old helpful people :)

First stop was the beach. It was gorgeous. The sun was shining and the ocean felt so... Big! I ran down to the beach and jumped out of my heels once I reached the sand line, who would not walk barefoot on the beach?! It was so quiet and peaceful, some guys were playing football, and some couples were having pick nick. So romantic.
I took pictures and danced along on the beach in the waves. The water was surprisingly nice.

After watching some more football I stumbled right in to a guy in a visitor cubicle, perfect! I was told to hit up some cool places and he gave me a map where he marked everything down. Pheeew...! To many places haha but it was very nice of him.

I followed his first advice and went to Shangri-La, were I was recommended to eat dinner at the roof top during sunset. I thought it seemed like a nice last dinner on my big long adventure in America. I got a lobster soup with mushrooms and a nice drink. Yummie! It was perfect - even the price ;) While enjoying the sunset I talked to Bella. I said it sucks to watch a sunset alone, and she informed me that what does suck, is to have a sunset at 4 pm (She lives in Rochester, NY).. I guess that would suck too..

The place was very nice, but.. pretty boring for a lonely cat like me, so I said ciao and went out to see what the streets had to offer this beautiful evening. I walked around, just people watching, thinking that maybe I should hit up a bar or two and see if I could meet some cool people? Then the best happened; I reached 5th street with all its street musicians! Oh I love LOVE street musicians and performers! It's the best! I kept walking through and just enjoyed, really enjoyed all the music and the people. After some walking and talking I reached a guy who was playing a really nice song on his guitar and I stopped to listen a little extra. It had been a few hours since I had my soup, and how much does soup fill you up anyways..? Then wow, what do I see? What is that in the alley? Oh baby, it's a sushi bar! I hurried to grab a box of sushi, so happy, and then I sat down on the street to just listen. Song after song, this kid was really good. He played both his own songs and covers.

While eating my sushi this random dude comes up and he asks me to dance. "Nahh, Thank's but no thanks. I'm having dinner..." I said with smile. The guy then sat down on the street saying "It's okay, he'll probably play for another hour or so". I kept eating, very slow, but how slow could one eat sushi? When done, I didn't really have any excuses and he, Cowboy, started to talk again. I wounder were he got his nick from, I never got that one cleared out... He talked about the music, the homeless people in Santa Monica and just random things. After a while another happy song was played, and again I was asked to dance, this time I was more in a mood and thought "Why not, it will be a great fun addition to my last night". And so we started to swing around on the street, it was so much fun! We had our audience and the guy with the guitar kept on playing and singing, it was great! I was spinning around so much I threw my shoes off! Imagine that! I missed dancing like that a lot while I was in America, it will be fun to start dancing again once I come back to Sweden.

I made really good friends with Cowboy and Will the musician and we hung out the rest of the night till early morning. Will later, even helped me to put music to one of the songs I've written! I got to record it and it was just such a cool feeling to hear my own written song, with music! Woaaaa!

It was a great first day in Santa Monica and a great last day in America. 

Los Angeles & Hollywood

Nöten's last round of
gambling in Vegas ;)

Waking up after just a few hours of sleep wasn't the greatest hit ever.. let's face it; our last night in Vegas was by far the craziest!

Last on our to-do-list; LA. Time to chase some stars, take pictures of the sign and just enjoy this city that's always ALWAYS in the magazines and the movies.

Mom Rockin The Walk of Fame

HA! Big joke! LA and Hollywood is prolly THE trashiest city (cities) I've visited in the US so far! What a disappointment! And there was not a whole lot to actually do here. The walk of fame, the hand prints, the sign - all those tourist things of course. We did them, but it was definitely nothing crazy. Again, we took a bus ride (we seriously had to much time on our hands here, and it needed to get wasted) The tour was super crappy! The bus was falling a part the microphone didn't work really and there was nothing to the tour. We saw houses and places that celebs own or where they died from o.d.'s and such, but our guide didn't really have any cool stories to share.. I guess it was nice to drive in Beverly Hills and Bel Air, these areas were actually nice. We also got a glimpse of Michael Jacksons house since they offer viewings now after his death.

Then shopping and more shopping! Our solution of what to spend time on in LA before my Mom flew home ;D

Las Vegas

Las Vegas!

Shows, concerts, amazingly big hotels, drinks, party, Vegas weddings, GAMBLING etc etc etc! It all crossed our minds, over and over again. What should and shouldn't you expect from Vegas?
Well, it was all there, just... it felt a lot smaller and less exclusive then I thought it would be. Even though I thought I had hardly no expectations, I got slightly (maybe even a little bit more then that) disappointed. I guess it depends on how you choose to do Vegas, but I think we all had expected more from this world known, never resting, never sleeping city.

Driving in to Vegas was kind of cool. We had been in a pitch dark dessert and all of a sudden, we had a horizon of lights, in front of us. It was sweeeeeet after driving in the dessert and through small towns for days and days. Closer to the city, with this ocean of lights on our right hand side, it was crazy how nothing, nothing at all was on our left side. Not a single streetlight, fast food place, house, no nothing! It was just so dark. Fascinating to see such a sudden and clear 'beginning' and 'end' of a City.

Someone had also decided to come over for a day and a half in the middle of our stay; Sebastian! It was great and we had a lot of fun, to bad it was only for such a short time :(

Mom finding one of Vegas Wedding Chapels

Our Vegas adventure was filled with shopping, food and gambling. Can you believe I kept my Mom out till 4.30 AM??!! :D We also went to see a show; Ka at the MGM and Bodies The Exhibition at the Luxor. Both pretty cool and crazy.

Ka was pretty cool, the story line wasn't the best on this specific Ka show, but the moving stage was crazy! It's hard to explain the show and do it justice while trying, the best way for you would be to check it out on YouTube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsE14IFMPUc

Bodies The Exhibition was also really cool. I loved it. At first I found it crazy and disgusting, but I was also really excited to see this, since I've been wanting to go for a while now. The excitement overtook the stomach! ;) This 'Exhibition' is like a museum kind of thing where you look at the human body. All body parts, everything, is real. It's cleaned up and preserved to the tiniest detail. The brain, heart, lungs, the nerve system, everything! I don't even know what to say! People in China donate their bodies for scientist to do all this. I just couldn't believe my eyes when I was looking around at all these things that I've only been reading about in school.. To see these things in real life was something else! You can't compare it to the pictures or fake skeletons etc, that the teacher bring to class. I got to hold a brain and a lung. Imagine?! Eeeewww! but since the opportunity was there, I just HAD to hold it. But the thought of it being real (as in, from the inside of another human) was as cool as it was wrong! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enw0S1Otbpw&feature=related

My new playground; Grand Canyon!

Wowza!

It was so worth the wait to spend the night in Kingman and hit up Grand Canyon the next morning!! The Grand Canyon is THE most amazing thing we've done this far on our west coast trip. I had so much fun!!


To begin with, we met the guy from yesterday, he recognized us and we got a few laughs through out the conversations that followed. Again; off to a good start! The sun was shining, and felt so nice and warm, even though the wind was extremely cold. We got on the different buses in the park, and it was as easy as 1,2,3 to get around the park and see everything we wanted for as long as we wanted. Loved it! The views were amazing! Every moment felt like a Kodak moment. Mom freaked out every time I walked up to the edges (there were no safety lines anywhere). You know how you, when you care for kids, put on warmer clothes on the little once because You are cold? Same concept. She tried to disallow me to walk by the edge and such, cause she was afraid. It was sweet, and she got really brave too after giving it some time. I got a pretty freaking cool Mom, she rocked those rocks! ;)


The first view point was okay. It was your first 'wow' experience over the Canyon. They also had some Native American performance by two girls, but it was really really lame. They walked in a circle and didn't include any movements to the music (tribal music). What was the most interesting here though, was to walk through the area showing the different building structures the tribes used when building their homes. It was like time traveling in a way, when you stepped in to the old tipi's.

Our second stop was majestic! The view, was


stunning! The valley, the cliff, the river, the way the sun kissed it in red and yellow. I can't explain the beauty of the landscape (and neither can our cameras).
This was by far my favorite nature stop on our trip! And it made perfect for a play ground. Here we could climb, and walk around more freely from other tourists and just enjoy ourselves. I looooved it!

Yihaa! Our last stop was the Ranch! This was not so much a nature experience, this was more a Cowboy/Indian hands on experience. Not on the guys... tho we got offered work and to be 'tasted' lol.. the staff was great, they were so funny. Well anyways, here you could take pics with the horses (of course I allowed my self this free little tourist trap), to shoot with bow and arrows, throw lasso, ax and horse shoe, eat at the saloon, and last but not least, to go on a wagon ride. Mom and I got carried away with the cowboys and tried all the activities multiple times. It was so much fun! These guys are super! So helpful, funny and open to teach you all they know about the ranch.

I think today was the day, we have enjoyed the most here on the west coast. The over all experience were so good!
Now we're planning our next move after some great shopping and a superdedooper tast dinner at Granny's.  Antelope Canyon tomorrow, I can't wait! I am so excited about this one yall! This is the one thing I have high expectations on, so it better be good!!

Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon

The famous Hoover Dam, as gigantic as imagined!
At first I thought; Wow, thats pretty big! then; Nahhh... And now, with some more reflection over the whole thing - Yes! It's pretty big!

There's not a whole lot to say about the dam.. it's huge, big and all of the above. It's just like on the pictures and like the movies. My Mom really liked it, and it was awesome to see her walking on the memorial bridge! I just love teasing her, you just get so many fun comments :) makes many good laughs for both of us.

Adventure #2 today was Grand Canyon! Woohooo! At least we thought...

I really want to do the sky walk, so we had to go to the West side of G.C. Now, to get to the west side, you have to drive an hour on a tiny swirly dirt road (we didn't know that at first). Well, you do what you gotta do, right? We hit the road, and it went fine. A little slower and longer then we had wished, but it was fine. We finally hit the pavement on the other side and now we start to get really excited! The sun was shining, I had updated my iPOD with new good music. My mom even turned up the volume a few times(!). The landscape was amazing - totally gorgeous! We slowed down by the 'parking guy', waiting for directions for how to drive and such. Not a sign of what would come next; this guy, definitely didn't have Bob-news a lá "I'll let you go for free" nahhh... this guy said; "I'm sorry Ladies, we closed the park at 3.45 pm, but you are very welcome to park here and go to our gift shop". Do I have to explain why I now tonight, joined the website fmylife.com ????!!!!! I mean REALLY? Who close a National Park at 3.45 to begin with? When one of their nicest attractions are the sunset! CRAZY!
After some talking, they agreed to let us in, but we would only have had a 15 minute break by the actual canyon so we said 'thank you but no thank you', and headed out - through the gift shop! At least we could use the restroom....
This whole time I kept thinking about the comedian Jeff Dunham and his puppet Peanut. The episode when Peanut tries to remember where they are (Santa Anna) and every conclusion he makes is in hell. I kind of felt like poor little Peanut there.. No stores (gift shop doesn't count), no water, no gas stations, no food, just dessert everywhere (beautiful dessert but still) and now we had to drive this whole long drive back to find somewhere to sleep, so that tomorrow morning we can make that drive again. All the way out there, and guess? We'll have to pay over $60 to see natures own creation, and then drive all the way back again! Hmpf..!

Besides all these floppy incidents, we are having a good time, Mom and I. All these things really just crack us up! It's just so stupid. Just our luck!
After a long day with no food, we ended up at Denny's. It was goooood! Besides the fact that my Mom couldn't get H2O-satisfied and then later, that we had trouble with paying. Who thought it could be so hard...? Ohhh people, there's nothing like an over tiered Mother and Daughter on the Road....! Thank Heavens for Ross, who took us in for some speed shopping before bedtime.

Location update:

Kingman, Arizona

Death Valley

More car... More car riding then wanted today..! But I guess that's what happens when you have a weirdo car (ours now baptized; Jason P. Fuck Focus), a funky GPS (also baptized; Tjöta) and a bad map, which is missing roads. Yep it was just our day! Luckily we never got lost, I mean we stayed in Death Valley (which really earned the name btw) all day. It was that simple. We had one way in and another out.
And if you ever go there people, fill up with gas and buy water and snacks before entering, (thank the Lord we listened to you bella!) and then if you feel that, "hmmm, maybe we should hit the road and get out of this place with no food and a gas price on freaking $4,50" (!!!), well then just drive through the park 5 hours and find our new Buddy, Park ranger Bob. Bob was nice. Bob let us travel Death Valley for free all day. We like Bob. We like free. It wasn't worth more then free. Bob also told us a secret. A new faster way to get to VEGAS! So we definitely like Bob. But of course we didn't drive to Vegas yet, that's for later. My Mom cried for a store and some shopping, so tonight we stayed at a hotel with Casino and then taaaadaaaa; we hit up Walmart! Haha! Well... when in the dessert, you take what you find. Which wasn't a whole lot! It was the poorest Super Walmart I've ever seen..

So, now when I've been hard on the car, the GPS and the map (Who all earned it) I can continue and tell you all how extremely amazing Death Valley also were!

it was EXTREMELY AMAZING! The mountains and the hills, they just keep getting bigger, wider and more stunning for every drive we make. It was sweeet! To drive up and down the mountains and get the view from the far top to the low bottom of the entire valley was pretty cool. Even though you sat in the car almost the entire day, you didn't get sick of it, it was just to beautiful to get sick of.

My camera is way to bad for these kinds of landscapes. It just sucks to even put pics on the blog, they are to far off. Someone who would have done this landscape more justice is Corey. There was so many picture opportunities I know he would have loved, and he would have done a great job too! Especially driving out of the valley during sunset, and then later when the stars peaked out together with the moon. Oh it was so beautiful! i'm weak for the night sky, I can just sit there and slowly daze of in my own little world, watching it for hours. Space is fascinating. But back to Earth! The mountains were black, the sky was in different shades of blue and green - yes, I remember your classes Corey, and it would have been perfect for <drums> Time laps! If I only would have had a better camera! Next time, next time.

Location update

Pahrump, Nevada

Yosemite National Park

"Rain rain go away - come back another day!" Liam, Aidan, please come and sing for us in the car tomorrow! Bring your instruments too! I don't want another day like today. We have been in the car all day - and it's been raining without a single break all day! We jammed out with good music and we caught up on everyone else's lives, so it wasn't a bad drive. It just sucks that we had such bad luck!

We arrived at Yosemite National Park - and it was; rainy, cloudy, foggy and grey. Woopie! "We'll just try to see as much as possible on our way through and hopefully it stop". Psssshhhyyy... no way! We got it all the way through with a sweet addition; our hwy was CLOSED. Great. Now we had to make a detour to southern Cali. Wonderful! Bah. 

I should't complain, like I said we had a great day in the car, and when we did see the landscape it was beautiful! For sure! We saw some really big trees, crazy high mountains, waterfalls etc - It just would have been so much more beautiful and amazing if it hadn't been so damn foggy! 

Driving up and down the mountains was kind of fun and interesting. With all the fog you couldn't see the cars in front of you and to add to the suspense for my "afraid-of-heights-mom", there was no fence or security railing on the tiny swirly roads we used. She did a great job driving, I'm so happy I didn't have to do that drive. It just wasn't appealing at all considering the weather conditions. But she did great, almost too great, I had to tell her to slow down a couple of times! I mean I was in the passenger seat close to the actual cliffs and edges, and I did see all the way down there, from time to time! It was pretty darn high, and with my good imagination... Don't even go there, my imagination is 110% + with 3D. It's like a free IMAX. I can really see anything in my head! Anyways, let's just say it didn't seem like a too cool of a roller coaster, to get hydroplaning on top of that mountain... 

Nahh... Better luck tomorrow, even though today was a fair small adventure! 

Mom: "It's like driving in Heaven!".

Actually if you stepped out from the car like this, you got a little bit better of a view. Though this is about the best we could get from the car, if we were lucky. Behind all this fog you have a deep valley with rivers, surrounded by high mountains and waterfalls. It was really beautiful!

Location update; 

In the middle of nowhere - Bakersfield, CA.

On my way home. Travel over view 1

I'm on my way home, taking some detours in the US on my way.
Here's how I've been traveling so far.
[Click to make bigger]

The Tanners House and the Petrified Forest

Outside the painted Ladies

After finally getting our rental car - it's kind of a bitch getting everything rented here - we went to see the Tanner house! Yay! The only thing except the bridge that I really wanted to see. Now, every time I watch the show, I can say " I've been there", just like the ol' show geek I am from time to time.

 Heading out from the city, Mom got to drive on the Golden Gate Bridge. Something fun for her to check of the list :) It was so foggy over and around the bridge that we couldn't see the actual construction of it until we drove 'under' it, still we couldn't see up to the top! It was an interesting experience in addition to our first drive on the bridge when it was sunny with a blue sky and you had the water glistening all around you.

Crazy how you couldn't see the bridge!

Our adventure for today would be to go to the Petrified Forest and to see the Redwood trees. We did the first of the two, deciding it wasn't worth driving 3,5 hours north to see the Redwood trees, when everything else on our to-do-list is to the east and to the south of San Fransisco.  

It was kind of tricky to find this easy-to-find-tourist attraction. We kept getting tossed with different directions all over the place. Well, now we can say we've seen Santa Rosa and it's surroundings - for sure! The landscape was just beautiful! With huge hills and mountains reaching up above cloud level and with wine yards stretching all over it was quiet a view. I also loved all the hills and fields with sheep's and cows while driving out of San Fransisco this morning. I have never seen so many cows in America haha, and it was on my way from one of the places where I the least would have expected it. Anyways, It was gorgeous! Worth the drive, I don't know where else I've seen such a landscape before? With the hills like that? I can't recall I have?


The Petrified Forest became a big disappointment. The walk through the little park was very short, with almost no information on the signs. The actual petrified trees were cool, but it didn't reach the expectations we had on the place.

Now we are resting in Sacramento, figuring out our next moves. Where to next? Hopefully we can hit up some National Parks in Nevada and Utah tomorrow.

Shopping in China Town

Heart of San Fransisco

Today we woke up early  :( ... Moms....
We went straight to China town and spend the day shopping there and by Union Square. I love all the small Chinese stores, you can make some really good bargains there.

Up and Down the hills

After a long day of walking up and down the hills, in and out the stores, we ended up at Marshalls, where we came to do most of our shopping. Funny how you travel so far away from home (DC) and end up shopping at the same old stores... Only in America. My mom asked me what I will do when I get back to Sweden..? People, what will I do?!

Mom by San Fransiscos tallest building;
Bank of America and by the Bankmans Heart

Now we are trying to figure out what to do our last night in the City, and what our next move in the state will be..? Where to next? :)

Doing San Fransisco as real TOURISTS!

Our first real day in San Fransisco. What to do, what to do?

Guided Tourist Bus - that's what to do!
We bought a tour for down town San Fransisco, and got the Golden Gate tour for free! By mistake - but hey it was a gift send from above! That's how I'd like to see it. Mom called it something else, but let's just say her negative choice of word won't find a place in this blog. It's a precious gift when someone 'screw up' your booking to the better! And she come to realize this too! ;)

This will just be a short picture up date, there's not to much to say. The city is cool with all the hills, the bridges are huge and the street life is busy. It's just like on TV with all the cable cars driving around. The guides on the bus were really good and they bombed us with cool facts.
For lunch my mom confused me more then ever! She choose Mc Donalds instead of Rainforest Cafe! My own Mother! Still can't believe it. Sure, it's easy and fast, but we had just learned that there's over 3000 restaurants and 89 Starbucks in San Fransisco. I never for thought she'd pick Mc Donalds after that statement- and that I would be the grumpy 'parent' walking in to Mc Donalds after her.. So strange.
It was a long day, which luckily ended better with more sight seeing, shopping and Chinese food.

San Fransisco City Hall
The dome of the city hall is the 5th largest in the world. 

Not by far the steepest hill in San Fransisco, but still a typical view.

Mom :)

Us with Alcatraz in the background 

Strawberry lemonade at Pier 39 - Yummy!

The Sea lions at Pier 39, quiet a show

Ready for the Golden Gate tour!

Palace of fine Arts Theatre

Mom and I by the Golden Gate Bridge

Another hill, but with focus on the cable car system.
This web is seen all over the place. Pretty cool how it's in use.

Mom! California here we come!

Thank you so much to you Corey, and your family, for taking me in and making me feel so much like home! I really enjoyed my stay - and the FOOD! It was great! I hope to see you all soon, or let me rephrase; I will see you all soon. If it's here, in Sweden or unknown destination, I will see you soon! :)

After a really nice morning, we had a somewhat stressful noon. It was such a relief to arrive at Jackson International, on time with a bag that wasn't over weight! Pheeew! Now the next 'problem'. I hate good byes, last time I cried like a baby when we said good bye. I usually don't do the crying good-bye thing. I'm pretty good at that. But our first adventure together (Hawaii) was pretty amazing! We did and discovered so many cool things so it's insane. Of course it sucks when a trip like that have to come to an end. But you can't get away from it. It was time to go, this time too. With plenty of thank you's, smiles and great big hugs, Corey made sure to cheer it all up so I would board with a smile on my face, also remembering I would have someone I love to meet me up on the other side; My MOM would be in San Fransisco waiting for me! :)

Welcome to America Mom!
I got her some really cool golf stuff for her birthday :)

My last full day w my BP friend :(

My last full day with Corey. Sucks! I hate last days. So not cool that I already have to get going. We spend the day being lazy! Sweeeeet! Played board games, cooked dinner, both Southern and Swedish, and then we went to the movies to see Secretariat. Great movie! After the movie we went to see his sister and brother in law, which was really nice. Then home for another movie night, and while Corey later fell asleep and his parents woke up for work, I was stuck packing my horrible bags. Never will I ever pack like this again. If I do end up moving abroad again, I will ship all my belongings - it IS worth every penny! Bah!

Side note about dinner;

Southern dish

Red beans and smoked sausage with rice. 

As a no beans and hardly a sausage eater, I was surprised over a tasty flavorful sausage meal!

Swedish "Fish balls"

Haha, always a blast to watch foreigners eat canned Swedish food! It survived the test, but Corey said he liked the 'Makrill' better. But these Southern people want to add spices to everything! I love it, but really, who put spices on Makrill and Fiskbullar??? 

;)

I guess it's the small things that does it?

Nottoway Plantation

Today we went to Nottoway Plantation. It was gorgeous!

Nottoway is one of the few plantations that survived the Civil War and it is the largest remaining plantation home in the South. It's a sugar plantation and the home was completed in 1859. We got to know everything - and more - about it during the guided tour. I liked it; you got a lot of history, the guide was good and the group was small (we were only six people).

(Again, we used Corey's camera and I don't have the pictures yet).

After this little adventure we headed back to Aunt Virginia's and then we decided to drive back from Louisiana to Mississippi in the rain, to save make use of it, and save tomorrow's daylight for something else then driving.
It was good to see Corey's house again, Cathy was up waiting for us (she's the sweetest!) and then we had time to cuddle with Rufy and watch a movie. To drive home tonight was definitely a good choice.

New Orleans at Halloween

I had my first southern breakfast and it was good - we we're already off to a good start!

We drove on the Mississippi River Bridge and on the mile after mile after mile long bridge, going over the swamps. Loved it! It's really beautiful. Though only one gator was spotted, it was cool.

Our first stop was the Cafe du Monde, which is a French Market Coffee Stand in the French Quarter of New Orleans. We ordered in Beignet's, French donuts with powdered sugar. Oh heaven! So much better then real donuts, which I'm not a fan of at all by the way. The Café in itself is an experience, starting of with table chasing. I enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who visits New Orleans.

New Orleans itself is a cool city. I would never live here. It's a place you enjoy going to, but also enjoy leaving knowing you always can come back. It's kind of dirty? And it can smell bad (just like any big city). But all the local art make it Magic! There are numerous art galleries and the streets are filled with artists and performers. This City definitely got personality! We spend some time in the French quarters, Corey gave me a guided tour pointing out everything that I had to know. Something I found interesting was all the voodoo stuff, I'd never guessed that voodoo would be a big thing here? Apparently voodoo came to New Orleans straight from Africa and have been there since the city's early years, now there's a small museum for it and there's voodooo shops all over the place.

It wasn't only the day of Halloween, it was also the day of the Saints and Steelers game, which meant we had to hit up the stadium to tailgate! It was the craziest tailgating I've seen or been too. People everywhere, dressed in clothes of their teams, drinking all over. Block after block was just filled with partying happy people. We meet some Mexicans and Corey sold my identity for beer. It all worked out fine after socializing and snapping some pics we had free beer until the game started. We joined the crowd and headed over to the  Superdome. It was humongous! After taking my picture, Corey finds a ticket on the ground. It was so freaking good!!! It was a $240 club member ticket on row 5. As a gentleman, he refused using it and offered me to go. Two stubborn people offering the other person the ticket - none of us would go. Instead we watched the kick off on the big screen outside the dome on the square and sold the ticket. The money gained from the ticket gave the brilliant idea to gamble. Harrah's Casino Next! I was starving and not in the biggest mood for gambling, but Corey had luck and won on our lucky money! Yay! Good Job!

Everywhere I walked people were screaming "WHO DAT?!" Even more so when the Saints won! Ahh PERFECT! Halloween night and the local team won! It would be a big A party at Bourbon and Canal Street!
It was crowded, the streets were closed with people drinking, dancing, singing and screaming everywhere! Beads in all different colors were raining down covering the streets. The best and craziest sights were down in the gay areas. I felt like a kid at the Zoo, just staring my eyes out!
We both caught beads too! Without flashing I should add. The tradition is to flash your boobs and people on the streets will hand you bead neck lasses or the people on the balconies will throw them down to you to catch. It's a pretty big and crazy tradition - and so much fun!

More food and fun in Louisiana!

Today was the day for Grandma's 90-th birthday celebration. We went to Crawfish Town to meet up with tons of relatives for lunch. Yumiyum - more southern food for me! So excited! Corey and I decided to share a big platter with different foods, so that my taste buddies could experience as much as possible. 

This was our Lunch Menu

Appetizer 

Salad with Cesar dressing

Seafood Gumbo with crawfish, crab and shrimp

Entree

Fried frog legs, Crawfish boulettes, stuffed shrim, stiffed crab,

Seafood jambalaya, fried catfish and fried oysters

Dessert

Breadpudding with rum sauce

Salad and Sea food Gumbo

The gigantic Platter!

Yummie!

Time to eat some frog leg!
Couldn't stop laughing at first, how sad is
it that I saw all these Disney frogs jumping around as I took my first bites..?!

Oh Man! It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! The gumbo was amazing! Frog legs was the most shocking thing on the platter. It taste almost like chicken. I ate my share of the leg, but I have to confess that I saw several Disney frogs jump around in my head...! The only thing I would skip next time is the oysters. Those muddy little things can stay where they come from. Yuuuck! 

Like I mentioned above, I got a chance to meet many of Corey's relatives. This was fun! You should probably not mention favorites in a family on a blog, but I can't help but loving that I finally got to meet Savannah and Abigail! Corey, as the proudest uncle there is on God's green earth, have spoken so well about these two little angels. It was awesome to finally meet them, and see that they were as wonderful (if not even more) in reality!

My favorite of Corey and Abigail! Precious!
(Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Savannah).

After dinner it was Campus time! College and Campus is two big words in America, and they are way more important then elsewhere I have been. We went to LSU (Louisiana State University), where most of the Hansen's down here went to school. The Campus was really nice. Not at all what I had imagined from my time at NOVA and Sojourner. The buildings were big and old, spread out over a large area. They had parks and fountains and I loved what I saw when I later on walked inside one of the buildings. AND GUESS WHAT else they have?!! Their school mascot walking around fully ALIVE. They got a FREAKING TIGER! The tiger's name's Mike and he is completely beautiful! Such a gorgeous animal! I can't believe they have a permit to keep a full grown tiger on Campus. Yep yep, LSU got itself a new fan (even if Mike wouldn't have been there). 

LSU also have old dorms and buildings that hardly are used. Of course in the spirit of Halloween we entered one of these (since it's still open) in hope to find a way in to the stadium. Dumdumdumdumdum.......! It was creepy! They place was trashed down, many of the doors were open and many rooms had broken windows. We passed several restrooms with dying blinking lights, why on earth the power still would be on up there? It was pretty awesome to walk through, knowing that we probablly shouldnt be there and not knowing if something was in there. 

After a few stairs up and down we found an unlocked door.. And tadaaa! - we walked straight in to the stadium. There it was; LSU's very own Death Valley! Those football fields are pretty breath taking when you stand on the bottom staring up and around. We chilled here for a little bit, just to learn on our way out, that we couldn't get back through the door. The old movie trick! Bam! A little nervous about finding a way out we make our way to a fence. One - Two - Three, Sara decide to climb it right there and then, under the biggest light. Four - Five - Six, and so did Corey. We landed with grace on our -together - four feet. Again, just to realize something else plain stupid; We did all this in front of two cops who stood in front of - guess? - LSU's police station! We always have such a good timing with everything...! But also good luck, no one saw us. Now we just had to tip toe back to the parking lot, hoping we didn't get a parking ticket for not having a permit sticker on our car ....

We snapped some cool pictures on Campus and in the stadium that I will update with later.

After our Halloween excitement it was time for something lit up with laughs and Food. Baton Rouge Fair NEXT! It was a nice field filled with fun things to do. We took it easy, walked around and just enjoyed being where we were. We ordered what I believed was my first real Corn dog, and a big stuffed shrimp and crawfish taco. Tasty!

Something that completely took me by surprise, was when we on our way home got Daiquiris to go! In Louisiana they have drive through's where you can order mixed drinks in a to go cup! They hand these alcohol mixed beverages to you while you're driving your car! How double moral is that?! Anyways, I won't argue against it now. That yummie Daiquiri shouted my name out loud, all the way from the Fair, there's no way I would let it down! ;)

My first Taste of The South - A Success!

Friday!
Not that it at all matters what day it is when you travel, but Friday it is. I have to count the days to remember what day it actually is. Haha funny how days blurs together.. The only thing i usually keep kind of straight is the dates - so the understanding of time is complete twisted for me when I travel!

We got kind of a late start but reached Baton Rouge in a somewhat decent time = Dinnertime!
Corey was so excited about this. Finally he could show me his Crawfish Etouffee. We all cooked together, Corey the head chef, Cathy (Corey's mom) the garlic bread  and salad specialist and me the newb. It was the easiest meal ever made, and lord wasn't it also the tastiest?! (Mom you're cooking will always be #1!) When we sat down to dig in to this heavenly mixture of onion, bell peppers, tomato, crawfish, seasoning and other additions - Ohhh it was so good! - one sound just kept slipping out from me; "Mmmmmm...!" It was that slow natural real "Mmmmm", that only comes when it's really really good (You can hear if someone fakes an "Mmmmm"). I can't describe how much I liked this meal, so I should probably just leave it here.

Cathy and Corey

Stir, stir and stir. It's the key to the Best Etouffee!

After dinner and a bunch of stories from Corey's childhood (all very funny) it was time to do some art. I pre-died Corey's Mohawk (it's supposed to get died in another color tmw) and he made highlights on me. For being first timers we did a pretty good job ;)

Jackson - The grand tour

During the day we drove around Jackson and I got to see some of Corey's favorite places. It's nice to finally come to a state that have different gas stations, grocery stores and shopping! Haha

After driving and walking around, we went to a Greek restaurant and it was time to finally meet the Hansen's! It was cool to meet all the people that Corey was talking about in Hawaii. They were so nice and talkative, the dinner went by way to fast!
We dropped by at Women Night  on our way home so I got to check that out and also talk more to Coreys Mom and Sister. Afterwards we drove over to Corey's grandparents. It was a pretty interesting meeting. I got a lot of history from their family, I read old papers from the 1800's and 1900's in Danish, got to see all different kind of collections. They collect a lot a lot of stuff. And I got to see Grandma Hansen's Christmas tree. Yes, her Christmas tree! It's a tree completely dressed in Hershey ornaments and it stays up all year around. Their house, filled with things, was really interesting haha :)

The day came to an end with a movie night. I even got a chance to show our cheesy movie about Åmål! Well well.... It's always something! Oh wait a minute! What IS something, is the raccoons that we chilled with last night! They have raccoons coming up to the door partying on cat food during the nights. It was pretty cool to just lay there and take their pictures, I love raccoons!

Now today we are headed down to Batton Rouge to meet more relatives and to catch more of the southern culture! Corey is really excited to show me this place, I think it will be a lot of fun. Also, before heading home we will do New Orleans. Finally! Everyone talk about New Orleans, and now I will get to see it during Halloween!

A heads up for 'worried' family; I am unsure about reception down there, and I won't bring my computer. I'll check in whenever I can. The plan is to be back in Jackson on Monday.

Mississippi - An unpleasant departure, but a sweet arrival

I arrived safely in Jackson Mississippi! Finally! I was and am so excited about this trip! I am suppose to meet up with my friend Corey whom I backpacked Hawaii with.

Now this adventure start already at the airport, where I realize I have repacked my bags uneven. Yes people, I had overweight in my big bag. You who know me, know that I pack light when I fly. Great. Awesome. I died right there and then. All my bags were super tight packed since I'm not traveling, I'm moving! I felt just like the over packed donkeys I smile at when I check in my lightly packed luggage - if I have to check in at all! How would I get on this plane with all my stuff? Nate ran back and forth weighing my bag while I unpacked and repacked. This is how I got on the plane;

• Scarfs around my neck together with my purse hidden under my London sweat shirt. 
• All my electronics in my jeans pockets
• Clothes in my sweaters belly pocket
• Books in my hand
• A roller bag with broken wheels 
• An over over over packed laptop bag -with no lap top in it
• My big winter coat with my small winter coat inside of it, and another sweat shirt on my arm
• And as a cherry on top; I wore a pair of high heels. (Heels weigh more then flats)

It was a show. 

Luckily, the flights carry on luggage shelfs got full before I boarded and they checked my one carry on luggage for free - all the way to Jackson! I didn't even have to carry it through my connection flight. Wooah, you all won't understand what a relief that was!

Arriving in Jackson was great. I talked to a bunch of nice people on the plane and it was so great to finally see Corey again. And kind of embarrassing, cause of all my heavy luggage... His last comment on the phone before my flight had been; "Well, just dump everything in a box and backpack the rest of your trip". I was like "Yeah right, say that when you see all my stuff!". And now he did. And he got himself a nice work out as well, helping me carry all my crap to the car. Sorry Corey..!

While getting into the car we saw an incoming thunderstorm and decided to pick up some stuff and go to the reservoir to watch it. It was an awesome lightning show, I love storms!

Chicago & Indiana

To go to Indiana is like coming home. It doesn't really become an adventure, it's just nice and comfortable. 

I flew in to Chicago, Illinois where I got picked up by Nate, Britt and David. It was already 7.30 so While driving in Chicago I got to see the city all lit up. We decided to go out barhopping and clubbing - so much fun!

We drove back to Indiana in the morning, and guess who now can say she's driven in Chicago? ;) 

There is not to much to say about my Indiana trip.. It was filled with welcome-parties, bar hopping, Halloween parties, birthday parties, birthday dinners, good bye parties, brunches, brunches and brunches. I had a really good time catching up with old and new friends. I will miss this place a lot. 

I LOVE Jedi, this puppy is so super cosy!

I made Mario some Swedish pasta a lá Mother Nature

So that we could rule on beer pong! ;)

During one of our movie nights together with Brandi and Jayson,
things got out of hand with Chocolate jellO

Three generations at one of the birthday dinners

Playing cards while writing in my memory book and planning for Chicago

Nate, me and Fish
I will miss you guys.. A whole lot more then I say I will :p

Before leaving I got a chance to meet Nana and Papa again too. This whole week have been kind of strange - there's been no Rodriguez-es in Warsaw! Crazy! And to now enter Nana's and Papa's with no kids? Strange.. But it was nice to see them again before I left. 

The day of my departure from Warsaw was pretty cool. The winds were crazy, as we had Tornado watch all day with no power. It felt like the wind was going through the house, that's how strong and loud it was. I was so looking forward to see a tornado, if so only a itty bitty tiny one, but no.. No tornadoes this time. 

We spent the following night at a hotel in Chicago and it was nice to get to go around the city in actual day light. Now, we didn't have the best of luck with the sight seeing, but it was still a great trip!

Finally out of the car!

Late dinner at David's and Alex's new appartment

So if you are in Chicago, you have to go to Rain forest Café! It is an AMAZING restaurant! The food was delicious! They have a few domestic and international restaurants and if you are close by any of them - go go GO! It's kind of a jungle hard rock café thing, the whole place is filled with jungle decorations, music, aquariums etc.

Just love this cab ;)