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For some reason I really like this picture. It makes me want to write a horror story.

Hong Kong

I’ve been to asia twice. Thailand earlier this year and Hong Kong a few years ago. It was on my way home from Australia that I had five days in Hong Kong, my first taste of asia. Arriving to Hong Kong I was a bit surprised. What I saw of Hong Kong, the skyscrapers and light, didn’t fit into my picture of asia.

I stayed in a hostel on the 23 floor of a skyscraper. I think that’s the highest up I’ve ever been (counting buildings). It was a tiny room. The beds were shorter that I’m used to, my feet were almost dangling off it. Sharing a 15 square meter room with 9 other girls were quite an experience.

Five days felt like five minutes, and it was way too little time to make Hong Kong justice. It’s definitively on my list over places to go back to visit again.

 

Missing Australia…

First time backpacking

In September of 2009 my contract at Akureyri Hospital, Iceland, was over. Even if I really enjoyed living in Akureyri, I had already figured out I wanted to travel. During the spring I started to look into going to Australia. It had always been a dream, and since I didn’t have anything waiting in Sweden I decided that it was time to try my wings on the other side of the world.

I arrived in Sweden on 2nd of September, and I left on the 21st. It gave me time to see my family and friends before once again leaving the country and planning to be away for a year. Before going I didn’t really have anything planned. I traveled with an organization which had booked four nights at a hostel for me. And they would hold an information meeting and help with getting an Australian sim-card and bank account. That was all I knew about what would happen down under.

It wasn’t until I got there and went to a 4 day surf-camp and then went back to Sydney that I started to worry over the money situation. I had absolutely no plan what so ever on how to start making money. Not the best place to be considering my bank account wasn’t exactly full to the brim. One of the girls I shared a hostel room with had an idea though. She was about to leave Australia after a year there and she told me she had made money by working on farms and being Au Pair. She even knew one place that looked for a combination of Au Pair and farm worker. I got the number and soon I was on my way to Rockhampton.

Living and traveling in Australia I learned a lot of things. One of the most important was that I wanted to live out of a backpack. I met so many amazing people on the road, and they all had so many cool stories to tell. It made me realize I wanted to live like that.

However, I was afraid I was starting to forget everything I knew as a physiotherapist. So I decided that I would work for a couple of years in Sweden when I was done with Australia. So in August of 2010 I was on the flight back to Sweden.

Moving forward

During the last week I’ve taken an other few steps forward. I’ve sold some more books and my cross country skies, but most importantly: I told my boss at work that I’ll be quitting in either late August or September 1st. It feels good, now there’s no going back. Not that I want to go back.
It kind of feels like I “need to survive” this spring and summer before my life can start again. Kind of like I’m in pause. But that’s okay, I guess, it’s only half a year. And during that time I have 15 vacation days to use 🙂

My first trip abroad

I can’t actually remember my first trip, and this isn’t actually a picture from it. I was probably no more than a year old the first time I crossed the Gulf of Bothnia to visit my dads relatives in Vaasa, Finland. My dad was born in Finland, but moved to Sweden when he was 7 years. Growing up I’ve been to Finland several times with my family. Many of the times I can’t remember, but I do remember the last ones. The picture above is from the very last time I was there, in 2007.

Wouldn’t mind going back there with my family, we always have a good time and the weather is always beautiful.

First step

Yesterday I sold my first item. It was only an old textbook from uni, but still. It’s the first step of my plan to get rid of everything. The difficult part is to know what the next step is. Getting rid of books I haven’t opened in over five years is easy, and there is a market (at least for some of the books). I’m more worried about the other 100 or so of pocket books in my bookshelves. What am I gonna do about those?

An other big question is when am I going to sell the bigger stuff? There are so many different questions spinning in my head right now. Anyone of you ever done this? What do I do next?

I wish I were all done with this phase of my life. I wish I could just wake up tomorrow and be on my way. I don’t even have a certain plan of where I’m going to travel or what I’m going to do, but I still wish I were there. That part of planning is so much better…

Things I don’t travel without – maps

I have no sense of direction. I’m not kidding you. None at all. I couldn’t even remember the way to my grandmothers new apartment, even though she lived there for like four years and we visited every other weekend. So yeah, I never go anywhere without a map.

The great thing about hostels are that almost all of them have some sort of free maps over the city you’re staying in. I always get one first thing (if I can’t find one at the airport, or train station or wherever I arrive in the city). Even with a map I’m sometimes able to get lost, that’s why I have a small compass with me as well. It’s a small clip-on, kind of like a keychain, compass that I got from my mother before one of my trips. Very good to have. Especially if you get up from a subway station and can’t figure out which way to hold the map.

Now it sounds like I’m always lost, but I’m not. I usually know where I am, thanks to a map and a compass. It’s good to take precessions. A map over the local transport system is also great to have with you. I usually have those saved on my iPhone so I don’t have to carry so many things around the city.

Then there are of course a place and time to get lost, to discover new things. Like in Venice, it was an amazing experience to just keep walking to see where I ended up. I didn’t even try to stick to a map then.

Wish I was there

I’m home sick, stuck in bed with acute sinusitis. It’s cold and snowy outside, and pretty soon it’s going to be dark… I really wished I were somewhere else right about now.

Like Australia.

 

Always interesting to see places you’ve been on the news