Paris is filled with crazy awesomeness

Paris is, uh, frickin great maybe? I think that every single person in the world deserves to see this place. It's fantastic in every way.

I've seen many of the major sights such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Church, the Arc de Triamphe. I've been to the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou to see some priceless art. I've also seen things like the Catacombs and spots where scenes from Amelie were filmed. I had the luxery (my apologies for my spelling by the way-spell check is for French here) of seeing things from the perspective of a local. Twice I've met up with a friend who has studied in Paris for a year. She took me to the Amelie sights, then we ate bread and cheese on the steps of Sacre Coeur which overlooks the city. I also ate lunch Sebbe's aunt today. She has lived in Paris for about 30 years. She was great, I'm excited to see her again in Finland.

I will be sad to leave Paris, however I am excited for Amsterdam. One of my roommates (at my hostel) is going to Amsterdam the same day as I am so we are going to meet up in the evening. It will be fantastic because she had previously spend 6 days there. She's already given me advice on what to do there. I've learned that word of mouth is absolutely the way to go. I will post again soon!

I can not even begin to describe how incredible this experience has been. I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I've gotten to travel with the coolest people as well as travel on my own which has allowed me to meet about a zillion more cool people. Had I travelled with "someone" else, I would not have gotten to do this.

Yesterday afternoon I flew from Madrid, Spain to Paris, France. I even met 5 fabulous people at the airport! Our flight was delayed so we got to talking and laughing and having a great time. I've never learned so much so frequently at any other time in my life.

The pictures are of some of the people I met in Madrid. I stayed in three different hostels during my 6 days in the city. Each time I went out at night my group would get bigger because I would bring new people along. I can't wait to do that here in Paris. I'm unable to connect my camera to the computers at this hostel so I'll get some up of Paris tomorrow when internet cafes open. Now I've got to make some more plans as I've only got until June 27th planned. I think I'll spend a bit more time in Paris, then move on to Amsterdam :)

It's a strange feeling really: wanting to go home SO badly, but wanting to stay in Europe forever because there are so many places to go, things to see, and people to meet. It definitely forces one to live in the moment...

Madrid! (hehe double post day)

Alright! I made it to Madrid! I havn´t done anything yet but I´m here =). I bought a really great map today in Barcelona of Madrid so I´m set. A bunch of these pictures are of me with things by Gaudi, the most amazing artist EVER. Well, it seems that way when you see his stuff in person. Another is of me in front of the soccer stadium, another is of me in front of a fountain at a really beautiful park. The one of the bunks of where I´m staying right now and for the next three nights. Enjoy!

Barcelona!

Alright everyone! A few days ago we returned our rental car here in Barcelona and have been having a fantastic time in the fabulous city. My plans have now changed. I was supposed to meet a "friend" in Madrid but he ditched me (thanks alot John, have a nice life, I hope she´s really special!). So I'm going to travel solo, which is great. This afternoon I've got a train to Madrid and a hostel for 3 nights. It'll be fun to plan as I go. I'll keep everyone posted as to my global position =)

Bungee off Ponsonnas Bridge!

We each bought the dvd of our own jump, however we are unable to rip them. So...I had to make a video of the video :)

Right now we are in Port Vendres. It is the most adorable city and the hotel is great as well. Everything has such character. The night before last we decided to try and save some money, so the guys drove all night. We stopped at 4am in Canet and slept in the car until about 7:30am. Everyone went and slept on the beach for a few hours. I, on the other hand, did not. I know that I would fry in the sun. So I slept in the car a bit longer and then walked around town for a while until they woke up. After a bit more driving (the towns are very close together) we made our way to Port Vendres. We ate a fancy dinner last night and drank a bunch of wine :)

This morning Ika came with me for a run. I am happy to say that my ankle is just about completely healed. It is SO fun to run around strange and beautiful places.

Grenoble, France and lots of Cote d'Azur

Ok, yay McDonalds for having wireless! We are in a little town an hour east of Marseille, which is where we are headed to next. We are having an adventure! The day before yesterday we bungee jumped off of Ponsonnas bridge in Grenoble (craziest thing ever). Then last night we slept in a very sketchy hotel.

The pictures are of random things, Ika and me in Venice, holding bags of beer at the train station in Venice, drinking wine in Nice, the coast, all of us on an average day in the car and the bridge we jumped from =)

Everything is insanely beautiful and this experience has been beyond enlightening. Ok, we've got to get back on the road!

Venice, Italy - Nice, France - Monaco

My most sincere apologies everyone!! It has been much more difficult than I had anticipated to find the time and a computer to write blog entries. I had to sneak away from the group to write this one =) I have been having the most incredible time, words cannot describe.

On Wednesday we took a train, a bus, and a plane to Venice, which is the most authentic and beautiful city i ve ever walked about. We spent one night and one day in Venice then took a night train to Nice, France (we slept in bunks on the train). Nice is also amazingly beautiful. The picture is of us drinking obscenely cheap wine out of the bottle on a beach in Nice. Of course we also had cheese and breadsticks to go along with it =) Unfortunately I am unable to upload more than one picture, not sure why.

Today we picked up our rental car and drove to Monaco. It reminded me of Beverley Hills, in that everyone was wealthy and everything is expenive. Needless to say, we did not eat at a restaurant, we ate food off a cart. We got our fair share of exercise instead.

There is MUCH more to the story obviously. Next time I will find wireless access and use Ika's laptop. The keyboard keys are very different here so typing is more of a process than a task at an internet cafe. I am now off to meet everyone again! I promise I will write again very soon.

Midnight Sunset

Tonight is our last night in Borlänge. We fly to Venice, Italy tomorrow morning! Now the real adventure begins. Who knows where I'll end up! Luckily going to Stockholm allowed me to practice traveling by train. Now it'll be no sweat because I know what to expect. The last couple of days have been very low-key. I've been trying to take it easy to let my ankle heal. It's getting ever-so-slightly better each day (I'm getting extremely impatient!).

I took this picture last night at about 11:45pm. It doesn't ever get completely dark this time of year. I'm glad I've never had problems falling asleep! The prolonged sunset is beautiful...then the sun comes back up. I love it.

Stockholm, Sweden

Yesterday was an adventurous day! Ika and I woke up in the morning after a mediocre night's sleep and raced to the train station (we walk everywhere). My train was scheduled to leave at 9:52 and I got on at 9:48. We cut it close, but I made it nonetheless! The train to Stockholm look a bit over 2 hours. When I arrived I ate breakfast at a small coffe shop at the central station. The woman working at the coffee shop gave me a map to the tourist information center. I made my way to the tourist center, got another map of the city and ventured out. I didn't actually end up doing all that much. I wanted to walk around old town and go to city hall and look over the city, but...time didn't permit. I spent too much time getting oriented. I walked around and looked in some stores and ate lunch/dinner at a somewhat fancy restaurant (which sucked up alot of time, it was veeery slow service). I had my first "weird" food. I ordered an appetizer that was described as salmon and shrimp on rye bread. It ended up being raw salmon wrapped around a mayo-filled salady type thing with caviar on top. It tasted good but it was very rich. I had a fantastic time, however I'm going to go back again after backpacking. I've been told it's an easy trip from Finland.

After making it safely back to the apartment, where Ika was waiting and worrying, we went to a barbeque with some friends. We all sat around and drank wine and laughed so hard everyone's face hurt, then went out to a bar called Bolanche here in Borlänge. We danced and drank and had a splendid time. After the bar closed we walked to none other than McDonalds. Then we walked home and were in bed by 3 =).

The best part of yesterday was hanging out with a bunch of great new people. They are all international students (like Ika). There was a person from South Africa, from Mexico, from Finland (other than Ika), from France, from Holland, from Sweden, and the list goes on and on. I felt as if I fit in, in that I am from a different country as well! I was the only person there from the US. I've never experienced that before, it was amazingly cool.

Falun, Sweden

I participated in many new and exciting things and I met really great people. First Ika and I walked to the city center and went to the liquor store. The liquor store was gigantic and busy. Then we went to the trains station so I could buy my ticket to Stockholm for tomorrow (well, later today). We walked back to the apartment, and got ready to go the the neighboring town, Falun. We met another friend, Cristina, and took the bus over. When we got there we walked around the streets for a while. It's a great place, somewhat like Borlänge, but a bit bigger and a bit busier (due to the festival that was there, which was the reason for our visit). Eventually we found a spot in the park and drank some beer, which isn't exactly legal =) We talked about traveling (hence the map across our legs) and heritage and laughed (alot). We then walked over to the concert that was going on, which was sponsored by a teenybopper-typre radio station, and listened to some music and met up with more people. After the music was over Ika and I went to a funny little sports bar for some more beer =) It ended up being a great place where a British band was playing covers of older American rock music. It was a blast!