A touristy day

Posted on Saturday, April 8th 2017, 0:08 by Alexandra

My left foot hurts pretty bad, not under, but on top! It hurts all the time, but sometimes it gets really bad and I almost stumble because it feels like the skin on top of my foot is peeled off, except there is nothing visible on the foot. It is super weird and a fairly big bummer. I will survive, and a little pain is not gonna stop me from enjuying this vacation! I untied my shoelace after dinner and then it got kinda okay.

19,600 steps today (accumulative ~58,000), even though we didn’t leave the apartment until 1pm. Since we were gonna stay out longer today for some night time photography, we decided to spare our feet and sleep a little longer today. We made lunch, canneloni, planned the day and went out.

Our first thing was to print the voucher for Colosseum. It took us a long time to find a place to print it and we were redirected from several tourist information centers who just sent us to another one. We finally find a place, the guy inside only spoke Italian, but it worked out and we have now the voucher. It says on the voucher that it MUST be printed, and that it won’t suffice with a mobile device. I have read that before, but I don’t want to take any chances this time.

Our next stop for the day was The Museum and Crypt of the Capuchins (Convento dei Frati Cappuccini). Since the Capuchins Monks are a current religious group, the museum kinda felt like a try of conversion. I did not find the museum particuarly interesting, but I learned a few things, that for example Capuchins means small hoods (because the monks and friars had small hoods). The crypt was why we went there. Several rooms with skeletons. We saw the one in Paris and thought it could be cool to have seen something similar in Rome. But no, nothing similar at all. In Paris the catacombs were used as burial sites since diseases were spread in the cematary’s. But here, the bones of previous monks (around 4,000 it said) and Christians were placed in architectural designs. For a crypt, it felt weird that it was aboveground with windows. It also felt really tacky to “glue” skeletal parts on the ceiling and on the walls. It felt disrespectful and honestly a lot crepy! If you compare it to the catacombs in Paris where they just stored the skeletons of, I can’t remember, but MANY, deceased ordinary people. Sure, there were some formations, but it was different. We were not allowed to take photos in there. But use Google, you will find something on how it looked!

We then walked on to the Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti). Like with the Trevi Fountain, there were too many people there. And our last stop in the daylight was Hard Rock Cafe. We had burgers, Jesper ordered a couple of drinks, we shared a desert and got our 18th glass. I can’t believe I have been to 18 Hard Rock Cafés around the world. Crazy.

It then got dark, and Jesper wanted to try his photographing skills. We first walked to Fontana di Trevi. There were as many people there in the dark as during the day. It was pretty though, and I got some good photos. Jesper was too tired to look at his more closely.

We then walked to Forum Romanum, took some pictures there and lastly walked to Colosseum. It is hard to take good pictures in the dark. But it was pretty there. I am really excited for the tour we are doing there tomorrow.

Catacombs, Lafayette, Louvre

Posted on Thursday, September 24th 2015, 18:43 by Alexandra

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

Our last day in Paris was rainy. It started with more than an hour in line to go down in the catacobs under the city. It was cool and a little bit scary. At first it was just tunnels, but then the skeletons came. 6 million skeletons lined the walls. It was ridiculously many skulls. And one looked like a real head, that was scary!

He was looking for secret passageways, found none (luckily I would say).

We then had lunch and met up with Helena at the fancy pancy shopping mall Lafayette. It was a very cool shopping mall, but only brands and ridiculousy expensive and not even nice clothes. Tiffany’s had a counter there and a diamond ring for 174,000 euros. Craaazy! We didn’t stay there too long and then walked to Musée de Louvre. There were no people in line at all. So nice! So we just went straight in, Jesper and I didn’t pay since we are European citizens and under 25 (kinda close for me though, *gulp*). Mom and Helena walked very slowly through it all so we separated directly. That museum is huge, probably bigger than the British Museum. We gave most of our attention to the famous things, like Mona Lisa, Nike of Samothrace, Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, Venus de Milo, Rebellious Slave and probably other stuff we didn’t know were famous. We walked around a lot and saw everything except the one part of France’s history, we learned afterward that that was one of the best part about the museum. Eh, well well.

At the end of the visit we sat down among statues and were dead. Four long days of walking and the huge museum to end the trip killed our backs and legs. My lower back and calves were hurting so bad. My feet were saved by my awesome new shoes.

#tourists Nailed it. Nike of Samothrace. Emeralds!! Big (and apparently famous) painting. “Consecration of the emperor Napoleon I and coronation of the empress Josephine in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on December 2nd 1804”

We learned that before the palace of Louvre there was a fort there, and in the basement was the foundation to it. Pretty cool. And Jesper walked into the picture as always ❤ Venus de Milo. But first, let me take a selfie. Rebellious Slave by Michelangelo. Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss. Exercising with a phone on his arm?

On Thursday morning we left the apartment and headed for the airport where I read more than 100 pages in Shift. That book was amazing, I finished it shortly after and am now reading Dust, the third and last in the triology.

I took this picture with Jesper’s phone on the way to Paris. The sunrise over Gothenburg!

I have been super busy with school and stuff that’s why this post is a week late. And I probably won’t update now for a while again since my computer is broken and at the repair shopa and will most likely take two weeks to fix. I have Jesper’s tiny thing to work with until then. Probably good so I won’t spend time playing games when I should be focusing on school.

Three days ago I went to an apartment viewing out in Kvillebäcken and the day after, on Tuesday they called me and said we got it. So on December 1st Jesper and I will get a firsthand contract to a newly built apartment in Kvillebäcken, one bedroom apartment, 54 square meters. From October 1st and until then we will live in my old student apartment. Even if it is a nice apartment it will be nice to have an apartment that is ours, not mine.

Last couple of days in SF

Posted on Wednesday, March 25th 2015, 23:53 by Alexandra

It was harder than I anticipated to update my blog while couchsurfing, even with a good wifi. I will try to remember what we did all the days.

MONDAY

Monday started in a very good way with breakfast in the sun with a view over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a perfect start of the day. Right after that we took an uber to the Cable Car museum and I was surprised at what I learned there. It is not just a museum, but the place which runs the whole cable car system. I don’t know why I thought it was called a “cable car”, but clearly the logic didn’t hit me. So under the city there are cables pulling the cable cars and they are being powered in this cable car museum. Pretty cool!

The rest of the day we went shopping at Union Square. I didn’t buy much, but necessary thing. We went to Nordstrom Rack for the first time ever and I bought two pair of underwear and a bra. I also bought a pair of jeans at Gap. They fit like a glove and I didn’t even need to think about it. They were perfect!

In the evening Julianne and three other girls from SLO came into the city from north and we had dinner together close to where Helena and I was staying. We had crepes and it was so good. I have been so unhealthy in San Francisco and that needs to stop now! My stomach’s been hurting real bad.

We saw the bridge every single day! There was a big group of surfers in the bay, but no waves so they just paddled back and forth. Here are the cables that run the whole SF cable car system. We walked through Chinatown.

TUESDAY

Yesterday morning Helena, Patrick and I went for brunch and then to Sutro Baths. In the late 19^th century it was the world’s biggest private indoor swimming pool but it was too expensive to run, it was closed and while being demolished in 1966 an arsonist burned it to the ground. Now there are only some concrete walls left. It was a cool spot.

Then we drove (luxury not to be limited to ubers, but have a driver) to Castro District and walked around there for a bit. Went through Mission Dolores Park and sat down for a fika. Oh, right, the Castro is the gay district in San Francisco.

Patrick then dropped us off at Jacob’s place and we said goodbye. Helena and I were craving sushi and found a place with good ratings on Yelp called Akiko. We went there and it was the tiniest place ever, but we came before everyone else and managed to get a spot by the “bar”. We ordered so much sushi and it was so delicious! I love sushi.

It was still early when we got out, so we found a bar and sat there until midnight. I had four drinks and I haven’t had that much to drink since beginning of January. I was pretty buzzed, haha! We went to a bar called Sugar Café and I really liked it. The bartenders didn’t check our ID’s and we had tabs and I felt so like a grown up!

On our way home we stopped for pizza slices and then took an uberpool back. I think the driver and the guy with us thought we were crazy Europeans for getting drunk on a Tuesday, haha! They were laughing the whole ride. It was the most fun uber ride I have had so far.

Castro District. Limited edition gay Absolut Vodka. Mission Dolores Park was full of hippies of all kinds. It was a weird place. Pretty view over SF.Helena at Sugar Cafe.

WEDNESDAY

Today we didn’t do much more than getting breakfast and then started the long traveling down to San Diego. First we took an uber to the closest BART station, then took the BART to the airport where we missed the first train going around the terminals and I almost got cut in half by the doors, then flew down to San Diego, and then I had a long uber ride up to SLO.

I was excited to ride the BART for the first time. It is the subway-whatever system they have in SF and we have talked about it a lot in my classes at Cal Poly. It was okay, but very loud…

The flight was 1.5 hour long but very nice. The flight attendants were friendly and the pilot was funny sometimes. I saw SLO when we flew over it, that was cool.

It was hard finding an uber at the airport, but I finally got one, and he drove me to SDSU where I looked at an amazing apartment if I get an internship here in San Diego. It was a big room in an apartment and in the complex was a pool, a gym, a movie theatre and close to trolleys. It was the perfect place. Everything was included in the rent and it was only $840. Too good to be true! Let’s just hope I get the internship now :).

The uber driver waited for me and then drove me all the way up to San Diego. All of this for only $67. Super awesome!!

I got to the house at 8pm, hung out with the kids a little bit, but not too much since they still had homework to do.

I should really go to bed now if I am to get up at 5:30 so I will be down in Mission Beach at 7am for beach volleyball practice! What will one don’t do for love?! (love for beach volleyball)

Old San Juan tour

Posted on Friday, December 26th 2014, 21:54 by Alexandra

This morning I slept until 10 am, a total of 10 hours. Awesome! I chilled for another two hours and then walked a mile to the pickup spot for today’s tour. It was a hot day today, so it was nice to sit in the chilly bus for a while. Today’s tour was of Old San Juan.

First stop: Museo de Las Americas. We spent an hour there, but I was only there for a little bit more than 30 minutes, it wasn’t that interesting. I saw three exhibitions, one of 22 ethnicities who survived Europpean conquests and still lives today in The Americas. Then I saw one of Christian figurine carvings (all in Spanish so I didn’t understand anything). Then the third was about art in The Americas. I wanted to see the history of Puerto Rico, but it was also only in Spanish, so I didn’t even bother.

The rest of the time we had over there I was outside checking on of the forts out. There are two here in San Juan, and I looked at Castillo San Felipe Del Morro (built 1539). On the grass field outside a lot of people flew kites and I even saw an iguana graze (is that the right word for eating the grass on the ground?) on the field. I got pretty close and got my first good picture of one of them. Cool!

Second stop: Castillo San Cristobal. The biggest fort in San Juan. Built in 1783 and has never experienced an attack. It was a pretty cool place. We got a 20 minute tour from the guide and then we could walk around by ourselves. We saw a prison cell where Dutch prisoners had drawn ships on the walls. We walked through tunnels, and saw the pretty view over Old San Juan and the ocean.

Third stop: 2 hours alone in Old San Juan. If I knew this I probably wouldn’t have gone there myself the other day. Or I probably would have. It was nice not to have a time limit to find something. Now instead I walked around for a bit, then sat down on a square, had a mofongo for dinner and then a Toffee Nut Latte from Starbucks and read for 40 minutes. It was also nice. So far my stomach is actually feeling okay after the coffee. Normally my stomach gets real upset and bloated, but I think I am good. We will see later tonight if anything happens.

At 6pm we head back. I walked in the dark from the Hilton Hotel to my hostel. It was a little bit scary, but it was only 7pm. Nothing happened and I am safe and sound now.

I am not sure what I should do now, maybe just go to bed and read? Or watch an episode of The Flash? I have such a huge crush on Grant Gustin right now. He is the definition of a handsome man! He is wow, just very very much WOW!

Notting Hill & Science Museum

Posted on Sunday, May 18th 2014, 22:01 by Alexandra

Our last whole day in London is over and today was nothing special really. We took a quick walk in Notting Hill, then bought froyo and sat down in Kensington Gardens. It was a nice park and the froyo was well needed in the warm afternoon. It was about 23C today, perfect. Shorts and tank top, no problem! We then went on to Hyde Park.

Gudrun went home to Sweden after Hyde Park and I and mom (Helena was home today because of migraine) went to Science Museum. It wasn’t what I expected. Much more boring than what I had in mind. I guess I expected it to be more hands on, and about things that exist or is going to exist. But it was science history which isn’t that fun in my opinion. It was quite interesting about the human medicine history though. And the shop was fun too.

After that we went back to the British Museum where mom bought a birthday present to Helena’s birthday tomorrow. A viking necklace.

We had mushroom toasts for dinner and some candy for dessert. It’s not even 10pm, but everyone is in bed. We are all so exhausted (20,000 steps today), and I look forward to have the next week with just sitting still studying. I don’t really look forward to the exam though. I have a bad feeling about that one…

I wonder if I should read or watch the season finale of Revenge… Last night I saw the season finale of Once Upon a Time. I was dissapointed. It could have been the perfect ending, “happily ever after” for everyone. But no, of course not. The evil queen who just had turned good because she was in love, lost the guy when the guy’s dead wife came back. And then the last scene was of Elsa from Frozen. That could be fun though. I have to remember when the season starts so I can stream it when I am in SLO next year.

Hyde Park. Kensington Palace in Hyde Park. Albert Memorial statue in Hyde Park. Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park. Science Museum. Apollo 11 inside Science Museum. A very crowded underground station. It was barely room on the train. When you see this on TV it’s completely different from the real thing. I can’t really explain it, but it seems exotic with a subway system, but when you are on a crowded train and standing like pickled herring with the other people, it feels just like the trams back home in Gothenburg. A cute house in the middle of new and modern skyscrapers.

London Pass

Posted on Friday, May 16th 2014, 1:25 by Alexandra

Another long day is over and my legs and feet are so sore right now. A lot of walking today again, and lots and lots of Brittish history. It’s been a really interesting day with audio tours at famous landmarks. The London pass includes a lot of attractions and discounts and so on. We only bought one-day pass which was a good idea. I don’t think I could have handled two of these days in a row.
Our day started a bit earlier than the other days, with a tour inside the Westminster Abbey church, which is a really really old church, I am remembering so many dates and all of them are mixed up. But I think I remember that this one was built in the 11th century. 200 years later it got its gothic style and was completely done in 1600 I think. Every coronation in London since 1066 has been there and the last one was in 1953 with Queen Elisabeth II.

We each got a phone-like thing with buttons. We walked around in the cathedral and whenever there was a sign with a number on it, we put that in our phones and listened. It looked kinda funny when everyone was walking around with phones.

We weren’t allowed to take any photos inside. And I will never be able to describe what it was like. First of all, it is 31m from floor to ceiling and then there are decorations, statues, coffins and such, EVERYWHERE. Not much space in there was just flat stone. It was incredible! So much history in one place. Isaac Newton and Darwin were buried there, and so were a lot of famous authors too, like Jane Austen.

Our next thing with the London pass was a cruise on the Thames. On the way there we took a lot of pictures of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The Thames tour was nice. It felt really good with a breeze in the warm sun. That one took about 30 minutes.

The boat stopped right in front of the Tower Bridge and Tower of London (not the same thing, like I thought…). We had lunch first and I had my very first fish n chips. It wasn’t bad, but not good either. Flavorless. And boring. I think this was the first and last time I had it.

Inside the Tower of London we had another audio tour with phones. This one wasn’t as easy to follow as the other one. And we didn’t listen to everything since it took so long! We listened to the first one though, about the history about the place. The big fortress in the middle is called the White Tower and was built in the 11th century too. At that time it was humungus and completely white. Very hard to miss. It was built by William the Conqueror asa fortification. I don’t remember when, but the White Tower has been open to visitors for many centuries now (3-4?) with weapon and armor exhibitions. Carved wooden horses were inside with armors riding them. A lot of donations from far away were also kept there. And speaking of foregn things. The Tower of London has been a menagerie for exotic animals. The first lion was put there in 1210 and has been since been accompanied by polar bears, elaphants, tigers and so on. In the beginning of 1800 the animals were sent to the London Zoo in Regent’s Park.

Our next stop inside the Tower of London was the exhibition where they keep the Royal Crown Jewels! No photoraphy inside there either. And I have the same descriptive ability as with Westminster Abbey. It was ridiculous and so amazing! All the crowns, maces, silverware (goldware) they use at the weddings, huuuuge diamonds and so much gold I couldn’t believe my eyes. I wonder how much all of that was worth!! They had a golden spoon from 1300 which is used at every coronation. It looked so well-preserved and I can’t believe it is 800 years old! I got the same feeling with the inside of Westminster Abbey. They must maintain it pretty damn well.

When it closed at 6pm we went outside and took some pictures of the Tower Bridge, one of the world’s most famous bridges. The plan was to go up in it, but it had closed by the time we were done at Tower of London. But just pictures were fine with me.

We took the tube to Chinatown where we had dinner again. Today I had sweet and sour shrimp. Really good. Everyone of us were really tired and I can’t believe I stayed out with mom until, yeah, whenever it was. Helena and Gudrun went home earlier.

All of us went to the M&M World store together though, and it was as crazy as the one in Las Vegas. I bought a big green cup since I don’t really have a big teacup at home and I didn’t have room to buy one last year. Then we went to a souvenir shop where we had £5 off each. I had no idea what to buy until I saw that they had Rainbow Loom rubberbands. I took two bags to my cousin Ella. She will love it!

Out on Picadilly Circus I tried taking another 360 degree photo, but it was hard with the bright light of the big commercial screen. But I got it worked out after a few tries. While I was there I got an unknown phonecall, but I answered, and it was Chad calling all the way from Sweden just to talk a bit because he missed me. That really made me so happy! Very sweet of him :). And it was nice to hear some American English. I’m not sure I like the Brittish accent, it sounds snobby…

We took the Tube home and for some reason three hours just went by. I am so extremely tired now, and tomorrow will just be a calm day with some strolling, shopping and so on. That will be nice. I actually did a little bit of shopping today as well. I bought three pair of belts (£1 each!) and sunscreen at the third of the Swedish price at Primark. Tomorrow I am planning on buying a book, Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. I have the three first ones at home and thought it could be fun to buy the last one abroad.

Time to go to bed now. Goodnight!

Westminster Abbey west entrance. Westminster Abbey north entrance. Houses of Parliament. Big Ben. Houses of Parliament.There are so much cool architecture on the banks of the river Thames. Tower of London. Audio tour inside Tower of London. A room of torture. White Tower. Armor on display in White Tower. I have no idea why this guy as a thing on his armor but it looks so stupid.Wooden carved horses with armors. The Royal Crown Jewels are inside these walls. Cool architecture.Lots of ravens at Tower of London. They say that when the ravens leave, the kingdom will fall. Tower Bridge. Panoramic photo of M&M World London, taken with Gudrun’s iPhone. I have to say that her phone captured the moving colors in the dispay of the store much better than mine. This is probably the only time I will say that an iPhone might be better than an Android…

Brittish Museum & We Will Rock You

Posted on Wednesday, May 14th 2014, 1:09 by Alexandra

The weather today has been so extremly London-ish. First kinda sunny, then rainy, then thunder, then sunny and rainy at the same time, the rainy, pouring, and lastly sunny. What we’ve understood is that today was supposed to be the worst day and from now on it will be better and better. I hope that is true. It would be so much better with blue sky and warmth.

Today’s plan, because of the bad weather, was the Brittish Museum and then a musical in the evening. I think it took us about two hours to find the museum. We went back and forth on one of the big streets for a long while in the drizzle. We finally found the museum and when we came we realized how big it was and didn’t do anything for probably 30 minutes. Just trying to figure out what we wanted to see. We finally decided to go to the Egyptian part where we saw the Rosetta Stone. In a triology I recently read it was kinda of like Pandora’s box, and released all the ancient Egyptian gods into the world (The Kane Chronicles). It was fun to see the part of the museum where some of the books actually took place.

Our next stop in the museum was the Chinese and Japanese exhibit. I don’t know anything about that history, but I think it is beautiful and interesting. Maybe I should take a class about it someday?

After that it was the second Egypt exhibit, the one about the mummies. It was cool! They even had mummified animals, especially cats and kittens.

After three or four hours in there our feet and backs were sore from walking around (and we didn’t even see the ancient Greece and Rome and Anglo-Saxon thing and everything else. That museum is huuuuge! We wanted to see the Viking exhibit, but I think we would have had to pay for that. The rest of the museum was free. Amazing!

Once again we went out in the street and got lost. This city is hard to find in, and the Tube… Oh, don’t get me started on that! First we had a tiny break at a Starbucks (oh, I’ve missed my non-fat chai latte’s) and after that it didn’t take us long to find the Dominion Theatre where we picked up our tickets for tonights show. The next one and a half hour were spent in another bar where we had dinner. I wasn’t that hungry, so a tomato soup with garlic bread was enough.

After dinner we went across the street to the theatre to watch the Queen musical “We Will Rock You”. I have to say that I was surprised at how awesome it was! I never thought I would enjoy a musical, but this was seriously WOW! The story was set in the future where everyone lives online and a few people can hear words and tunes in their heads, and they are supposed to bring the rock back. A lot of fun song title references (I didn’t understand all of them) and the music is really good. I am not a huge Queen fan, but I recognized most of the songs and could really enjoy it.

The only problem was that I couldn’t understand what some of the actors/singers were saying. Brittish English is so hard to understand!! That was a bummer…

We took the Tube (it’s what these people call their subway) home and I am really impressed by how well it works. I am jealous. Trains coming in every five minutes (in total today we only had to wait for one train, the rest were just to jump right on), even at a very late hour on a weekday. Amazing! And it goes fast. It is a bit scary though that it all happens underground.

As yesterday night, I don’t know what is planned for tomorrow. It feels good to just follow around after a lot of trips planned by me last year. This is really like a vacation for me! (Except that I will do some studying tomorrow…)

Westminster Abbey. Big Ben.Westminster underground station. I guess Londoners are used to being so much underground and use this crazy system with trains going in all directions on different levels and use the creepy walking tunnels between platforms…Surprisingly neat down there! The world famous Brittish Museum! Inside the Brittish Museum. Not to count the many many rooms, the main hall of the museum was huuuuuge! The Rosetta Stone which was used to translate Egyptian to Greek and something else or something something. A cool sarcophagus in the Egyptian exhibit. Part of the Chinese exhibit. A samurai armor in the Japanese exhibit. Sarcophagi in the Egyptian mummy exhibit. I think they had a total of 8 mummies in that exhibit. Kinda creppy when you think about it. Real people are inside these cocoons! I understand why there were millions of people at the museum (maybe not early in the afternoon on a Tuesday though), it was a great museum, and it was free!! Thus This is another of the mummies in the exhibit. They have scanned the mummies and made huge discoveries. This mummy for example has a solidified liquid in hos head. I have no idea why. If someone knows, I would love to hear the story. Here are the poor cat mummies. I think I read on that sign that they were brutually killed and had broken necks to be able to be mummified like this. Poor cats. And poor kitten in the tiny mummy! Dominion Theatre with the show We Will Rock You. It’s been showing since 2006!! I wonder why it must end at the end of the month…