Tag Archives: sunrise

Hello Sanur, Bali

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Today was the day when we unfortunately had to leave paradise. But we made the most of it, set the alarm at 5:30 and observed an incredible sunrise over Mount Rinjani (active volcano) on Lombok.

We enjoyed our last breakfast on the beach, packed up, checked out and walked to the harbor and had a chance of waving Rahman and the Blue Marlin Dive Resort goodbye on our way past.


The boat ride today was bumpy and Mikael got really seasick. I was tired and managed to read 3 pages and then I fell asleep. Didn’t sleep for too long. But a couple of times anyway.

In Padangbai, we were greeted by our driver, we stopped to buy snacks (chips and cola), which was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I think we have eaten way too little salt this trip. Even if we’ve been careful with drinking Resorb.

At 2pm, after an hour in the craziest car ride I’ve ever been in, we checked in at our last stay on this vacation: Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar in Sanur. Unfortunately, the Deluxe room that we had booked was full so we got upgraded to Grand Deluxe room with our own private jacuzzi.

You can tell that this is an old hotel and not much has been done lately and I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed. The pictures look much nicer. Of course. The pool area is really nice though. We’ve already checked it out.

The jacuzzi is not an option since there’s no hot water out there. What’s the point of having a jacuzzi if you can’t have hot water in it? Too bad. But on the other hand, we had unlimited hot water in the indoor shower! Neither the shower in Ubud nor Gili T had hot shower water, haha! Gili T had for maybe 3 minutes.

We didn’t stay long in the hotel, repacked a bag and headed for the beach which isn’t more than 10 minutes of walking from here. We also had late lunch at “Cafe Smörgås”. A Swedish cafe on Bali? We were really hungry and it looked like a really nice place, so we decided to try it. Mikael had meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy and lingonberries and pickled cucumber. And I have to admit, that it was a great one! The owner is Swedish and started this cafe 14 years ago. I had something asian though, probably the best vegetarian spring rolls I’ve ever had. And popcorn chicken.

After lunch, we wanted to hang out by the beach for a little while but we’re disgusted when we came to the beach. So much garbage and plastic! It was also low tide. I wonder if it will be different tomorrow morning during high tide and if someone will pick up those plastic piles?

We were sad, and extremely sweaty! So we walked back to the hotel complex to lie by the pool for a bit. We did that for maybe half an hour and then the sun disappeared behind the hotel. Since then, we’ve been chilling at the room. We skipped dinner tonight which feels nice actually, then we watched two episodes of the latest season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Now, Mikael is sound asleep and I’m writing this and half watching the spectacle that’s going on outside: the massive storm! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a storm this intense before. Lightning lighting up the whole sky at least every other second! It’s cozy! And safe to be on the inside.

A mix of pics

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img_20170112_111629  Not too long again the river that runs next to our neighborhoos was very very flooded!img_20170112_111424 img_20170117_083105  One morning on my way to school, this beautiful sunrise took place!img_20170117_083421 img_20170117_222618  It took a while for Ramses to get used to the new drinking fountain, at first he was afraid of it, then he slowly started to get near it, then he drank the spillwater Cleo had played with and now he is drinking from the running water like nothing.snapchat-453455119 We redid our hall, looks much nicer now. And Cleo approves!snapchat-646737467 img_20170119_163036 The same week as the sunrise (it might even have been the day after), we had an incredible sunset.

Beach volleyball practice

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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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I can’t believe I woke up before sunrise for the second time in a week. This morning I watched the sunset while I was driving to the beach and played in the rising sun. Not as much playing as practice, but I enjoyed it. I can’t remember the last time I went to a beach volleyball practice. The guy I met here in SD last time know the coach so he made sure that I could join. Chris didn’t come until later, at like 8 (we started at 7 on Mission Beach), and when he was done (after I had done a workout in the sand with one of the girls, and then went in the ocean, which by the way was so much warmer than SLO and actually very nice today) we went for brunch in Pacific Beach at a place called Kono’s. It was a popular place and really good and cheap.

We then went to his nice apartment complex in PB where we hung out by the pool. Not too much hanging out, he was working, so I read, and got burned. I pretty much ran out of sunscreen so on the way back home I stopped at Target to buy a new one. I hate being burned! Even if it is not too bad. It feels irresponsible.

I probably read about 10 chapters in my book today (Homecoming by Kass Morgan, the third The 100 triology) and only have 6 more until I am done. It is a very good series, but I am not sure this will be the last one. Unless she crams a lot of stuff in those last 60 pages.

It is only 8pm, but I am ready to go to bed. It’s been a long day, and the sun makes you tired. It was over 90F today and it will be this beautiful the rest of the weekend too. Yay!

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Waterfalls and cliff jumping

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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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Today was an incredible day! Up before sunrise and back “home” way after sunset. We got breakfast at 6 am and were on the road at 6:30. We watched the sunrise from the car and it was really pretty. Michael’s GoPro was on the outside of the car.

We arrived in Ocho Rios at 8am, 30 min too early. Se we sat and waited in the car until the park opened. We were surprised to see that it was a park, and not just a place to see cool waterfalls. The place was called Dunn’s River Falls and if you are on Jamaica, you have to check it out. It is so freaking cool! We were there early, before everyone else so we managed to get a lot of nice photos without people in it. We climbed the whole thing to the top, took photos on the way and on the top we went down on the road and decided to climb it again. But this time filming the whole climb. I had a GoPro on my head and Michael used the pole. Most of the pictures were blurry, but I think the videos turned out better.

We left the place at 10:30 am and went into Ocho Rios for lunch. We found a nice place called Reggae Ally and I had coconut shrimp and fried plantain. Really good. Then we went up in the mountain to drive for a while. It was amazing up there! But an hour was plenty enough and we went down to the main road to drive all the way to Negril, on the west side of the island (Ocho Rios is east of Montego bay which is halfway in between the two places. I fell asleep in the car, I was so exhausted!

Michael was driving the whole time, I just refused to drive a car on the wrong side of the road. I am adventurous, not ready to die. But going through downtown Mobay was scary! People were honking all the time, driving like crazy persons and we lost 40 minutes trying to find our way back to the main road. We got to Rick’s Café at 4:30. Rick’s Café has been voted one of top ten best bars in the world and I totally get why. It is a place right on the cliffs, the sun is setting right out in the water, there are cliff you can jump from and they had live reggae music. It was just perfect. The sunset was amazing, the food was good (but took forever to get), the music was great, and the cliffs were pretty cool too. Michael jumped a few times before we had dinner, I had told myself I was gonna skip it. But then, during dinner (after one of the most incredible sunsets I’ve ever seen), I decided that I was gonna do it anyway. So I changed into my bikini and went to the 25 feet platform, hesitated for 2.5 minutes and then just jumped. It felt so amazing!! Michael filmed the whole thing and I was so happy when I came up. I got courage from an eleven year old girl who did it earlier. If she could, then I could too, and I did! And most importantly, I survived it. 25 feet is only 7.6m, but it is higher than I have jumped before. During the jump I lost my grip on my nose and got so much salt water up my nose! I still feel weird and probably have lots of water up there. It is gross. And it hurts a little bit.

We drove back home and I got so tired. We had plans on going out, but we have to do that tomorrow instead, I was just too tired. I should be asleep, but the Internet is so slow and I still have 6 more photos to upload to my blog. I guess I could fall asleep for an hour and then post this, haha!

Michael is working on the movie of this trip. We both got a lot of good footage so far.

Tomorrow is all about relaxing at the beach. I look forward to it!

IMG_20141229_085016 IMG_20141229_085219 DCIM100GOPROGOPR1139. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1144. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1162. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1166. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1185. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1205. DCIM100GOPROGOPR1218.Mountain roads 2The mountains!DCIM100GOPROGOPR1481.Jamaican countryside.IMG_20141229_170205“Jamaicin me crazy” drink.IMG_20141229_172007IMG_20141229_173549Cliff jumpingBetter resolution will come, some day. The video of it too! Just be patient, when you least expect it.IMG_20141229_185923

34 hours of travelling

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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 two years in California. This full post can be found here.

I’m in Sweden and have been for a while now. I’ve already had time to do a little grocery shopping, a Swedish lunch with mom, a nice talk with my brother and a lot of hugging my cats. I’m starting to feel a bit crappy, I have been awake for about 48 hours with a few one-hour naps on the planes.

The trip went surprisingly fast and I can’t really complain about it. Some parts of it were pleasant and I had lots of luck. But not to confuse my readers I will write about everything in chronological order, starting what happened right after my latest blog post (in the bar at the hotel on Big Island).

I didn’t want to go to bed even if I had a long couple of days coming. So I shut down my computer and sat down on the stone wall by the rocks and the ocean. The bar had a big light out on the splashing waves. It looked really cool when it was lit up. So I sat there for a long while trying to take good pictures. I also saw fireflies! I was so excited and when one of the bartenders came up to me to talk to me I asked about it. It was just regular flies in the light of the lamp. I’ve never seen fireflies. But it was still beautiful.

Waves in the night Last night on Hawaii

I got an offer to go look at manta rays (he knew a very good spot to see them apparently) when he got off his shift 30 minutes later. I was very tempted, but I had to be boring and go to bed. It would have been cool though!

My alarm went off at 7am on Sunday morning and my trip home started at 11am. My first flight was to Honolulu and on the way there I saw whales from the plane when we were closing in on Oahu. It was cool to see from above, I could just see the splash of water, but still.

Kona AirportThe world’s smallest airport…

My second flight was to San Diego and it was nicer than the one I had to Hawaii three weeks ago. I saw the sunset from above and it was really beautiful. It was also very beautiful seeing the starry sky. We have either too many clouds or lights here in Gothenburg to be able to see the stars…

Sunset over the PacificSunrise above the Pacific Ocean.San DiegoSan Diego! I love this airport, you’re going down right next to the skyscrapers.

At the airport 9pm Lovisa picked me up and drove me home. Very nice of her! She even gave me food for the road, Rolo and Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars.  The kids came running down the stairs when I came inside. I got big hugs from everyone and since it was so late, 10pm, I had to start saying goodbye to the kids so they could go to sleep. They both were so sweet and it didn’t feel like a goodbye, just a normal goodnight. No tears shed and the girl told me that they are going to Sweden again this year in June. Maybe that’s why we didn’t cry, because we are gonna see each other so soon. And that’s not enough, I will go to San Diego in Aug/Sep to visit them also! More on that later!

I talked to my hostparents downstairs for a while about my trip, the year and how glad I was to have spent it with them. At 11pm I started to pack. It was hard, but after some reorganizing they were both close to 50lbs. I think they actually showed 50lbs on the scale but I took a risk and went to the airport like that. I spent the remaining 3 hours with Chad. I couldn’t sleep even if I tried. At 3am we left for the airport. I put on a lot of clothes, leggings, sweatpants, a tank top, t-shirt, hoodie and a big jacket. I forgot my white Converse at my hostfamily’s house so I had to travel in my workout shoes which aren’t very comfortable. But my other ones were on vacuum bags so I didn’t have much choice.

My first big worry turned into my first luck. My suitcases were 49.8 and 49.6 lbs. Haha! It took me like 15 minutes to say goodbye to Chad and I have to be honest and say that it wasn’t so hard. Like with my hostfamily I just couldn’t understand that it was happening for real. My sadness came later…

My second big worry was my carry-on and personal item. They say that the personal item should be like a laptop or purse. I had a big tote bag full of papers, computer and my purse. I was afraid that they weren’t gonna allow that, but they did! I went through security without any trouble. But then I realized that the people at the gate decides that. Crap, I had to go through that nervousness two more times?

Both my personal item and carry-on were really heavy and I was dreading to carry it around airports. But there was that thing called luck again! The flight to Chicago was so full that all of ours carry-ons wouldn’t fit. So we could check them free of charge to the final destination. Perfect!! So I only had my super heavy tote. My right arm is sore from carrying it, but it’s still better than two heavy bags.

To be honest I don’t remember anything from the San Diego-Chicago flight more than that Chicago was really beautiful with the snow, the ice covered Lake Michigan and the blue sky.

Chicago Beautiful Chicago. I missed the skyline by the lake unfortunately.Three seats

After the 2 hour layover I had the best flight ever. I had a window seat again, in the back of the plane with no one sitting next to me. So I had three seats all to myself with a screen in the chair in front of me, with a lot of new movies. I had time to see three, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Thor: The Dark World, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. I tried to sleep some, but didn’t work very well…

The last flight was the worst. I was a little less than two hours away from home, the airplane was small and uncomfortable (but the sunrise outside above the clouds was amazing). And I was sad after realizing that I was on my way home. But when we arrived I felt a little better, it was cloudy, but light, a little snow and I got my bags right away. My mom wasn’t expecting me to come out just ten minutes after we landed so she didn’t see me when I walked up to her. It felt really good seeing her again and we hugged for a long time. Dad was stuck in traffic but came like ten minutes later. We talked for an hour and then me and mom went home.

Sunrise above Gothenburg Sunrise above Gothenburg.GothenburgGothenburg under the clouds.

On the way we stopped at Ica Maxi, I needed to buy a toothbrush and a deo. And then I bought a bag of bulk candy. Hehe!

Back home I had two gifts on my bed. A Bräutigams marzipan pig and a pair of turtle earrings. My mom definitely knows me! I had a Swedish shrimp salad sandwich and mom went to work. I talked some with my brother, apparently he wants to go to Chalmers University and asked me about the different programs. We talked about my trip, his trips and my job interview on Monday.

I tried taking a nap but couldn’t fall asleep even if I’m so tired I feel drunk. I can’t believe I’m still functioning. I’ve been away for two days with like 3 hours of sleep. Maybe I’m just excited about being at home again. I’ve been away for a long while and even if I always write how much I didn’t want to go home, of course a big part of me wanted to do it. And it feels better now that I’m here.

For dinner we had Swedish pizza and it was as delicious as I remembered. Yummy!

Okay, so here comes some big news! Six hours after I landed I got an email from my university telling me that I, with two other girls, will be sent to CalPoly this fall to study! CalPoly wanted to send three students to us, so we could send three too. I can’t believe that I found out, six hours after I landed, that I’m gonna go back to California in just six months! I don’t think my mom liked those news. She was so happy to see me, and then finds out that I’m leaving again. I mean, she was aware that it maybe would happen. But this was so sudden. I am excited and I am gonna go! It will be some work with it though. Get a new visa, get a place to stay, get money from CSN and so on. But it will fun and I will have a long winter break so I can celebrate Christmas at home. And it’s not even gonna be a whole year, just Sep-Jun.

Okay, I think I need to go to bed now. I’m getting drunker every minute… It’s a new experience being this tired. I’ve stayed up for one day before, but two. It’s not very nice… I wonder how long I could stay awake if I tried?