Norway

I wanted to do a kind of wrap up on arriving in Norway, about coming back and starting up. Since I’m writing this retrospectively, Ill probably jump back and forth a bit…

Anyways, we got back, after 2 months worth of traveling Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. We where keen to start up again, and get back into a routine.

I started looking for work, and having forgotten about “fellesferien”, it was a bit unnerving. I had completely forgotten about how July shuts down everything, and you cant get anything done since everyone is on holiday! Because of this, we where kind of landlocked, and couldn’t go to far, in case an interview came up. The longest trip we made was to Luleå, but we also made a few short trips!

Our first trip out, was to the woods east of Oslo, creatively named Østmarka. We figured we walk out, find a nice spot to camp, a chill by a lake, which is what we did.

Trail

Campsite
Little tent, nice lake

I had promised Sara that there would be no mozzies, as we where a bit to early still. I was right about that but I had completely forgotten about the Knott. After a while we started feeling some bites, but there was no mozzies around. Then it finally clicked, and I remembered about the Knott. The vicious little things got through the mesh, and bugged us all night!

Campfire
Campfire

It was nice though, and good to be out in the bush!

A bit later, Kate & John arrived from the UK, and hung out with us for a while. We where staying with my Mom & Dad until I had a job, and we could afford somewhere to live. So we all crammed in, and went to town.

Fat Aass
Fat Aass

Pete & Kobe came over too, as we where having our “second wedding”. Since so many couldn’t come to Oz for it, we arranged a second one in Norway. I have only just now realized that I don’t have any pictures from it! Must have been to busy hosting…. Anyways, it was great to have the whole family there, and to get to catch up with everyone!

While overseas, Mom & Dad had bought a cabin, where we also spent some nice summer days!

Cabin view
Cabin view

Lush grass
Lush grass

Midst all this, I landed a job. It was exactly the kind of job I was after, so very happy with that! 🙂 It was interesting also, as dads work had just completed a study in Norwegians with overseas education, getting work in Norway. Turns out I matched all the findings…

As soon as I had a job, we where on the property market. We ended up buying a flat within the 2 week looking, and we won the third we place a bid on. About the time we bought the place, Sara started Norwegian classes, and I started work. Ill finish the initial entry here, and rather do another reflective one later for our current situation. We have had a few challenges, and some positive experiences as well 1 year down the track. Well, that’s it for now!

New flat inauguration
New flat inauguration

[ad#Google Adsense]

Luleå

So we ended up in Norway, after having packed up and shipped out stuff, gotten married, and then traveled for 2 months in South America. To me, if felt weird to be back, but also very nice!

I started looking for work, while we also started the process of getting Sara going in the Norwegian society. First thing we found was that Norway was shut in July, I hadn’t taken that into account…. So we had a restless summer, chasing job interviews and preparing all the legalese for Sara to get sorted.

Hence, first trip we did was to Luleå, not to far, and on a budget! Malin had traveled back with Matilda, and we flew up to see them. We left on a Sunday, and came back on a Saturday. Malin picked us up from the airport, and we headed to Ersnäs (the western part).

We got to stay in the little guestroom above the shed, just the two of us. It was very nice! Malin took us on all kinds of excursions, we went to Gammelstaden in Luleå, cought the ferry out to Junkön, and Storforsen. We also went swimming at Luleå beach, which could only showcase freezing water!

Junkön
Junkön

Storforsen
Storforsen

Towards the end, Albin, Åsa and Claes came up from Stockholm. The 2 cousins, Albin and Matilda spelt trouble with a capital T!

Trouble

Sweden was out first overseas destination after arriving in Norway, it was excellent, long summer nights, a bit cheaper and nice weather. Bit like Norway actually, except for the cost! 🙂

[ad#Google Adsense]

Sao Paulo

Im writing this horribly late, just about a year overdue! So, a bit of catching up to do on my part! I had a talk to Sara yesterday, trying to recap what happened in Sao Paulo. I had forgotten a lot, and I think it is because I never got around to putting it down on paper. Anyways, back now, new format, and Ill start my recap with Sao Paulo working my way through about 7 other destinations before Im up to speed!

Right, we arrived in Sao Paulo on the bus, worked our way through the tube system to the HiHostel. We had been in the city for ages it felt like. As I write this, I had to pull up our Lonely Planet South America on a shoestring. It was full of annotations, fun to pick up! 🙂

Anyways, a Hostel in a highrise, more like a hotel than anything else. First thing we did was to go to the shop, get some food, as we started running short on are Reals. This hosel was not the most happening in town, and we bearly saw anyone else there, but we had a nice dinner in the kitchen, only us!

Next day we where of to the Tourist Office to find the attractions. We really had no idea. In any case, we got a suggested walking tour, and made our way out. First thing was some art museum, Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo. It was shut, so instead we went to some bookstore looking for a Brazilian cookbook, and any kind of english literature really. No luck, but some very expensive coffee! Next on the list, was the Sao Paulo Bank tower. Free entry, short background check, group entry and great view!

Skyscrapers
Nothing but highrises

Garden
I like the garden on the roof!

In the afternoon I went for a haircut. I have to cut my hair at least every 2 months, and last time I did it was in La Paz, so I figured I get a last cheap one in before Norway! Such a weird feeling trying to communicate on spanish, with a guy who only speaks portugese. Lots of gestures, many concerned looks and a few laughs later, I had an haircut to be proud of!

Next morning, we where of to Norway! I appreciate that this entry is a bit short, vague and unsatisfactory, but that was kind of what Sao Paulo was like to us. Wouldn’t go back unless I was with someone who knew there way around.
[ad#Google Adsense]

Paraty

Paraty is an old pirate and trade hub. In the past, the pirates here used to roam the 7 seas, and bring their loot back here, now, they just stay at home making a living in the tourist industry.

Paraty has a nice beach feel to it, and that is also their distinction. 300 beaches in the vicinity they claim! We only went to Sono beach, a 1 hours walk through the rain forest, before arriving at a very idyllic little beach with only a few fishing families living there.
Rainforest view

Our path

Sono Beach

Crab at Sono beach

On our way to the bus station, we where befriended by 2 of the many stray dogs, that roam South America- and they would not leave! The first was a wierd cross between a german shepherd, and a daschund. It thought it was very though. His friend was a tad paranoid, and would bark viscoulsy at random people, and every pushbike and moped. When we finally thought we had gotten rid of them, we found them again sitting waiting in the only shade that could be procured at the bus stop.

Last night we tried something new to us, palm hearts. We think it has something to do with the trunk of the palm, and they strip it and make nice dishes out of it. We had palm heart lasagna and it tasted delicious! Got to try and grow some palm now!

Historical District

The harbour

Well, with that, Ill conclude this short update here in São Paulo, as I dont really have that much more to say about Paraty.

View Paraty – RJ in a larger map

[ad#Google Adsense]

Ilha Grande

So, we arrived from Rio through a series of bungled transportation options, with 2 other British girls. To top it of, one of them got promoted to captain on the little fishing boat bringing us across to the island!

Ilha Grande is an old prison and lepper island, and thus not too popoular with the Brazilian tourist crowd, and this was low season, so at times, it felt like we had the place to our selves! The whole island does not have any cars, or paved roads. everything in Abraão, which is the biggest city, is within strolling distance along the beach. We had a hostel up the eastern end of the beach, overlooking town and the bay. Very nice and cruizy!

Our first day, we felt like some excersie, so we walked to a beach called Lopes Mendes. It is said to be one of Brazils most beatuiful beaches. It was ok, but Oz has better….

Hmm

Beach

It was a nice walk through virgin rain forest, 2 hours each way, so by the end of it, we where pretty knackered. We contemplated catching a boat back, but persevered and walked back instead. We could feel the hills in our legs the next day!

And because of that, we spent the next day relaxing in town, strolling along the beach, dipping in the ocean every now and then, and eating ice cream. They got this brilliant concept here, where you have self serve ice cream parlours. So, you pay per the gram, and the price is not cheap, and you tell yourself that you will only have small scoops. Then you try and decide what you want to eat, and forget everything about the price, until you stand in front of the register with a 300g cone with only 2 scoops! And then you cant take it back of course. Twice we fell in this trap, although its hard to argue that we fell in it. I think we let ourselves be tricked… Of course, the street cake stalls have been very sweet to us too.

Anyways, I had wanted to go scuba diving, and I had heard about the helicopter being an interesting thing from the Lonely Planet. Turns out the helicopter is pretty boring, and the diving agencies where kind enough to tell me that visibility was not all that good. Max 4 meteres currently. So I passed. For future reference, 2 dives with all gear included was quoted as 150R. There is a wreck though, that looked quite interesting, and not too deep!

Instead, we signed up for a speed boat trip for snorkling, that included the helicopter. Hence Im not too upset, as I could see it wouldnt be all that. I think Sara was pleased as well, as she wasnt too keen on reading any more trashy novels while I was diving.

The snorkel trip included our very own celebrity travel reporter, who gave us some very helpful tips on São Paulo! She of course got the trip for free, while us normal humans had to pay….

Video of Sea Monster

Crazy puffer fish

The day was nice, although with had some overcast so it wasnt all that warm at times. However, the Island is great, and we could easily have spent another day there! Today, we have travelled to Parati, still getting closer to our deaprture for Norway.

View Ilha Grande in a larger map

Rio de Janeiro

Well, not too many g-strings I’m afraid!

We arrived in Rio with blood shot eyes after a longer than usual bus ride, and went through the now almost too familiar ritual of finding a taxi and negotiating our fare, before signing into the hostel, and dumping our load.

For our first 4 days, we had pretty shonky weather. The city was gloomy, the beaches where deserted, it felt like it was only us trudging along in our poncho’s and thongs. A charming sight, but not quite what I had in mind when we headed for Rio.

We spent the days wandering, mingling with the rich and the very beautiful in their shopping malls, exploring food (juice bars on every corner, with juices made from all kinds of weird fruits, cocktails that just kept on coming, and buffets where you paid per the kilo), and we even went to watch another movie (I think Sara was expecting the Sex and the City movie to be showing, but it hadn’t opened yet and after watching the only thing on offer, I’m not sure if I’m glad or not).

Yesterday afternoon, we went on the city tour, only just got to squeeze in Christ the Redeemer one of the hills overlooking Rio, before the clouds closed in around him. It was a gamble, as we didn’t know if the weather would improve, but we made it the whole way through without any rain! The Cathedral was a definite highlight, so was the Sugar loaf.

Jesus on the hill

Samba street

The Cathedral is the most modern I have ever seen, and it was a colossus building with a very nice feel to it! The natural light was streaming in from thousands of little windows all around. We also passed by the massive soccer stadium “Maracana” (that was apparently built at massive expense in the 50s for the World Cup -to the publics disdain- in which unfortunately Brazil lost..), the main street of Carnival and Santa Theresa (a suburb of massive old mansions which was where the rich used to live… until the favelas decided they also wanted in on the area. As they built their massive, ramshackled communities up, the rich trickled out of town)!! Finally we made it to the Sugar Loaf, which looked a lot more daunting from the bottom, however, the ride up was a breeze, and the view was spectacular! It was excellent seeing Rio in the sunset and by night!

The Cathedral
The Cathedral

Cathedral Roof
Cathedral Roof

Copacabana
View from the SugarLoaf at night towards Copacabana

More night

Night still

Today was our first break, we have had sun all day, cruised the Ipanema and the Copacobana beaches. I have been keeping my eye out for the famous g-strings, but unfortunately, the hot bodied must also be employed, because all I saw was sour wedgies and cellulite… Sara didn’t do too much better, and only got the previous generation of stud muffins (50+ bracket, which is also where I was looking).

The lake
You can see Christ on top of the mountain in the background

Ipanema - The most sexy beach in the world!
Ipanema – The most sexy beach in the world!

Copacabana
Copacabana

Water is freezing
Water is freezing!

With a cruizy day like that, we decided that tomorrow we head to Ilha Grande so we can hang by the pool, and hopefully get some dives in.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to comment on Rio in general. It is by far the most expensive place we have been too in SA! But it is beautiful! And the food is awesome! We are eating so much nice fruit and food, the likes which we haven’t seen for quite a while! And with that, we only have 9 more days left here in South America. With any luck, we will post again before we leave here, but we are not promising!

View Rio De Janeiro in a larger map

Puerto Iguazu

Don’t you just love it when everything goes to plan?!

We arrived on the bus early in the morning, walked to the hostel, dumped our bags, and got changed into walking clothes, back to the bus terminal, and we went to the water falls. Everything went so smoothly!

Anyways, Iguazu falls are spectacular, we went out to the Diablo spot, which is right on the edge of where the water runs over the edge in a massive fall! There where some derelict ruins of the old walkway next to it, which illustrated the power of the water here, and there is a lot of it! Next we walked down to the bottom, to get the other angle. Spectacular! Im trying to remember what Niagra falls where like, and I think these where bigger.

Diablo
Diablo with the couple

Diablos edge
Diablos edge

From a distance
From a distance

Butterflies in the noggin
Butterflies in the noggin

Rainbow in the noggin
Rainbow in the noggin

Chilling with beer
Chilling with beer

We spent the day there, before heading back into town to chill, and organize our trip to Rio. We had planned to spend the next day still strolling, as it was so nice, sunny and warm. However, the next day it started raining, and didn’t really stop, so we relaxed, a lot.

Thursday, we got back onto the bus, headed for Rio.

Ill end this here, with an anti recommendation. The movie Shoot em up is not recommended. Its crap, and should not be shown on a bus! Don’t attempt it unless feeling a bit deranged!

Buenos Aires

We came to Buenos Aires with a flight from Lima. We had heard lots of how great Buenos Aires was, and how much we would love it! It was nice, and we spent a relaxing 7 nights here. We had meant to only spend 5, but that wouldn’t have been fair on the city!

Centro
Centro

On a friends recommendation, we had booked into Hotel Brisas Del Mar, in the San Telmo district. Not sure what has happened to the place since, but we only stayed there 1 night. A run down place with plastic mattresses and the most unfriendly hostess we have yet to encounter. This pretty much set the agenda for the rest of the day, explore San Telmo, and find somewhere nicer to live! We did, and stayed another 6 nights at Puerto Limon Hostel.

San Telmo has a very nice feel to it, with lots of old buildings, nice shops, and lots of places to eat and drink. We also found that Buenos Aires has the best tourist information available as of yet! If we had known in advance, we could have downloaded audio guides, walking tours, and all sorts of other stuff! The information kiosks were also conveniently located, and helped us several times. Although with conflicting advice at times…

Anyways, Sara devised a thorough plan for how we could best absorb the sights of the city. We had arrived on a heat wave, which was indeed very nice! It was receding though, so we went from nice and hot gradually towards cooler and rain, but the weather lasted pretty much the whole time we where there!

First step of the plan, was to look around the city centre, and San Telmo. We found some nice walking streets and parks, and generally just cruised, hung out at the bakeries, and drank coffee. After the first day, and realising that Argentina was about to celebrate their national day, we decided to extend our stay, and fit that in as well. Hence the extra nights.

San Telmo
Our local pizza parlour – San Telmo

Puerto Madero
Puerto Madero – Walk along the harbour

Wednesday, we decided to walk to Recoleta. That was a walk which turned out to be a lot longer than we had pictured, but eventually we got there, and we again enjoyed some nice food, before venturing into the renowned cemetery. We found Evita Peron’s grave, but much more interesting was the other graves. The whole place was in varying conditions, with some very elaborate sites, and some very anonymous. Some derelict, and some well maintained. But it had a nice feel to it, and we enjoyed it. Then we walked back, shopped around for a bus fare to Iguazu, went shopping at a Supermercado. Now, on that note, Sara has been vigorously seeking them them out. The Chileans we didn’t explore in too much detail, the Argentinians have all been disappointing. The Bolivians don’t seem to have them, all business is conducted on the street. The Peruvians have the best so far! The bigger and grander supermarket next to the bus station was not what it promised, so we could safely resume shopping at our local place. Much to my relief!

Recoleta
Recoleta – Highway of crypts

Recoleta
Recoleta – Someones eyes always watch

Recoleta

Then we had a look at Abasto, and the heart of Tango. Another neighbourhood, that was nice, but some of the charm had left it. We figured we try Kosher McDonald’s, they didn’t have fries, but we tried anyways, and it was crap. Nothing like the burgers you can buy anywhere else here! Then, the highlight of the day, was Indiana Jones 4, with Spanish subtitles. We figured the dubbed one wouldn’t do us much good…

Abasto
Abasto – The heart of tango

Friday we headed for the money, Palermo. We didn’t really see it, but they had a lot of restaurants and designer shops up there, although I think I like them better in San Telmo. Looking at all the things they are creating, designing and doing here, are giving us a lot of ideas for projects to come!

Saturday we checked out La Boca, an old workers neighbour hood. It felt a bit like heading into Port Kembla, with only one nice spot in it, which was very developed. We had plenty of Tango shows under our sleeve after La Boca, and lots of friendly chickos wanted to dance with us, or have their photo taken with us in varying poses… At night we went into town, where they had blocked one of the main streets, to organise Gran Milonga de Mayo, which is a “come and dance” event. This was in preparation for the national day the next day of course.

La Boca
La Boca – Tango Square

La Boca

It turned out nothing much happens in Argentina on their national day, the president, CFK, was away in Salta, so all the action was up there. There was some parade in Palermo, but that was too far away. Instead we found that the typical San Telmo market had extended itself some 13 blocks, with lots of impromptu street shows and stalls and whatever else. It was indeed a nice and relaxing day for us!

Independence day

Street Tango

San Telmo markets

Next day, Monday, we caught the early bus to Iguazu and settled in for the next 18 hours.

Lima

“Lima´s climate also echoes it´s contrasting faces: from April to December, a melancholy coastal fog (garûa) blankets the city´s skyline, but during the coastal summer the sun breaks through and the high-spirited limeños (people from Lima) make a break for the nearby beaches”. Lonley Plant.

Melancholic fog

More fog

Unfortunately Jo and I managed to travel in the melancholic fog… but none-the-less, Lima was a nice, easy city. It has all the perks of any western city. We stayed in a suburb called Miraflores which was apparently the tourist friendly part which may have helped! We also managed to time our trip so as we were there at the end of APEC (a major meeting between South American governments and the European Union, not the Apec we had in Oz last year) and for the Potato Festival (there are more than 2000 kinds in Peru!)! So we managed to sneak in another street fiesta! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a programme for the event and were at the mercy of the crowds… we weren’t sure where the main events were and had to follow the main crowds to the different events… the bigger the crowd we figured the more interesting the event! Wasn’t quite as interesting as the fiesta in Copacobana and a lot less alcohol around also! Though someone must have been on the booze when they made the giant potato that was wheeled through the streets!

The owner of our hostel was apparently a “prominent businessman” and involved in the APEC meeting, He was also friends with the Estonian President (a fact that he managed to slip into every conversation). We almost got to rub shoulders with him as we were offered (though an empty offer) a lift on the bus they were taking into Lima Central… lets just say we were stood up…

Lima Central is a seedier part of town and where most of the museums are. There is a lot of old architecture and plazas. We went to the Monasterio de Santa Francisco and the Museo del Tribunal de la Santa Inquisiciön. The Monastery contained underground catacombs which we went down to see. They contained the bones (the top layers of which were nicely arranged into patterns to make it more attractive…) of an estimated 70 000 people. Interesting if not a little claustrophobic. The Inquisition Museum was built on the foundations of the buildings used in the Spanish Inquisition and we got to see some of the chambers where people were tortured… spelt out in life-size wax figures!! Yes, it was a ghoulish trip to the city!

Monasterio de Santa Francisco

Government palace

To lighten things up a bit, we also went for a walk along the beach suburbs, though you couldn’t be sure there was beach out there as the fog was so thick. We went to a swanky mall where the rich play (and watched/window shopped in our worn out clothes 🙁 oh how i miss my other clothes…). Actually we did make one purchase.. Jo had to purchase a new pair of jeans as his old ones literally disintegrated. Poor thing tried to stitch them up but this let to further fraying. It was also getting pretty inappropriate as one of the holes was in the crutch…. That was how we spent 17 may, Norway’s Constitution day, as no other Norwegians could be sourced… Well, we had icecream and drinks as well…

Love park

We were also to witness another accident (luckily not part of one this time). We were wandering the streets when one car hit another at an intersection. This caused one of them to continue on to plough into a side walk cafe (they are crazy drivers over here). Just honking doesn’t make up for not stopping at the stop signs! Anyways, luckily it didn’t appear that anyone was injured. The cars were pretty smashed up though.

Apart from wandering around the city, we also had a health scare…we developed a growing number of itchy red bites that seemed to flare up/multiply at night. It became obvious that these weren’t mozzie bites and investigated on the internet… this left us with two options.. scabies or body lice (Dr Jo was able to rule out bed bugs and fleas, though the latter I felt was more likely given the number of animals living at the hostel in Cuzco that i blame for the whole thing). The treatment being to clean everything and for scabies, apply a cream to every inch of your body (a tip given: you may need to buy a spatula to apply the cream to you butt crack) and leave it on for 24 hours… The unappealing nature of the treatments meant that instead we chose to shower twice daily and change our clothes every day (yes, shameful as it is to admit, we have been double dipping). We also buried our head in the sand and all these measures seem to have worked and we now are proud to say that there are no more of these mysterious bites developing…. to our knowledge. We still don’t know what they were. I have noticed a few other backpackers with lot of bites but its not really something you can broach with a stranger…
Well, after 3 nights in Lima, we left at the crack of dawn for Buenos Aires….

to be continued….

Cuzco

We have spent a few days in Cuzco now, getting here before we set off to the Amazon and back again before and after Machu Picchu . Both were great, but in this town, everything is priced in US dollars. Bit of a pain when you are accustomed to thinking in the local currency but now have to account for a third currency. This also causes price inflation of course, and breeds a new spieces of very aggressive hawkers. Today, a lady tried to make Sara take and pay for a picture of herself (in traditrional clothes) with her Llama….. while she was breast feeding. We thought it a bit over the top….

Anyways, Cuzco. We have stayed at some nice hostels, and some not so nice hostels. Our last was in the latter category, but we couldnt be stuffed changing, so we are just putting up with the dirt (you dont throw toilet paper in the toilet here, you put it in the bin next to the toilet and ours aint been cleared out for a while).

While here, we have submersed ourselves in the local ruins, cuisine and parks. Its a nice city, but I think that you get the feeling you dont want to stay for too long or your money will be gone too. Coming here from further south really highlights how mainstream Cuzco has become as a staging point for Machu Picchu. We havent seen such a concentration of other tourists yet in Peru.

Corn in the market
Corn in the market

The Labyrinth
The Labyrinth

Cuzco prides itself as the cultural capital of Peru, and is also the old Inka capital. Many of the spanish churches here have been built on the bases of Inka palaces and temples. We have been to the Sacred Vally with Ollaytantambo and Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy-woman) just outside Cuzco. However, this all pales when compared to Machu Picchu. Therefore, Ill keep this post short, and rather put the rest in the Machu Picchu post, which we will put together ishortly.

City Gate
City Gate

Sacsayhuaman
Sacsayhuaman

Building blocks for the Inkas
Building blocks for the Inkas

Church engraving in Cathedral
Church engraving in Cathedral