doing dinky-di

Vi ar framme, valbehallna och sant, for de som tycker att sadana nyheter ar skona att fa.
Vi har spelat Kricket med smapojkar och druckit chai. Atit Dhal och Chapati och massa ris. Akt cykeltaxi osv.

I morgon moter vi om allt gar som det ska Ida tidigt pa morgonen och forsoker sen att ta oss vidare till Jaipur, Rajasthans huvudstad.

Karlek till er

Sooo,

Where are we now? We took a train to Chennai which is situated on the east coast in southern India. From there we hopped pn a bus straight to Puducherry where we stayed just a few days. Its a nice city its supposed to be a bit french inspired ven  though its hard to tell how. I guess it might be because that most of the signs are in both hindi and french and that there is a french college as well.

After Pudacherry we took a bus to Auroville where we found the place we had been heading for, Sadhana forrest. Sadhana Forrest is a volunteer community. Its sustainable, using solar power when its needed, ground water, compost etc. The project is to plant a forrest that worldwide is about to dissapear in order to keep the speices.

You pay 200 rupies a day, which i bout 30 kronor and 40 us dollars for your food. You work about five hours a day and you sleep in hut looking houses. The food is vegan and all locally produced.

Great people (about 40 at the moment), interesting workshops (such as yoga, vegan food, thai massage etc), consciousness, live music in the mornings to wake people up, massive huts, bamboo mats, only organic toiletries, ash as tooth paste, a great mud pool and a lot of other things is what we found here.

I will stay here for a month and then go north to see my lovely friends ELLEN and SOFIA! Wow... I so look forward to see them...

Today Im a bit sck though. I had stomach ache last night and after breakfast today I had to go to the loo six times. Eww... After drinking heaps of water with added salt and lemon and a few bananas and some rest I feel slightly better. Yeay! On top of that I think most of the day tomorrow I'll be off (I just found the ' button!). which is also quite a good thing.

What do you think of Sadhana Forrest? In my opinion it's exactly what I have been looking for! A place totally aware of it's environmental effects. This is it.

Tjing!

Namaste!

We've now been in Kochi in Kerala for a couple of days. It's lovely. We've been staying at "home stay". Yesterday we went on a boat tour in the back waters. We were quite a big group of about 20 people. Going by boat through the meandering rivers and then we went on board on a bigger boat, had a nice keralan lunch and just cruised around an island. Life's beautiful.

Now we're ready to go to the east coast. We'll catch a train to Chennai at 5 this afternoon. The ride will take about 12 hrs. Mmm! We're not really heading to Chennai though so we'll hopefully catch a bus or a train to Puducherry to find a place to volunteer. Hopefully it will work out! Otherwise we'll find something else!

Yihuuu! Alvida!

We've been heading south last days! We went from Palolem in Goa, which is a chilled out place in sothern Goa. There's a long beach and all along this beach are huts and restaurants and bars. Relaxing.

After four days in this paradise we moved on to a town in the inland in Karnataka called Hampi. Imagine a dry landscape where massive rocks and boulders have been scattered out randomly... It's amazing and I found myself lost in thoughts of how it happened all the time. No wonder this place has thousands of temples and old palaces. Hinduism is the main religion obviously and it used to be one of the most important places for the hindus. There's also a wonderful river that meanders through the land where people go to wash themselves in the mornings. Also the elephant goes for a little bath every morning here...(!!!)

We hopped on a bus south to Mysore. That's a big city and in my opinon not as lovely as expected and after finding out that there were almost no rooms available anywhere we went to see the massive old mahal (palace), some elephants and camels and then we took another bus to Ooty.

That's where I am right now. It's just beautiful! A bit chilly and in the nights I wake up, shivering, trying to wrap the smelly old blankets tighter around my body... At night I put socks on my hands like gloves as I've got these horribly itchy bites all over me. I think it's bed bugs.

Ooty is situated 2200 meters above sea level. The view is amazing and there are lots of tea plantations everywhere. The people here are also different compared to those we've met so far. Less used to mass tourism and rich Russians, they smile at you and don't see you as a pile of money. You don't have to listen to 'come see my shop', 'very good prise i give you' or 'rupie, please?'.

I really like this place. Me and Nadja will be staying here one more night and then I think we'll go to Kerala. Let's see what happends...

Take care, miss you all!

- Now it is over

I'm sitting with my alpaca jumper and my alpaca socks on, because Sweden is, believe it or not, pretty cold right now. Just finished my bowl of Christmas porridge, my cup of tea and the lovely juice my dad made me. It is SO SNOWY. (I'm giving you some evidence at the bottom...)
Anyway. Since I wrote the last time, I've visited a kindergarden in the favelas, had a close look at the giant Christ, been cruising around Copacabana, went to a huge street party in Lapa, ate a whole lot of acaís (kind of an icecream made out of an Amazonian fruit) and enjoyed myself in general in Rio. Then spent my last two days in São Paulo, meeting up with good friends, having awesome lunches (I could finally spoil myself in the end of the trip!), listening to live samba music, walking around in parks and then I headed for the airport.
And now, here I am.
I have had some great five months, incredibly great. And still, I'm so happy right now. I've put ALL of my backpack in the washing machine. I have a house. I have my music. I don't have to consider 30 degrees a cool day anymore. It's gonna be a white Christmas. And, of course, best of all. I am home. With my family. And my friends.
Yep, it's good.

- The January river

- I'm leaving (don't really know if that's correct, don't know much portuguese really)

Tomorrow morning when my friend Marcelo is getting on the subway to go to work I will get on the same subway and go to the terminal, to get to Paraty - a picturesque town by the coast with some great beaches nearby. Good stuff! My time here in the city with a population twice as big as Sweden's has involved a lot of fruit, beer, forró dancing, acaí (ice cream made out of a jungle fruit, almost), beach life, rain, sunshine, heat, pão de queijo (cheese bread, a common snack) and good times. Seeing my friends from Australia that I met last time a year ago has been pretty amazing.
And now I'm heading for some swimming and sunshine, and staying with a friend this time too. Yay!
Less than two weeks to go now, can't believe it...
Ciao

- São Paulo (Saint Peter)

Newly arrived in Sampa, the biggest city of South America! (Way bigger than Sweden...) I'm sitting ion my friend Marcelo's room and when I've had a shower we'll go out and discover the city! It's so incredible, being able to meet up with friends that I met on the other side of the world... and I mean, I'm still on the other side of the world now, just another side! Later on this weekend I'll meet three other Brazilian Aussie-friends, yay. Way better to see a city with some people who already know what's worth seeing.

And the Iguazu falls. Am az ing. No way to describe it, maybe I will sound a little hippie or Mother Earth now, but well, I cpouldn't help being all hypnotized and start admiring the great power of nature. So much water. So much noise. So much power. So much beauty.

After this, it's only Paraty (picturesque city with a lot of beaches, on the way to Rio) and Rio left, before I get back to Sao Paulo again to catch the flight back to Christmas. Can't belive I've been gone for so long!

Har just druckit första koppen i min Te-adventskalender som familjen har köpt till mig. Nu hade man ju kunnat hoppas att den innehöll sma lösviktsprover av typ Keemun, Darjeeling, Assam, Yunnan osv men riktigt sa lyckligt lottad är jag inte. Det är tepasar med typ olika crazy julkryddblandningar. Fast det är ända rätt stämningsfullt att börja morgonen med nagot varmt som luktar kanel eller apelsin eller sa.

Har varit lite franvarande hela dagen och funderat tillbaka till den första December förra aret. Da gick jag hand i hand med Marius pa en strand vid stilla havet. Minns att det var sa konstigt att vara sa langt hemmifran och i ett sa annorlunda klimat, men rätt nöjda var vi ända med var situation. Vi bodde nämligen pa 18:e vaningen i en skyskrapa pa samma strand. Gratis. Skulle kunna berätta den historien hur manga ganger som helst, men jag tror att den redan finns nedskriven en gang pa den här bloggen.

Här i Tyskland har vi snö, inte jättemycket, men tillräckligt för att göra Tyskarna bade glada och förvirrade. Marius tittade pa mig som om jag var en eskima när jag sa att man kan se direkt pa snön om det är plus eller minusgrader ute. Kände mig väldigt Svensk och exotisk.

I övrigt jobbar jag, pluggar, myser med tva väldigt mysiga barn, skäller pa tva väldigt busiga sma barn, och gar pa massa julmarknader. Och väldigt langsamt och litet sa börjar en idé att väckas. Om att jag kanske inte är färdig med resandet än. Att jag maste langt langt bort en gang till innan jag kan hitta plugg ro. Lite är jag inspirerad (och inte lite avunsjuk) pa Ellens fantastiska resebilder, lite är jag inspirerad av att Denice och Malin-Simone akte tillbaka till Indien för nagra veckor sen. Men framförallt börjar det helt enkelt att pirra av reslust i fötterna igen.

En sak till, när Kayla säger Kaffee sa later det som om hon säger Buffy. Gör mig glad varje morgon.

- Three very close countries (this is now Portuguese, and I made this sentence up with no help!)

In Foz do Iguacu now, a Brazilian city from where I can see Paraguay, and take a 30minute bus to Argentina. And I'm planning to go to both countries, one day each! The main reason I'm here is not the bordering countries thoug, but the magnificent waterfalls that I'm gonna visit in a few hours. Yay! Im so excited.

I'm staying with a girl called Isis and here three roomies, couchsurfing baby. Right now she's making me a Brazilian lunch, so tonight it's my turn to cook. I'm thinking some nice vegetarian meal and then of course kanelbullar (cinnamon buns).

Soon back with more updates!

- Honey, I saw you (the portuguese name of a bird in the Pantanal)

Here I am! Brazil! So amazing, can´t believe it myself, it´s too good... At the moment I´m in a place called Bonito, a little town in the southwest where there are a lot  of really clear rivers where you can go snorkelling with incredible amounts of fish, and there are underground lakes, ang God knows what... The only problem is that everything is just as expensive as it´s amazing, so I don´t know yet what I can afford. Came here a few hours ago so I stil have a lot of research to do around town.

The visit in Brazil took a quick, eventful and very spontanious start. After getting off the Death Train from Bolivia (yes, that´s what it´s called, but no, it wasn´t that bad!) we took several buses and finally got to the bus terminal to get on a bus here to Bonito. And then this guy from a travel agency convinced us to buy a tour and jump on a bus instead, and well, that´s what we did. (We being me and an English girl that´s going pretty much to the same places at the same times as me.)

The tour we did was in the Pantanal, a big area bordering Bolivia and Paraguay and crowded with crocodiles, toucans, capabaras, humming birds, monkeys, parrots of different sizes and colors, giant rodents, racoon-like thingies, loads of other creatures and, last but not least, a huge mango tree in the garden where we stayed. Not too bad. So I´ve spent the last three nights on trains or in hammocks, meaning: I am ridiculously tired right now. I´m gonna join the others for dinner now, and after that I think I have a bed waiting.

Oh, and here comes a pic from Uyuni, the salt desert in Bolivia!

- It's hot...

In Santa Cruz now. Hot hot hot, and steamy, and wow - this doesn't seem like Bolivia. So rich, and the people are so much taller and whiter and the cars are shinier. Interesting city to come to after three months in the mountains.
This will be a short post, only havehree more minutes to go. So you'll be updated later on my adventures in Potosó, Sucre and Samaipata. Tomorrow I'll take the train to Brazil (!!!!!!!), so exciting. New language and everything, adventure adventure. And, I'm gonna have to get used to the heat, to be swimming in my own sweat for the next four weeks. I guess you're gonna tell me not toomplain tho.

Ciao!

- I love free breakfast

And now Potosí. Came back to civilisation yesterday, after four days of driving around in a sci-fi landscape for four icredible days. Geysers, neverending white salt flats, mummies, flamingos, sunrises at 5000 m, islands covered in cactus, llamas, salt hotels, desert, weird moonlike rock formations, red volcanoes, different colored lagoons... I've been in so many amazing places in such a short time, haven't really been able to get my head around it. Good thing I have photos to remind me I wasn't only dreaming.
So, as you might have understood, I'm very happy with the past few days. Definitely one of the highlights of this trip. It also felt so good to get out and do something, after the not so wow days in La Paz. Potosí then, is the world's highest city and also the place of the silver mine that pretty much financed the grand era of Spain. What most people do here is a mine tour, guided by ex-miners you then go down into the mines, crawl through narrow tunnels, give coca leaves to the miners, get depressed by seeing the non-existent safety down there and having some horrible hours knowing that this is only a little taste of what the miners experience every day. I think it's a very interesting thing to do, and important to see, but I haven't really decided if I'm doing it yet. I tend to panic when I feel it's way too hot and there's no air, and that's pretty much what the mines are like. Unfortunately, I don't think there's another way of getting an insight in this whole thing, and it's a really big part of the Bolivian history, and present I guess. We'll see.
Wont do anything like that today though, the plan now is to get started with my to do-list, including things like internet (think I need to go find a better place than this, this is extreeemely slow), laundry (my whole backpack stinks), shower (I stink), shopping and more (not so) cool stuff.

Sitter i min säng och dricker te. Har jobbat sex dagar i rad och jobbar även i morgon förmiddag. Har jobbat mellan kvart över atta och sju idag, ska jobba sextimmarsdagar. Har ägnat resten av kvällen at tyska dativformer och prepostioner. Har insett att jag aldrig riktigt lärde mig skillnaden mellan ackusativ och dativ i skolan fast jag trodde att jag kunde det. Det är lördagkväll och jag är ensam i en källare.

MEN

det gör ingenting för i kväll sa nattade jag Kayla själv. Hon närpa somnade i min famn när hon drack sin mjölk ur nappflaskan.

I morgon aker jag äntligen till Bruchsal och har en dag ledigt. Sen börjar vi om igen.