Firemonkey

After a long hard think I realize I've only been in this town for two nights.. It really feels so much longer!

And most of it is because of one guy!

N!

Being a former Erasmus student of Umeå he has now come back to his home in Lisabon and has put his everything into helping us out in this new and amazing place.

We have pumped him for so much information and he has been so helpful I assume hes been dropping dead every night since we met him.

Thanx to him we now not only know most of the basics for the big citylife, we have also seen the beach, the surf and today also one of the enormous shopping malls that are spread out outside the city.

My purchase was the cheapest 3mm wetsuit the place had and a pair of neoprene gloves for those early morning sessions on the board.

Our biggest concern right now is of course to find a more permanent place to live, preferably close to the beach or close to Uni.

Thanx to N we have already had the advantage of calling several ads, and finding a place closer to the beach, despite the relatively low rents, has proved a lot harder than we wished for.

Our backup plan now is to have a look at a place in the city and also call on a few ads that we got from uni during our guided tour there today. Me and O have agreed on trying to find a double room to get the rent down and thereby have more money over to rent a car for weekends or take longer train trips to other surfsports.

As I said before this town has really taken me in and I feel right at home almost wherever I go and even if I still can not make out a word of the spoken language I surprise myself time after another with understanding quite a lot of the written signs and simple text I have come across so far.

Tomorrow is the big welcome meeting and also the first of the famous Erasmus parties so I think things will pick up really fast after that. We will hopefully get some work done during the day thou, quite a lot of forms and papers need to be sorted out and there is always the race of calling the attractive apartments before everyone else gets hold of them so I guess we're in for another hectic day.

Now it's time for a cold one and just enjoying the atmosphere in the city that finally stopped pour down with rain today and hopefully will not get more flooded during the upcoming week.

I'll try to post a few random pics sometime soon, but it is a bit tricky as my usb-stick is still with my former employer and friend in the best nightclub in Umeå, so, mr F if you read this, shame on you for being such slow handler of things! I need that document sometime soon as well, get on with it!

Its raining.

Like mad.

And I don't even mean like for a few minutes. I mean poring down for hour after hour.

Even I am carrying an umbrella and I hate them.

Luckily it was for free and is nice and RED, but I believe its cursed in some way, already cut myself some on it..

Hopefully I can upload a picture of it so that you all can see how nice and RED it is... not the least bit pink at all. Clearly.

Pizza, a cold beer and a short walk around.
We don't really find anything and the fantastic weather of this morning has turned a bit gray and wet..

Really like the feeling of the town thou, and its super easy to get around.

I just know I'll love it here.

On the train to Lisabon, the weather is absolutely unbelievable and the most wonderful landscapes is rolling by like an inflight movie about heaven. Next to me is yet another gorgeous Portuguese girl and the ipod in my ears is making the hangover a little easier to bear.

I am booked into a hostel close to the water for the coming two days and even if I am excited to see Lisabon and find out more about the town that will be my home for some time right now I just feel like kicking back and relax, enjoying the warm sensation of sun on my skin and make the most of the last days of this absolutely unbelievable vacation I have had.

I don't really miss the places I have visited, or people I leave behind, I just hold them dare in mind. The last month thou, so many fantastic experiences and so many lovely people have rushed through my life that I have a hard time letting it sink in. I hope all of you loved the time we spent as much as I did and that you as me let the memory and feeling of what we left behind strengthen you.

I'm not very good with goodbyes, and I am terrible at nursing relationships while off doing other things than you, but the feelings I had with you never change. These days were diamonds as a wise person once said..

I don't care that our life's are completely different or what relations we have with other around us, I know that I will see you again and I hope that the same wonderful feeling will spread in my chest when we get to spend some time together again.

Until then I don't say good bye, but I say take care. Take care of You and only do what feels right for yourself, no matter what the world is demanding of us.

All you can drink. Open bar.

Do I need to say I missed my checkout time this morning?

Or that I took a train a little later than the 9.05 planned?

With hand luggage of approximately 30kg's (thanx to Ryan airs ridiculous rules about maximum checked in weight of 15kg's) I have now safely landed in Faro. I think we got about 1 hour sleep last night before the little smart set off to the airport so I am not the most alert, but what does that matter when you arrive to a place directly cut out of a travel magazine and the sun is shining so brightly that your skin immediately turns red just looking out of the window of the airport.

After repacking my bags I found the bus and made the little walk to the hostel. The town turned out to be a lot smaller than I imagined, I heard numbers around 50 000 inhabitants, but it feels like you could get anywhere just by walking.

I can see the ocean from my window of the hostel and even if there is some swampland between me and the great blue I can already feel the taste of salt on the tip of my tongue. No surf here but I did found a few surf shops and in the hostel they give out what appears to be a free surf magazine of Portugal. A good sign of what to come.

As you know I don't speak a word of Portuguese and to be honest I never really heard it spoken either. Now with it all around me I think it sounds a little like eastern Europe stuck in a sunny place for too long. It really sounds very little like Spanish and I think it will be very much harder to learn than I thought.

Teamed up with an English guy that is here to study language and will go out for a few cold ones later, but right now I really just have to get my head down for a few hours.

I havnt really had a chance to update much lately but my stay here in Germany has been nothing short of wonderful. The pics in the last post is from the first day and even if the sun has not been out as much as that day, it has still been mad coming from snow and ice in Norway to a spring so nice here. I'm not gonna tell you everything we have been up to but I must mention the last day. Possible the very best of days for a long long time..

We started off renting the cutest little mini-smart, a really cool little car that apparently had some hidden powers as we pushed it up to a staggering 150 on the autoban. After a few "touristic" routes around various parts of Bonn and Cologne (read "got lost") we got to the largest indoors climbing hall I have ever seen!

Iksu looked like the changing room in comparison. The routes were all marked and cleverly named but as you can guess we didn't even have enough power to try a fraction of them. Despite acing underarms and a few bangs and scratches we had so much fun that I never wanted to leave!

Little did I know thou...

Because the next stop was even more mind-blowing.

We have saunas in Sweden, yes we do, but the good people of Germany has taking it to an art.

The Mediterranean sauna-world we went to is indescribable. Not only because the place is a nude zone and quite a lot of the guests were fit ladies (often with accompanying boyfriends as it was valentines) but just the size of the place was enough to blow your mind.

I must confess it was a bit awkward at fist and the fears of any young mans were running through my head as we walked in but once you got used to it the experience was beyond this world. The place didn't close until 12pm but to be honest I could have stayed for days! Saunas, pools, relaxation areas, waterbeds, massages, tan beds, whirlpools, you name it, they had it all!

All in all the only thing I have to say is Thank you C! When I planned to come to Germany I thought it would be just a couple of nice days and some catching up, but you made it a few of the very best days I have had in years! I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and that you find the time to come down and visit me in Lisabon.

14.05 I'm leavning a sunblasting Oslo central with a light mind and a smile on my face.

Exactly 6 hours later I'm back.

Because of fog.

Little water particles in the air has stopped my flying plans, forced the big white hollow bird to land in another airport..

To which we are now heading.

Just hope there will be some snacks at hand at the new airport..

And maybe a large COLD BEER.

I got on the bus from Kongsberg at 11.35 this morning.

Arrive in Bonn at 02am. A little tired of travelling without getting anywhere by now.

Man.

För att inte saga gubbe.

Toppluva.

Stavar och blåställ.

Jag med mina vita hörsnäckor som lyser avstånd och personligt utrymme.

Stannar.

Väntar in mig.

Ler så bade bruna tänder och gluggar syns.

Ville bara hälsa.

Kommentera snön som yr omkring oss, önska trevlig dag.

Otroligt.

Som sagt. Bara här.

Very quik visit to Oslo...


...The only place on earth where the heroinjunkies are wearing sveral thousend kronor Peak Performance all wether pants....


I guess the streats are tough.


Sun were out and I liked the town just as much as I always do. Now I'm  standing in a foggy airpot called Torp still sweaty from  trying to trim my luguage to impossible 15kg... just hope my flight will take o as planned, so far two flights have been cancelled...