A SMALL LECTURE IN BERLIN CULTURE feat Adrian Kreipe

In one blurry Hoi An night, Claudia and I happened upon this German guy, who was first only known as German guy. Little did we know by that time in the pre-gaming bar with all of the drinks that we should later encounter German guy several times before leaving Hoi An, and in one of these glorious rendez-vous frozen in time, German guy told me about Karneval der Kulturen.

Very good night, I think...

Frankly do not remember many details. 

Photos by @claudianguyenthe

By then, I had learned how to pronounce his name the german way [Adrian = aht-ree-ann] and since we were good enough friends to invite him over to our homestay's porch, I thought we were good enough friends to set up a meeting in Berlin two months later.

Genderswaping done right

Photo by @claudianguyenthe

We also had a very nice photoshoot. A

drian turned out to be a perfect prop slash pouty model

My original plan was to go see my aunt anyway so would he chicken out or suddenly realize I was a weirdo, I would still be fine exploring Berlin on my own.
On the afternoon on the day of the festival I jumped of S-bahn at Fredrichstrasse and found a familiar face waiting for me. Two things happended literally immediately: we started talking, and we started drinking.
"As long as you are not actually on the tram, you can drink everywhere." Adrian said when he saw me sceptical face. "Welcome to Berlin!"

This is just one of many things I got to encounter with the following days...
Scroll on down to see the whole list of

BERLIN CULTURE 
QUIRKS AND PERKS

! WARNING TO SENSITIVE READERS !

(MEANING: MUM): 

I will seem like I drank a lot this trip, 

(...which I kind of did...)

but I am an adult and I was in Berlin, 

so I had to embrace the culture. 

SPONTANIOUS STREET PARTY // ABOUT GOODBYES

I have a plane ticket to Europe in eight days and no clue wheather or not I should use it.

A lot has happened with me the last couple of days. I've gone through so many emotions I've stopped hold on tightly in all the turns and just started let life throw me in whatever direction it pleases.

...Okay so that's not really true. I tried like a mad man to take the wheel again but it is hard when there are so much dragging me into different paths.

I've said goodbye to two of the nicest guys I've ever met. I didn't realize before then the road gives and the road takes. I thought I'd found some kind of paradise without any consekvenses.
Oh how young I was only days ago.
I'm currently in a state of trying to accept that life is like this at times. You win some and yes, you also lose some.
This text is so overflowing with clicheés now I think I filled the quota for a lifetime.

WHEN LIFE IS COTTON CANDY COLORED

We sing too loud from the public showers, too loud and completely out of tone.
We run around in our underwear, make childish sexual jokes and throw chips at each other.
We are ten and have our own treetop house, we are fourteen and sleeping in bunkbeds in the summercamp. We are Swedish camp, devided two and two in the daytime, we make time fly like kites in the sky.

WHY K-POP WASN'T ENOUGH

Life is food. Food is life.
Seriously, I kind of knew this prior to Vietnam, or I thought I did.

Then, silantro entered. Coriander. Lemon grass. Banh Mi. Pho Bo. Fresh spring rolls. Che. Anything dipped in fish sause.

Ca Phe Den. Ca Phe Saigon. Ca Phe Trung. Ca Phe Sua.

These magic words are 'Open Sesame' to a world of never-seen-before flavour experiences.

But unfortunately, talking more about food would require some kind of pictures to keep you from finding a better blog to read, and I have just been way to eager to eat the lovelies in front of me to give in to the Instagram generation-way of thinking.

So instead this post will be about... Well, you'll just have to scroll on to find out.

SLEEPLESS IN HUE

They hate us. We can feel it as they Tetris  around the backpacks to make room for our huge suitcases. We fidget in false embarrassment, because after all we are Swedish and we are raised never to make a fuzz, but really, no annoyed faces could ever make us go back to backpacks.  We've both tried the backbound traveling already and do not miss the odeur that bag could produce after a few weeks, nor the impossibility to keep a structure or find that specific piece of clothing. 

Hue has been a sleepy stopover, although I still have a hard time falling asleep sometimes. 

After rushing Hanoi, we've slowed down to recaps and find some kind of second wind. 

THE STORY ABOUT THE VISA, THE ANGRY MAN AND THE SECRET PLACE

Oh, the aliveness of Ha Noi. It strucks me with surprise every time, every day. There are scooters honking and cars driving and women in hats selling fruit and dogs sleeping on the dusty pavements. And yet, with all this aliveness, I find my inner calm here.
"It's weird." I told Claudia yesterday as she licked on her forth ice cream for the day, "that I've only been here once and yet, somehow I feel at home. Ha Noi is home in a strange way I can't explain."

We talked about nyckelböcker the other day, a Swedish word meaning books that is really written about a real person but the names has been changed, but the direct translation is "keybook". A famous podcaster had got it all wrong and thought it meant books that really captures the essence of ones soul, and now, he described in one episode, he felt like he missed the word that he once used as "keybook", as he had applied "key-" to many other things that he thought described him perfectly.

Ha Noi might be the keycity for me.
It's so vivid, so alive, it's talkative and cheerful but yet, there is this island-vibe slowing down our steps and makes us stop and smell the flowers (slash, the smell of loveliness from the endless amazing food stalls).

Yes, the pace is slow but the options eternal. The other night we were out partying and bumped in to... well, probably everyone who was out partying in the whole city, but mostly we hung out with these two guys from London, one of which had already stayed in Ha Noi for 10 days and had no plans on leaving. I totally related. Claudia keeps asking when I want to leave the city, of course, but I have no answer.

LIKE, - EVERYTHING! - WE DID IN SEOUL (In Pictures)

Tomorrow, it has been 8 weeks. If not 8 weeks was a long time in itself, I am also approching a milestone: In the next couple of days, I'm breaking the record for the

Longest Time I've Been Away From Home.

Maybe that's what's haunting me, subconscious thoughts about if things will be different, harder, now, when home is further away time-wise?
I've had trouble sleeping since Shanghai, been up some nights crying and tossing and turning. The other night I simply laid on the floor because I was sick and tired of pacing back and forth in the bed. I actually fell asleep there.

I miss home. I miss wine with friends on Andra Lång and morning coffee, Swedish brewed, in dad's apartment in Majorna. I miss not having to 'make-the-best-of-every-day', because I see it like this: sleeping late and doing nothing is something I can do at home, so I better see as much as possible while here. I have a habit of wanting to return everywhere just to collect the sights I missed, but this time I want to be done. I don't know when or if I'll have a new shot at going to Asia anytime soon, and it's just plain stupid not to suck in every moment.

There we were again. Making the best of the time. And of course you should. But when not sleeping and not having time enough to write, I simply don't feel as motivated at exploring as I want to feel.

Still, we have pushed. We have done stuff here I Korea, believe you me. I even present a LIST of things we've yet done here.

BEST OF HONG KONG

Life has been a fastforward-sequence from a romcom these last couple of days. I can't even remember the last time I put up the computer. Thailand? May be. You simply have no time for editing and writing when the scene around you is a technicolour festival.

It's now about two weeks ago we left Thailand to go to Hong Kong. Since then, we haven't had one single island-style day, which might not be so odd since we've entered East Asia, the buzzling euphony of colours, flavours and feasts for every sense.

Our time in Hong Kong has been fast-flying, exciting, wuthering and fantastic. Being such an expesive vacation-place, my wallet is glad we did not stay longer, but my heart sure is crying.

DYING IN SELF-PITY/ FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF KOREA

This day has been a real pain in the butt. I woke up feeling shittier than ever before and I had a really hard time moving. I was afraid I was going to either faint or puke if I moved too quickly and in the back of my head somebody had detonated a bomb. My nose was running, my throat both sore and filled with... Something disgusting and I couldn't breathe, which is really the trigger for Bitchmode-activate

Oh, and I also lost my voice so Julia is thrilled not having to listen to my jabbering. Yay for her yes we are all very thrilled for her sake.

17 DAYS IN THAILAND: Budget and saving-tips

This post is an extract from the whole Asia budget which I continuously update. 

You can find the original post 

- HERE -

Oh Thailand. You blow my mind every time. How you can be so gentle, so open, so warmhearted and still so breathtakingly beautiful and unbelievably inexpensive.

In this post I counted for EVERYTHING, everything, we bought and ate and paid for our 17 days here and put it in to neat piles so you guys easily can track and get a picture of how much your own trip would cost.

I mean, everyone doesn't have a spare account solely for coffee..

In the end of the post there is a list of extra tips to make your trip even more affordable!

I'd be happy to hear your thoughts after reading.

Kisses! 

MACAU - LAND OF MADE-UP HAPPINESS?

Just outside of Hong Kong, there is an island that seemed to be separated from the rest of the world.

BUYABLE BODIES IN PATTAYA

11 weeks.

11 weeks.

!!!

I’m writing from bed, hiding from the sun. The climate in Pattaya is not only hot, it’s humid, which makes you slower, sloth-y, in minutes outside. This is Julia’s last day in the sun so she can’t afford to complain if she want to come home somewhat tanned, but I have a lot of time in the part of the world left. At least 9 weeks, to be exact.

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE INSTAGRAM PICTURE

Instagram pictures are just pure moments of perfectness, fortunate captures in the exact right moment, non?

Well.

DAYS OF CRYING, STILL

I'm currently in a state of nothingness.
I wake up. I eat breakfast. I lay by the pool until the building ahead starts spreading long monsters of shadows over the mosaic tiles framing the water.

I go back to the room. I shower. I scrub, every bit of my body, as I see it darken and darken for each day.

I run my finger through my hair. I really do need a haircut. Moana-style by all means, but it just doesn't seem to happen for me, that wavy laidbackness. The split ends are making their way up, further and further towards my scalp.
And then I remember nobody in the world cares about that.

I put on clothes, make the hard decision if I'm going to wear a bra today or not. It's usually not.
As said, nobody will care.

BOOBIE-GRABBING & ZEN-LIVING

Tonight, I woke up with a shock. Across my chest an arm had landed all of a sudden and I felt a tiny, sleeping body come closer to me. I pushed Jennifer away again, silently laughing about this being her second attempt to second-base me in her sleep, and soon went back to dreaming.

Next time I woke up it was quarter past eight and my girls were eager to get to the breakfast restaurant.
"Big day today!" Jennifer shouted from the bathroom. "Wakey wakey! Doi Suthep before noon, remember?"
I did, even though my body had no intention of co-operating today.
I had been up until 2.30 that night, chatting with the friends back at home. The time difference really sucked at times. When it was pitch black night for me, Claudia and Simon were off celebrating our weekly tradition of The Sunday Pizza, and I missed them like crazy. They were the biggest part of the routines I do actually miss, the everyday fikas and the long, long, long, neverending, talks.

But outside sun was shining Thai-style; a warm, glowy light that made all of my Instagram pictures look temperature-enhanced, and breakfast was waiting for no one after 10 am.

We filled our plates with fruit and gorged up on coffee and french toast and hurried vacay-style, meaning: not so much.

11 AWESUME THINGS WE DID IN SINGAPORE

Arriving in Singapore, we had a looong list of tips and things to do, provided by Mona, mostly, but also our dear friend Pinterest.

We had 6 days, 5 nights, simply too much to do, too little time. There's no point in procastinate anything now, is there? So let's just dig in to it.

BUZZLING BANGKOK & BREAKUP BREAKDOWNS

Life in the sun is simply better. Life with Pepsi Max for 16 baht and every flavour of chips you couldn't even have imagined is better. Life with the only task for today is writing and finding the cheapest streetfood is better. The tourist sites can wait. We have been staying by the pool, charging our batteries after six very hectic Singapore days. The weather is more than fine here, it's much less humid than Singapore and the sun warms you, it doesn't instantly make you sweaty.

ART.SCIENCE MUSEUM SINGAPORE

Julia is such a nerd.
She likes biology and chemistry and math and even went through the natural science program in high school, whereas I chose not to be that ambitious and studied social science instead, secretly longing for the day I would pursue my true interests of the more creative sort.  

Now Julia wants to study psychiatry instead and my art persona is no longer hidden, but still, it somehow felt like somebody had modelled the ArtScience Museum in Singapore to perfectly fit our specific wants. 

Located right next to Marina Bay Sands, it should be no problemo finding our way there - if you are not one of the Axelsson sisters, that is. We jumped off by Marina South Pier. Don't do that. You'll

have to walk in the gazing sun for 20 minutes before turning up at Shoppes at Marina bay, something that would have taken you 2 minutes if you just exited at Marina Bay.  

...It was not even our first time in the area. (!!!)

Oh my, this is going to be an interesting trip... 

Speaking of interesting, they have this permanent exhibition on ArtScience Museum called Future World. We both managed to get in on Julia's student card, which ment two exhibitons for 19 S$ each.

And then the fun began... 

UNAWATUNA - A CAPSULE OF FROZEN TIME // LAST DAYS IN SRI LANKA

DAY 9-16 

UNAWATUNA

The 31th of January, we got fed up by the German lady and the dead corals and violent waves of Hikkaduwa and packed our suitcases for another beach town called Unawatuna, after being tipped of that there was supposed to be a beach reachable only through a walk in the jungle, that was supposed to have calm waters and very little people. Jennifer was longing for snorkling and I was just longing to get away from the hotel owner and her cheap internet, so we jumped on a train and 40 minutes later, we were there.

PICTURESQUE GALLE FORT

 Along the south west coast of Sri Lanka,
there is a small town called Galle 

with an UNESCO-certified fort.

We spent a day there, traveling back to Europe for a lovely couple of hours. 

~ HERE'S OUR STORY ~ 
~ IN PICTURES ~

THE MAN AND THE WATERBOTTLE SECRET

This is the story of what happened in Hikkaduwa a few days ago. 

We stayed a couple of days in Café Ceylon and except for the weird German lady, the staff was very lovely.  One day we bought a papaya and asked if one of the staff members could split it for us since we didn't have a knife.
He came up to our room with two plates with each half of a papaya, some napkins and a slice of lime. We thanked him smilingly and he stayed to talk with us for a while. He introduced himself as Haryana.

SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION & HATCHERY IN HIKKADUWA

WHAT:
A a family business conservation of sea turtles where the eggs are hatched and re-released in the sea after they are fed and looked after.

UNPLEASANT GUESTHOUSE OWNERS & CHANGED PLANS

DAY 6
HIKKADUWA

We've arrived in the beach town Hikkaduwa, a place where there was supposed to be great conditions for snorkling, something Jennifer's really been looking forward to.

RECOLLECTING MY ENERGY

DAY 4

KANDY

The last two days has really charged my batteries. Arriving in Kandy, we were alarmed by the noise, the traffic, the never ending "MISS! TAXI!?", the squawking birds. It was night time, the train arrived two hours late and we were solely exhaused.

First taxidriver approching us said 1000 LKR to go a couple of kilometers up on the hill. I strichtly said no and went on, as he approched us again asking for what we were willing to pay.
"500." I said ice cold as he just wrinkled his nose. After that a medival dance of taxidrivers starting coming towards us with the same offer. We quickly jumped in to the first guy who said 400 and we arrived at the hotel just a couple of minutes later.

TRAIN THOUGHTS FROM THE SRI LANKAN HIGHLANDS

DAY 3 
COLUMBO - KANDY 

Writing this, I am cruising through a landscape greener than anything else I've ever seen, taking breaks from the computer to stare wideeyed at the ocean of trees and mountains, all glazed in an etheral afternoon light. Through my body is in perfect harmony, finally in the timezone it is supposed to be in, my mind is somewhere else. 

DANGEROUS WATERS & AMAZING BREAD

DAY 2 
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA

I woke up this morning to the smell of coffee, which was idyllcal, and to the sound of my seven alarms, which was less pleasant.
"I did an experiment on you", Jennifer said from the bathroom. "I wanted to see how long it would take for you to wake up so I didn't turn of your alarms."
"And what was the result of this experiment?"
"That I wanted to throw your phone in the wall. Or possibly on you, but I doubt that would wake you up."
I laughed and drank my coffee.
"Where do we start today?" I asked.
"We need to do a cash withdrawal, find out where we are going after Colombo and hit that beach, finally..." She was abrupted by my grumbeling tummy, which made sounds suitable for ogres.
"Or we start with breakfast?"

____________

THE FIRST 48 HOURS - ASIA 2018

It has been a couple of looong days. 

In less than 48 hours,  I've gone from leaving my mom at the airport to take a unexpected detour touristing in London with Jessica just two hours later;
 to stress back to the airport to sit on a plane for 10 hours and cry because I felt so alone and didn't want to sleep on a strangers shoulder, but at the same time longed for closeness possibly more than I ever done before;
to entering Sri Lanka with no idea if I'd get a Visa or not, to being stuck at the airport with the same cluelessnes in next task - getting to the hotel;
to wandering the streets of Colombo in aftermidday sun with the task to find Galle Face which was supposed to be a great place for catching the sunset;
to falling asleep at 20 pm and being waked 1 am by Jennifer having trouble to enter the room.

At Galle Face Green, great spot for watching the sunset and eat cheap food. 

SINGAPORE-SPO FEAT MONA KAVEH

Mona, a friend from high school, spent four months as an exchange student in Singapore, and was eager to tell me about every little hidden gem the country and it's surroundings had to offer.

"First tip - upon arrival, google

"What's happening this week in Singapore".

There's always something going on, whether it's food festivals, jazz festival, arts, music, drinks... They really like festivals, haha.
TimeOut Singapore is the first resault and we used it all the time."

Other than that, Mona had a lot of great tips for any week in Singapore...