The Real Life Fantastic

London was wonderful!

I‘m a bit bummed to be back in reality, but at least the Easter holidays are coming up. Thank the Easter bunny for five day weekends!

I‘m going to tell you all about the trip, but since it was quite packed with activities I will break it down with LJ cuts so that you can skip over stuff that doesn't catch your interest. You are of course free to skip everything and just read the tl;dr at then end. (But then you miss the pictures!)



( Thursday – Travel and Tesco )

( Friday – Harry Potter Studio Tour and Book of Mormon )

( Saturday – The Parliament tour and afternoon tea )

( Sunday – Windsor castle )

( Monday – St. Paul‘s and Oxford Street )

Tl;dr version:

- Harry Potter studio tour: Very train. Delicious butterbeer. Much emotions. Wow.

- Book of Mormon show: Incredibly funny and worth the ticket price. Met interesting Doctor Who couple who were about to be engaged!

- Parliament tour and afternoon tea: So majestic! And the best scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam you can imagine.

- Windsor castle: Queen was at home but did not come out to greet us. Also, breaking news: Rich people make giant rooms with awesome paintings and furniture.

- Went to church??? (Got to sit in very fancy church chair.)

- Saw St. Paul‘s from the outside and also spent money on Oxford Street.


So. That was my trip to London.

Like I said before, I'm glad that I have another few days off coming up so that I'll be able to rest and recuperate. Although, I'm already invited to one party on Friday, and my mother got tickets for a Jesus Christ Superstar show on Thursday. Still. I think I'll probably have plenty of time to rest as well.

You guys have any plans for Easter?

I'm back in Iceland! I got back last night, but I didn't come online since I needed to sleep.

The journey went pretty well. It was long, but not as stupid as the journey from England to Australia. (I didn't have to spend the night freezing to death in the overly air conditioned airport in Abu Dhabi.) I did have to spend 8 hours in Heathrow, but that was fine. I had a book.

Right now I'm going to have a shower and enjoy a big glass of ice cold tap water. Oh, Icelandic tap water. How I have missed you.

Later on I'm going to visit my sister and my nephew and go DANCING. Yay!

Yay Obama! Congratulations to my American friends and to the rest of us! I'm so relieved!

In other news, I'm back in Narrabri and my day to day life is full of thrashing wheat (don't ask) and playing Scrabble. I love Scrabble. That's all for now, as my grandmother's internet connection is being weird due to some thunder storms. They're not even that close! Silly internet.

The weather has been hot hot hot, but everyone is hoping for rain rain rain. I even went swimming today in the unheated Narrabri pool and it was such a relief!

Anyway, back to my Scrabble game...

Sorry I haven't been posting! I promise I will tell you all about my adventures in Sydney and Byron Bay soon. Opera houses have been viewed, kangeroos have been fed from the palm of my hand, koalas have been cuddled, and books have been read on the beach. Life is good!

Yesterday Lindsay drove me and Þorri to the doorstep of Erin's house in Albury. (A mere 9 hour drive. He is a saint.) Erin is a girl that came to Iceland last year as an exchange student and she ended up spending a lot of time with Þorri and his friends in the Political Science department at the University of Iceland. She and her boyfriend Jack are studying medicine here in Albury.

Today was our first full day in Albury, and apparently Erin took us to see all the sights. Now we just have to figure out what to do with our time until Thursday. (That's when we fly with Erin to Sydney.)

We started the day with a lovely bike ride to the Botanical Gardens and a walk to a couple of World War monuments.



We walked around a pretty neat art gallery which was full of aboriginal art, Japanese prints and interesting portraits. They even had a station where you could draw your own self portrait! I did a very quick one, but it was bad so I didn't take a picture of it.

Lunch consisted of sandwiches and pie, with ridiculously unhealthy doughnut things for dessert. (In Australia there is no such thing a plain doughnut. It has to be full of cream, and drizzled with chocolate, and liberally smeared with jam. In the very least.)

To distract ourselves from all the calories we imbibed we did some more sight seeing on our trusty bikes. (Mine was a squeaky one from the eighties.) There was beautiful scenery and absolutely no crashing into obstacles or small children.

Before we headed home we stopped to admire the river and relax on the bank for a while.



Erin made us an amazing vegetable curry for dinner and we devoured it along with rice, naan bread and white wine. Þorri and I did the dishes and we've just been relaxing ever since.

Since my last update I have enjoyed a lovely stay in London, been reunited with Thorri, and flown to the other end of the planet.

I can't believe I'm in Australia already. It's been this far off part of my journey for such a long time. When I saw my grandmother and Lindsay waiting for me and Thorri at the Tamworth airport I was struck with the sheer insanity of it all. I can't really put the feeling into words, but it might have been close to how you feel when you've been spinning around on a desk chair for ages and then suddenly get up.

( London )

My last full day in London, Monday, was spent getting ready to meet Þorri at the airport. I must have made it to the arrivals gate almost two hours early because I was so eager to see him again! You can imagine how happy we were when we were finally reunited. ♥

We stayed at an airport hotel that night, making it easy to get the airport the next day. I won't bore you with the details of our journey (6 hours to Abu Dhabi, 10 hours waiting in Abu Dhabi, 13 hours to Sydney, 4 hours waiting in Sydney, 1 hour to Tamworth, 2 hours driving to Narrabri) except to say it was exhausting. Especially since I came down with a sore throat right at the start of the journey. I did manage to catch up on all the recent film releases, though.

After we got to my grandmother's house we've been doing a lot of eating and sleeping. Þorri is loving all the animals that you see around the house (mainly birds and some lizards) and I'm loving my grandmother's collection of murder mysteries. Oh, and last night we started watching Downton Abbey! I've already become quite invested.

Tonight there will be a dinner party. My grandmother has invited some friends that I'm looking forward to seeing again, and there has been talk of pancakes. Yummy Icelandic pancakes!

Hopefully my throat will get better soon, being sick is no fun. Will you send me some healing mojo if you have any to spare?

Right now I am relaxing after a lovely day at the Berlin Zoo. Before I tell you more about that I want to briefly describe my stay in Krakow.

( Krakow )

I went to Berlin early the next day, and was met at the station by a lovely German guy by the name of Veit. He drove me to his apartment (which he shares with a flatmate, an equally lovely girl called Anka) in a very interesting car. It was one of the car-sharing cars of Berlin. They have this program where you can rent a car for however long you need it at the drop of a hat. You have a microchip in your driver's license which activates the car, and when you need to find the nearest car-sharing vehicle... There's an app for that! The people behind the program take care of cleaning the cars and filling them with gas. Amazing!

Anyway, Veit's couch is very comfortable, there is wifi (and a laptop I'm allowed to use) and he took me to the rooftop of his apartment building for pizza and beer on my first evening here. In other words - Excellent host!

My first day in Berlin was full of typical tourist activities. I went to see the East Side Gallery, Alexanderplatz, the Berlin cathedral, the Reichstag building, Brandenburger Tor and the Victory Column. (Among other things.)

>

I spent the evening eating delicious sugary popcorn and drinking cherry coke while watching silly stuff with Veit.

Today I went to the Zoo, as I have already mentioned, and it was epic. I think I must have spent two hours just hanging out with the monkeys and the apes. There were so many! And I managed to catch the feeding time for the Orangutangs and the Gorillas! Also, I saw lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, polar bears, zebras, giraffes and elephants! It was just like a zoo ought to be.



I really loved the gorillas. ♥

Tomorrow I am off to Copenhagen, and currently I am off to take a shower!

Right now I'm in Prague! I'm safe and sound at a couch surfer's place, and I've been having a blast ever since Greece.

I spent an amazing day in Venice last Sunday - You will not believe the weather I got! At first it was cloudy, then it was sunny and nice, then it was cloudy again but with the added bonus of ominous thunder. A few random rain drops encouraged people to find shelter. Then it hailed for 15 seconds. After that it was like the heavens opened and all the water from everywhere just came pouring down in magnificent windy gushes! I got it on video... It was the most amazing rain I have ever seen.

During the 20 minute downpour I stayed put along with most of the crowd, enjoying the shelter, taking pictures and smiling at the craziness of nature. A few brave souls fought their way through the storm with umbrellas or ponchos as weapons. The occasional free spirit ran through the square with bare feet and bare chests - embracing the rain like an old friend.

Once it stopped raining the clouds lingered and a fantastic lightening storm entertained the crowd which was waiting for the next boat to the train station. I have never seen so much lightening! It was like a firework display!

When I arrived at the train station the clouds were disappearing and a rainbow could be seen in the distance. Through the train windows I observed the most stunning sunset I have seen in a long time.

But other than the weather - Venice was beautiful. I walked around, looked at bridges and beautiful buildings, enjoyed art at the Academie fine art museum and ate some delicious Italian food.

I didn't spend the night in Venice because my host lived about an hour and a half away from the city. It was a sleepy little town, and the view from his balcony was amazing. I liked being able to see a less urban side of Italy.

After Venice I visited Vienna. Oh, Vienna! It totally captured my heart. Especially Schonbrunn palace. My mother always talks about that place, and I completely understand why! It's amazingly beautiful. But I thought it was especially fun to visit it because of the history. My friend Sigrún lent my her DVDs with the Sissi movies - they're all about the Austrian empress called Sissi and her life. Very romantic! While I was touring the palace there were so many references to her and her life. Very cool.

While I was in Vienna I tasted genuine Vienersnitzel (yum!), Sacher cake from the Sacher hotel (double yum!), went to see the Hundertwasser house, the Karlskirche, the Belvedere palace, the Donau river, and generally walked around and appreciated the city. It was amazing. ♥

Anyway, I just got to Prague and I'm staying with a bunch of other surfers with a super nice host in a huge apartment in the centre of the city. The view from here is crazy amazing. I can't believe this is my life!

Since my last update I have done a lot.

- I visited the Chateau d'If and said goodbye to Laufey and Marseille.

- I jumped on a train to Geneva, where I ended up drinking Swiss white wine aboard a boat on the Geneva Lake within hours of my arrival. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love the couch surfing project?)

- Visited CERN and saw physicists hard at work, analysing fresh data from the LHC.

- Spent more than 10 hours on trains getting myself to Rome. This included amazing views of Switzerland and Italy.

- Saw the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Castle d'Angelo, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Fountain of Four Rivers and many many other famous and important things.

- Watched The Artist under the stars.

- Ate the best gelato I have ever tasted. (Banana and dark chocolate flavours mixed together with whipped cream on top!)

- Went on a road trip to see the pope at his summer house (he totally blessed my hat) and then to see a small town called Palestrine, where there was a pretty cool museum with stunning views of the surrounding area. Ate at an awesome restaurant along the way - was the only tourist in there!

- Tasted real Italian coffee in the tiniest cup I have ever seen. (It was probably 50% coffe and 50% sugar, though.)

I wish I had time to go into detail about all of this, but I feel like I'm hogging my host's computer enough already. Maybe next time? Although by then I will hopefully have accumulated new and exciting stories to tell you.

Phew! Finally a chance to post!

I've made it to Marseille in one piece after a wonderful week in Paris with Thorri. It was horrible to say goodbye to him yesterday, but I'm trying not to dwell on it. I have a month to see Europe, and then we will be together again! Two whole months together in Australia before Real Life takes over again.

Last time I updated I told you about the Louvre and some other stuff. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the other sights that Thorri and I took in while we were in Paris.



( Oui oui, tell me more! )

Yesterday was truly our last day. Thorri had to leave for the airport soon after we woke up, but I was able to stay longer since my train left in the evening. Paris said goodbye to us by giving us beautiful weather, almost as if it were tempting us to stay. I tried not to miss Thorri too horribly (although I let myself wallow with a cocktail for a while) and did some tourist stuff. But eventually the weather tempted me to settle down in the gorgeous little park next to the Hotel Esmeralda - where Thorri and I stayed for our last two nights in Paris - to read and enjoy the view.