Taking a Break

When it comes to the summer holiday I don’t really have to go far away to get in the holiday mode at all. I just need to go home, home to my hometown.

Leander and me will be spending some time in Tønsberg/Nøtterøy and have some quality time with our family. And it feels so good to just take a break from our home and go to visit another one of our homes.

You all know how much I enjoy my travelling, and crave that feeling of jumping on a plane and going off on a new adventure, but sometimes it just feels good to go back to places you know and love.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written a post every summer about how wonderful Tønsberg is in the summer time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar post ends up here this year as well.

So right now I’m taking a break. Not from writing, reading and filming, but a break from everyday life. And a much needed one at that!

Hope you’re all having a wonderful summer so far!

If you want to know what I’m up to, then follow me on snapchat: featherpen87

 

London – Short and Sweet

Let me tell you about my short and wonderful trip to London last week! It all started after a night of no sleep (because going to bed at 1-2 is useless when you have to get up at 3.30) and the regular wonderful travel nerves. Left my apartment at 4.15 am with my backpack on and headed for the bus to the airport.

Everything ran as smoothly as it possibly could, and at 7.38 am my Ryanair flight to Stansted was ready for takeoff. Sleep took a hold of me for most of the flight, and even though I love Ryanair for always being on time and having very affordable tickets, I certainly wish that they were easier to sleep on. Who sits with such a straight posture for an entire flight? Luxury problem, I know. I managed to fall in and out of sleep anyways.

A couple of hours later I was on British ground and headed for yet another bus. On previous trips to London I’ve taken the Stansted Express into town, but as I found that the bus was much cheaper, I decided to give that a go instead. The bus was comfortable, had free wifi and was a lot easier to sleep on. So I sneaked in another hour or so of sleep there as well and finally felt rested and ready for a busy day.

It was a rainy and grey London that met me when I got off the bus, but that wasn’t going to wear me down. The reunion was still filled with love and joy. I spent a few hours just walking around the city, soaking in that feeling of being home. The city, the people and the creative vibe of the place makes me walk around smiling like a crazy person.

After a few hours of walking around and getting lost on purpose, I found a sweet little café where I had some coffee and did some much needed writing. Typing came much easier than it had for quite some time, and I wasn’t at all surprised. Traveling really makes my creativity thrive and I wish I had the time and the money to do much more of it.

A few hours of writing passed by and I really got some good work done on my novel, and then I found my way to St. Christopher’s at the Village, the hostel where I had booked a bed. It was close to London Bridge, so extremely easy to get to and the staff was absolutely wonderful! I got the top bunk in a 33 bed dorm. Connected to the hostel was Belushi’s Bar, a very nice bar with a good atmosphere and cheap drinks for everyone sleeping at the hostel. I ended up sitting there to write for a while before I put my Surface away and ended up having a few beers with an Australian who was also traveling by himself.

I really enjoyed my stay at St. Christopher’s Inn and I will definitely stay there on my next visit as well!

The next morning I had to check out by 10 am. and the fact that I had forgotten to drink water before I got to bed hit me quite hard. Got a good walk in, some food and a coke, and I finally beat the hangover. After that I found my way to Victoria Station, sat there and did some more writing while enjoying a snack, and then it was already time to head back to the airport for my flight home unfortunately.

It was a very short, but much needed trip. I enjoyed every minute of it (well maybe not the short period of time where I felt horribly hungover), and hopefully I will be able to sneak in another one of these writing trips again soon! It does wonders for my creativity and for my happiness! The only downside is that now I just want to travel even more. Bitten by the bug, yet again! But I’m not going to complain about that. The traveling will happen in time, and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to experience such a short and sweet experience in a city that I love and have missed.

London baby, I’ll be back soon!

 

That Familiar Tug!

It’s grabbing a hold of me every day now. A plane flying by over head, the smell of coffee, that glimpse of sun, hearing foreign languages and watching strangers faces. Pretty much everything I see these days, reminds me of everything I’m missing when it comes to traveling.

I haven’t been away for a proper vacation since my family trip to the US in 2015, and that seems like a lifetime ago! Three of my closest friends and I went on a minicruise to Denmark a few weeks ago, but that just made it even worse. It was like being able to smell the chocolate cake, but not really biting into it!

I find myself going through Airbnb, Couchsurfing, Booking, TripAdvisor and every possible airline company site, and daydream myself away.

By now it actually hurts a bit, that’s how bad I want to go on a new adventure at the moment. The tug wont let go of me, and I’m pretty sure the only solution is to pack my backpack and go out and find one!

But that’s not really an option right now. Work, family and money are just a few things that’s in the way between me and my next trip. But I’m not here to make excuses for myself. I’m here to put the promise out there. The one where I promise myself that I will do everything it takes to go on that writing trip to Amsterdam that I’ve been thinking about for a few years, and I will do it next spring. I want to rent a cheap houseboat, only bring my backpack with clothes and writing supplies, drink red wine and write on deck while the sun goes down!

This is me, making a promise to take myself on a vacation! Soon my dear self, we will be sitting on that plane you see up there! Soon!

 

Late Night Thoughts and Coffee Cups

For some reason I always end up staying up late, immersed in my own thoughts and creativity whenever I go back home to my parents for a visit. Could be the change of scenery or maybe just the comfort of being on home base that brings out something that’s been tucked away for a while. 

Some of it probably comes from the deep conversations I have with close family and friends when I come around. They bring a lot of subjects and thoughts to the surface that I rarely touch on with other people in my everyday life. This is something that I’m extremely grateful for and definitely always look forward to when I’m going home, but it also makes for a bit of a bitter sweet experience. Late nights of writing and endless coffee refills (not that I need it. I’m pretty much immune to caffeine at this point!) has become sort of a routine. 

Over the past few days I’ve had a mini-vacation back to my hometown just to have some quality time with my family and friends, and to recharge my batteries for the hectic time to come. These last couple of days can definitely be described as interesting. Not that there’s much to tell that would be of any interest to anyone else but me, but the experience in general has just been wonderful. A lot of meaningful conversations, new ideas, reconnected friendships and lots and lots of good coffee. I crave these kind of inputs in my life on a regular basis, to clear my head a bit and to see my life and thoughts from a different perspective. It’s healthy for me, and I think a lot of people could benefit from similar experiences. We all need to step back a little from time to time, to really be able to see where everything is going and to really be able to understand ones needs. We get so caught up in everyday life (nothing wrong with that! We all live it.) that we push away the important thoughts and questions, storing them for a later and “more convenient” time. But the very truth and essence of everyday life is that it is exactly that: YOUR LIFE! It’s not the time that you wait around for life to actually start happening. It’s not the time where everything that goes down is of less significance because the events aren’t huge! It’s the everydays that mounts up to the life that you choose to live. 

I don’t knoe about you guys, but sometimes I need a little reminder of exactly that. And that’s what I love so much about coming home to the important people in my life that I don’t have around me as often as I’d like, in my everyday life. 

So I take the late nights, the deep thinking, the laughter, the crying, the joy, the pain, the tough questions, the light hearted jokes and all the cups of coffee. I take them all with so much gratefulness. Because in my experience, the only ones who takes you on that ride and asks the tough questions (and really listen to your answers as well) are the ones who truly cares about your well-being. Those are the people that I need to recharge and rethink. 

And to you (come on! Don’t pretend you don’t know who you are): 

Thank you! 

I probably don’t say that enough! Thank you! 

  

I Was Thinking About Hotels

I love staying in hotels!

Some people give me the weirdest look whenever utter this statement and I can understand that. If the person do a whole lot of traveling for work and sleeps more in strange places than at home, then of course it’s not going to be the most exciting of experiences. You’ll grow tired of going from place to place when the only place you might actually want to be is at home between your own sheets.

I on the other hand, don’t get to enjoy hotels as often as the traveling worker, so whenever I do get the chance it really is a fascinating experience. There’s just something so incredibly inspiring in staying somewhere new and different. And especially if the room/hotel has a lot of personality and history. And one of the things I enjoy the most is trying to get a feel of what kind of people that lives there besides me. Their stories, their lives and their next direction of choice as they leave the hotel.

At this very moment I’m sitting in my hotel bed in Gothenburg (away on a little family vacation) and the thoughts are rushing to all the stories and lives that this room (and all the others) are keeping as a secret from everyone else.

I’m sure there’s a whole lot of stuff that I don’t want to know about, but then again there are probably a whole lot of interesting history in every single place that I’ve ever stayed. Stories never told of life, love and loss. Of vacations, work and escape routes.

What if these walls could talk? 

For one thing they might be able to tell me why most of the staff in the restaurant had no sense of good customer service, but that’s not really what I want to hear. I want to know about the people that has stayed here, the ideas that came to life and the relationships that formed or ended. The turning points in people’s lives that suddenly appeared in a strange place away from home.

If the walls would talk to someone in the future, my stay here probably would not make the list of the most interesting tales. It would be the story of a ginger girl who sat in bed and wondered. She wondered about the past, the present and the future. And when the wonder factory got too full of wondering she had to let it out before the factory exploded. So she did what she had to do.

She wrote!

I’ve waited a long time for this..

Sounds like I’ve done something life changing right?

Well I haven’t, but the fact is I haven’t really had a vacation in over a year or so (except for 2-3 packed days here and there).. So last Saturday me and Simon went on our first real vacation as a couple. We had a weekend in Berlin in September to go IFA, but I don’t look at that as a real couples vacation.

But this time around we went away for a week. To Turkey 🙂

It was so nice to get away together. Have a whole week were none of us had to think about work.

We enjoyed warm weather,  good food and drinks, and of course each other.

Our trip started in Kemer. Stayed there for 3 nights. Here we mostly slept in the sun, drank wine/beer and talked a lot.

After that the trip went to Pamukkale. It was a long bus drive to get there, but it was worth it:)

Hot springs all over the “cotton castle”.

I couldn’t help but be inspired by the natural beauty of this place! I wanted to just sit down and write right there!

One day after that we went to Alanya. On the way there we visited a carpet factory. We got to see what an amazing amount of work goes into making these handmade carpets.

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In Alanya we enjoyed the beach and also had a night out on the town 🙂

The week flew by and I wish we had more time to explore and to just relax. But tomorrow it’s back to work. I thought I’d feel more relaxed and recharged, but I don’t feel ready to back at all. I got a taste of the sweet vacation life, and I want more 😛

But hey, maybe next year 🙂

All the pictures (except the one of myself) is taken my my Galaxy S3.