New Blog Address

I have too many photos on my blog, which is why I have not been able to post recently, so I had to creat a new blog...from now oncheck out www.estoyexplorando2.blogspot.com.

Varoius Videos

So I have uploaded the videos from Berlin to now...check them out if you feel the need...

Berlin

Holocaust Memorial

Communist Mural

Berlin

Reichstag

Sachenhausen Concentration Camp

Hungary

Hero´s Square Budapest

Estergom

Spain

Beach in Torrox

Beach in Torrox 2

La Alhambra , Granada

Palacios Nazaries, La Alhambra , Granada

A new adventure begins...or so it seems

So on Sunday night, I met up with Darrin as we were saying goodbye to Abi at the airport. Darrin is this guy who I met on the Lonley planet website, he was looking for someone to share the costs of a trip to Northern Africa in his Land Rover with him...and I thought that sounded good. So we left Geneva early on Moday morning and drove all day through France...we were hoping to spend the night in Andorra, but only ended up making it to a small town in the pyrenees called Vinca...where I got to spend my first night in the rooftop tent!!!!! The next day we took a lengthy and mountianous detour through Andorra, which was not too exciting a country...basically if Whistler were considered a country it would be very similar to Andorra. That night we were unable to find a campsite so we ended up sleeping at a gas station, somewehre in Spain, near this place called villagordo (fat town) I thought it was a funny name. The next day we drove for a full day again to the coast, and after driving around Malaga for four hours, we ended up finding a nice campsite in a town called Torrox. It is nice to be able to use my spanish, and I understand surprisingly well, although only being able to speak in present tense I seem to be having problems passing as a local:-P The original plan was to spend a couple of days getting to know eachother and sorting out the landy, but it turned out that Darrin had some issues to sort out first. So I spent a couple of days camping and walking along the beach in Torrox, but it truns out that we are delayed for at least a week so I decided to set off to check out some of Sapin. Darrin dropped me in Granada yesterday, adn I love it here, it is a beautiful city. Yesterday was Sunday so most everyhting was closed, but today i headed up to the Alhambra, an old city-palace-fortress that was AMAZINGLY beautiful...I even splurged and go the audio-guide, which was well worth it, although I cannot seem to retain any of the historical information, but it was interesting while it lasted. So I´ll spend tomorrow in Granada, then I am heading wherever the couchsurfing world takes me since I cannot really justify spending 25 Euros a night on accommodaion on an unplanned detour like this, and i want to meet some cool new people. So we will see what the next week brings...hopefully Africa soon though!

Photos will have to wait, they don´t seem to be working at the moment, apparently there are cookie problems with the computer...mmmm cookies!!!!

My fave email so far

You are a lucky little brat!
have fun,
love Randy

Yeah Dad!!!!!

So my Dad has left me after two months and I just wanted to say congratulations for keepng up with me and putting up with me!!!!!Good job :-p

Back in Geneva

Last summer I worked as an au pair in Geneva for this really cool family and so I came back for a bit of a visit. I was so nice to see them again and they got to meet my parents. It kinda felt like coming home, which was nice, but i had save tons of things to do here , but they are almost complete. I took my parents to the red cross museum, which is an amazing museum. We hung out and played with the kids. On Friday night I met up with Heike (who I met in Mongolia, but she lives in Geneva) and we picked up Abi from the airport (also from Mongolia, but she lives in London). We went for some super yummy cheese founue and a tip for when you eat cheese fondue, drink tea or wine and dont drink anything cold for three hrs after, so that all that melted cheese does not harden in your stomach and make you sick. Today we went on a walk and made some yummy Thai Green Curry for dinner...good times in Geneva. Oh yeah and my parents left for Miland this morning, so bye to them adn good luck on the rest of thier trip.

Hungary

Well last summer I fell in love with Budapest and my feelings have not changed, it is a beautiful ciy. Our first hotel was super fancy and too expensive so we ended up moving to an old and fancy apartment that was amazing. My Mom's fmaily is Hungarian and so we spent alot of the time visiting with family both in Budapest and Estergom. my Mom had not seen her cousins in nearly thirty years. I went caving underneath Budapest on Monday, which was super cool, it was my first time and it was WOW, if you ge the chance to try it I would reccommend it. You get crazy dirty and you squish your body through unthinkable cracks and holes, its a great worout and so much fun.

Berlin

We met my Mom in Berlin after leaving Riga. The most bestest thing about Berlin was that our hotel had a gym, ahhhh so great, eckkkk I am out of shape ;-( Anyways, I had been there last summer, but I still really liked it. WE did the free walking tour and the reichstag and we also went to Sachenhausen concentration camp, which was depressing, but surprising not as upsetting as Cambodia for some reason. the really great thing was that before my Mom left we got a homestay from Berlin and so we met up with her parents and theyy were really nice. Her dad even took me to the hspotal and I got my yellow fever shot and malaria pills, so I am ready for Africa. One day we did some shopping too.

We made it out of Russia!!!!!!

After a long delay a tthe airport in St. Petersburg we finally made it out of Russia. We arrived in Riga Latvia a beautiful little town. Too bad that we only had a day there...it was spent in the old town wandering and looking at a bunch of cool, cute buildings, it was reallxy reaxing and the food was delicious. the hostel was easy t find and the poeple were helpful and smiling, it was a nice change. I hope to head back to that area one day, chack it out better.

St. Petersburg

Well itàs been a while, but StPetersburg was a really nice city. We wandered alot and got lost for the first time on my trip. We went to the Hermitage, and that was kinda cool, otherwise I cant completley remember too much since soo much has happned since then, but I just wanted an excuse to post some photos and let ma Geandma know that the boulevards are large enough to sleep on, but I didn't, except for the photo.

Done!!!!

I have finally managed to post some photos, so my blog is extremely up to date, yeah me!!!

Lack of photos

I am really sad that I can't seem to upload photos to my blogs...it's looking too boring, more like a novel than a picture book ;-p Anyways maybe in Gremany I'll be able to put up some choice Mongolia nad Russia photos.

Russia Videos

Check them out (if you are not sick of videos after looking at China and Mongolia):

On the Trans-Siberian

Red Square and St. Basil's

Moscow Market

Moscow market

Kremlin

Tackiness

Some good Books

I have read a couple of good books latley, one is called A Short History of Nearly Everyhting by Bill Bryson and the other was called Desert Flower by Waris Dirie. Both we excellent (and bought photocopied in Vietnam ????). If you have a chance check them out!

A week in Moscow

So after our ordeal with the stamps and all, Moscow has been good...at the very least interesting. Our hotlel is near this crazy market where you could literally walk for hours and not not pass the same stall twice!!!! We have found soome good middle eastern food there as well a Pho...hmmm, not what I was expecting to eat in Moscow. We have seen all the sights, inclusing dead Lenin, which was an od experience. You wait in line and then walk through the square and go in the masoleum (sp???) and it's really dark and your eyes don't have time to adjust to the light and you ahve to go fast. The you walk past dead Lenin in a glass case like he's an exhibit at a museum and then it's done. Strange...Anyways the cathedrals here are cool looking, witht eh domes, and there's this one called St. Basil's that is multi coloured and spikey and very interesting looking. We have gotten to know the metro and formed our own pronuncations for cyrillic letters and words. Oh yeah and yesterday we went to this place that was built to show the world what communist Russia could do (according to the lonley planet) and it was the tackiest thing ever...you know how some things are so tacky they are cool...well this was tackier than that even, it was NOT COOL AT ALL! It was this massive 2 km boulevard type thing with fountians, golden statures and white arches/gates and more massive statues. Then there are locals everywhere praticing some sort of figure skating on rollerblades...all in all it was really strange. We also went to the Kremlin, which if you ask me was really quite boring and nothing that special, but I guess it had to be done. Today we take the night train to St. Petersburg and I we a killing time at an internet cafe since we had to check out of our hotel at noon and we don't leave until midnight.

K so the photos are (top to bottom): A babuska peering into the church window, An old lady praying in the convent, St. Basil's Cathedral at night, St. Basil's in the day (x2), tthe super tacky place, the bell tower at the convent, a church in the convent, a cannon in the Kremlin, the bell tower at the convent, the Kremlin, red square at night, a church in the Kremlin and the view from our hotel in Moscow