Long time no write! haha.
We are slowly headed North. Hokkaido is the Northern most prefecture in Japan, and we are headed to its central city, Sapporo, like the Japanese beer!
He hear there is snow up to our waist! We have no warm clothes so it should be fun! woo hoo!
More details later when I can sit down for a couple of hours and veg out...
xx
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
SF to Japan
Hi friends,
We are now in Tokyo after spending a 4-day pit stop in SF for Sabrina and Ashley's Birthdays:)
SF was beautiful, unlike how I remembered it to be... oh that's right, it was because it was rediculously HOT! The house I was helping with was done and there was a house warming... It looked spectacular! Congrats Christine! After two hot hot days at the beach, I was ready to move back to SF, but we had to scoot to Japan, so we left on the 21st. And I realized I forgot to take photos! It was really really nice to see you all.
The plane ride was really pleasant! We took ANA which was wonderful. 10 hours flew by. I didn't sleep because I couldn't stop watching movies. Drinks were free! hee hee;)
We flew in around 4:30pm and got to our couch surfer's place around 7:30. Yuji, our suuuuuuper nice CS host has 10 people in the house right now, including us, and has 3 more coming today potentially. We have a very full house!! It's kind of fun though, its like a hostel in 1 room. No problems with bathrooms and showering yet. We plan to stay here for a week. Sounds like we will be doing an all nighter on Sat... I wish you were here John!
I am meeting up with my mom and Lina tonight!!!! I can't wait. I'm gonna cry when I see Lina, it has been nearly a whole year since I last saw her...
much love, and more soon
We are now in Tokyo after spending a 4-day pit stop in SF for Sabrina and Ashley's Birthdays:)
SF was beautiful, unlike how I remembered it to be... oh that's right, it was because it was rediculously HOT! The house I was helping with was done and there was a house warming... It looked spectacular! Congrats Christine! After two hot hot days at the beach, I was ready to move back to SF, but we had to scoot to Japan, so we left on the 21st. And I realized I forgot to take photos! It was really really nice to see you all.
The plane ride was really pleasant! We took ANA which was wonderful. 10 hours flew by. I didn't sleep because I couldn't stop watching movies. Drinks were free! hee hee;)
We flew in around 4:30pm and got to our couch surfer's place around 7:30. Yuji, our suuuuuuper nice CS host has 10 people in the house right now, including us, and has 3 more coming today potentially. We have a very full house!! It's kind of fun though, its like a hostel in 1 room. No problems with bathrooms and showering yet. We plan to stay here for a week. Sounds like we will be doing an all nighter on Sat... I wish you were here John!
I am meeting up with my mom and Lina tonight!!!! I can't wait. I'm gonna cry when I see Lina, it has been nearly a whole year since I last saw her...
much love, and more soon
Monday, April 13, 2009
It's been a while...
So we are back in Rio again!
Since Joao Pessoa, we've done a bunch of bus ridin' and such to spend some time with Julia and Aaron in Itacare and Serra Grande. Itacare/Serra Grande is North of Rio and south of Salvador de Bahia, in the state of Bahia. It's like a super chill surf town, full of young people. We started off out journey from Natal, north of both Rio and Joao Pessoa, at 4am and got to Itacare at 8pm. Such a long day. This was back on the 7th. got to Itacare on the 8th. Sorry I realize my wri ting is sort of scatter-brain like, it's been a couple of days since the said dates and ac tiviti es, and since then there has been more groggyness b ringing traveling and my key board is messing me up!
anyway, it was nice to just chill at a beach town for a couple of days with some familiar faces. We (tried ) to speak more Portuguese than we had been, which was interesting and fun, and we really had some fun with some local peeps. I tried surfing for the first time. Its freaking wonderful! but I ended up with sore ass arms for 3 days!!! hahaha note to self: need to exercise more when I get back to real lif e. Saw some beautiful golden moons and pink and purple sunsets. We had such a great time. Juj and A are such awesome people:) I miss you guys already.
So after that on the 11th, we left Aaron's parents' house in Serra Grande at noon and headed for Rio. Bus ride from Ilheus to Salvador de Bahia (Stephane's fav city... NOT) left at 1245 and we got there at 8pm... sore bums! Then after that, went straight to the airport in Salvador to take a flight at 0040h to Sao Paulo, layover for 3 hours and left SP at 6am and f inally got to Rio at 7am on easter sunday. The place was a ghost town. I was soooooo tired I wanted to fall asleep with my 18kg backpack on my back. We checked ourselves in at this super shady hotel (at least it had a bed... with sheets that used to be cream colored I think... now gre y) and passed out for a good 2 hours. When we woke up, we took ourselves a nice long HOT shower ( This is pretty rare in Brazil but you dont need warm water really to freshen up around here...) in a room with a toilet. I will post a photo of this at a later date to illustrate my point. Then we headed to see o Cristo Redentor (christ the redeemer statue) on top of Corcovado. That thing is ginormous. it hurts your nec k to try to look up to it.
well, it's getting a bit long so im going to stop abruptly, but there will be more later. our Brazil trip is coming to a close in 4 days. We got tons of shopping to do (they've got great shoes here ladies!) for friends and of course ourselves, and more frolicking on the beach with Cariocas. Talk to you soonnnnnnnnnnn
xx
ps excuse my punctuation, im at an internet cafe and im under time pressure!!!
Since Joao Pessoa, we've done a bunch of bus ridin' and such to spend some time with Julia and Aaron in Itacare and Serra Grande. Itacare/Serra Grande is North of Rio and south of Salvador de Bahia, in the state of Bahia. It's like a super chill surf town, full of young people. We started off out journey from Natal, north of both Rio and Joao Pessoa, at 4am and got to Itacare at 8pm. Such a long day. This was back on the 7th. got to Itacare on the 8th. Sorry I realize my wri ting is sort of scatter-brain like, it's been a couple of days since the said dates and ac tiviti es, and since then there has been more groggyness b ringing traveling and my key board is messing me up!
anyway, it was nice to just chill at a beach town for a couple of days with some familiar faces. We (tried ) to speak more Portuguese than we had been, which was interesting and fun, and we really had some fun with some local peeps. I tried surfing for the first time. Its freaking wonderful! but I ended up with sore ass arms for 3 days!!! hahaha note to self: need to exercise more when I get back to real lif e. Saw some beautiful golden moons and pink and purple sunsets. We had such a great time. Juj and A are such awesome people:) I miss you guys already.
So after that on the 11th, we left Aaron's parents' house in Serra Grande at noon and headed for Rio. Bus ride from Ilheus to Salvador de Bahia (Stephane's fav city... NOT) left at 1245 and we got there at 8pm... sore bums! Then after that, went straight to the airport in Salvador to take a flight at 0040h to Sao Paulo, layover for 3 hours and left SP at 6am and f inally got to Rio at 7am on easter sunday. The place was a ghost town. I was soooooo tired I wanted to fall asleep with my 18kg backpack on my back. We checked ourselves in at this super shady hotel (at least it had a bed... with sheets that used to be cream colored I think... now gre y) and passed out for a good 2 hours. When we woke up, we took ourselves a nice long HOT shower ( This is pretty rare in Brazil but you dont need warm water really to freshen up around here...) in a room with a toilet. I will post a photo of this at a later date to illustrate my point. Then we headed to see o Cristo Redentor (christ the redeemer statue) on top of Corcovado. That thing is ginormous. it hurts your nec k to try to look up to it.
well, it's getting a bit long so im going to stop abruptly, but there will be more later. our Brazil trip is coming to a close in 4 days. We got tons of shopping to do (they've got great shoes here ladies!) for friends and of course ourselves, and more frolicking on the beach with Cariocas. Talk to you soonnnnnnnnnnn
xx
ps excuse my punctuation, im at an internet cafe and im under time pressure!!!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Paraty, Ilha Grande, Mangaratiba, Salvador de Bahia, and Joao Pessoa
Wow it's been only a couple of days since we left Rio, but we've covered these cities. Lots of nearly missed bus ridin' and shakey planes. The bus rides are absolutely insane. I swear i woke up in the middle of the night when we were going from Salvador to Joao Pessoa and I thought I was going straight to my death bed. They drive so fast on unpaved roads, and the whole bus was swaying left and right like on a boat on stormy waters.
We've met 3 more couch surfers... Alex in Mangarativa, and Antonio, Paula, and Gu in Joao Pessoa. They are all amazingly warm and super cool. We've been having a very good time with these ex-strangers.
I've decided I'm going to retire in Joao Pessoa. It is absolutely beautiful. It's very calm, peaceful, and the beach is available if you want to burn to death... which we did on the first day here, by accident while we were playing yatzi (sp?) like an old couple. Anyway, there is still a city, so I think this is gonna be it when or if I can ever retire.
Next stop is Natal.
Here are some pics from JP...
Ate logo:)
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