The Forbidden City

April 21, 2019Leave a comment

“It’s important to be comfortable with uncertainty.”
– Xiaolu Guo

I stayed in Beijing for two weeks preparing for my teaching assignment and during that time I checked off several bucket list items. The Forbidden City was nr. 2.

The Forbidden City was designed to be the centre of the ancient, walled city of Beijing. The former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (1420-1912), it now houses the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years.

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The Great Wall of China

April 19, 2019Leave a comment

“Building the Great Wall thousands of workers suffered; when will the end be of Meng Jiang’s lonely crying.”
Chinese Proverb

I have finally seen the Great Wall of China with my own eyes… Some in my group found it underwhelming. I didn’t.

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YEAR 2 :: My second year of travel

January 30, 2019January 31, 2019Leave a comment

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”
– Lao Tzu

February 26th 2019 I will officially have been travelling for two years. I am writing this blog post a little ahead of time as I am getting ready for my trip to China. I’ll be arriving in China second week of February to teach English for five months and travel around for one, therefore I’ll be in the middle of introduction week and course when this blog post was supposed to go up. I decided to be efficient 😉

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Living in Paris for a time

January 7, 2019January 13, 2019Leave a comment

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
– Ernest Hemingway

Living in Paris for a time and going to school to (re)learn French has been a point on my bucket list for near 15 years.

Now it is done. I have checked off this point on the list… And I have massively improved my French, made some friends for life and collected a bucket of new jokes and hashtags to take with me. #PourqouiMoi #PourqouiJapprendsFrancais #Pepe #Boulangerie #LhommeDeVache #LaPorteEstFermee #FrancaisEstUneLangueTresRiche

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The Catacombs of Paris

January 7, 2019January 12, 20191 Comment

“Stop. This is the empire of death.”

The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris’ ancient stone mines, the ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city’s overflowing cemeteries.
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The little things we don’t want to forget

September 29, 2018January 12, 2019Leave a comment

“Paris is always a good idea.”
– Audrey Hepburn

I have always loved sunsets. It’s a calm time, when you can breathe easy knowing you made it through another 24 hours and reflect on what you have experienced this day. What made you laugh? What did you see that your mind focused on enough to store in your memory bank? Who were those seven kids who ran down the road ahead of you this evening, what’s their story? What smelled good, and how about that godawful smell from the “poubelles”?

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Paris :: Keeping the mind busy

August 16, 2018January 12, 2019Leave a comment

“Life asked death, ‘Why do people love me but hate you?’ Death responded, ‘Because you are a beautiful lie and I am a painful truth.”

To live in Paris, my favourite city, and attend language school for at least three months to get my French up to speed. This has been on my Bucket List for years. I had originally planned it to be the final stop for my trip, but with everything that happened with Eystein, I need to not roam aimlessly for a while. I need something to keep me busy, to keep my mind from thinking of him, us and our story for at least a few hours each day…

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Eystein

August 16, 20182 Comments

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away”
– Terry Pratchett

I hadn’t planned to go home to Norway before staying out for three years. It was a thing for me, not going home until I was done with my trip… That all changed when my ex sent me an e-mail telling me he was terminally ill.

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Greece :: Erinn and Basil’s big, fat, Greek wedding

July 16, 2018January 12, 20191 Comment

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”
– Homer

Basil is crazy. He’s fab, but crazy. So he invited the whole Egypt-group to his wedding in Milos. I had never been to Greece, but I had seen both “My big, fat, Greek wedding”-moves so now I had two great reasons to go. Out of the eight people (including the “management”) in the group, four of us made it to Milos for the wedding (five if you include the groom, which you kinda have to, I guess).

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Greece :: Athens – Hadrian’s Gate & The Acropolis

July 15, 2018January 12, 2019Leave a comment

“There is nothing permanent, except change.”
– Heraclitus

Athens, one of humanity’s many cradles. I had only two days there so obviously the Acropolis was at the top of my list. I added Hadrian’s Gate for good measure, because I’m weirdly fascinated by the myth of Hadrian and it’s right next to the Acropolis.

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