Alrighty, I guess this is my last blogg about my adventure down under. Im back in Norway, and starting to get back into old routines, seeing old friends and starting work tonight. Being back is weird, I still wake up thinking im in Australia, and Im still thinking in english. And I miss Australia and my life there a lot. There is so many things im gonna miss about brissy. for instance: im gonna miss going down to the vill and eating asian food at least once a week, playing beach, miss uni campus which is awesome, st lucia, all my aussie mates and of course all the internationals as well, tim tams, taking a stroll along southbank, rugby games, courtneys crazy stories about everything that happens to her, adams crud jokes, meggies big smile, talias hick ups (soo cute), chanels enthusiasm for sea creatures, marisas canadian-ism, great conversations (thanks for always making me feel better about my self ;) and dinner dates, anette listening to be ranting about everything, birds singing in the morning (but not the construction workers in the morning ;), beau getting all excited about telling me stuff, trying to figure out what Leo is talking about in french, stian, kim and steffen fun times, even gonna miss uncle rod a little (hahaha), going to the cinemas with the v-ball gang.. wow.. im gonna miss a lot of stuff really (and for all of you people i didnt mention, i think about you too, you know who you are ;)
LA was awesome btw. Havnt really blogged about it, because ive been lazy. But Torkels dad picked us up at LAX, we drove around with them for 2 days, went to universal (best day ever), had dinner at santa monica pier, rented bikes at venice, walked down walk of fame (a lot, as we were staying on holloywood blvd), saw the MJ star, went vintage shopping on melrose and saw a lot of crazy americans. Lot of pictures on facebook, check out anettes photos too ;)
Guess this is the end... :(
Loove Marion
tirsdag 14. juli 2009
mandag 6. juli 2009
Talofa lava!
Tuesday morning we had 2 hours to kill before leaving for the airport. We found a little café in Queenstreet, hade some brekkie, and then walked around the uni of Auckland, where my friend is studying next year. Then it was off to the airport. I’ve been stressing about my passport, but didn’t run into any problems at all, so that was good. Got a lot of questions in Brissy though, but no real problems. The flight to Samoa was 4 hours. We got really confused by the time difference. We left on a Tuesday from Auckland, and arrived on Monday night on Samoa. And then woke up to a whole new Tuesday again. Kinda like groundhog day, although we didn’t do the same things all over again, ok, so not like groundhog day really, haha..
We got reunited with my friend Mariel at Princess Tui-inn. So nice to see her again, share stories about Aussieland and kiwiland and just talk about home and what not. We stayed in a 6 bed dorm with 3 other girls on holidays, Alissa and Cassie from the states and Ima from NZ. Also met a Norwegian dude the first night (Mr T or Torkel). So funny. He studies at NTNU too, arrived on Samoa the same day as us, and is going to LA too, and staying at the same place as us there too. That’s kilroy for ya. So we are now the fantastic 4. Nice to have a guy around when we are walking through town at night and wherever really, don’t get all the sleezy guys coming up to us that much :P
The people of Samoa are the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Everyone greets each other when we pass each other in the street, smile and ask questions about where we are from etc. Definitely have many stories about encounters with the locals. One of our taxi drivers was especially memorable. He was trying to teach us some Samoan, and of course we sucked at the pronunciation. One of the words he tried to teach us was the Samoan word for please, which is Fa’amolemole. And we could never get it right. So he was repeating it a lot. MOLE MOLE! You kinda had to be there, but it was great fun, and we are still saying mole mole a lot. Another thing we are singing a lot is Mr lava lava. Everyone wears lava lavas down here, which is a rap-around-skirt. They also have a store that is called Mr lava lava. So need to find it again and take a photo!
Our accommodation in Apia on Upolu (the main island) was pretty nice (Princess tui inn). Its right on the beach, 2 min walk from Palolo Deep National Marine Resort, which we spend one afternoon. The reef wasn’t too bad, but nothing compared to the Australian reefs. But we saw a lot of different fish and got to swim around in warm waters.
On Tuesday we decided that we wanted to go to the beach, and we wanted to travel like the locals. It has to be the most interesting bus ride in history. We headed to the marked at 09.00, to find the buses, took us a while to find the right one, everyone was looking at us palange people (white people). When we finally found the right bus we started our bus adventure. It took us about 30 min before we even left the city, because the bus doesn’t leave before it’s full. After that we stopped to pick up some drywall, before we left the city. After 10 min driving, we stopped for lunch. Four hours later we were in Lalumanu, on the other side of the island. Longest bus trip ever, on wooden seats. Haha. But it was really fun. Got to stop in all the villages on the way. Samoan people live in villages, there are over 300 villages on the island, everything is really traditional, and we got to see a couple of them up close on Savaii, which was really cool.
Lalumanu beach was beautiful. Long white beach, with crystal clear turquoise water. Sweet!! Stayed for a couple of hours before we took a taxi back to Apia. Spend most of our nights sitting in front of our hostel on the stairs or in the sitting area inside, looking out on the ocean. They sold beer at our hostel, so really no reason to go anywhere else, and it was really easy meeting other backpackers.
Woke up to rain to Wednesday, considering that the forecast was pretty dim before we landed on Samoa, we had good weather the whole week, despite a couple of afternoon showers. The fantastic 4 headed up to the Papseea sliding rocks, which is basically sliding down a 5 meter waterfall. Mariel, Anette and me thought it looked to scary, so we didn’t slide down the waterfall, but Torkel did, after seeing a bunch of school kids doing it, so he figured it was ok.
After spending some time at the sliding rocks we headed to the marked in Apia, which was pretty cool. And the marked in Apia was way better than the one in Savaii (the other island). We had lunch at the marked, which basically consisted of deep fried chicken, fish and pork, and some sausage and bananas, so kinda special.
Later that night we went to a fiafia show, which is a drag show. We were a big group, Blaire from New Zealand (copper friend working in Melbourne), the two American girls in our dorm, Torkel, Ima from NZ, Mariel, Anette and me. The show was ok, but the service and dinner was horrible. We had to wait for a food for 2, 5 hours. So we were kinda grumpy after that, and we complained, or the copper complained, and we got a free drink and dessert. Three of us ordered margaritas, but it was only tequila, so that wasn’t any better. But our friends jugged them. Haha.. we got to know a local that was working at the bar, and he felt bad for us, receiving such bad service, so he invited us back to “their bar”, so we assumed it was a Samoan bar, but actually it was their bar. haha. A place called Olympia bar. And they had karaoke So Mariel and I sang a lot of songs, and we got Torkel to do it too. Too many pictures of that night. Haha. The American girls did all their pacific dancing that they learned at uni, and that was great success among the locals.
On Thursday we headed up to the cave pools (Piula Cave pool) which is under a church. Awesome place to go for a swim, watch the fishes and you could also dive under from the one cave to the other, but we thought it was too scary (again). Torkel was man enough to do it though. We also got to talk to an aussie/samoan that had moved to the church to study the bible and stuff. They are really religious down here. They have at least one church in every village, and there are over 360 villages on Samoa, so that’s a lot of churches. Anywhu.. it was cool to talk to her, because she had lived most of her life in St Lucia actually, and then moved to a place like this, so it was weird for her, but she liked it (kinda), and she had 6 kids and a husband that really liked it.
On Friday we headed out to Savaii, the other island, for two nights. The ferry took about 1,5 hours. Wee.. I didnt get seasick. We stayed at a place called Regina’s beach fales at Manase, a 45 min taxi ride from the docks. We got recommended the place from Lindsay and Brendon, to kiwis staying at Princess Tui inn. Lindsay was a teacher on Savaaii 20 years ago, and Brendon (her son) was with her, so they were back trying to catch up with people they had met back then. Regina’s served 3 meals for 60 talas, so it was really good. They cook traditional Samoan food, so that was awesome. Definitely a place to recommend. And the people running it was so nice when we got there 2 hours after lunch, they still found some food for us! The 4 of us stayed in one fale together, so that was sweet. So nice to wake up to the sound of waves. We literally had the ocean 3 m in front of us.
Saturday. We had this really great idea of waking up early to see the sun rise. So we set the alarm at 0500 am. Haha. No sun rise before 0600, so we waited and waited, and then when the sunrise finally came it was cloudy so we didn’t see anything Lindsay and Brandon asked us to go with them around the island, so we hired a van and some other guys from Reginas joined us, so we were 10 people. Great fun. We visited a couple of villages, trying to find some people Lindsay knew when she was a teacher at Savaaii. At one of the villages they showed us a really cool place to go swimming, which only the locals used. We also got to go to a place called Saleaula lava fields, where there were ruins of an old village. The village got destroyed in the lava flow in the early 18th century. However the church and the virgin’s grave wasn’t touched (the chiefs daughter or something died as a virgin, and the grave didn’t get touched be the lava, so oooo, be a virgin and praise the lord kinda thing).
Our last big stop for the day was at the Alofaaga blowing holes, which was awesome. For me that was probably the best experience of the trip. I have a lot of photos that will end up on facebook when I get home. Torkel looked down one of the blow holes at one point, and he got soaked. Haha. I have the best photo of it.
Later that night we headed to Jane’s bar, a bar down the street from Reginas. The whole gang came, and we also met some new people. We had a lot of cocktails, dive Savaii (yummy) and pina coladas, and of course many vailimas (the local samoan beer). We ended up sitting at the beach after Janes closed down. And yes, I have photos of that too.
On Sunday we headed back to Upolu, but first we spend a couple of hours at the beach just relaxing. We went out to dinner with Blaire (mr cop) and his samoan friend Robbie (who is also Australian), went to a more fancy place down by the fish marked (the sails).
Tomorrow is our last night on Samoa, before we are taking on LA and Hollywood. Torkel is staying at the same hostel as us, so we are travelling over with him, which will be fun. The two American girls that are in our hostel, are also taking the same flight as us, so airport waiting will be a little bit better than usual! Samoa has been one of the best vacations ever, really high up there. Met a lot of cool people, learned a lot about Samoan people and did and saw heaps of fun stuff.
Manuia Le Po
Goodnight
We got reunited with my friend Mariel at Princess Tui-inn. So nice to see her again, share stories about Aussieland and kiwiland and just talk about home and what not. We stayed in a 6 bed dorm with 3 other girls on holidays, Alissa and Cassie from the states and Ima from NZ. Also met a Norwegian dude the first night (Mr T or Torkel). So funny. He studies at NTNU too, arrived on Samoa the same day as us, and is going to LA too, and staying at the same place as us there too. That’s kilroy for ya. So we are now the fantastic 4. Nice to have a guy around when we are walking through town at night and wherever really, don’t get all the sleezy guys coming up to us that much :P
The people of Samoa are the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Everyone greets each other when we pass each other in the street, smile and ask questions about where we are from etc. Definitely have many stories about encounters with the locals. One of our taxi drivers was especially memorable. He was trying to teach us some Samoan, and of course we sucked at the pronunciation. One of the words he tried to teach us was the Samoan word for please, which is Fa’amolemole. And we could never get it right. So he was repeating it a lot. MOLE MOLE! You kinda had to be there, but it was great fun, and we are still saying mole mole a lot. Another thing we are singing a lot is Mr lava lava. Everyone wears lava lavas down here, which is a rap-around-skirt. They also have a store that is called Mr lava lava. So need to find it again and take a photo!
Our accommodation in Apia on Upolu (the main island) was pretty nice (Princess tui inn). Its right on the beach, 2 min walk from Palolo Deep National Marine Resort, which we spend one afternoon. The reef wasn’t too bad, but nothing compared to the Australian reefs. But we saw a lot of different fish and got to swim around in warm waters.
On Tuesday we decided that we wanted to go to the beach, and we wanted to travel like the locals. It has to be the most interesting bus ride in history. We headed to the marked at 09.00, to find the buses, took us a while to find the right one, everyone was looking at us palange people (white people). When we finally found the right bus we started our bus adventure. It took us about 30 min before we even left the city, because the bus doesn’t leave before it’s full. After that we stopped to pick up some drywall, before we left the city. After 10 min driving, we stopped for lunch. Four hours later we were in Lalumanu, on the other side of the island. Longest bus trip ever, on wooden seats. Haha. But it was really fun. Got to stop in all the villages on the way. Samoan people live in villages, there are over 300 villages on the island, everything is really traditional, and we got to see a couple of them up close on Savaii, which was really cool.
Lalumanu beach was beautiful. Long white beach, with crystal clear turquoise water. Sweet!! Stayed for a couple of hours before we took a taxi back to Apia. Spend most of our nights sitting in front of our hostel on the stairs or in the sitting area inside, looking out on the ocean. They sold beer at our hostel, so really no reason to go anywhere else, and it was really easy meeting other backpackers.
Woke up to rain to Wednesday, considering that the forecast was pretty dim before we landed on Samoa, we had good weather the whole week, despite a couple of afternoon showers. The fantastic 4 headed up to the Papseea sliding rocks, which is basically sliding down a 5 meter waterfall. Mariel, Anette and me thought it looked to scary, so we didn’t slide down the waterfall, but Torkel did, after seeing a bunch of school kids doing it, so he figured it was ok.
After spending some time at the sliding rocks we headed to the marked in Apia, which was pretty cool. And the marked in Apia was way better than the one in Savaii (the other island). We had lunch at the marked, which basically consisted of deep fried chicken, fish and pork, and some sausage and bananas, so kinda special.
Later that night we went to a fiafia show, which is a drag show. We were a big group, Blaire from New Zealand (copper friend working in Melbourne), the two American girls in our dorm, Torkel, Ima from NZ, Mariel, Anette and me. The show was ok, but the service and dinner was horrible. We had to wait for a food for 2, 5 hours. So we were kinda grumpy after that, and we complained, or the copper complained, and we got a free drink and dessert. Three of us ordered margaritas, but it was only tequila, so that wasn’t any better. But our friends jugged them. Haha.. we got to know a local that was working at the bar, and he felt bad for us, receiving such bad service, so he invited us back to “their bar”, so we assumed it was a Samoan bar, but actually it was their bar. haha. A place called Olympia bar. And they had karaoke So Mariel and I sang a lot of songs, and we got Torkel to do it too. Too many pictures of that night. Haha. The American girls did all their pacific dancing that they learned at uni, and that was great success among the locals.
On Thursday we headed up to the cave pools (Piula Cave pool) which is under a church. Awesome place to go for a swim, watch the fishes and you could also dive under from the one cave to the other, but we thought it was too scary (again). Torkel was man enough to do it though. We also got to talk to an aussie/samoan that had moved to the church to study the bible and stuff. They are really religious down here. They have at least one church in every village, and there are over 360 villages on Samoa, so that’s a lot of churches. Anywhu.. it was cool to talk to her, because she had lived most of her life in St Lucia actually, and then moved to a place like this, so it was weird for her, but she liked it (kinda), and she had 6 kids and a husband that really liked it.
On Friday we headed out to Savaii, the other island, for two nights. The ferry took about 1,5 hours. Wee.. I didnt get seasick. We stayed at a place called Regina’s beach fales at Manase, a 45 min taxi ride from the docks. We got recommended the place from Lindsay and Brendon, to kiwis staying at Princess Tui inn. Lindsay was a teacher on Savaaii 20 years ago, and Brendon (her son) was with her, so they were back trying to catch up with people they had met back then. Regina’s served 3 meals for 60 talas, so it was really good. They cook traditional Samoan food, so that was awesome. Definitely a place to recommend. And the people running it was so nice when we got there 2 hours after lunch, they still found some food for us! The 4 of us stayed in one fale together, so that was sweet. So nice to wake up to the sound of waves. We literally had the ocean 3 m in front of us.
Saturday. We had this really great idea of waking up early to see the sun rise. So we set the alarm at 0500 am. Haha. No sun rise before 0600, so we waited and waited, and then when the sunrise finally came it was cloudy so we didn’t see anything Lindsay and Brandon asked us to go with them around the island, so we hired a van and some other guys from Reginas joined us, so we were 10 people. Great fun. We visited a couple of villages, trying to find some people Lindsay knew when she was a teacher at Savaaii. At one of the villages they showed us a really cool place to go swimming, which only the locals used. We also got to go to a place called Saleaula lava fields, where there were ruins of an old village. The village got destroyed in the lava flow in the early 18th century. However the church and the virgin’s grave wasn’t touched (the chiefs daughter or something died as a virgin, and the grave didn’t get touched be the lava, so oooo, be a virgin and praise the lord kinda thing).
Our last big stop for the day was at the Alofaaga blowing holes, which was awesome. For me that was probably the best experience of the trip. I have a lot of photos that will end up on facebook when I get home. Torkel looked down one of the blow holes at one point, and he got soaked. Haha. I have the best photo of it.
Later that night we headed to Jane’s bar, a bar down the street from Reginas. The whole gang came, and we also met some new people. We had a lot of cocktails, dive Savaii (yummy) and pina coladas, and of course many vailimas (the local samoan beer). We ended up sitting at the beach after Janes closed down. And yes, I have photos of that too.
On Sunday we headed back to Upolu, but first we spend a couple of hours at the beach just relaxing. We went out to dinner with Blaire (mr cop) and his samoan friend Robbie (who is also Australian), went to a more fancy place down by the fish marked (the sails).
Tomorrow is our last night on Samoa, before we are taking on LA and Hollywood. Torkel is staying at the same hostel as us, so we are travelling over with him, which will be fun. The two American girls that are in our hostel, are also taking the same flight as us, so airport waiting will be a little bit better than usual! Samoa has been one of the best vacations ever, really high up there. Met a lot of cool people, learned a lot about Samoan people and did and saw heaps of fun stuff.
Manuia Le Po
Goodnight
What to do in Auckland in 15 hours???
We left for
After some food we found Minus 5 degree bar. And yes, it is exactly what it sounds. It was an ice bar. Everything was made of ice, even the glasses we got our drinks in. Sucked that we couldn’t take photos, but got one of us in our parkas on the outside.
On a side note our beds at YHA were the best beds we have slept in since leaving home. WOW, slept for 9 hours!!!
Love Marion
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