sparkling on the go

TODAY - County Down and Londonderry (and Antrim)
Stayin-morning - giving gifts to Rachel and Heather, saying goodbye
Host change - Meeting Fred (William)
European Rally preparation meeting at Louises including Alan, Fred and more.
Picking up Luzia - host sister for this week :)
Meeing family - mother Valeria, father William, younger brother John
Bar in Port Stewart with Luzia, John, Jesa, Michaela, Martin and more.

A BIT OF TODAY:
Today I said goodbye to Rachel and Heather, giving them each a guardian angel to watch over them and one of my knitted swedish girls - they decided to call her Erika which is so cute! Im so going to miss them! Thank you girls!
Despite problems to find my new host, William/Fred, I am now sitting in my new pink-white girly bedroom, belonging to Williams older sister, living elsewere. It is so cuite here: flowery covers on the bed, little tablets of wise words hanging on the walls (ex. I shop, Therefore I am) and all shelves decorated to the max, plus I have a gigant cozy dog behind my door. Everything it totally cute here, including the family and Luzia (yhey for having an other exchangee to share everythiong with), but there is one thing I dont like though: theres spiders in the bathroom roof who gave me an heartattack...

TODAY - County Down
Pickie Park with Heather and Lisa - Going on the Swans
Walking along Costal path with above, about 2,5h
Cafe - The Red Berry
Dounugadee Barn Dance with Heather, Rachel, Luzia, Lisa, Jesa, Martin, Michaella, Alan and more

A BIT OF TODAY:
After meeting Lisa, she, me and Heather walked along the coastal path, enjoying the beautiful sea view. We stopped below a stone wall, collecting shells and taking pictures. Continuing, we found a beach where crushed shells made the texture, squeling silently under our feets. Me and Heather took our shoes off and walked down to the water, finding it surprisingly warm. Just by the edge lay lumps of jelly, making circular pools. After explaining to Heather that they were jellyfishes and harmless, part from the trails hanging down, with help from their animation in Finding Nemo, I gave her one to hold. Apparently, she had never held one before, being extremely impressed with this new achievement of hers. Immediately after arriving at the house, 3 hours sea walk later, she proudly declared the news to the family. A lot of joy over a jellyfish, that is so sweet!



Me and Lisa in the Swans


Me and Lisa


Lovley view from the Costal Path


Me and Heather


Some nice stones


Heather being super proud and amazed by holding a jellyfish


Me and the sweet cast Pepsi!

TODAY - County Down
Sleeping till 10
Exploring Newtownards - trying out Ulster Fry
Ballycopeland Windmill
Mountstewart with Rachel, Jesa, Michela and Ruth (host) - Castle tour and garden

A BIT OF TODAY:
In the afternoon we visited Ballycoopeland Windmill where I got some portraits taken (se below). The mill was really cute and intresting, vell educationally made, but the best thing was the Site Warden Billy (Haha, I didnt forget you!). He gave us a little tour, explaining the construction of the mill and its storage sites. Billy was extremely friendly, guess I would be too from guarding a windmill everyday, and a fan of Sweden (or so he said - "Abba!..."). Cool guy, simply.


Inside the windmill


The Windmill








Some cute pigs outside the mill


Billy the Site Warden at the Windmill :) He gave us a little tour and told us about the mill.


The Castle at Mountstewart


LOVE the bookshelfs...


One of the many lovley paintings


Sewing mashine that is soo cool!


Erika, Jesa and Michaela


A lovley creamy flower


Erika and Rachel


A few ducks racng through the water

TODAY - County Down
Ulster museum with Rachel, Jesa, Michela and Jennifer (host).
Aunt Sandras candy factory with above
Leaving the gang
Scrabo tower
Shopping in Ards - primark and the perfume shop
Foamparty with gang (-Lisa), hosts and other YFC.

A BIT OF TODAY:
So, foam party at MClub! The night was really fun, with all the exchangees (unfortuanlly not Lisa who was having a Dublin Day), hosts and other YF dancing to the beats. The foam was hilarious, covering everything in sticky white gue. The hair got awfull, tightening in to knots, but I guess the clothes got well washed. Everyone looked ridiculous, with permanents and pillow shoulders of foam, especially Martin who reached one head higher than the rest of us and somehow managed to caught massive amounts of foam. Litterary everything was covered and when one tried to wipe it away, only more came - falling from the eyebrows and forehead. Smart as I was, I wasnt wearing contacts at least! It was quite nice to have the cooling feeling on the foam, as one didnt get as stinking warm as it usually does in clubs - a feeling that dissaperad when it was time to walk to the car. Which stood a far bit away, letting us go soking wet and freezing for minutes before finally reaching it - Thank god for my warm dry sweater waiting for me!



Notice the tiny purple shoes in the back, fit for grown ups


One of the interactive room


A lovely wall in the Ulster Museeum


About the "time before", creating the earth and pangea


CANDY ^^


The lough and Scrapo tower


View from Scrapo Tower


Erika, Rachel (host) and Luzia in FOAM


Martin, Jennifer (host), Michaella, Luzia, Erika, Rachel (host) and Jesa

TODAY - County Down
Stormont - northern Ireland parliament. Guided tour with the gang and hosts.
Lisburn swimmingpools with Heather and Rachel
Shopping at the Outlet
BBQ at Rachel with gang, hosts and other YFC

TODAYS LAUGH:
At the BBQ we talked about food, as we were hungry, waiting for ur burgers. Luzia then decided to tell us a funny story about her and Martin (they are staying together this week). First, she laught, a lot, even before starting the story - and ofcurse we laught at her for it. Finally she managed to squeese out a few words "I was downstairs, Martin was upstairs" before she bursted out in laughter. Then came a complicated story of how it come Martin was upstairs - it had something to do with dinner. To clear things out Jesa said "Okay, So Martin was donstairs, and you were-" to which Luzia sreacms "NO!" really loudly - under our laughter she then managed to squese out "I was downstairs, Martin upstairs!". It was hilarious. So, we laught a lot more, my stomach almost cramping and my eyes tearing. So, after about ten minutes Luzia had enough breath to make her point: ".. And Martin said Im alwasy hungry"
Omg I love Luzias storytelling.

TODAY - County Down
Portaferry touristinformation - getting A LOT of leaflets and buying gifts. Also exploring Portaferry.
Exploris aquarium - touchtank
Ferry from Portaferry to Strangford.
St. Patrick centre grave.
The mourns mountains - Tollymore forestpark. we got lost in the forest...
Meeting up with gang and hosts for dinner

TODAY - County Down
Botanic Garden - with Rachel (host), Heather (host), Jesa, Michella and Jennifer (host)
Starbucks - trying frappuchino
Tagrugby


The Botanic Gardens Greenhouse


Rachel, Me, Heather


Rachel, Me, Jesa, Michela, Jennifer


The rose garden


A rose in the beautiful rose garden


Me, Jesa, a wooden statue and Michella


I love photographing flowers


Heathers team, Newtownards has the ball


Some more Tagrugby


Mine and Rachels shoes. We were very good supporters


Newtownards Tagrugby Team

TODAY - County Antrim/ County Down
Sleeping till 11
Picknick with gang plus new hosts and other YFC at Funfarm
County Down, with new host, Rachel
Meeting Rachels family: Mother Jayne, Father Thomas and Heather
Movienight - The lovely bones


Jesa and Luzia driving cars at Funfarm


Jesa, Luzia and Michela climbing at Funfarm

The House

TODAY - County Antrim
Antrim Show - Agicultrual show, the YFC had slipperyfootball and tractor driving. 
YFC Killraughts Barn Dance, all night

A PART OF TODAY:
When coming home at about half past six, I had some time to hang my laundry and started packing, so now its all tucked down. Ryan and I ate some Chinese before he dropped me off at Louise. Me and Neil, Louises husband, watched Navy, then me and Michela had some time to talk which was nice. Flipping channels, we found a crime series in Swedish! That was so cool! First I didn't understand what they said, thinking "what help are they trying to say?", then I realized that if wasn't horrible English, just Swedish. Can't believe they show swedish series in UK!



Kids displaying young calvs


A cute sheep



A dog sheep, A bunny sheep and a donkey sheep


Piglets


Pink little piglets


A cute piglet


The cute piglet again


There were also horsejumping.


Cute horse.


Slippery football.


Its football on a plastic thing soaked with water and soap.


Every player was soaked!

TODAY - County Antrim
Meeting up with the gang
Visiting Louises parents farm
Old Bushmills Destillery Co - guided tour plus tasting
The Gigants Causeway
Rope bridge
BBq at Louises
Tagrugby

A PART OF TODAY:
Today was a packed day. We started out at Old Bushmills Distillery, northern Ireland second biggest whiskey distillery, with a guided tour. The girl sounded so rehearsed it was frustrating just to listen, but intresting nonetheless. We also got to taste some whiskey, and Louise, who works there, managed to get us girl a whiskey drink instead. I had a really nice mix with applejouice and I-dont-know-how-old whiskey. We hang there for lunch as well and all we girls had a really good discussion about countries, US being the size of a table and Switzerland a folded napkin. It was a lot of fun!



Louises parents dog


With our whiskey. Martin, Lisa, Jesa, Luzia, Erika, Michella


Cool table plus chairs


With our drinks, apple or tranberry with whiskey. Erika, Jesa, Michella


At the Gigants Cause way. Martin, Erika, Jesa, Luzia, Michella and Lisa.


The stones are really cool, leftovers from volcanic activity sort of.


The cool stones.


After walking across the stonebridge. Martin, Michella, Erika, Lisa, Jesa and Luzia.

 
Alan sitting at the edge plus Alan looking femenine


The view of the island the ropebridge lead to.


Walking across the stone bridge. Alan keept jumping on it, making it scary. Luzia, Michella, Erika Jesa, Liza, Emelie (host), Martin, Alan (host).


Luzia and Jesa at the tagrugby


Tagrugby. Rugby where the players have tags and if pulled off the ball changes team - or something like that.


Jesa, Erika, Lisa and Michella.


Sunset and random players.


Alan and Ryan


Funny sign inside the rugby-club-house

TODAY - County Antrim
Meeting up with the gang
Beautiful Beach - outside Portrush
Horsebackriding - only walking and trotting in a circle, but the other exchangees had a adventure doing that
Treasure Hunt - finding clues along the way. With Ryan, Michella and Michellas new host Louise

A PART OF TODAY:
Okay, so the extent of Ryans cooking: chicken soup in the microwave. Very advanced. But it was good. In the evening we went treasure hunting. It was really fun, one starts at a spot, following cryptic clues of what to find on the way, all the way to the goal. Example:
Now unto the end of the road and turn right
Then shortly, turn left up Slievenaghy when in sight
This item looks forlorn, its plain to see
Describe what's hanging from its tree.
The answer here was tireswing, which hang, abandoned, just of the road. My team, Ryan, Michela and Louise came in second place! Go team!


The view from Beach in Portrush


Water splashing!


The stones we climbed on, aka the beach

TODAY - County Antrim
Meet the gang +  Lisa, exchangee from Germany
City day - Belfast, Victoria Square, Primark and City Hall
Penguin football
Club night - At Kellys

A PART OF TODAY:
I've just found a new activity to latch on to: penguin football. Tonight was so hilarious, it was so mush fun watching everyone. The pinguine-ish of the event was that all players were wrapped in plastic stuff from knees to shoulders. That means no arms and very limited movement plus the idea of being stuck - plastic stuck. One of the best parts is that if you fall down, you can't get up - its impossible - and your teammates can't help you cuz they're wrapped up too. HILARIOUS. After the penguinfootball and some burgers we went to Kellys. It was quite big with three dance floors: Alans favorite for the little older ones (he felt a lot older with his 27 years), one with a ice-cream buss dj and pop music and the third was with technobeats and no real lyrics - also known as epilepsymusic. Me and Isaac checked them all out, dancing a bit in each. Unfortunately, we missed Alans dancing, which I would have loved to see!



The view from the dome at Victoria Square



The CityHall


Ryan at the penguina football. People are litterary wrapped in celophane.


Lisa, Michella, Luzia and Jesa (playing)



Football, running trapped like penguines. Amusing as hell :)

TODAY - County Antrim
Meeting up with gang
Museeum, The Braid - About Ledgends.
Mountain - Slemish
Ballymane livestock market - bidding on cows
Glenariff Forest park - Waterfall and Nature, 2h walk plus upphill.
Carnfunock - flower park with maze.

A PART OF TODAY:
In the afternoon we visited the waterfalls at Glenariff Forest Park. We went down steep steps and walked right along a mountain wall down to where the waterfall was and it was so beautiful! The path continued all along the fall, showing us both smooth river and thundering falls. Me and Luzia keep falling behind because we where taking so many pictures, but we could quickly close in on the others by sliding on the wet wooden path. The thing about this adventure, though, were that since we had gone down, we had to make our way up again. It was exhausting and we were soon sweating insanely in the cold weather.


A interactive board at the museem


Wierd shoes on a wall


The cool sign in the museeum


Cow-bidding


Glenariffs beautiful waterfall

I <3 Waterfalls


A nice flower


Alan trying to look like the Owl


Alan as a frog


Alan was dissapointed by the age limit in the flowerparks playground, so we found one nearby.


Two persons (Jesa and Ryan) to even it out with Alan

TODAY - County Antrim
Meeting the gang: exchangees and hosts. Jesa (US, Montana), Luzia (Switzerland) and Gillian (host), Martin (Norway) and Alan (host).
Castle tour
Small Waterfall
Movie - Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows, part 2. With Michella and Ryan, Jesa and Kathy


A PART OF TODAY:
The most memorable from today is probably Ryans, my host, driving. Firstly, the roads here goes up, down and midway constantly - like a rollercoaster. It's like the Irish has something against straight and flat roads. Secondly, there is practically no speed limits. Mostly Ryan is driving at about 80 mph, which is like 130 kmh, on the small roads, adding on to the rollercoaster feeling. Thirdly, everyone is driving on THE WRONG SIDE! I almost got a heart attack when we met our first.car yesterday and it passed us on the right - in the dark too. I'm constantly on the edge.



The Castle


The laterin holes.


Ryan (my host) trying on some midevial stuff


The Gang phosing infront of the castle
Gillian (host), Jesa, Luzia, Michella, Martin, Erika, Ryan (host)


A random statue


The waterfall we visited


Phosing infront of waterfall.
Martin, Ryan (host), Luzia, Jesa, Michella, Erika, Gillian (host)


Nice water

TODAY - Sweden / County Antrim
Flying to London,
Meeting exchange Martin (Norway) in London
Flying to Belfast City
Meeting host Ryan, exchange- roommate Michela (Austria) and Martins host Alan.

Since writing all my 3-4 pages a day would take waay to long, Im just gona choose one or more segmants out of it to publish, the rest will come later. Here is a bit from Sunday, and my flight to Belfast.

On my plane to London we flew high above the clouds. It was as white as I would imagine heaven - or like Kingcross Station in Harry Potters dream. It was burning white, yet divinely beautiful.
Closing in on London, bits of ground became visible, I saw the big river dividing the city: Thames. It looked so cool as it lingered straight through London, kinda like the river behind the castle in the Disney logo is depicted. Everywhere I looked was the xity, houses spreading out in every direction. Mentaltly talking to myself I began mapping out every block built in symbios acnd discussing their location, aswell as nearby churches, towers and scrapes. Out of the blue we started landing - finding the airport practically IN the suburbs. As if London's to big to find the airport a place of its own - which is probably the case.

In four hours im boarding my plane to London! There I´ll meet up with Martin, an Ifye from Norway who´ll be taking the same plane as me to Belfast. I hope we can find eachother ^^

Yesterday I finished my packing, and hopefully I´ve not forgotten everything. I will notice that I guess. When I was packing I realized I´ll have to repack my bag six times since Im changing host family once a week. Ouch. Packing aint my strong side, but at least I have a little backing skill so I´ll be fine. Anyway, it dont have to be perfect untill the last time ;D

I sooo nervous I´ll die! Im exited, terrified and a little paniced. But in a good way. Like, Im sitting here drinking my tea with my family and tomorrow I´ll be in an entirely new place, with entierly new people, trying to be a normal person (what if I make a fool out of myself?! (on the otherhand, that would be kinda me)).

And you know what?! I´ll be missing two weeks of school. That means missing a lot of lessons - aka take notes for me IKGers, and the introduktion to our project work - guess I´ll have to panic about that on my own. I dont really know if Im happy or sad about missing school - all my friends are there. But on the otherhand, Im getting to do soething great and unforgettble instead - so screw two week of school and yhey to Northern Ireland!

So, exited and nervous, here I go. Goodbye Sweden! And all my beloved family and dear friends - I´ll se you soon! 

Having found the sightsingbuss, we finally rode around town. It went really fast, so I almost disnt have time to photograph stuff - we just flew by. Eventhough the speed was a bit dissapointing, and the recorded voice quite poor it was nice nontheless. We saw a big concertarena, a angel streatching for the sky, a lovely beach, the real town, historical buildings and a little bit of everything in between.


A piece of the city wall and watch tower plus castle.

After the tour we took a long stroll through Old Town, mostly on roads we havnt walked before which was nice. Its incredible how everything can be so old and new at the same time there - a old sunken house standing next to a gourgeous villa. Also, all the houses are build together! In Stockholm we have small alleys thet you barely can walk through everywhere, but in Tallin there are none! Everything is puzzled together, we even saw a small church - old and concrete - built into a mordern towerblock - made of steel and big glas windows. Its so uique.

This super old and deterioated building lay almost next to the one on the picture underneath, which makes no sense whatsoever.



The little church right there in IN the house above. Odd.

Anyways, we walked back to Cafe Mademoiselle and had lunch at its neighbour (they chared their outside dinette) Tapas Bar & Rasturant. I had salmon with creamy rice and it was so good! Seriously among the best things I´ve ever eaten. Unfourtunaly I ate it quickly, so that delicous course was over in no time. My mom and dad had sallad which apparently was real good too. My sister ate some meet with garlic potato, and eventhough she had to return it once since she wanted it raw, not well done, she loved it too. The best thing I must say, was the garlic bread we ordered in - it was dark bread and the garlic was everywhere, like if it was fried in it. Not like normal garlic bread, but onehundred times better. It was amazing! So plus points to Tapas!


Jummi!

I totally recomend this place to you :)

Thanks Estonia for a great time! :)

Me and Malin <3

Beautiful sunset, goodnight

With another warm day ahead of us, we started with a morning by the pool. From the inside are, you could swim outside to a sundeck. There, we lay for about two hours, having time for two smothies and some bubbelbathing inbetween. My mom, sister and I tried to book som massage, but it didnt have what we wanted, there seem to be a glatch between their offerings and what the hotels website says. But I´ve booked a hole-body massage for tomorrow :)
 

We started our thuresday afternoon by searching for the sightseeing busses, with no luck. Back at the hotel I found a broshure, which mom claimed had not been there before - talk about wasted time. So we are saving tourisbusses for tomorrow after we have checked-out. Instead we went to the other thing I wanted to see, a ortodox church in Russian style. It was beautiful with its blue domes. It took quite a walk to locate it, apparently my father isnt that skilled of a map reader, but at last we where there. It was named Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and is from 1900. It took up my entire sight, and I couldn even get a photo at the entire buliding. I didnt find a way inside, eventhough I really wanted to checkt that out, but it didnt matter that much because the outside was mangestetic by itself.



Hungry as we were, we sat down at the first place we could find, which happended to be one at Town Square - bad idea it turned out as the food was unimpressive and the sevice very poor. So quickly after finishing our meal (and leaving no tips) we went to find a place to drink some cofee and relax a little.

At Pikk we found a cute cafe called Cafe Madmoiselle and they even had kokko to my delight (I dont drink cofee). The cafe had a cute inner garden which was absolutly adorable and calm. I loved it. The also had a resturant which I hope we will return to for lunch tomorrow. The coolest thing about the cafe was the bathroom - it was huge and had a one meter wide hole stretching down three meters! Ofcourse it was glass above it, but it was still scary as hell and gave me quite the shock - but still, soo cool!
 

The Café

Malin found her self a happy cup of coffee.

Me and Malin

The terrifying hole! It was deeper than it looks, actually.
Malin is so much braver than me - I didnt even dare touching it.

Walking home again, I looked up at a church we pased probably seven times by now and finally realized how tall it was. I read at the information outside that it was the highest bulding in the world for 150 years! Things like that are cool to see. Speaking of new discoveries, my father and I walked up a gigant stair case next to our hotel today. It is build out of stone and consists of a uncontable numbers of steps up two huge starcases. It looks like a theater or atletics studio, though forgotten in time. My father guessed it was built by the Russians when they occupied Estonia as a atempt to prove how cool and mighty they could be, and thats why the eastonians have let it cruble down and become mearly a place for youths to hang when theres nowhere else to go. Nomatter what, it is one gigantic piece of stone, beacuse when you reace the top, the other side is just the same, only this time you get to go down instead.

Super high Oleviste Church.


The wasted building..
 

Hello Reader! Now Im in Estonia! Cool huh?!

The ferrry wasnt that bad, it was even cosy. I sat outside on deck a lot, feeling the wind in my hair and watching the water drift by. The rescue boats hanged just above my head so I feel real secure right there. I must say, the best thing was the maräng cake! It was incredibe tasty, but when I went back to it, there was nothing left - so on my way back Ill grab alot from the start. Bytheway, Iv already taken more than 300 pictures - mostly the sea and the sunset - it was gourgeous.

 
 


I found there adorable ducks in one of the onboard stores:
  
     Day-dream duck                               World-traveling duck


         Dizzy-dot duck

Im currently in the hotel lobby, waiting for check-in-time. But thats a while left, so well probaly go out for some city sightsing. Allreday, the city looks cute - it mixes new with old, but in a good way. Ill get back when Ive seen more or it, or has had a time to check out the spa part.