Amsterdam

Lovely city.. the weather has been great, the shops are cool and people in them are even cooler! I got sunburned pretty bad yesterday. Feel like a complete tourist. I will upload pictures tonight.. of amsterdam..not the sunburn..I wonder if it really lived dutch people in this city? Yesterday I hardly heard a word dutch, just tourists everywhere... But amsterdam is a tourist city I guess, because of all the museums and coffee shops.
I met some brazilan guys yesterday that was trying to make money dancing on the street, they were really good! I got a bracelet from them thats supposed to bring good luck.. so far all it brought is a sunburn so Im not sure... Its a sign of summer though, which is nice.. I love summer and I love that it comes so much earlier down here than in Sweden. Im going to Stockholm next weekend and I doubt its as much summer there as it is down here.
Im over my Creedence Clearwater Revival thing. Now its only 2 songs I listen to, Galway Girl and Fairytale of New York. Ireland anyone?

A-dam

I just arrived in amsterdam a couple of hours ago. I got to have tea with my cousin before she went back to bed and now im sitting in the sun on her balcony working :D she works nights at the hospital so she sleeps during the day.
Dutch is a funny language, sometimes it sounds simular to english in german, sometimes is sounds like another world. When I left Germany last year and moved back to Sweden, I had my horse with me. So we needed a horse transporter. We came across Marcel Jordan from The Netherlands, he hauls horses up to Scandinvia twice a month and was one of the few that agreed on taking on my horse, my belongings and myself from Kassel up home. Not that many transporters wants to drive in the Kassel area beacuse of all the hills, but Marcel did.. I had never met this guy before but I was in his truck with him and his son for.. uhm...20 something hours? the drive is not that long, but we had to stop every now and then to pick up and drop off horses, and give the horses water and hay, so it took some time. Thankfully Marcel spoke english but his son didnt, so they were talking dutch to eachother... I didnt understand much...
But it was a fun drive, Marcel had a lot of stories to tell, he has been hauling horses all over Europe and even to Russia!
I like people that have stories to tell.. Im sure I will have a lot to tell when Im done with this job!

Charlottenburg

I was in Charlottenburg in Berlin today. It was a very cool area. Its too far to walk from the center of Berlin so you have to take the S Bahn. In Charlottenburg there is a lot of restaurants and cool cafes, small designer and shoe shops. very very nice. A lot like söder in Stockholm.
Im back in Lüneburg now, tomorrow Im off to Amsterdam, really really really looking forward to it! I think I will drive early in the morning before the bad traffic.. there is a lot of road work on autobahn here and it takes forever to get to Bremen, and I have to go through there...good thing I have my creedence cd with me!!!

Bad Moon Rising

The whole drive down to Lüneburg from Sweden yesterday I was listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival...That music just fits perfectly when its 28 degrees outside and you are driving on the autobahn with the windows down. love it.   It really was 28 degrees here in germany yesterday, and really humid as well, a bit south of Hamburg I drove through a storm, still really hot, but it was raining and it was very windy! Its over now and its not as hot today as it was yesterday.

Today Im off to Berlin, really looking forward to it, its a lovely city and there is still so many parts of it that I didnt see. Tomorrow morning I will drive out west to Amsterdam! I have not been in that city in a very long time so Im really looking forward to it! Hope this nice weather stays while Im there... 

My horse, who lost about 100 kg in a very short time, is now at home and doing better. I feel so bad about ever putting her in that other barn that didnt take care of her the right now.. But now she is doing better and we hope she will be back on track in a couple of months. 

Horse Shows

I was away at a horse show this weekend. Had a great time, as always. Iv been involved in the horse show business since I was about 11, when I would go to every major quarter horse show in sweden. I would bring a tent and spend all day just sitting in the warm up pen watching my idols train their horses. A few years after that I had my own horse to show, that was even more fun!

I would get up at 5 in the morning and be preparing and getting everything ready for hours. Iv been at more horse shows than I can count and I still love every second of it. Some of my best and oldest friends Iv met through these shows. Iv gotten jobs for horse trainers at shows and Iv spent birthdays at shows. Its a home away from home.

Bökeberg Arena in southern sweden, the best show grounds in sweden.

I celebrated my 20th birthday at a show at Bökeberg earlier this year

Im off to germany tomorrow, new cities to see, new people to meet. I will also make time for a week in the netherlands this time. I have a cousin who lives in Amsterdam that I didnt see in a long time so I am really looking forward to this trip!

Bengt

My granddad died earlier this year. And today is one of those horrible days when I miss him like crazy. He was so proud of me and what Iv done so far with my life. He never got to see me drive a car, or my first own apartment. He was the best pancake maker in the whole world.

This is from the song I Miss You, by the swedish band Billie the Vision and the dancers.
Oh I miss you so much I would like to lie beside you, Grandpa If I was going down today, I miss your pancakes and the late night soccer games we watched, Your humble swearwords too, Oh I miss you so much so much so much so much, I wanna hear about the things that you’ve been through, I miss you, Grandpa, My Swedish teacher said ”Write an essay on sadness, Pablo” I wrote an essay about you “This is the best thing I’ve ever read” I said “Thank you” but I thought "It won’t bring you back to me" Oh I miss you so much so much so much so much I wanna hear about the things that you’ve been through I miss you, Grandpa I had a dream about you, you said “Tell me of the things I missed out on” I told you everything that’s new about Sanny and Tim, about the sorrow within About the world according to Pablo, Oh I miss you so much so much so much so much, I wanna tell you about the things that we’ve been through, I miss you, Grandpa Do you remember when my best friend played the piano for you and me?And you were sitting on the couch I sat beside him and I watched you, You were tapping your hand in time He played Imagine at your funeral, Oh I miss you so much so much so much so much, I wanna tell you about the things that we’ve been through, He’s married now, Grandpa

Sweden

A sunny Berlin

So Im back from my first little german tour. It was very interesting. I got to see a lot of cities, a lot of shops and meet new interesting people. I also got to spend time with old friends that I didnt see in a while. Germany is not very far from home, it took me about four and a half hour to go to Luneburg, a bit south of Hamburg.

I feel pretty shitty today.. and I was sick this morning.. I better just take it easy and not do too much today...

Alter Schwede..

I was in Hburg today again. I had this feeling that I had missed parts of it while I was here last time, and I was right. I saw some really nice areas and nice shops today! The weather is getting worse again and it will be raining this weekend, good thing Im leaving for Sweden tomorrow morning. Its not such a long drive but I want to get home early and I have to drop of a friend at the trainstation, she is going to the filmfestival in Cannes for the weekend.
I have some pictures of both Berlin and Hamburg but cant post them now since Im not using my own computer. Ill put them all up tomorrow!
Im excited to go to Sweden for a little while, I didnt see my horse for a long time and Ill go see her on tuesday :) She is not in good shape at all so this weekend Im meeting with a traner who might take her to his place ( only 14 min from my apartment :D) and ride her and look after her for me while im away working. That would make me feel so much better about being away, knowing that she is being looked after properly.

1989

It was 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall went down. 20 years ago there was a huge differens between east and west. Now its not a big difference at all. I was at checkpoint charley today, a must if you are visiting Berlin. A lot of tourists but still good to see

At Checkpoint Charley you can buy pieces of the wall and pay 1 euro to get your picture taken with a fake soldier.. John F Kennedy was at Checkpoint Charley when he visited Berlin. Very touristy but still a place you have to visit. You also have to go to Alexanderplatz, they have sort of an outside museum there about the wall and the dig demonstration that was there in 89.

Berlin has a lot of museums and historical places to visit and it takes forever to walk through the city. If you are there as a tourist I think the best thing to do would be to take a guided tour.

Its a lot of nice shopping areas in Berlin, the nicest one is around the Hackescher Markt, its not far from Alexanderplatz. When I was going back to the hotel today I went to the S-Bahn station at Alexanderplatz. There was a band outside the station playing, there was a lot of people watching and they were really good!

I watched them until the police came and they were not aloud to play anymore...not really sure why..they are called suboptimal and are from Berlin.

Modern art?

Ill spend tomorrow in Berlin too, this city is simply too big to do in one day!

1989 was an important year for Germany and the world. It was also important to me since thats the year I was born :P and it is the year the company im working for started!

Stan the opera singer

I was in a rainy Leipzig today and had lunch at Starbucks. With Stan, an opera singer from St Louis. Kristen, the waitress also joined in and had coffee with us. Very nice people, we talked about Obama, the states, travelling and working in Germany.

Stan had been living in Leipzig for 8 years and was travelling all over Europe singing. Kristen had been working as an au pair in NYC for 1,5 years and just got back two months ago.

We talked about how hard it is to get in to the states and I told them about my first trip there.

I was 16 and had never been in usa, I was going to Missouri for 3 months and had never met the people I was going to stay with. I flew in to Chicago, went to immigrations and got asked questions for what seemed like a couple of hours. The woman couldnt belive that I was going alone at that young age and kept asking if my parents knew that I was there, she asked how well I knew the people I was staying with and I lied and said I had known them for years, they were good friends to my family...She finally let me through but only after they had opened and looked in all my bags.

The whole thing was very scary but it happens a lot, I know several people that has been interwied for hours, and some has even been sent back to their home country.

Anyways, my lunch with Stan and Kristen was nice and it was fun to hear their stories.

Now Im at a hotel outside Berlin... Stan told me it was hard to drive in Berlin.. he was very right.. not easy at all. I think tomorrow morning I will take the S Bahn in to the center, Its too far to walk and I still have to fix the flat tire on my bike...

Kirmes

I spent the weekend in the Kassel area with old friends. It was very nice to be back there, the nature around there is so beautiful and the weather was great! I went to Padeborn for a few hours on Saturday to look at stores and then I went back to Kassel. Saturday night we went to a kirmes. Its like a mini-oktoberfest, big tent, live band and a lot of people! There is one every weekend and it moves around to different villages every week.





Today Im in Leipzig, I drove here last night from Kassel. I think im staying here until tomorrow morning and then Im off to Berlin! That will be really exciting, Iv never been there and Im really looking forward to going there!
We went to town to have ice cream saturday afternoon and on our way back I got a flat tire on my bike... have to fix that today..

When I was on my way here to the hotel last night I had to call them to get directions because my gps was not really working. He tried to give me directions for 5 minutes, his english was really bad and I didnt really understand his german so he just gave up and hung up on me! :O It was 9.45 and I had to be at the hotel before 10... I tried calling again but they didnt pick up. I had to stop and ask someone else so I finally got here at 10... Im not staying at this hotel again.

NC 2006

I found some pictures from NC....

the board, the names were in different colors depending on their age, HW means hand walk, R is ride, S show,and TO turn out..everything under control..

Me riding Robin on the track, it was huge..

Me and Belle in the barn, dosnt she look happy?

Kassel

I spent the whole day in Kassel, when I was working here in Felsberg I was in Kassel on every day off that I had. wich what not very often.




Working with horses is quiet hard work, when I worked in the states I started at 7 am and could be done at 8 pm, 7 days a week.. if I was lucky 6.. But I loved it. I was in North Carolina for 3 months riding 6-8 horses every day. The weather was nice, the people were nice and the horses really nice. The summers in NC can get really hot and humid so some days we had to ride in the middle of the night instead. We had 40 horses in training so when someone was sick or gone it could be very long nights..




I miss working with horses in the summers, its the perfect job then, you are outside all the time and going to the horse shows is just so much fun!




But in the winter Im pretty happy not having to be in the stable the whole day when its cold and dark..



I worked in this stable for 1,5 year. Its outside Dachau in Bayern. See the white container to the right on the stable? That was my home







Grace, my own horse. I got her when i worked in Dachau. Born in Italy, raised in Austria, came to me in Germany and now she´s in Sweden.. she has been travelling a lot this little lady..

Me and Belle in NC

Felsberg

Im back in Felsberg :)

I worked and lived here from january to august last year. Im planning on staying here for a few days. Its really cool to be back, it feels like iv never left.

Today Iv been stopping by smaller towns on my way here from Dusseldorf, one of them was Padeborn, a very nice university city with a lot of nice shops!

The weather is starting to get better again and today it was about 20 degrees and sunshine.

Tomorrow Im going to Kassel, its just 20 minutes from here.

I will try to get my camera to work tomorrow so I can take some pictures, this is one of the nicest places iv ever been at.

Guten Nacht Leute!

Felsberg last summer

Heidi last summer in Felsberg

Osnabruck

I went to Osnabruck today. Not as big as Dusseldorf but a really cool city. It was raining ofcourse, as it has ever since i left Bremen, but i liked it anyway!


If you go there you really have to go to Lillys food and coffee, its a really cute coffee place where they play very nice music.


If my camera would have been working I would have put up some pictures..


Yesterday when I was in Dusseldorf I just had to go in to Björg´s store...they have really cool jewellery, i got a necklace for my birthday and I love it. Its not super expensive either..


http://www.bjorgjewellery.com/2009/





Iv been staying at the same hotel for three night now.. The manager is super nice, I didnt plan on staying here tonight so I had all my stuff packed in the car, but when I got back here he had saved the room I had for me.. It has the best internet connection :)




Since I dont have any new pictures Im putting up this old one. This is Kaylie,
She is an Australian Shepherd and dont like to be photographed..she was trying to eat my camera here

Song of the day - Paralyzer by Finger Eleven, you HAVE to listen to this song really really loud while you are driving! Its on of my favourite songs ever!

GPS

Dusseldorf hasn't been all that nice to me so far, I went here this mrning searching for the same parking garage as yesterday, apparently my gps-lady was in no mood for cooperating so she just let me drive around in a circle! She wanted to take me in the wrong way on a one way street and things like that.

I had a minor breakdown, I cursed at my gps and screamed at the traffic around me. I am clearly not made for driving in the city. I like the country side or autobahn better. I am pretty proud of myseld though, iv just had the licance for about a month and I'm down here making the roads insecure already.
Its raining too, that little bit of summer feel I had in bremen is long gone, this is pure april weather
Hopefully I can stay at a friends place tonight, if I get a hold of him..
I don't know what it is but I really do not sleep well at the hotels iv been at. Ever since I left bremen iv been staying at hotels and I hasn't slept a whole night since! I wake up at least 3 times every night, and I stay awake for about 30 min every time.

I learned a lesson today, Do not wear leather sole shoes when its raining. I was like Bambi on ice, expecially when I went from the wet street in to a store.. I was close to falling a couple of times..

Dusseldorf has a little china town! I had no idea how I ended up there but I liked it! Ofcourse, just in time as I got there, my digital camera stopped working so I couldnt take any pictures of it, but it was a really cool area! All the signs on stores and restaurant was in chinese or japanese..or something like that..

I love these boots, but leather sole in rain was not very practical, good think I have the same boot with a rubber sole ;)

With Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts on every corner you might as well be in america

Köningsalle

Song of the day- slow dancing in a burning room with john mayer

I found this cow in Hannover, too bad it didnt fit in my car.. would look great in my apartment

God

Sometimes I really belive that there is a god. A music and movie god.

Last night I was thinking about the movie Good Girl , I think thats the title, the one with Jennifer Aniston, and now when I arrived to my hotel room outside Dusseldorf...ta-da. guess whats on tv? thats right, Good Girl..
Scary...

balzac

I had a creamcheese bagel and cappuccino for breakfast at balzac coffee today. You can find balzacs all over germany, its a lot like starbucksn but cheaper.
Hannover is never going to be a favourite city of mine, I don't know what it is, I'm just not a fan of it.
Today I'm gonna have to buy pens, I keep losing them, and empty cds, I need to make use of all that music I got from B and I want to be able to listen to it in the car.
Speaking of car, did you know that in german parking garages there are special spaces for women?
Frauen-parken. I think its brilliant, the area is well lit up and closest to the exit. No need for women to be scared of going to their car at night! Do any other countries do this?
Iv only seen it here in germany


Song of the day- Push by Matchbox 20

Borat

Funny Sunday night, Borat is on tv..in german.. does ever german people think that Borat in german is funny?
Haha, o well, I guess its a bit funny..
It is now 21.29 19 degress outside and not that dark, summer is on its way..

Hurt

Im in Hannover now. I got here yesterday afternoon. So far im not a huge fan of the city, the hotel im staying at is at the back side of the main train station, looking out the window all i see is a sign that says " Hannover Hbf" and trains that goes by every now and then. Not the most interesting sight.

But on the other side of the station, pass the main shopping street is the old part. Very beautiful, Ill put up pictures later.

I was in Bremen Thursday - Saturday. I had a great time. I got there around lunch time Thursday, I had my friend K from Hamburg with me, she was going there to see a theater performance. We met up with B and had lunch near the catherdral. After lunch, K went of to the theater and B showed me around town. Bremen has some really beautiful places! Its a very nice city, if you´re passing by its definately worth a visit.
I have some pictures of it that ill put up tonight.

We had dinner in Bremen before we took the train out to the little village where B lives. There we met up with some friends of his and went to a village party. There was a live band and the whole population of this little town. Very german, very nice.

Friday was a very lazy day, we hardly did anything at all, 1st of May, bank holiday, everything closed. We fed his horses, drank some coffee, and thats about it. The weather was awesome!
We went to the market in the evening with some friends to have a beer, a perfect Friday.

At Saturday I was back in Bremen, did some window shopping before I left for Hannover.
When i turned my car on B had left a cd in the cdplayer for me with some really good songs, and a usb stick with about 200 songs on it.. so sweet. I love getting music from people, I think its the best present ever.

Tomorrow ill do some window shopping here in Hannover, then Im off to Dusseldorf! That will be really exciting!
Thankfully I dont have to stay at a hotel there, Im not a big fan of staying alone at hotels, a friend of mine lives just 30 min outside Dusseldorf so Im going to crash on his sofa!
Thank God for friends with sofas!

song of the day - Hurt by Johnny Cash.
also check out the music video for that song on youtube, brilliant.

Auf Wiedersehen!