Mission accomplished!

And so, after nearly two months of travelling, my feet are resting on Swedish (snowy and ice cold) ground. Due to some problems with hostels, lack of ideas of new places to visit, and general God-I-can't-stand-two-more-weeks-with-you (we blame the rain and bad tempers. :)) we rescheduled flights and headed home. It feels odd, but somewhat nice. Its fucking freezing though! I swear, today while I was out shopping (not a word!) my lipgloss froze stuck on my lips. Funny, when I was bathing in sunshine at Copacabana just, like, yesterday. When we landed at Arlanda, Emma counted that we had just experienced a 40 C drop in temperature. Nice. Not.

We've managed to see and experience a great lot during this trip! Some interesting facts and statistics:

Number of countries visited: (In order of arrival, including transfer flights) 7 (Holland, France, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Germany)

Number of airports we've been at: 10 (Arlanda, Schipoll, Charles de Gaulle, Galeão, Islas Malvinas, Salgado Filho, Santos Dumond, Congonhas, Guarulhos, Frankfurt City)

Number of hostels and hotels stayed at: 24 (including two nights at bus, two by on a plane and one at a airport)

Sights visited: Copacabana, Ipanema, Christo Redentor, Maracanã, Iguassu falls (both Argentinian and Brazilian side) The Obelisc in Buenos Aires, Houses of Parliament in Bs As, with the balcony where Evita held her speech to the people, The cemetary in Recoleta, The Flag monument in Rosario, The Aqueduct at Ilha Grande, The ruins of the Lazareto Prison, Ilha Grande itself, and most beautiful of all: Lopes Mendes.

Kickettes I met: RedGirl (hopefully this list will grow!)

Its been amazing, and I can't wait to next trip, whenever and wherever that might be, but I'm longing to get back to Paris. Next trip possible in reality is me visiting the English Kickettes, I'm going to Liverpool and Manchester sometime in March, and maybe somewhere south as well.

Anyway, talking about something completely different, I'm thinking of creating another kind of blog, with like a Lonely Planet guide, only with just shopping. Clothes, shoes, accessoires, make up, those sort of things... Any ideas? I want people to share their own little secret shops, hidden away where all the tourists can't find them, the best budget shopping when you want to "stock up", and everything in between. The reason I though of this, and I'm sure it already exsists, is that I could have needed one while I was away! Sometimes you are just lost and clueless, and don't know where the best shops are.

So please, help out! :)

Heaven

*Hums* On the first day of christmas my true love sent to me...

I'm totally convinced that Nando sent over all his spanish hotness to Ilha Grande, because now we've had sunshine for two days and I'm in heaven, for sure. Its amazing how everything seems so much more beautiful just because of some sun. But now I've realised that this is where i belong. Yesterday I stood in the ocean with lukewarm water to my waist, and though of how weird that was, in the middle of december! Jeez. I got burnt of course, as I always do as soon as I peak out my nose out of our chalet, but it was so worth it! Lying on warm sand, drinking juice, eating some fresh grapes, go down to get a little wet, and then back to sunbathing. It doesn't exactly make it worse that we have a self-service ice cream bar just above the beach. MY GOD. I'm terrible, I blend every flavour I like together, and then I get all icky, since I eat like a tree year old...

Speaking of which, yesterday I was so tired of the bad weather we've been having, so I stayed in the water and bobbed around like a baby, all happy. Weee! Emma laughed at me, all she does is to dip herself and then she's done. Boooring. :) I've tried that, walking down to the water looking gracious and nymphlike, but I always end up squeeling and jumping through a wave. Fun! :D

Zzzzz...

Ole, me and Emma (The Norwegian! :D)

Well, If I had anything interesting to write, I would. But it won't stop raining and I'm bored as hell. Its very pretty here, but NOTHING to do beside sunbathing and swimming, and neither feel very appealing right now. The most exciting thing that happened today was that I got my clean laundry (Yay, dry clothes!), that the adorable little dog that lives at our hostel slept in my bed, and that I managed to guess what time it was down to the exact minute without having looked at the watch the entire day (16:23, btw). That's kind of what we do here. We play cards as well, that was fun the first four days. We've had one quite sunny day, but I spent that sitting on the beach feeling utterly miserable since Emma was talking on the phone with her boyfriend right then. For TWO hours. I felt so terribly lonely. I've cheered myself up by buying some earrings and a beautiful tunic though. Hopefully I'll be able to wear it soon!

On our way to the internet...

Life is slow in the jungle of Ilha Grande, and Oh if it could only be some sunshine! I haven't been

dry for days...

Rosario in pictures

Glossy hair! (we we're bored a rainy day..)

Emma slept with her feet outside the bed...

Sooo we've left Rosario now, and the very last day the weather was really nice, so I managed to get some pictures of the flag monument and such. We spent our final day in a park, resting in the sunlight, reading and just relaxing. At night, we finally got to meet RedGirl, which to me was one of the best and funniest things abotu the trip so far! We went out, to a fab place called Madame, and partied all night long! Yay!

New targets!

Due to some not-so-nice weather, its not cold but not enough sun to spread out on the beach, we've been staying in and planning where to go next. finally we've decided, Christmas will be back on Ilha Grande, hopefully with better weather and more sun now, after all, summer is here! (How weird isn't that btw?! Yesterday my dad e-mailed me on how it was -5 C home and at lest 5 cm snow, and that one of the cats was furious when he had left him outside for one hour. Apparently he had been meowing angrily for half an hour or so when he finally got in. :))

The Itauna beach (Our Pousada is marked out)

Our destination for New Year is now Saquarema, a surfers paradise outside Rio. Judging by the pics we've seen its beautiful, and the Pousada terribly cute. And you can go horsebackriding! How I miss my horsie, but he is living La Dolce Vita at Stromsholm, one of the finest Equestrian Centers available in Sweden right now. My friend who takes care of him is a student at Uni there so she took him with her. No reasons to complain for him! I hope the horses in Saquarema looks healthy though, so I won't feel bad.

Today we are finally meeting RedGirl! I look forward to it, I want to meet every Kickette possible!

Boooring

It's raining. Malin is bored. I tried to log onto Kickette, but computer is pissy and keeps shutting down. No fun at all. Can't handle all the fun with Kickette I guess. :/ We have been walking around Rosario, but due to bad weather, haven't taken any pictures yet. we saw the flag monument, and Che Guevaras house, the first was interesting and the second boring, but maybe that was since we only walked pass it. Maybe more fun inside? Ah who knows.

At least I have a good book to read, but I read really fast so that won't last long. I still haven't found many bookstores with english books in, but I'm working on it!

My stomach will kill me soon though. Breakfast here isn't exactly what I'm used to... Its croissants, coffee, tea and some cereals if you're lucky. Almost all juice tastes like soda, without gas. Bleh. I miss fresh orange juice, milk chocolate, Müsli with "fil" (don't know the english word for that, its dairy anyway) and raisins, eggs (boiled, perfectly soft), full grain bread with ham, cheese and peppers... Sigh. Of course I could go out and buy most of it by myself, but when breakfast is included you don't feel like spending more money.

Oh yeah, talking about spending money... Anyone not interested can scroll past this, but I'm bored and I'm going to list what I've bought so far. :)

• Hawaiianas (navy and gold, with peacock eyes on)
• One pair of gold earrings
• High heeled shoes, patent
• White sundress (transparent, I can wear it with a bikini though)
• Grey tube dress
• Red party top
• Blue dress (Quite short, draped, party dress)
• Two pair of silvery earrings
• Speakers to my Ipod
• Some clips for my hair, one black, basic and one with some bling. :)
• Eyeshadow (I realised only mascara was to basic for me, hehe)
• Silver shoes, high heeled
• Black pants, the sort that ends by the ankle
• Blue vest
• Hot pink mini shorts, yay! (Ahem, beachwear... we joked about that I should wear them with high heels and a bra when we were going out though. hehe)
• Blue t-shirt
• A teenyweeny mini Boca shirt
• Nail polish
• Guidebook (boooring)
• Brown trousers
• Navy trousers
• Silver, flat pumps

And a new bag to carry everything in...

Boca Juniors

The cemetary in Recoleta

The grave of Evita

"House shopping"

Right, so I have some options here:

The Brazilian Embassy The French Embassy, front

French Embassy, back (I loooove this one, can I have it? Please?)

Otherwise, I'll make do with a tree house in this enormous tree at Avenida Alvear. Right next to Hermès.

Buenos Aires

Yesterday we had our sightseeing day, we walked through town to Recoleta, to visit the cemetary where Evita, among many other celebrities is buried. We expected something close to how a cemetary looks like in Sweden, a lawn with memorial stones. When we walked in, I got speechless. In front os us were streets, with beautiful little temples, almost. It was breathtaking, beautiful, but spooky at the same time. All was silent, except for people wandering along the streets looking at the graves, mrumuring silently to another. In some of the graves, you could see the coffins inside. In some, they looked like new, lying on a shelf of stone, with candles or a picture. But some of the older ones where terrifying, we even saw one with a hole in the coffin!
Evitas grave was very pretty, in black stone, with a memorial plate of all the family members resting there, and people had left flowers, but sadly, this was of course the grave with most people, which kind of ruined the eerie feeling you got at most of the other graves. we had the unfortune of going there at the same time as some babbly italians. They were quite annoying.

The walk to Recoleta was fun though. We found ourselves at Avenida Alvear, apparently, this is where the action is. Lots of designers, Emporio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, ( I was *this* close to drop down dead) and, last but not least, Hermès. I even saw the Kelly and Birkin bags! *Hyperventilates* Emma wouldn't let me in though, I wanted to buy a scarf...

I've been houseshopping to! Will send picture to Fernando so he'll know what to buy. I got so in love with one house, it was gorgeous. Then we walked around it, and realised it was the French Embassy. It seems like I have quite some taste! ;) The Brazilian Embassy wasn't far behind either. One of each please Nando!

We've been productive today, went to the busstation and bought bus tickets to Rosario. My spanish works well, I felt like I had lost much when we first arrived but it came back rather quick.

Computer is behaving like an ass right now, will post pics when problem is solved.

Moving

A quick update, not much has happened, but we have now left our group and moved to another part of Bs As, Palermo. Yesterday we went shopping, fun fun. Will come back with full list of what I bought. Hehehe...

This sunday we are going to watch Boca Juniors, hopefully when they win their title! I bought a teeeenyweeny footballshirt yesterday, with number ten on. Ahem. But its so cute I couldn't resist, and they didn't have any other numbers. the colours are divine of course. ;)

The day after, monday, we head for Rosario, beware RedGirl! ;) We are expecting first class guidance and inside info on all the hotti... I mean the interesting, cultural places. *shifty eyes*

Buenos Aires

Above: Malin and Emma at the tango show.

Waiting for our ferry to BA. Ole, the hot nrowegian, is the one with a cap on. :)

Our last move with our group has been completed, we are now in Buenos Aires, after a quick one night visit in Colonia, where I didn't get access to a computer. No pictures from it, but it wasn't THAT much to see. Very pretty, and the Posada where we stayed was cute, with the rooms named after flowers, but since it was raining non stop we didn't do or see much of it. Went for ashort walk though, and I think every male habitant we met tried to chat me up. The blonde hair har finally started to make a diference. Tehehe...

From Colonia we went by ferry to BA. I thought I would die. Seriously. I got so seasick, think I used like 15 bags to throw up in. Yummy. In the end it was worth it though, Buenos Aires is THE most beautiful place. I just love it. It is apparently known as "Paris of Southamerica", and I who loves Paris with all my heart can do nothing but agree. I want to stay here, for all my life if possible. We'll stay here for at least a week so I'll post pitures soon. there is lots to see!

Yesterday we went to a tango show, with dinner. It was amazing, with a three course meal. It was called Complejo Tango, very good, visit it if you're in Buenos Aires. We also got an one hour lesson, complete with a certificate. I got so smitten, I've now decided to take lessons when I get home. the show was fantastic, told teh story of Tango in five spectacular dance numbers. I looooved it. One pair was really really good, our group joked where we sat "why didn't we get to learn that?" when they did a difficult lift.