Sweden baby!

SWEDEN JULY 2015

This was my last minute Scandinavia-adventure this summer.

In the early evening on July the 20th I boarded a plane toward Bromma airport, Stockholm with my mom.

As soon as the plane left Belgian ground I felt a heavy weight lift of my shoulders as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. How wonderful it was to be back at cruise height again, flying toward new adventures!

Good evening Stockholm!

Once touched down and in the tiny 'arrivals/baggage collection- hall we found my oldest sister who was already in Sweden for almost 3 weeks by car whom we would join.

Our 3 day Stockholm- adventure!

 The first day we bought a city-bike pass and cycled through the city a bit until it began to rain like hell whilst on our way back to the apartment. The picture in the middle is the 'Stadshuset' as they call it in Sweden, meaning city hall. The City hall is located next to one of the thousands of water ways in Stockholm as you can see on the picture on the right, just above.

This is the Vasa.

This maritime museum is located on the island Djugården in central Stockholm and displays the almost fully intact 17th century war ship Vasa. It's only almost fully intact 17th century ship ever salvaged. 

The Vasa sank merely 1,3km in its maiden voyage because of the very poor initial stability. A strong gust of wind forced the (open) lower gun ports under the waters surface allowing water to poor onto the lower gun deck causing the ship to sink quickly to a depth of 32m merely 120m from shore.

It was quite impressive to see the museum build around the huge full-size ship. (Impressive and hard to get onto camera as you can see thanks to very poor lighting.)

The Vasamuseet, in Swedish, is Scandinavia's most visited museum according to the official website. 

For the entire history I would love to invite you to explore this very awesome museum ! 

(for more information see: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ )

blue skies, sunshine and rainbow in Stockholm

To end the day we took our bikes again and cycled around the island of Djugården in the setting sun and ate the best sushi EVER! 

Our last day in Stockholm we woke up early for our #goodmorningStockholm boat tour.

 This early morning guided boat tour talks you through Stockholm's wonderful archipelago stopping at the island of Fjäderholmarna for a guided walked around.
This little island has merely one inhabitant who lives there all year round but s-during the summer there is loads to do. From cosy restaurants too glassblowers, pottery-makers, smiths, handicrafts, they even have a whisky brewery and pub.
After a walk around we treated ourselves to some coffee, hot chocolate and sweet treats!

At noon I had the privilege to see the royal change of guard at the royal stockholm palace which was pretty cool to see!

After Stockholm we hit the road South

 the next 2 days consisted of driving around, wild camping next to random lakes, rivers and forests, skinny dipping in the evening sun, going to bed with beautiful sunsets and home made hot chocolate, cooking and eating in the same pots on open wood fires and so much more wonderful adventures!

 

So after 3 days of driving around and camping in the wild we found a place called Kyrkekvarn Mulljsö where we rented a canoe for 2 days.
And so in the early morning of July 26 we (my mom, sister and myself) jumped into a canoe with all our survival equipment and set off. In the drizzling rain.

The First day we didn't get really far because of heavy wind, cold and a lot of rain so we made up camp at the first suitable campsite.
Even though we had only paddled for just over 2 hours that day we still kept ourselves busy with cutting fire wood, maintaining a little selfmade fire/BBQ and preparing lunch and dinner.

By next morning it had stopped raining (most of the time), the temperature had risen a few degrees and the wind had settled a great deal which gave us a great last day on the water.

Driving back down south toward Belgium we decided to stop in Copenhagen for a day as we were to drive right through it anyway.
So in our 24 hour day trip to Copenhagen we walked through the pouring rain, saw the little mermaid and heaps of other art works and statues in the city and in the Museum of modern art.
It was a good day in between long hours of driving back home. The following day we drove straight from Copenhagen to home in almost 12 hours.

It was a great sweet escape which I really really needed.

xoxo Lizzie

Sweden, July 20 - July 28 2015

big white room

Isn't it weird how some people just seem to have a gift of ruining EVERYTHING ?

All this bullshit, isn't what I wanted.
Things are back to as bad as they were, great.

Did I honestly think that things were going to turn out alright after all?
If I did, how foolish can you be Liza. You know to well that things never really turn out alright for you.

And yet, every morning I have to pull myself together again. Get myself out of bed, dressed, fed and of to work because that's how life goes.
Nobody cares how bad it goes you just have to be there and so I will. Admittedly I don't always manage to pull myself back together again, but I'm doing the best I can. And for the moment that's all I can do I guess.

If only I could just go back home, to where I really felt home for the first time in my life.
But things aren't that easy, I'll just have to keep finding the strength to pull myself together again every morning to get out of bed and start another day.

Big white room - Jessie J

Sitting in a big white room alone, tilt my head back, feel the tears fall down. Close my eyes to see in the dark. I feel young, broken, so so scared. I don't wanna be here anymore. I wanne be somewhere else. Normal and free, like I used to be. But I have to stay in this big white room with little old me. 

xoxo Lizzie 

Same name, different country

It's been two months (today) since I touched down in Brussels and a lot has changed.

I've made some decisions that weren't easy to make but I did what I had to do which brings me here today where I am now.

The last two months have been rough, to say the least. 

When I left Oz I was scared to come back and face 'real' life, the life that I had left behind. Turns out that that life doesn't exist anymore. 

So I had to start over again, but not like I had to start over so many times before in life. No, this time I had to start over with the full knowledge what I know had once been here. 

Everything has changed and yet it all still looks the same, it just doesn't feel the same which is hard to wrap your head around. Because you think you know something but than it turns out you don't even have a clue about whats going on.

I had a really hard time to get my life back on track again. 

I started working at the same cafe/restaurant I had worked before I left and tried to get hold of my old friends again. 

The long hours of hard work mainly kept me from packing my bag and leaving again the first month.

It was hard to accept that everything had changed so so much over the last 8 months. The friends I though I had weren't what I though they were anymore, they were different just as everything was. 

I dragged myself through everyday with a broken hart longing to go back to my world, the one I knew was real. 

This wasn't why I had left?

This wasn't what I wanted?

Why did I even come back, I had everything I've ever wanted and yet I came back. Why.

I came back because I had to. Because I wanted to too somewhere deep down I guess....

Anyway, I'm back now and there's not much to do about it now anymore.

meanwhile, I made some decisions in life one was to change my blog slightly.

the other was to pick up my horse riding here in Belgium.

The first you will have noticed by now think. I decided to change the name to Lizzies world adventures because well, Australia might've been my first great adventure but it won't be my last and as I quite enjoy writing I decided to keep writing despite being back in Belgium. I'm starting my next great adventure in September; Studying! 

And this summer I've been to Sweden for 10 days at the end of July so I'll tell you all about that in my next post for sure!

And the second thing is to start riding again. During my last years of high school I always trained other peoples (showjump) horses but with leaving I kind of said goodbye to that little thing too. (The little thing that wasn't that little in my life).

Anyway I know that horses have always been able to help me get back on my feet again and this time they will too. Since I'm back on horse back I feel my life getting back together bit by bit which is a great feeling after having it seen crumble so fast and far apart.

With only about another month to go until I start college I'm kind of reviewing my summer.

At this moment I would say that things are OK.

Everything and everyone has changed, but so have I. So that's alright.

talk to you soon again,

xoxo from me

PS; my apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes. It's obviously been a little while since I've been writing like I am.