Killing Time

This week... is going to feel like a year.

Africa in T-minus 4 days, people! A quick breakdown of what is sure to be my most exhilarating and exhausting start to a trip ever. We leave for New York Friday night (red eye, naturally). Once we land in JFK, we have a four hour layover. Out of the nine of us, seven will meet up at  this point (giddy as school children, of this I am positive). It may take an early morning beer to calm our nerves and kick off the trip on the right foot; just sayin'. Once we board our trip on South African Airlines, we proceed to Johannesburg (Jo'Burg if I'm feeling cool), which will take an additional 17 hours. Woot... woot?

So I bet you're thinking, "Wow, they're gonna be fried!"

The journey doesn't end in Jo'Burg, friends.

The other two of our nine (66% of the British attendees, btdub) arrive a day prior to us. They'll be looking fresh as daisies when they pick us up from the airport in two SUVs, and thank god for their bright eyed bushy tails, because they'll be the first drivers for our 15 hour car ride that we'll immediately be embarking on to Maun, Botswana.

Who feels like some math?

6 hour flight to New York from Los Angeles
+
4 hour layover at JFK
+
17 hour flight to Jo'Burg from New York
+
15 hour drive to Maun from Jo'Burg
=
This is what being young and living life is about, right? (42 hours from start to finish, if we're lucky)

So in honor of this great adventure we are about to experience, I've decided to do a photo heavy week of inspired trips I've been able to experience in my (still somewhat) short life. Today's memories: my summer in Sweden, 2005.

I was lucky enough to study at Lund Universitet for two and a half months before making my way to Paris and Italy with K and friends; to say it was a spectacular summer is an understatement. The things I did and saw and tasted... some of the best times of my life.

I have to use the photos I've been able to pull from Facebook because I documented this entire trip with a... film camera (do you remember those?!?!) and have yet to ever scan any of them. So, a quick 'thank you' to Christian, Kellie and Erica for unknowingly allowing me to rip their pics.

Enjoying a Swedish ice hotel mock up.

Zedan, the world's best Iraqi falafel maker. Seriously, I hated all Swedish food except the pastries; too many thick and rich sauces I couldn't get used to. I lived off falafel for two months straight.

Sunset in Stockholm.

Our UCSB Sweden crew (plus a saucy German).

Hanging out at one of Lund's clubs (klub, if you will...).

Lund's public transportation rocked.

It's the Dom Kirkan (pronounced Dom Chirkan)... one of Sweden's oldest cathedrals.

Outside the palace in Stockholm.

One of our many potlucked dinners.

"Shoot violence in the leg."

Annika: Great Swedish teacher, world's worst coffee breath.

Cobblestone streets and summer day trips.

I mean, really, how charming, right?

Stockholm at night.

Stockholm in the day.

"Sweden's Stonehenge," although I will say the better part of this day was the lunch we had in a fishing village beforehand.

Gorgeousness.

Fields of gold next to a Swedish castle.

Just two girls, loving on some Swedish flowers.

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." -- Jack Kerouac