Happy 4th of July America!

On July 4, 1776 a bunch of dudes signed the Declaration of Independence liberating the 13 American colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Today, July 4th is a federal holiday in the U.S. which means a day off of work (woohoo, for those who have a job, despite the terrible U.S. economy) for fireworks, parades, barbeque's, concerts, and baseball. In true American spirit, my parents and I went to one of the free concerts featuring the Denver Municipal Band. The band was playing in one of my favorite parks in Colorado, Washington Park, a large and beautiful park, in a trendy neighborhood in the capital of Colorado, Denver. I used to live in this neighborhood for a few years so the memories came gushing into my raw and otherwise culture shocked brain, as the crowd proudly waved their U.S. flags to the patriot songs. I actually felt patriotic, especially as the veterans stood up to be honored. You see...I am starting to see some of the nicer things about my culture...like a free concert on an incredible summer evening. Another great thing...Americans like it BIG...which means the fireworks show was epic! And you never get tired of the Colorado sunsets!

Breckenridge, Colorado

Last weekend my sister, her boyfriend, and our friend Marky Mark spent a few days in the great Rocky Mountains at Mark's house in Breckenridge, Colorado, which is about a 2 hour drive from Boulder. We have so many great memories in Breck; skiing, snowshoeing, enjoying good food, and great company...it is always a rejuvenating retreat any season of the year. We hiked up into a nordic hut, while Hunter, the standard poodle, rolled in the mud and kept us smiling. The pine trees are getting wiped out by the beetles, so there are some areas where the trees are brown or all together cleared out. Even though it is sad to the eyes, mother nature is at play!

Re-entry into the American Culture!

Today it hit!!! After 2 weeks home, it feels like it is time to jump back on a plane and fly back to Europe. WHAM...reality! The reality is that I'm not going back to Europe and this re-entry process back into my own culture is more difficult than I thought it would be. After living abroad for 2 years I see my culture and the place I call home from a different perspective. I understand how others (non-Americans) view our culture, materialism, and extreme reliance on and privilege to have earth's resources. I have become very judgemental of my own culture and this is a difficult one to navigate. The last thing I want to become is an anti-American American!
So, I have slowly begun to process through all of this craziness: oil addiction rush hour, American cultural faux pas, the stressful lifestyle, biased (and ignorant) media, and the fast (and otherwise unhealthy) pace.

The redeeming part of being home is reconnecting with my friends. My friends are supportive and it's been great catching up with everyone...albeit a little draining as it is hard to put words to these 2 years of being gone. My friends live all over Colorado so driving is part of the journey of reconnecting with everyone. My days consist of driving...driving to the grocery store, driving to Boulder (where most of my friends live), driving to Aurora (where my parents live), driving to Denver (where other friends live), driving to Littleton (more friends), driving, driving, driving. I sure do miss the public transportation in Europe!

I'm on FIRE!

While I was in Europe, my big sister was back in Colorado training to become a fire-diva (fire woman) and now she is a bonafied volunteer firefighter for the Lafayette, Colorado fire station. Along the way, she met herself a HOT fireman (see photo to the right) and now calls "Lieutenant Dan", "Lieutenant boyfriend". They gave me a grand tour of the posh fire station, complete with reclining chairs, a big screen TV, and mack-daddy fire engines. I even got to dress in Dan's hot & heavy fire gear and act like I was putting out fires. In the U.S., firefighters are revered by the public and local taxes support the operation, and salaries of the local firehouses. The tragic events of 9/11 increased the reverence we hold for firefighters, as many of the visuals and stories of the World Trade Center coming down included brave firefighters risking their lives to save others.

PHOTOS: Me (top 2). The real firefighters...Dan & Julie (bottom).

Sweet Home Colorado!

I arrived home Wednesday night after a marathon from terminal 5 to terminal 4 in the Heathrow, London airport. Damn, it was straight out of a movie...me running to the gate like a mad woman. Suffice it to say, I made it on the flight with no seconds to spare and when I stepped into the airplane they said, "Weimer from Oslo has arrived" over the PA system. I felt like I was a rockstar walking onto stage, as sweat trickled down my face and my luggage banged the seats as I rushed quickly to my seat. When I arrived at the Denver international airport they called my name AGAIN over the PA system, "Leasa Marie Weimer please see a customs official." Uh-oh, this can't be good! And sure enough, they reported that my bags were still in Europe. Oh well, I can't complain about traveling light or my 30 seconds of fame as my name was announced to the world. After I was cleared from customs, my family was toting a sign (see photo of my mother), just in case I did not recognize them.

It's quite nice to be home! Family. My father's 65th birthday (see photo). Mountains. Hiking. Good food. Old stomping grounds. Friends. More on my re-entry into the American culture later...

I'm OUTTA here...goodbye!

Tomorrow I will board British Air and bid farewell to Europe. After a whirlwind of travels, a thesis defense, saying goodbye to my dear friends, shedding a few tears, now I am ready to close this chapter in the book called LIFE. I graduated from the Erasmus Mundus European Higher Education Master's Programme and now I am on an emotional rollercoaster: it is sad, yet exciting...bitter but sweet. But, I know that there are more travels and even international living on the horizon, but damn it is going to be tough to settle down in one spot for potentially 4 years. In the past 2 years I will have moved 7 times and traveled 16 countries and somewhere in all of this nomadic lifestyle, I found peace. I am not quite sure what else to say right now, for once I am a bit speechless. More reflections later...

Back to Slovenia!

I loved Slovenia so much I had to go back for more after Budapest. This time I hit up the hip and happenin' capital, Ljubljana (top 2 photos). My travel mate, that I met in Budapest, made the day long train trip go very fast...as I think we talked the entire 8 hours. Let me quickly digress...this is what I love about traveling solo, you simply meet more people! She had a great story and was in the middle of a similar life transition (moving from London back to her home country, Australia). I believe that you meet people for a reason and in this case we realized that we aren't alone in our free-spirited, nomadic, yet grounded way of living life. When we arrived in Ljubljana we kicked up our heels and enjoyed the under-rated Slovenian red wine.

Then, I made my way to Piran (bottom 3 photos), a sweet little Venetian-style peninsula resting on the Adriatic sea. This village is quite special as its Renaissance style buildings nestle up to the narrow cobblestone streets and the sea breeze gently rocks the sailboats and fishing boats in the port. Everyone speaks Slovenian and Italian since it is so close to the Italian border, which also means that Italian food is served up. YEAH!

Next stop: Italy!

Budapest, Hungary

From Vienna I said goodbye to my cousin and took a hydrofoil boat down the Danube river to Budapest. The Queen of the Danube river, Budapest is a gem of a city with the old buildings, fountains and statues on every corner and cafe districts every couple of blocks. I think it compares to Paris in terms of beauty and elegance. And the ripe history of communism and nazism can be felt through the fibers of the cobblestone streets, and the architecture. The Moroccan travel bug caught up with me in Budapest and so one day was spent walking slowly across the beautiful bridges and touring the UNESCO World Heritage site castle district. The highlights of my solo trip to Budapest consisted of Heroes Square, a park celebrating Hungary's national identity, the turkish baths, and my zen-like hostel. I just so happened to be in Budapest during the first annual festival of horses, in Heroes Square, where they paraded around Slovenian horses and everyone dressed up in their traditional regional clothing. It was a cool festival that I just happened to stumble upon.

When in Budapest, you must go to a turkish bath! The turkish baths are elegant, large, with many pool and saunas to choose from and quite roman in style. I went to two different baths and fully enjoyed them! And, yes...the dudes really play chess in the water. I also got to experience (first hand) how men pick up women in the baths...they say they are 'massage therapists' and begin giving you the rub-down. Luckily, I had enough sense to realize that the free massage probably came with other expectations.

I stayed at the zen-like Mandragora hostel, complete with elephant tapestries, and Dalai Lama pictures hanging on the walls. I have come to discover that the hostel I choose can make or break a solo trip. You see, the hostel is where you meet the most people and this hostel had a friendly and zen environment that encouraged guests to chill out and chat. I met a great Aussie whom I traveled with for the next 2 days.

Happy Birthday in Slovenia!

Mother nature gave Slovenia a gift of the great outdoors and the Slovenian people have worked hard to conserve it. We stayed in Bled, a beautiful town surrounding a lake filled with emerald green water from the Julian Alps that tower proudly in the background. This place is simply beautiful. If you love the nature, you will love this place. We loved it and the hostel, Traveller's Haven, so we extended our stay. On my birthday, we hiked up to the castle (like 4 times), rented a boat and Schanell canoed to the church perched on an island in the middle of the lake while I laid back and enjoyed the ride, and we biked around the lake. My birthday dinner quickly turned into a party with 25 new found English friends that we celebrated with into the wee hours of the morning. They even sang me 'happy birthday', complete with the posh Queen's accent.
On our second day we went on a 12-hour tour of the Triglav National Park hosted by the hip and local tour company, 3glav Adventures. We hiked to the highest point in Slovenia, 2864 m (9396 ft), jumped off a bridge about 20 m (65 ft) into the COLD emerald Soca river, swam under the Kozjak waterfall, snapped photos of the Boka waterfall, and hiked to the source of the Soca river. At the end of another adrenalin-filled day, 'that is the way we roll', our (very attractive) Slovenian guide gave us a gift, a local Slovenian beer, as we took the car-train ride back to Bled. A great day indeed!

The 'Naked' Austrian Alps

The Austrian Alps, in all of their glory, proved to be one of my favorite stops on this trip, but then again I might be a little biased because I am a mountain girl after all. We stayed in the posh Euro Youth Hostel in Bad Gastein, Austria home to the healing thermal waters, Felsentherme (more about this later). I felt at home nestled in the magnificence of the Alps, the waterfalls, the ski lift, the wildflowers, the afternoon alpenglow resting softly upon the mountain peaks. Plus, there were two significant experiences that made this memorable; canyoning and the naked sauna.

We signed up for a canyoning trip where you dive into waterfalls, slide down rocks, swim through rapids, and jump off 30 feet (10 meters) cliffs. Little did we know just how extreme it was...6 C degree (42 F) crystal blue (and COLD) mountain water! Did I mention it was COLD?! I suppose that is why they had us squeeze into 2 wet-suits, a wet jacket, one thermal jacket, and a life jacket. After struggling to get into these tight, cold and wet thermal clothing, they drove us up to the canyon and we hiked (like penguins) 15 minutes into a beautiful canyon. As we arrived at the point of where we were to be submerged into the canyon our guide, a german speaker, had a real look of concern...the universal look of concern. He finally announced, "We cannot go today, the water is too high and dangerous!" Ahhhhh, so, we hiked a bit more and stripped out of the smelly wetsuits. But, after seeing the canyon, we had to go back! The next day we decided to catch the later train and try again. This time it was a success and quite an AMAZING and adrenalin-filled experience.

The other experience...a NAKED sauna! On the penthouse floor of the thermal baths, there was a myriad of saunas (wet, dry, different temps). After my semester in Finland I have come to love saunas, so I decided to "bare it all" and take off the bikini (mandatory nakedness) to experience the European philosophy of a naked body. Back in the U.S. a naked body has come to represent sex, therefore you can understand my discomfort in parading around a bunch of strangers completely naked. But, in Europe a naked body is natural, beautiful, and no judgements are made on the amount of meat or lack of meat that is presented (you can interpret that however you would like...) Needless to say, I enjoyed it so much that I went back the next day and dragged my innocent little cousin along. She can comment on how much she did NOT enjoy it.

Czech--Me Out--Republic

After not seeing each other for over 18 months, the reunion in the Prague International airport was a great way to start our travels together. My little, yet taller, cousin (Schanell), who just graduated Uni, and I were about to embark on a two-week whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe with numerous opportunites for action photos (a few displayed below). We did not have an itinerary, it was just one of those fly-by-the-seats-of-our-pants kind of trip, a great way for Schanell to learn the tricks and challenges of backpacking. Our first few days were spent in the touristy big city of Prague and getting lost on public transportation. Sir Tobys hostel (I highly recommend!) was our home as we tasted the good Czech beer, toured the city highlights, and even drank absinthe (which is illegal in the U.S.) during a pub crawl. (Hanging with a 21 year old can be dangerous for the liver.) Prague also has the largest ancient castle in the WORLD, which was built in the 9th century and has since been renovated. Crazy, huh? It was pretty incredible, even in the rain.

After a few days in Prague, we traveled down south to the fairytale-ish village of Cesky Krumlov. I am a HUGE fan of small, quaint European villages and this medieval town was the epitome of what I love. The historical village with cobblestone streets is built around a fairytale castle from the 13th century and sits on rolling hills as the Vltava River runs threw the middle of the village. Luckily, it is protected as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, because this is a village worth preserving. Walking through the village you feel as if you have gone back in time. At night, we tried a typical Bohemian sampler platter which was delicious (see photo). We stayed at a hostel 99, a former leprosy hospital with wooden beams, steep stairs, and many spirits lurking as the wooden structure creaked throughout the night.

The BAD Travel Bug that NEVER Leaves...

Here I am in beautiful Budapest, Hungary and the travel bug, lets call him Fred, has struck again...this time the nasty kind that builds a nice comfy home in your intestines and apparently never leaves home. Fred goes into hibernation and then WHAM, out of nowhere, "Honey, I'm home" (as I make a mad dash for the toilet.) I picked up this bad boy, Fred, in Morocco and he reappeared in Cesky Krumlov, Czech, and now again in Budapest...he quite likes the Eastern European toilets.

I'm not quite sure the meds I am taking are antibiotics or more like meds for the crazy American. Try to explain your travel bug problem to a pharmacist that doesn't speak english...imagine me making sound effects, holding my stomach, and even squatting. Sorry to give you a visual but you gotta know the side effects of having the GOOD travel bug, the kind that never stops you from traveling, even when the dreadful Fred appears. Needless to say, there is no bed rest for me. I just go on with my plans and pretend that my intestines are healthy and my pink balloon knot (as my brother would eloquently call it) isn't raw. Wet wipes are brilliant!!! If you feel my pain, please add your own stories in the comments section.

Pics of Czech Republic, Austrian Alps, Slovenia, my crazy cousin, Budapest, and Italy will be posted sooooooooooon! Ciao!