I am back home after traveling around France, Spain and Italy with Aleksander for the last three weeks. It has been one hell of a blast, and I am definitively going back on a trip like this! It has been a big success from beginning to end, and I’ve seen so many great places, and met so many great people.

This map on Google Maps shows the places we ended up visiting. There were several other places we wanted to visit, especially in Italy, but it turned out that even 22 days of traveling was not nearly enough to cover everything. But that just gives a good reason to go on a similar trip another time!

It has been 30+ degrees and sun every day except for a few rain drops the first day in Paris. Some places, like Venice, was almost unbearable, but you kind of get used to walking around with waterfalls down your entire body after a couple of days

Sightseeing-wise Rome was my absolute favourite with the Colosseum  and the Vatican city. A truly amazing city. Party-wise Barcelona is of course on top. We had four great days there, and Kabul Hostel is definitively the place to stay if you’re heading to Barcelona to party and enjoy the beaches.

When it comes to food, I think the two days we enjoyed in the tiny village Sus, in the French basque country, tops the list. Of course every place we went to had great food, and I wish I had eaten more at every place, but I have a special thing for French cuisine Again, a big thank you to Arnaud and Isabelle and Arnaud’s parents for enduring our stay and travelling around with us Hope to see you in Norway sometime soon!

The spirits of backpackers is something I did not really think much about before we left, but it is something I quickly discovered makes the whole difference between this kind of travel and the more regular kind of vacation. Every single fellow backpacker we’ve met on this trip has been friendly and it has not been a single day where we have not met new people and gotten new friends all over the world. We’ve been sleeping in hostels almost every night, in rooms with anything from 3 to 20 beds and there is no way you will manage to be lonely. There’s always someone to talk to, share experiences with and enjoy a cold drink with Exactly this makes it a little difficult to adjust to being back in Norway and the quiet every day life, so Aleksander and I ended up going out last night just because we needed to be around people (We even found gipsy beer in our local pub!)

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, there’s a little over 600 of them

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaran/sets/72157621176920120/

Best vacation I’ve had so far in my life!

Tomorrow I am finally off to Paris and the start of mine and Aleksander’s four week trip through France, Spain and Italy. I won’t see the inside of my office again until August 3rd – it almost feels too good to be true

I have not had a longer vacation, where I travel somewhere and not just stay at home, in five years – so I really feel it’s about time! And it’s been a very busy Spring (actually it has been five very busy years ), so I feel it’s a well deserved holiday as well.

My backpack is packed. All that remains tomorrow is to empty the fridge and make sure there’s nothing which would not be so much fun to find when I come back in four weeks

My online presence for the next couple of week will be minimal, but stay updated on our trip at http://europebaby.jaranweb.com!

See you all in August!

Aleksander and I have finally gotten a blog up for our trip through Europe this summer. We’ll do our best to keep the blog updated with planning info before we leave, and frequent updates during the trip – hopefully also with pictures and perhaps a small video or two

Head on over to http://europebaby.jaranweb.com/ and make sure you subscribe!

Today we finally booked the first part of our Europe trip this summer! We’re taking the plane from Kristiansand to Paris on July 6th and then we’re on our way through Europe.

It’s going to be strange being back in Paris, but I do look forward. It’s a great city, no matter what, and I am sure we’ll have a great couple of romantic days there, or what, Aleksander? ;D

Our onward route from Paris is currently Bordeaux and the Basque country, Pamplona, Madrid, Barcelona, Marseilles, Milano, Venezia, Firenze, Roma and perhaps Napoli as our final destination. Our travel plan is still pretty flexible and we’re planning on keeping it that way, as we’ll most likely discover other places we want to visit while on our way.

We might start a travelling blog which we will keep updated during our travel and I’ll post the link when/if we get that up and running

Now we just have to hope that swine flu stays away and don’t interfere with our trip!