From Java to Bali, Indonesa

Together with a bunch of Levian/Portugieses, the four of us (me, Sofia, Kartum and Nicole) where heading for Mt Bromo, an active volcano. All three of them are speaking French, frenlish when I'm around, which usually ends up with Nicole or Sofia translating for me. Then it's always subject including either relationships, babies or 30-year krises  (since they're all in about that age), and I might be a bit to young to understand parts of It. They would love to meet my brothers though!  We have good fun together anyway and after a full day driving, including card games, stories, jokes and laughter we arrived to Lawang in the evening, just next to Mt Bromo. 

Next morning we woke up at 3am, probably my earliest morning in many years, to hike to to top of Mt Bromo for sunrise. Nothing about this tour trip turned out to be as I expected. I  wasn't really prepared for the cold, high up in the mountains, but I turned out to be fine.  The jeep came to pick us up at 03.30 to drive us to the first 'mountain' where we got the view over Mt Brono on a hight about 2400 metres over sea. The 'mountain' turned out to be a viewpoint restaurant, and the 'hike' a 15 minutes walk along the road. The sunrise view was  still amazing, even if you did have to share it with hundreds of people who all was fighting over the best viewpoint spots. The crowd was just as big as if the president where expected, just another way to use nature as a way to earn money on tourism. But yeah, the view was still breathtaking, beautiful. We went down the jeep who drove us to the end of Mt Bromo where we now got the opportunity to a actual hike to the top, where you could se right down into the volcano. We had to walk through ashes, sand and stairs to get to the top. The view wasn't as impressive as the last one, but the feeling meant so much more. 

We said goodbye to Nicole, who was suppose to catch a flight from Jakarta in a few days, and continued our travels to Bali, to leave Java behind us. We arrived to Kuta in the middle of the middle of the night, but managed to find a hostel who kindly let us stay for the night. The following day we headed straight to the beach where we spend all day. The girls went to bed quite early while I was meeting up with some Couchsurfers. I saw on the website that they where having drinks just a few block's from mine, so I decided to join them.  Couch surfing is more about meeting people than finding a place to stay. To learn from each other and sharing worldwide experiences. Half an hour later I saw myself hanging out with Swizz, US, holland, Norway (which meant I had to use my Swedish for the first time in weeks), Germany, UK and a few locals. Crouch surfers in generally are really relaxed, easygoing and welcoming in every way. I loved every moment I got to spend with them, chatting the night away ..