BYD #54: Make at Least One Huge Purchase You Can't Afford

In addition to all the other things I completed on this trip, I figured I might just as well add yet another item from my list. This one, however, is not as fun as the others. At least not for me.

This seven-week trip was amazing, and while we did a good job cutting down our expenses, it did cost a quite a lot. And since I didn't have as much as my younger (sigh) brother, I had to borrow quite a bit of money from him. Money I still owe him, after a year and a half.  That's why I think it's a good idea to cross off item BYD #54.

BYD #36c: Visit Every Continent - North America

Summer 2011

My brother and I went on a trip to the States the summer of 2011. We went to California to see a few friends of mine, including Allison, Charlie, Tree, Helena, Grant, Mike, Alan, Caroline, MaryBeth and many others. Bettie and her friend Winta sort of joined up with us as well. LA,Yosemite and San Francisco were the places we visited. We also spent two weeks in New York, visiting Katrina. All in all we spent 7 weeks in the US and it was a great trip. But this also gave me a chance to tick off a few more things from my list! It also means this will be one of my longer posts.


BYD #14: Ride the World's Biggest Rollercoasters - Superman the Escape Superman: Escape from Krypton

June 26, 2011
My brother, Mike, and I decided to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, and it just so happened that this place has one of the biggest roller coasters in the world. Awesome! The waiting time for each coaster was insane. It took over an hour for each ride, and they all end within minutes! But nevertheless, this place was definitely worth visiting and ALL the rides were so much fun.



BYD #38: See These Animals in the Wild - Hummingbird

June 16, 2011
As I was sitting on the balcony to Grant's apartment, I was surprised to see something that I first thought was a large insect, but later realized was a hummingbird. I never got a really good picture (as proof) of one, because they are some really, really fast birds, but I did see one!

You can sort of see the hummingbird in the middle of this photo.

BYD #67 i: Visit Golden Gate Bridge

In the book, Richard Horne mentions other places to visit as well as the 12 landmarks listed. One of these other places is Yosemite, so I decided to show some pictures of both.

Yosemite is a very, very, very, amazingly beautiful national park in California. My brother and I met up with Caroline, Jelle, Tim and MeryBeth in LA and all of us except for MaryBeth went road tripping to Yosemite.

After Yosemite we all went to San Francisco - and of course, this included a trip to (and across) the Golden Gate Bridge on a guided tour bus.

It was nice walking across this landmark, but also very surprising, as the bridge is full of phones for people considering committing suicide. I really had no idea how common this was.



BYD #85: Visit the World's Tallest Buildings - Empire State Building

July 26, 2011
After spending five weeks in California, we flew to New York to visit Katrina. When visiting New York, I guess this is one of those places you have to visit. So of course my brother and I did. We bought one of those city passes that allow you to go to all sort of museums and stuff. Very touristy, but also very much worth it!

For more New York photos, check the end of this post.


OaB #30: Make a One-Minute Movie

During our five weeks of California, going to places like Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, Orange County, Yosemite, San Francisco, and others, I was not only taking loads and loads of photos, but I was also filming a lot.

Most of this made it to a 3½ minute long video featuring most of the places we went to in California, and almost every old friend friend we met, and even some new ones. And of course, I had to pick a fitting soundtrack - California.

I even made a silly fake poster for it on my iPhone:

But anyway, here's my video.

OaB #97: Learn to Take Great Photos

Using my iPhone I took a bunch of pictures in the US, and even though saying these are great photos feels a bit... smug... I guess that's part of it. I really do think my US photos turned out great.

Here are some of my favorite photos.

OaB #99: Be Vegetarian for a Week

September 5, 2012

When someone randomly invited me on Facebook to an event to get as many people as possible to have a vegetarian week, I thought of it as a great opportunity to cross this one off. The event was going to take start on Wednesday September 5th, and of course

But on the 5th I realized too late that I was eating a tuna pizza. Tuesday I was too lazy and too hungry to make anything so I just decided to heat up some soup. Containing meat. Oh well!

Come Friday, however, I was good to go - and I made up for it by extending my week to 10 days!

So what did I think? Well, it wasn't as hard making good vegetarian food as I thought. But it was harder than making good food with meat. The most difficult part was eating out as most of the tempting things to eat contained meat. I did find an awesome vegetarian burrito in a taco stand in Uppsala though!

Hussaan, Karin, me and Lucien enjoying veggie burritos.