Okay so visiting Wuhan is a must; if only to sleep in the amazing beds in Pathfinder Youth Hostel, 6 room dorm. We slept like babies for 13 hours straight.
After finally getting up, (the showers here ACTUALLY have warm water. It's not just something stated on their hostelworld website) we jumped on a bus (no subway system here yet, but most of the time we don't mind walking however far it is... When not thinking twice about booking a 14 hour train ride every other day, your perception of distance get's a bit twisted. Bus 2 yuan, and taxi, which is simpler as long as you have your destination written down in Chinese, since you just stand by the side of the road and wave your hand until a taxi stops, costs about... 6 yuan per 3 km?) Oops, got a bit off track, but as said, we jumped on the bus which took us to "Snack Alley". Sort of like Megabite (see earlier post) but genuine. And just as delicious.
In China there is food and public toilets everywhere (except for in Shanghai, where we actually had to look for food, but when finding it there was plenty, didn't see many public toilets though) which suits us fine, since now we never have to walk around hungry, and we honestly lust after the food here. If only we'd get hungrier more often, so we could try out even more of the food.
After eating we wandered down to the Yangtze river in the sunshine (Yes! Sunshine! It was actually rather warm today. Bliss.) and planned how to spend the rest of the day: sightseeing.
But those plans were soon forgotten, when we were approached by a group of University graduates: 1 guy from Singapore (who knew quite a lof of English) and 1 guy and 3 girls from Wuhan. They all work with testing different computer software. After talking to them for a while (and posing on a bunch of pictures, which is why they approached us in the first place) we decided to join them on the ferry to the other side of the river, wander back and forth on a shopping street for a while (some big Chinese celebrity made an appareance there as well... it was "rather" crowded) and then spending the rest of the day at KTV with them.
KTV. Every Chinese youngster seems to live there, at least that's how it feels when talking to them. Bars and nightclubs are apparently not as popular as getting a bunch of friends together, booking a KTV room, and spending the night drinking, eating snacks and, most importantly, singing Karaoke(or "sing song" as they keep saying). Ever since hearing about KTV's for the first time in Beijing, we've wanted to try it, and now we got to.
(So no worries parents, didn't get robbed this time. It was our suggestion to tag along, and they didn't let us pay zilch)
It was... interesting. Like having a karaoke night at home with your friends, except that you had people in suites serve you popcorn and chips, and the rooms were oozing 70's glam. Pictures and videos will come up.
Eventually we got tired of singing along to Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne (which are the English songs they chose for us...), and listening to them sing sombre Chinese lovesongs, so we excused ourselves and took a ferry back to the other side of the river.
Ate at a Taoist temple (sadly the temple was already closed, we hadn't realized we'd been that long at the KTV, luckily the restaurant was not) and now back in the familiar internet lair.
We decided the warmer weather and the amazing scenery in the south tempt us more than a 4-day boat ride with a bunch of Chinese and loud speakers (and a fee to be allowed on upper deck!) even though it would have been very interesting to see the fought over damm, the "ghost towns" and the gorges. However, we now have train tickets to Guilin, the train departing from here tomorrow morning and arriving at Guilin already tomorrow night. Sophia and Ruut are trying to book us a hostel for tomorrow, so I still have a little time to blog before we head back to the hostel and our heavenly beds...
In Shanghai there where quite a lot of Western looking people, so we didn't feel all to special. But in Wuhan, it's back to 'normal'.
Laowei, laowei is something we hear quite a lot, and most don't want to pass us without shouting a 'hello', 'nihao' or 'how are you?'. Parents bring their kids to be photographed with us, so they can show the pictures back home, and brave teenagers all want to take pictures with us. Ruut has even been made to pose in different positions (think ballerina and victory signs, nothing dirty here, you pervs).
They're mostly interested in Ruut and Sophia, though, both of them being fairer and more lighthaired than me. And perhaps the Chinese agree with my former classmates: they didn't call me 'Chinese' through high school for no reason. Sophia's length, well, the length of all of us, is also endlessly fascinating.
One of our newfound friends, "Cindy" said: You're like stars. Everyone's staring at you, taking pictures of you. (Not so discreetly if I might add).
We don't feel like 'stars' however, more like the main attraction in a freakshow. How can we be so interesting?
Sometimes we don't mind this at all though, like today, when we didn't find anywhere to sit and eat our lunch bought from the 'snack alley', and suddenly this cute Chinese family, running a little tobacco shop, had pulled out three chairs and a table. While eating our lunches they also offered us nuts and pomelo as dessert, and gave us tips on how to eat with our chopsticks. They were apparently not impressed.
While sitting there we couldn't help but still be amazed by the Chinese. They might find us interesting, but we find them a hundred times more interesting. There they all sat, outside their little shops, and chatted away, shouting to each other from across the street, and walking around in their pyjamas. Then a man walks by, pushing a carriage full of living fish, and suddenly everyone's standing around it, watching him kill and rinse the fish that one of the pyjama heroes ordered.
I don't think there are people anywhere, quite as nosy as the Chinese.
//H
Oct 30, 2010
Oct 29, 2010
Tongli - Day 22
Our third day in Shanghai wasn't actually spent in Shanghai, but in a "small town" in the province of Jiangsu (the same as Nanjing) called Tongli. (Or Tong Lii, as it apparently is pronounced... we were corrected 'a couple' of times)
So, we jumped on a bus with a bunch of retired Chinese and sent of to view a 1000-year-old, riverside town, turned tuorist attraction.
The most adventuruos incident, during our 'Tongli adventure' (as I ironically refered to it in a earlier post) was when we, wanting to be rebellious and walk a different way back, almost missed the bus back to Shanghai.
But it wasn't all bad, quite the opposite.
Somehow we managed to loose the crowds, and spent the day wandering the silent, picturesque streets, along the small rivers, eating dumplings and sometimes even getting a glimpse of the rarely seen sun. The old houses and gardens were beautiful, of course, but the highlight in Tongli was definitely The Chinese Sex Culture Museum.
The museum offered both a lot of laughs (our humour is not too developed. I mean a LOT of laughs) and a lot of interesting information about how sex has been viewed in China during different episodes: prostitues, concubines,eunuchs...
The concubine tradition is still carried on by rich Chinese business men handing out their business cards. Accept it, and you become one of his mistresses.
Learning this only yesterday from our roomie, we've happily been accepting a lot of business cards But since we've been traveling third class, there's no need to worry mom.
//H
So, we jumped on a bus with a bunch of retired Chinese and sent of to view a 1000-year-old, riverside town, turned tuorist attraction.
The most adventuruos incident, during our 'Tongli adventure' (as I ironically refered to it in a earlier post) was when we, wanting to be rebellious and walk a different way back, almost missed the bus back to Shanghai.
But it wasn't all bad, quite the opposite.
Somehow we managed to loose the crowds, and spent the day wandering the silent, picturesque streets, along the small rivers, eating dumplings and sometimes even getting a glimpse of the rarely seen sun. The old houses and gardens were beautiful, of course, but the highlight in Tongli was definitely The Chinese Sex Culture Museum.
The museum offered both a lot of laughs (our humour is not too developed. I mean a LOT of laughs) and a lot of interesting information about how sex has been viewed in China during different episodes: prostitues, concubines,eunuchs...
The concubine tradition is still carried on by rich Chinese business men handing out their business cards. Accept it, and you become one of his mistresses.
Learning this only yesterday from our roomie, we've happily been accepting a lot of business cards But since we've been traveling third class, there's no need to worry mom.
//H
Wuhan - Day 24
Hard sleeper vs. hard seat is an easy choice, as we arrived happy and well-slept in Wuhan today, compared with arriving tired and sore in Nanjing...
First we were a bit stressed that we wouldn't get any sleep on this train either, since the other passangers were just as interested in talking with us, as they were on the Beijing-Nanjing train, the only difference being that now no one could speak English. Not even read English. So our conversations weren't that exciting (well, we don't know if they were) and trying to learn Chinese in the middle of the night, without knowing what words you are learning, is not as much fun as you'd think. So when the lights finally were turned off, we were rather thankful. Ever since the Trans Sib, I just don't sleep as well anywhere else than on a train. (Just waking up a couple of times, stressing out we'd missed our station)
Luckily we didn't miss our station, and actually managed to take a bus(!) to our hostel, Pathfinder International Youth Hostel. Which I might add is the most colourful and "hippie-like" hostel we've been in so far.
By the way... how many of you have ever heard of Wuhan? None of us had, and still Wuhan is the equivalent of Finland when it comes to the amount of inhabitants.
...so, what is there to do here then? Or actually, what should we do after seeing what there is to do here?
Do we want to go on a 4-day cruise upstream the Yangtze river (which is what we came here for, since we didn't get to go on our boat trip to the island of Putuoshan, outside Shanghai, because of the strong wind) to the huge city(they're all so huge...) of Chongqing? And from there to Chengdu?
Or should we just skip the boat trip on the Yangtze, although our "new swedes" recommended it, and head south (YES!) towards Guilin? And a boat ride on the Li river perhaps, since we seem to have an obsession about that. And from there on to the Yunnan province....?
Oh well, we'll see, we still have one day more here, so plenty of time (cough, cough) to decide where we want to head next.
When hearing our response: 'We don't know', on the question: 'Where are you going next?', all Western travelers respond: 'That's the best way to travel!' while all Chinese shake their heads in bewildernment and consider us as lost, little girls, who have absolutely no clue of what we're doing, and desperately need their help.
I think the truth is a little bit of both, this really is a great way to travel, as you get to make up your mind as you go (although slightly stressed by the fact that China is, well, HUGE, and there is so much to see and do, while our visas will run out eventually...) but at the same time.. you are sort of lost. All the time.
But that's not necessary a bad thing.
//H
First we were a bit stressed that we wouldn't get any sleep on this train either, since the other passangers were just as interested in talking with us, as they were on the Beijing-Nanjing train, the only difference being that now no one could speak English. Not even read English. So our conversations weren't that exciting (well, we don't know if they were) and trying to learn Chinese in the middle of the night, without knowing what words you are learning, is not as much fun as you'd think. So when the lights finally were turned off, we were rather thankful. Ever since the Trans Sib, I just don't sleep as well anywhere else than on a train. (Just waking up a couple of times, stressing out we'd missed our station)
Luckily we didn't miss our station, and actually managed to take a bus(!) to our hostel, Pathfinder International Youth Hostel. Which I might add is the most colourful and "hippie-like" hostel we've been in so far.
By the way... how many of you have ever heard of Wuhan? None of us had, and still Wuhan is the equivalent of Finland when it comes to the amount of inhabitants.
...so, what is there to do here then? Or actually, what should we do after seeing what there is to do here?
Do we want to go on a 4-day cruise upstream the Yangtze river (which is what we came here for, since we didn't get to go on our boat trip to the island of Putuoshan, outside Shanghai, because of the strong wind) to the huge city(they're all so huge...) of Chongqing? And from there to Chengdu?
Or should we just skip the boat trip on the Yangtze, although our "new swedes" recommended it, and head south (YES!) towards Guilin? And a boat ride on the Li river perhaps, since we seem to have an obsession about that. And from there on to the Yunnan province....?
Oh well, we'll see, we still have one day more here, so plenty of time (cough, cough) to decide where we want to head next.
When hearing our response: 'We don't know', on the question: 'Where are you going next?', all Western travelers respond: 'That's the best way to travel!' while all Chinese shake their heads in bewildernment and consider us as lost, little girls, who have absolutely no clue of what we're doing, and desperately need their help.
I think the truth is a little bit of both, this really is a great way to travel, as you get to make up your mind as you go (although slightly stressed by the fact that China is, well, HUGE, and there is so much to see and do, while our visas will run out eventually...) but at the same time.. you are sort of lost. All the time.
But that's not necessary a bad thing.
//H
Oct 28, 2010
About Shanghai - Day 23
This being our last day in Shanghai, I thought I'd compare it a bit with Beijing (and Nanjing) before checking out.
It is said that Shanghai's the place to visit when you're tired of old temples, dusty tombs and small alleys.
I agree, and we are most definitely not tired of 'old China' yet, so Shanghai has left us longing about rural China and hikes in the countryside, or at least a pair of jeans and high heels so we'd fit in.
Shanghai doesn't quite feel like 'China', at least not like the China we're used to. Beijing was huge, but it didn't feel like it - the streets were narrow, the buildings not that high, and little shops everywhere. Even the smallest Hutong street would provide it's residents with everything they needed; fruit market, cloth stores, hairsalons, internet cafes and public toilets. We would not once have had to walk more than 20 meters from our hostel (the same goes for Nanjing) to find everything we needed, and more.
Shanghai on the other hand... Shanghai is a big city, and Shanghai FEELS big. The distance's are long, the roads are wide and never ending, the skyscrapers, well, 'scrape the sky'. And stores are gathered into huge malls instead of being spread everywhere. All in all, Shanghai sort of feels like a big Western capitol, considering the layout.
Oh, and the metro system.... it's huge. However grateful for it's simplicity, we are so tired of the subway.
And, either we've gotten more used to feeling like giants, or people in Shanghai are taller than in Beijing and Nanjing. And wear more make-up as well. (According to one of our roomies in Nanjing, girls rarely wear make-up before turning 25 or 30)
Since we are about to check out, and starting to get rather hungry, we'll write more about our Tongli adventure next time we get to a computer. One thing I will miss about Shanghai is the food. The cheap Sushi (will probably have to stack up with Sushi for the 14 hour train ride), Megabite (which Sophia already wrote about) and our nextdoor Indian restaurant, where we will be heading now.
So long Shanghai, next stop Wuhan!
//H
It is said that Shanghai's the place to visit when you're tired of old temples, dusty tombs and small alleys.
I agree, and we are most definitely not tired of 'old China' yet, so Shanghai has left us longing about rural China and hikes in the countryside, or at least a pair of jeans and high heels so we'd fit in.
Shanghai doesn't quite feel like 'China', at least not like the China we're used to. Beijing was huge, but it didn't feel like it - the streets were narrow, the buildings not that high, and little shops everywhere. Even the smallest Hutong street would provide it's residents with everything they needed; fruit market, cloth stores, hairsalons, internet cafes and public toilets. We would not once have had to walk more than 20 meters from our hostel (the same goes for Nanjing) to find everything we needed, and more.
Shanghai on the other hand... Shanghai is a big city, and Shanghai FEELS big. The distance's are long, the roads are wide and never ending, the skyscrapers, well, 'scrape the sky'. And stores are gathered into huge malls instead of being spread everywhere. All in all, Shanghai sort of feels like a big Western capitol, considering the layout.
Oh, and the metro system.... it's huge. However grateful for it's simplicity, we are so tired of the subway.
And, either we've gotten more used to feeling like giants, or people in Shanghai are taller than in Beijing and Nanjing. And wear more make-up as well. (According to one of our roomies in Nanjing, girls rarely wear make-up before turning 25 or 30)
Since we are about to check out, and starting to get rather hungry, we'll write more about our Tongli adventure next time we get to a computer. One thing I will miss about Shanghai is the food. The cheap Sushi (will probably have to stack up with Sushi for the 14 hour train ride), Megabite (which Sophia already wrote about) and our nextdoor Indian restaurant, where we will be heading now.
So long Shanghai, next stop Wuhan!
//H
Oct 26, 2010
中國 (China) - Day 18
Shanghai - day 20&21
The train trip from Nanjing to Shanghai (the very expensive train
trip) was so comfortable that we all thougt that 75min was too short a
time to fully enjoy it. The seats were soft, there was room for our
legs, nobody smoked and the toilet was the cleanest since we don't
know when! But when the train travels at a speed of almost 350km/h
it's no wonder the distance between the two cities felt so much
shorter than it really is.
When we arrived we somehow managed to find our way to our hostel, only
equipped with the Lonely Planet and the address of our hostel(Beehome
Hostel). The room is big and we have our own bathroom, which always is
a big plus, but when we arrived it seemed as if our roomate had
brushed her hair EVERYWHERE. There were long, dark hairs in my bed, on
the floor and in the bathroom. Luckily they thouroghly cleaned the
room today and since our roomate left for the Expo at 4Am, we haven't
seen her again. So we hope she's left and given no more opportunities
to spread her hairs all over the room. We loved our other roomate
though. Yasmine from Taiwan was even nice enough to let me try one of
her face masks (no words can describe it, you'll have to wait for the
pictures).
We spent the whole day yesterday walking around in Shanghai. Eating
cheap sushi(the leftovers became our breakfast), strolling down the
Bund and looking up a foodplace called Megabite with an interesting
concept. You choose what raw ingredients you want and then they cook
them for you, right in front of you. We ate so mady different kinds of
tofu that we could barely walk. China really is the promised land of
tofu!
..and yes, to you mothers who so kindly suggested that we'd look up
the Expo when in Shanghai; we know that it's here and we actually went
there today. We saw the que for the tickets, outside the area, and
decided that the 200 yuan each could be better spent than queing all
day long. But the Expo is advertised everywhere, so nobody can visit
Shanghai and be ignorant of it.
This morning we booked a day trip to Tongli, "a lovely canal village
where a disappearing lifestyle of slow living still exists". Hmm,
we'll see about that with all the tourists it's attracting... So
tomorrow morning, at 8:30AM, we're heading towards Tongli on our first
bus trip. Exciting.
trip) was so comfortable that we all thougt that 75min was too short a
time to fully enjoy it. The seats were soft, there was room for our
legs, nobody smoked and the toilet was the cleanest since we don't
know when! But when the train travels at a speed of almost 350km/h
it's no wonder the distance between the two cities felt so much
shorter than it really is.
When we arrived we somehow managed to find our way to our hostel, only
equipped with the Lonely Planet and the address of our hostel(Beehome
Hostel). The room is big and we have our own bathroom, which always is
a big plus, but when we arrived it seemed as if our roomate had
brushed her hair EVERYWHERE. There were long, dark hairs in my bed, on
the floor and in the bathroom. Luckily they thouroghly cleaned the
room today and since our roomate left for the Expo at 4Am, we haven't
seen her again. So we hope she's left and given no more opportunities
to spread her hairs all over the room. We loved our other roomate
though. Yasmine from Taiwan was even nice enough to let me try one of
her face masks (no words can describe it, you'll have to wait for the
pictures).
We spent the whole day yesterday walking around in Shanghai. Eating
cheap sushi(the leftovers became our breakfast), strolling down the
Bund and looking up a foodplace called Megabite with an interesting
concept. You choose what raw ingredients you want and then they cook
them for you, right in front of you. We ate so mady different kinds of
tofu that we could barely walk. China really is the promised land of
tofu!
..and yes, to you mothers who so kindly suggested that we'd look up
the Expo when in Shanghai; we know that it's here and we actually went
there today. We saw the que for the tickets, outside the area, and
decided that the 200 yuan each could be better spent than queing all
day long. But the Expo is advertised everywhere, so nobody can visit
Shanghai and be ignorant of it.
This morning we booked a day trip to Tongli, "a lovely canal village
where a disappearing lifestyle of slow living still exists". Hmm,
we'll see about that with all the tourists it's attracting... So
tomorrow morning, at 8:30AM, we're heading towards Tongli on our first
bus trip. Exciting.
Beijing - Nanjing - Day 17
Oct 24, 2010
Last Night in Nanjing - Day 19
Aided by a dictionary and a few helpful Chinese girls, Sophia and I managed to get three train tickets to Shanghai departing tomorrow morning. Beijing train station fades in comparison to Nanjing railway station, at least when it comes to the amount of hassle, noise and general disorder. I have a feeling that we should get there well in time before our train leaves. The tickets cost us almost as much as our Beijing-Nanjing ones! (About 15EUR for a 75 min train ride is not cheap in China. But hey, it's Shanghai, the most expensive place one can find in Middle Kingdom... Remind me why we are going there again?!)
Our last afternoon in Nanjing was spent in Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, a quite gloomy place commemorating the 300,000 thousand civilians who died in the "Rape of Nanjing"; this nice little atrocity conducted by the Japanese in the 1930s. Even to this day the Chinese seem to feel very upset about this event (and I wouldn't deny them the right to feel pissed off at the Japanese), so the memorial hall was in no way an impartial or some sort of reconciliatory effort from the Chinese side. If I were a Japanese visting, I'd definitely get affected by the hostile environment.
Taking a bus to the memorial hall was a rather fun experience, because of the crazy traffic. We were in awe of how our driver (a girl who looked our age) navigated the streets without hitting all the scooters, pedestrians and bikers.
The rest of the night was spent hunting for something warm to eat. We were informed by our Taiwanese roommate that the Mandarin part in our vegan passport is written in an old variant of Chinese, which is harder for mainland Chinese people to understand... No wonder they never get the message! It generally works better to just point at the pictures of cow udders and pigs while franticly shaking your head, then point at carrots and nod as if your life depended upon it.
We also had another Chinese girl write down the simplified characters for meat, eggs and milk so we might show that to the food vendors and shop owners.
It's still possible to find decent grub if your willing to look for a little while. And as we've mentioned earlier, tofu is ubiquitous.
Now we have to go and get our sh*t together and get ready for bed. We'll report to you from Shanghai!
//R
Our last afternoon in Nanjing was spent in Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, a quite gloomy place commemorating the 300,000 thousand civilians who died in the "Rape of Nanjing"; this nice little atrocity conducted by the Japanese in the 1930s. Even to this day the Chinese seem to feel very upset about this event (and I wouldn't deny them the right to feel pissed off at the Japanese), so the memorial hall was in no way an impartial or some sort of reconciliatory effort from the Chinese side. If I were a Japanese visting, I'd definitely get affected by the hostile environment.
Taking a bus to the memorial hall was a rather fun experience, because of the crazy traffic. We were in awe of how our driver (a girl who looked our age) navigated the streets without hitting all the scooters, pedestrians and bikers.
The rest of the night was spent hunting for something warm to eat. We were informed by our Taiwanese roommate that the Mandarin part in our vegan passport is written in an old variant of Chinese, which is harder for mainland Chinese people to understand... No wonder they never get the message! It generally works better to just point at the pictures of cow udders and pigs while franticly shaking your head, then point at carrots and nod as if your life depended upon it.
We also had another Chinese girl write down the simplified characters for meat, eggs and milk so we might show that to the food vendors and shop owners.
It's still possible to find decent grub if your willing to look for a little while. And as we've mentioned earlier, tofu is ubiquitous.
Now we have to go and get our sh*t together and get ready for bed. We'll report to you from Shanghai!
//R
Oct 23, 2010
About Nanjing - Day 17 & 18
To our disappointment the traffic in Nanjing isn't any quiet-er than that of Beijing, both in the number of cars (and electric bikes, which are apparently the thing to have in China) and the sound level. Honking is used to signal pretty much everything, and do people have much to say!
English signs are much fewer, which is to be expected, but the spelling hasn't improved since Beijing. The funniest sings are the ones that have clearly been translated by a computer, with no regard for the context the words are in ("slip and fall carefully" = caution, slippery floor, "the green grass is afraid of your feet" = don't walk on the grass, "sehll" = shell, "love in the Paris" = the name of a wedding store, "drirking" and "oceries" = signs in a food market). But don't get us wrong, we do appreciate that they try!
We've had some trouble finding a good restaurant, but loads of snacks are for sale everywhere. This led to us wanting to have a picnic at a nearby lake, to try out all the interesting looking foods (everything from sugar glaced fruits to pastry like buns with cabbage(?) inside). We do LOVE to be food tourists. But our picnic plans were interrupted by rain. So we had lunch on Ruut's bed instead (she announced that anyone who spilled something would be killed), trying out all the foods we'd bought, no matter how weird looking. An orange cone formed thing I thought was a sweet potato turned out to be made of some sort of rice, and quite tasty.
The Hostel we're staying at is called "Sunflower International Youth Hostel" and is located near a shopping district. Just around the corner there are streets upon streets of small shops selling everything from clothes, tourist junk and food, to animals (in terrible conditions, dozens of turtles in one glass jar, just laying on top of each other and rabbits in so small cages that they can't move... It just makes you sick to see). There's a metro station about 5 minutes walk away and a big food market (like a tiny Prisma) across the street. But if you want toilet paper to be included you should look elsewhere for lodgings. Otherwise we're quite happy, not counting the overprized food upstairs in the hostel's restaurant. This place is quite similar to our Happy Dragon, the biggest difference being that there are more Chinese tourists here than at Happy Dragon.
Though the weather hasn't improved much since Beijing, it's been raining all day, the temperature is much warmer. We've been able to keep our window open and walk around wearing only one layer! But still, we'll continue to wish for sunshine and rain-free days.
//Sophia
English signs are much fewer, which is to be expected, but the spelling hasn't improved since Beijing. The funniest sings are the ones that have clearly been translated by a computer, with no regard for the context the words are in ("slip and fall carefully" = caution, slippery floor, "the green grass is afraid of your feet" = don't walk on the grass, "sehll" = shell, "love in the Paris" = the name of a wedding store, "drirking" and "oceries" = signs in a food market). But don't get us wrong, we do appreciate that they try!
We've had some trouble finding a good restaurant, but loads of snacks are for sale everywhere. This led to us wanting to have a picnic at a nearby lake, to try out all the interesting looking foods (everything from sugar glaced fruits to pastry like buns with cabbage(?) inside). We do LOVE to be food tourists. But our picnic plans were interrupted by rain. So we had lunch on Ruut's bed instead (she announced that anyone who spilled something would be killed), trying out all the foods we'd bought, no matter how weird looking. An orange cone formed thing I thought was a sweet potato turned out to be made of some sort of rice, and quite tasty.
The Hostel we're staying at is called "Sunflower International Youth Hostel" and is located near a shopping district. Just around the corner there are streets upon streets of small shops selling everything from clothes, tourist junk and food, to animals (in terrible conditions, dozens of turtles in one glass jar, just laying on top of each other and rabbits in so small cages that they can't move... It just makes you sick to see). There's a metro station about 5 minutes walk away and a big food market (like a tiny Prisma) across the street. But if you want toilet paper to be included you should look elsewhere for lodgings. Otherwise we're quite happy, not counting the overprized food upstairs in the hostel's restaurant. This place is quite similar to our Happy Dragon, the biggest difference being that there are more Chinese tourists here than at Happy Dragon.
Though the weather hasn't improved much since Beijing, it's been raining all day, the temperature is much warmer. We've been able to keep our window open and walk around wearing only one layer! But still, we'll continue to wish for sunshine and rain-free days.
//Sophia
From the North to the South - Day 16 to 17
Bei means north in Chinese, while Nan means south... so that's right, at the moment we are writing to you from Nanjing!
Couldn't write a thing yesterday, since our hostel computers don't like us visiting forbidden pages (like blogger) through proxys... but sneaky as we are, we found a way to get around all the blocks and tadaa! Let's hope this will post...
So, we arrived yesterday morning, after an interesting night on train T65.
At around 9 pm we started heading for Beijing Main Railway station. When we bought the tickets, mid-day, the huge hall inside the train station was almost empty.. now, late in the evening; the place was packed. People sleeping and sitting wherever they found some empty space on the floor. After walking through security and finding the waiting hall we where supposed to be in (It's quite easy as long as you know your train number, which is wirtten on the ticket. Large boards everywhere, and even though they are in Chinese the numbers are not, so first number - waiting hall for soft seat, second number - waiting hall for hard seat. So the second number, hall 6, in our case) we decided to follow everybody else's example, and set up camp on the floor. We figured we'd have to spend quite some time here, but we didn't mind, there where shops to be explored and post cards to be posted. This was, however, not the case, and "boarding" started almost an hour before the train left, so be on time!
With everyone else in the huge waiting hall, we started moving slowly towards our platform (says what platform on the board, but just follow the hoards of people heading the same direction). Turns out we should have ran as some of them did - there was no space to put our rinkkas by the time we got to the train!
We need not worry though, being the only young girls, and definitely the only foreigners, we soon had help, and our rinkkas fit without problem.
We had settled in for a long, boring train ride, and brought with us books and neck-pillows. Well, we never opened our books, since when the train left, at 10.54 pm, the only one speaking any English in our wagon had already forced the Chinese sitting opposite to us to move, and now sat at our table teaching us complicated Chinese card games.
Or well, tried to teach us. Everyone around us in the wagon decided we were lousy at the games we played (I still have no idea what the rules of any of the games we played were? Or the point with the games? As said, complicated.) so the three of us all had a personal coach (and a huge audience) telling us what card we should put next. Ruut's coach gave up, while mine was on fire - ie. I kept winning and Ruut loosing. This should give you a picture of how much WE actually played, mainly we where just card holders, but laughing along with all the Chinese in the vagon (probably laughing at us) was fun.
We then decided it was our turn to teach them some Finnish games, but apparently they were all too simple for their liking.
After spending most of the night speaking to the one guy who spoke English (well except for Sophia, who had her ipod with her and happily slept most of the night) and trying to sleep in awkward positions. (It's not that we found the hardseats that hard, but small, very small...) suddenly 10 hours had passed, and we would soon arrive in Nanjing.
All of us tired and hungry, with aching backs and feet (my feet honestly swelled to double the size... the pain. I guess that's why it's not reccomended to sit 10 hours without getting up once... Au, au, au.) we still felt we had no right to complain. At least we had seats. There were a whole lot of people with only tickets to the train, no seats, and they honestly stood most of the night, except for when someone was kind enough to give them their seat for a while or the whole row squeezed in an extra passanger.
During the whole train ride we were treated like princess's, no one ever wanted our seats, they let us change seats freely to better seats (window seats!) and even keep our feet on their seats... and the princess treatment didn't stop when getting of; they wanted to help carry our stuff (and of course we could not take our rinkkas down from the shelves ourselves...), followed us to the metro, helped us buy metro tickets, and asked if we wanted them to follow us to the hostel, so we could be sure we'd find. After being rather DIY the whole trip, all this kindness and helpfullness was a bit overwhelming, but very welcome considering how tired we were.
Even though the man who helped us with the metro tickets (he and his wife got on a couple stops before Nanjing. He spoke good English and had been in Sweden) thought we should buy better tickets than hard seat tickets, I disagree, since it was truly an experience! Can't imagine another way to get closer to the average Chinese (although don't expect to fit in... we where definitely the objects of amusement in our vagon, with people honestly staring at you everytime you opened your eyes, since the ones without seats really had nothing better to do... but you'd think they'd get tired of staring after 10 hours!).
However, we only recomend hard seat for 10-hour journeys (or over) for masochists (and if you're really hard core you don't even buy a seat ticket, of course) since we didn't feel all too awesome in the end, and sleeping was left at a minimum. (Sleeping was so uncomfortable, and the Chinese were all too eager to talk with us. Yes, even although only one of them could speak English)
But as said, it was truly an unique experience, and we arrived in Nanjing yesterday, at around 10.30 am, happy, although very tired.
//H
Couldn't write a thing yesterday, since our hostel computers don't like us visiting forbidden pages (like blogger) through proxys... but sneaky as we are, we found a way to get around all the blocks and tadaa! Let's hope this will post...
So, we arrived yesterday morning, after an interesting night on train T65.
At around 9 pm we started heading for Beijing Main Railway station. When we bought the tickets, mid-day, the huge hall inside the train station was almost empty.. now, late in the evening; the place was packed. People sleeping and sitting wherever they found some empty space on the floor. After walking through security and finding the waiting hall we where supposed to be in (It's quite easy as long as you know your train number, which is wirtten on the ticket. Large boards everywhere, and even though they are in Chinese the numbers are not, so first number - waiting hall for soft seat, second number - waiting hall for hard seat. So the second number, hall 6, in our case) we decided to follow everybody else's example, and set up camp on the floor. We figured we'd have to spend quite some time here, but we didn't mind, there where shops to be explored and post cards to be posted. This was, however, not the case, and "boarding" started almost an hour before the train left, so be on time!
With everyone else in the huge waiting hall, we started moving slowly towards our platform (says what platform on the board, but just follow the hoards of people heading the same direction). Turns out we should have ran as some of them did - there was no space to put our rinkkas by the time we got to the train!
We need not worry though, being the only young girls, and definitely the only foreigners, we soon had help, and our rinkkas fit without problem.
We had settled in for a long, boring train ride, and brought with us books and neck-pillows. Well, we never opened our books, since when the train left, at 10.54 pm, the only one speaking any English in our wagon had already forced the Chinese sitting opposite to us to move, and now sat at our table teaching us complicated Chinese card games.
Or well, tried to teach us. Everyone around us in the wagon decided we were lousy at the games we played (I still have no idea what the rules of any of the games we played were? Or the point with the games? As said, complicated.) so the three of us all had a personal coach (and a huge audience) telling us what card we should put next. Ruut's coach gave up, while mine was on fire - ie. I kept winning and Ruut loosing. This should give you a picture of how much WE actually played, mainly we where just card holders, but laughing along with all the Chinese in the vagon (probably laughing at us) was fun.
We then decided it was our turn to teach them some Finnish games, but apparently they were all too simple for their liking.
After spending most of the night speaking to the one guy who spoke English (well except for Sophia, who had her ipod with her and happily slept most of the night) and trying to sleep in awkward positions. (It's not that we found the hardseats that hard, but small, very small...) suddenly 10 hours had passed, and we would soon arrive in Nanjing.
All of us tired and hungry, with aching backs and feet (my feet honestly swelled to double the size... the pain. I guess that's why it's not reccomended to sit 10 hours without getting up once... Au, au, au.) we still felt we had no right to complain. At least we had seats. There were a whole lot of people with only tickets to the train, no seats, and they honestly stood most of the night, except for when someone was kind enough to give them their seat for a while or the whole row squeezed in an extra passanger.
During the whole train ride we were treated like princess's, no one ever wanted our seats, they let us change seats freely to better seats (window seats!) and even keep our feet on their seats... and the princess treatment didn't stop when getting of; they wanted to help carry our stuff (and of course we could not take our rinkkas down from the shelves ourselves...), followed us to the metro, helped us buy metro tickets, and asked if we wanted them to follow us to the hostel, so we could be sure we'd find. After being rather DIY the whole trip, all this kindness and helpfullness was a bit overwhelming, but very welcome considering how tired we were.
Even though the man who helped us with the metro tickets (he and his wife got on a couple stops before Nanjing. He spoke good English and had been in Sweden) thought we should buy better tickets than hard seat tickets, I disagree, since it was truly an experience! Can't imagine another way to get closer to the average Chinese (although don't expect to fit in... we where definitely the objects of amusement in our vagon, with people honestly staring at you everytime you opened your eyes, since the ones without seats really had nothing better to do... but you'd think they'd get tired of staring after 10 hours!).
However, we only recomend hard seat for 10-hour journeys (or over) for masochists (and if you're really hard core you don't even buy a seat ticket, of course) since we didn't feel all too awesome in the end, and sleeping was left at a minimum. (Sleeping was so uncomfortable, and the Chinese were all too eager to talk with us. Yes, even although only one of them could speak English)
But as said, it was truly an unique experience, and we arrived in Nanjing yesterday, at around 10.30 am, happy, although very tired.
//H
Oct 21, 2010
The Great Wall of China - Day 15
We think these are the pics from the Great Wall...?
Had so many good ones, choosing was hard, and YES, Hanna is wearing the ultimate tourist t-shirt, and proud of it.
So the part of the wall we visited was Huang Hue (?) and we strongly recomend it!
The wall was quite 'small' compared to the mountains surrounding it, but the view from it was majestetic, no matter the fog/mist/cloud.
It was a lot steeper then I thought it would be, and we litterally CLIMBED the Great Wall of China.
As we wrote earlier we had the wall pretty much to ourselves, which was amazing. Since we had to cross the local people's land, we had to pay 2 yuang (20 cents) to some of the locals whose land we crossed while climbing up to the wall.
Our entire trip cost about 650 yuang all in all, since we 'rented' a car and a driver to take us anywhere we wanted. After reading about the different parts of the wall, Huang Hue, which is unrestored and a bit 'dangerous for Chinese tuorists', seemed like the place for us, and then we got to walk freely for about 4 hours until we retourned to our waiting chauffeur. It was definitely the most suitable option for us, and for me, Hanna, the wall was definitely the highlight in China so far.
Thanks again Kira!
Tack & Hej,
Kira
P.s. Jag saknar er ♥
Had so many good ones, choosing was hard, and YES, Hanna is wearing the ultimate tourist t-shirt, and proud of it.
So the part of the wall we visited was Huang Hue (?) and we strongly recomend it!
The wall was quite 'small' compared to the mountains surrounding it, but the view from it was majestetic, no matter the fog/mist/cloud.
It was a lot steeper then I thought it would be, and we litterally CLIMBED the Great Wall of China.
As we wrote earlier we had the wall pretty much to ourselves, which was amazing. Since we had to cross the local people's land, we had to pay 2 yuang (20 cents) to some of the locals whose land we crossed while climbing up to the wall.
Our entire trip cost about 650 yuang all in all, since we 'rented' a car and a driver to take us anywhere we wanted. After reading about the different parts of the wall, Huang Hue, which is unrestored and a bit 'dangerous for Chinese tuorists', seemed like the place for us, and then we got to walk freely for about 4 hours until we retourned to our waiting chauffeur. It was definitely the most suitable option for us, and for me, Hanna, the wall was definitely the highlight in China so far.
Thanks again Kira!
Tack & Hej,
Kira
P.s. Jag saknar er ♥
The Olympic Stadium - Day 14
Nihao, the following pictures are posted by our number one blog reader, Kira!
Sadly we can not see the pictures, but we think these are the ones from the Olympic Stadium in Beijing?
So that's how cool we looked while riding our Segways, and how excited Hanna was seeing the Stadium. (if these are indeed those pics)
A special 'nihao' and a 'ha-ha' to Hanna's bro Niki, who watched the Beijing 2008 Olympics 24/7.
HA DE BÄST HANNA FIA OCH RUUT! :-*
//Kira
P.s. Jag är lite avundsjuk på att ni har fått åka segways!
Sadly we can not see the pictures, but we think these are the ones from the Olympic Stadium in Beijing?
So that's how cool we looked while riding our Segways, and how excited Hanna was seeing the Stadium. (if these are indeed those pics)
A special 'nihao' and a 'ha-ha' to Hanna's bro Niki, who watched the Beijing 2008 Olympics 24/7.
HA DE BÄST HANNA FIA OCH RUUT! :-*
//Kira
P.s. Jag är lite avundsjuk på att ni har fått åka segways!
Our day so far - Day 16
This morning we saw Mao, for about sixty seconds... But before seeing him we had to que with hudreds of Chinese tourists, and since they don't que, it was mostly a war fought between us and them on who were pushing themselves forward the most. The old couple we thought we'd easily get pass, somehow managed to keep up such a good speed that we were left far behind. If we are to manage in China, we need to forget every thought of civil queing.
Since then we've been camped up in our favorite restaurant, eating loads and writing postcards. This time we'll have to double check in which postbox we put them because it seems like no one has gotten our cards from Moscow yet...
We just checked the weather in Nanjing. It's sunny...until tomorrow when we arrive. Then a heavy rain cloud covers the city for days. What's up with this? We want some sunshine!
-Sophia
Since then we've been camped up in our favorite restaurant, eating loads and writing postcards. This time we'll have to double check in which postbox we put them because it seems like no one has gotten our cards from Moscow yet...
We just checked the weather in Nanjing. It's sunny...until tomorrow when we arrive. Then a heavy rain cloud covers the city for days. What's up with this? We want some sunshine!
-Sophia
Oct 20, 2010
The Great Wall of China - Day 15
Just a quick update before we hit our bunks:
-climbed a part of the wall today, wasn't easy, but definitly worth it! More of this later on...
-saw a bit of Beijing's suburbs, and the 'countryside' around Beijing. Through a cab window, but still.
-finally visited the Buddhist Temple that lays right by our hostel.
-played with our hostel dog, Moumou. Watching Moumou jump and bite our driver's arse is always enertaining.
-decided to be cultural, and saw a Chinese acrobatic performance. Impressing, although we mostly had fun watching Chinese audience. And we felt a tad under-dressed in our hiking gear.
- learned that taxis are ridic cheap. 20 cents for a subway ride anywhere is not bad, but neither is 3 euros for a 20 min taxi drive.
Last day in Beijing tomorrow, let's hope we finally escape the cold weather... g'night!
//H
-climbed a part of the wall today, wasn't easy, but definitly worth it! More of this later on...
-saw a bit of Beijing's suburbs, and the 'countryside' around Beijing. Through a cab window, but still.
-finally visited the Buddhist Temple that lays right by our hostel.
-played with our hostel dog, Moumou. Watching Moumou jump and bite our driver's arse is always enertaining.
-decided to be cultural, and saw a Chinese acrobatic performance. Impressing, although we mostly had fun watching Chinese audience. And we felt a tad under-dressed in our hiking gear.
- learned that taxis are ridic cheap. 20 cents for a subway ride anywhere is not bad, but neither is 3 euros for a 20 min taxi drive.
Last day in Beijing tomorrow, let's hope we finally escape the cold weather... g'night!
//H
Oct 19, 2010
Expensive tea parties - Day 14
Our plan for today was to get up at dawn and go buy our train tickets for Nanjing...well, around nine o'clock we dragged ourselves out from the hostel towards Beijing train station, rubbing our sleepy eyes and cursing the weatherman for the false promise of sunshine (it's still cloudy and windy, but at least it's stopped raining...).
We easily bought train tickets at window nr. 10 (not nr. 26 as is said in LP). Luckily foreigners have a window of their own, since we still are too polite to survive the "queing" system in China = first come, first serve. Tickets for Train T65 cost 150 yuan/person, hard seats (we'll see how that goes...)
We spotted a vegetarian restaurant on our way to the Science&Technology Museum (I finally got to eat my long craved sweet&sour vegan pork dish!) but we won't return since Hanna's food turned out to be a no show. And standing outside where the museum was supposed to be we were informed that it had been moved...in 2008, so our LP from 2009 is badly outdated.
After a two-block walk we arrived at the Olympic Park. Hanna was extatic. After paying a 50 yuan entrance fee (pretty pricey) Hanna and I sat in the front row, trying to relive the Olympics. We also hired a couple of segways to ride around with on the tracks (150 yuan each, we still think it was worth it). Some film footage might be posted where we look very "white and nerdy" alongside all the Chinese business men. All this while Ruut was being attacked by hordes of Chinese tourists wanting her to pose on pictures. Which she did, for almost half an hour, she's far too nice for her own good... Finally she escaped to a nearby toilet where the cleaning ladies in turn compared skin colour and hair with her. After this lack of privacy it's no wonder she looked fed up when we were reunited outside the stadium.
Without having learnt our lesson we then travelled across Beijing to see Mao without checking when the mausoleum closes. There's something about dead dudes that make us forget to check the facts...
While sitting on some stairs at Tianamen square, wondering what to do next, two Chinese people approached us. When we leart they weren't art students we joined them for a walk. An hour later we received our bill at a nice little teahouse in an old hutong district, 220 yuan/person... Huups, that's what you get for not checking what you order. 800 yuan for a pot of tea and 100 yuan for friggin grapes (with SEEDS!) and some nasty BEEF biscuits that we didn't even EAT! We were sooo RIPPED OFF. The tea house wasn't even THAT nice... For a bill totalling 1100 yuan you'd think we'd even get to photograph the tea pouring routine, but no!
But our new Chinese friends are not to be blamed. They were as shocked as we and immediately payed their share and even offered to help with ours. But since their budget was even tighter than ours we politely declined, but still ended up with a 100 yuan package of jasmine tea each (as a parting gift). They told us much about the Chinese way of life and talking to them was very interesting.
Since our favorite restaurant already had closed and our budget wouldn't have held any more expenses we headed home. We somehow ended up buying loads of food at the local supermarket, but we had to, you know for the Wall trip tommorrow... Let's hope for nice weather!
-Sophia
We easily bought train tickets at window nr. 10 (not nr. 26 as is said in LP). Luckily foreigners have a window of their own, since we still are too polite to survive the "queing" system in China = first come, first serve. Tickets for Train T65 cost 150 yuan/person, hard seats (we'll see how that goes...)
We spotted a vegetarian restaurant on our way to the Science&Technology Museum (I finally got to eat my long craved sweet&sour vegan pork dish!) but we won't return since Hanna's food turned out to be a no show. And standing outside where the museum was supposed to be we were informed that it had been moved...in 2008, so our LP from 2009 is badly outdated.
After a two-block walk we arrived at the Olympic Park. Hanna was extatic. After paying a 50 yuan entrance fee (pretty pricey) Hanna and I sat in the front row, trying to relive the Olympics. We also hired a couple of segways to ride around with on the tracks (150 yuan each, we still think it was worth it). Some film footage might be posted where we look very "white and nerdy" alongside all the Chinese business men. All this while Ruut was being attacked by hordes of Chinese tourists wanting her to pose on pictures. Which she did, for almost half an hour, she's far too nice for her own good... Finally she escaped to a nearby toilet where the cleaning ladies in turn compared skin colour and hair with her. After this lack of privacy it's no wonder she looked fed up when we were reunited outside the stadium.
Without having learnt our lesson we then travelled across Beijing to see Mao without checking when the mausoleum closes. There's something about dead dudes that make us forget to check the facts...
While sitting on some stairs at Tianamen square, wondering what to do next, two Chinese people approached us. When we leart they weren't art students we joined them for a walk. An hour later we received our bill at a nice little teahouse in an old hutong district, 220 yuan/person... Huups, that's what you get for not checking what you order. 800 yuan for a pot of tea and 100 yuan for friggin grapes (with SEEDS!) and some nasty BEEF biscuits that we didn't even EAT! We were sooo RIPPED OFF. The tea house wasn't even THAT nice... For a bill totalling 1100 yuan you'd think we'd even get to photograph the tea pouring routine, but no!
But our new Chinese friends are not to be blamed. They were as shocked as we and immediately payed their share and even offered to help with ours. But since their budget was even tighter than ours we politely declined, but still ended up with a 100 yuan package of jasmine tea each (as a parting gift). They told us much about the Chinese way of life and talking to them was very interesting.
Since our favorite restaurant already had closed and our budget wouldn't have held any more expenses we headed home. We somehow ended up buying loads of food at the local supermarket, but we had to, you know for the Wall trip tommorrow... Let's hope for nice weather!
-Sophia
Oct 18, 2010
Pictures!
The pictures seem to be up and running, THANK YOU MOM!
Can you guys see them?
Because we sure can't.
//H
Can you guys see them?
Because we sure can't.
//H
The Subway
In Moscow the subway station was rather easy to use, just go to the lady in the ticket booth, show with your fingers how many tickets you'd like, and show the ticket to the gate thing to get through (this wasn't quite this is easy for one of the swedes, as he apparently got hit by the gate everytime he tried to pass. Rather painful, you've been warned) then all you have to know is what line you want to take and the next stop's name in Russian (so you gotta be able to read it!) then read on the signs where you have to stand. Quite simple, right?
Well, in Beijing it's even simpler. Go to the ticket selling machine, click on 'English' and ta da. Choose what line you're gonna take and to what station you're headed, give the machine 2 yuan (only likes nice and tidy bills though) and you've got your ticket.
Show it to the gate (nobody's gotten stuck here, what we know of, at least) and then just follow the coloured lines (line 1 red, line four green-ish, and so on...) to your platform. There are several maps everywhere as well. And signs which point in what direction the subway is going. And everything is in English as well.
Getting on the subway can be quite the nervwrecking procedure though, especially with a rinkka. (Wait for the videos, wait for the videos...) But once inside, happily pressed against a couple Chinese, there is a map showing the stations you've been to (blinking in green) the one you're headed for (yellow) and where you're yet to go (red). Oh, and don't forget the voice saying what station you are on, what's next, and when you should start prepairing to get off (aka elbow to the door). And all of this in English.
The only thing we actually had problems with was getting of the subway station... well, just let the gate swallow your ticket, and you're out.
Okay, enough "Beijing Subway system for Dummies".
I apologize for all the spelling errors, and all incorrect facts. This is only my perception of things! Now off to bed, early start tomorrow, since we try to be like the Chinese(6.40 am... we'll see how that goes... )
G'night!
//Hanna
Well, in Beijing it's even simpler. Go to the ticket selling machine, click on 'English' and ta da. Choose what line you're gonna take and to what station you're headed, give the machine 2 yuan (only likes nice and tidy bills though) and you've got your ticket.
Show it to the gate (nobody's gotten stuck here, what we know of, at least) and then just follow the coloured lines (line 1 red, line four green-ish, and so on...) to your platform. There are several maps everywhere as well. And signs which point in what direction the subway is going. And everything is in English as well.
Getting on the subway can be quite the nervwrecking procedure though, especially with a rinkka. (Wait for the videos, wait for the videos...) But once inside, happily pressed against a couple Chinese, there is a map showing the stations you've been to (blinking in green) the one you're headed for (yellow) and where you're yet to go (red). Oh, and don't forget the voice saying what station you are on, what's next, and when you should start prepairing to get off (aka elbow to the door). And all of this in English.
The only thing we actually had problems with was getting of the subway station... well, just let the gate swallow your ticket, and you're out.
Okay, enough "Beijing Subway system for Dummies".
I apologize for all the spelling errors, and all incorrect facts. This is only my perception of things! Now off to bed, early start tomorrow, since we try to be like the Chinese(6.40 am... we'll see how that goes... )
G'night!
//Hanna
The City
As we've written earlier, Jinshan park and the temple on the hill, is a much for anyone visiting Beijing. From there you can really see Beijing in all it's diversity, and in all directions.
Closest lay the old Hutong areas(The Hutong area we live in at the moment is 600 years old) and the Forbidden City in all it's impressive mightiness. There are green patches (parks, trees along the roads etc) here and there.
Then, the further away you look, the taller the buildings become, until they become huge modern skyscrapers in various forms.
And finally, (you probably only see this on a clear day, we were lucky) blue mountains surrounding Beijing on all sides.
After seeing Moscow in all it's asphalt mightiness. (Even Gorky PARK was mostly just an open asphalt field), Beijing feels small scaled, green and rather cozy.
In Moscow we didn't have any problems finding places, since we can read the Russian alphabet (to most parts) but we figured all of this would change when arriving in Beijing. On the contrary, it got even easier!*
All the big roads here run in north south direction (Bei to Nan, the name of the road often changes halfway) while small alleys and Hutongs run in east west direction, connecting the bigger streets. Finally there are a couple of ring roads around Beijing, which help mark the "center of Beijing".
And of course, the one fact that helps us from not living up to the name of this blog - all the bigger road signs are in English as well. THANK YOU BEIJING.
*Why we still didn't find our Hostel yesterday, if it is so damn easy?
Well, Hutong streets aren't marked on maps. Any maps. Not even taxis find anything in these mazes. But if you want to walk straight through, like we've done in the dark earlier, it's easy.
Closest lay the old Hutong areas(The Hutong area we live in at the moment is 600 years old) and the Forbidden City in all it's impressive mightiness. There are green patches (parks, trees along the roads etc) here and there.
Then, the further away you look, the taller the buildings become, until they become huge modern skyscrapers in various forms.
And finally, (you probably only see this on a clear day, we were lucky) blue mountains surrounding Beijing on all sides.
After seeing Moscow in all it's asphalt mightiness. (Even Gorky PARK was mostly just an open asphalt field), Beijing feels small scaled, green and rather cozy.
In Moscow we didn't have any problems finding places, since we can read the Russian alphabet (to most parts) but we figured all of this would change when arriving in Beijing. On the contrary, it got even easier!*
All the big roads here run in north south direction (Bei to Nan, the name of the road often changes halfway) while small alleys and Hutongs run in east west direction, connecting the bigger streets. Finally there are a couple of ring roads around Beijing, which help mark the "center of Beijing".
And of course, the one fact that helps us from not living up to the name of this blog - all the bigger road signs are in English as well. THANK YOU BEIJING.
*Why we still didn't find our Hostel yesterday, if it is so damn easy?
Well, Hutong streets aren't marked on maps. Any maps. Not even taxis find anything in these mazes. But if you want to walk straight through, like we've done in the dark earlier, it's easy.
The People
The first thing we reacted on when crossing the boarder between Russia and China was how much the people changed. A couple hours earlier stern Russian boarder controll officials had scared the crap out of us, and now suddenly these Chinese girls (aka boarder controll officials) sat on Ruut's bed, playing with our magnetic-cube toy, reading Ruut's anatomy book and smiling. Shock.
(This did however not stop them from finding our hidden copy of the Lonely Planet: China, and make us rip out the map... Taiwan and Tibet weren't marked as parts of China)
The people in Beijing are also really okay with themselves, and not ashamed of anything, down to every bodily function.
It's okay to stare as openly as you please or to spit, burp or cough in anyone's face. For kids, wearing special pants which are open between the legs (they use this instead of diapers, so the kids get potty trained faster) it's even okay to do what ever needs to be done wherever and whenever, as we wrote earlier.
All of this is in one way really relieving: you don't have to stress if it's okay to do so or so, just do it. Stare back, poke at anything you like, be yourself. Well, to some extenct. I think Sophia and Ruut will stop me before I start spitting on our dorm floor.
Since Finland is a rather empty country when it comes to people, we are all really keen of our personal space. And we usually have a lot of personal space. Well, in Beijing there live about.. 18 million people, and here nobody seems to have any personal space, nor does anyone seem to need any personal space. So most of the time, when walking on the streets, the Chinese will just walk into you, even though they could have avoided doing so. The first day this was weird, "stop touching me", but now we rarely notice. Bumping into everyone is the norm.
Something that we haven't got quite as used to, is that if you're standing maybe half a meter away from a sign, reading it, the Chinese have no problem to all just go stand infront of you(or putting their head on your shoulder to read it). Apparently you weren't standing close enough, but luckily we can see over the heads of most people, giants, as we are.
All in all the people are extreemly laidback, see little difference between 'public' and 'private' (a good example of this is the fact that not many Beijing-ers have a toilet, so public toilets are everywhere, and for many people public toilets are their only toilets, when at least in Finland we all enjoy having our own 'private toilets') never rush (they walk so slowly!) friendly and helpfull.
If they've seemed unfriendly it's only because they do not speak English, everyone who does speak English has always been exteeemly keen on helping. And when one starts helping, everybody wants to help. So ask for directions - soon three strangers will stand infront of you talking to each other as if they were best friends, all doing their best to help you. Or be offered a seat in the metro but decline since your rinkka is too big to fit the seat... and all the passangers on the subway will soon laugh and joke about it as if they all knew each other.
In southern Finland everyone is always minding their "own business" and not doing so is seen as rude. I could imagine situations like this happening in Northern Karelia though... but this is a huge capital city, and people all act like relatives and friends!
The friendliest people are however the "art students". We had been warned about "English students", but Art students are the real pest. They approach you on the street, speak English very well, and seem genuinly interested in you. This means you have to have a long conversation with them everytime (what do you study, what are you doing here, where are you from) until they get to the point (I'm an art student, come see our art, in that building, for free) Apparently it's most definitely not free, and if you don't pay in the end, they threaten with the police. Thank god we were always in a hurry and declined even before reading the warning text about "art students" on our hostel wall.
We haven't once felt unsafe walking the streets of Beijing. It gets dark really early (6 pm'ish. At 7 it's already dark) and all the sights and activities close at 4.30 or 5.30 pm. But even though we somehow always end up walking the streets in the dark (yesterday night being an extreme example of this, but even just normally... looking for a dinner place, returning from the internet cafe, shopping, taking a walk..) we don't feel unsafe or threatened, everyone has so far left us alone, and we haven't even felt the need to fear the opposite.
We haven't gotten pickpocketed either, even though I admit testing this when in the Forbidden City and it's surroundings, by keeping a couple bills quite visible. But no, nothing was stolen.
As we read in the Lonely Planet, there aren't that many beggers, except some arm- or footless cripples around popular tuorist traps. Why are they missing an arm/foot? What can I do to help them? Gosh, I admit, although I feel bad doing so, that I'm happy we aren't headed to India. I honestly feel like crying everytime.
(This did however not stop them from finding our hidden copy of the Lonely Planet: China, and make us rip out the map... Taiwan and Tibet weren't marked as parts of China)
The people in Beijing are also really okay with themselves, and not ashamed of anything, down to every bodily function.
It's okay to stare as openly as you please or to spit, burp or cough in anyone's face. For kids, wearing special pants which are open between the legs (they use this instead of diapers, so the kids get potty trained faster) it's even okay to do what ever needs to be done wherever and whenever, as we wrote earlier.
All of this is in one way really relieving: you don't have to stress if it's okay to do so or so, just do it. Stare back, poke at anything you like, be yourself. Well, to some extenct. I think Sophia and Ruut will stop me before I start spitting on our dorm floor.
Since Finland is a rather empty country when it comes to people, we are all really keen of our personal space. And we usually have a lot of personal space. Well, in Beijing there live about.. 18 million people, and here nobody seems to have any personal space, nor does anyone seem to need any personal space. So most of the time, when walking on the streets, the Chinese will just walk into you, even though they could have avoided doing so. The first day this was weird, "stop touching me", but now we rarely notice. Bumping into everyone is the norm.
Something that we haven't got quite as used to, is that if you're standing maybe half a meter away from a sign, reading it, the Chinese have no problem to all just go stand infront of you(or putting their head on your shoulder to read it). Apparently you weren't standing close enough, but luckily we can see over the heads of most people, giants, as we are.
All in all the people are extreemly laidback, see little difference between 'public' and 'private' (a good example of this is the fact that not many Beijing-ers have a toilet, so public toilets are everywhere, and for many people public toilets are their only toilets, when at least in Finland we all enjoy having our own 'private toilets') never rush (they walk so slowly!) friendly and helpfull.
If they've seemed unfriendly it's only because they do not speak English, everyone who does speak English has always been exteeemly keen on helping. And when one starts helping, everybody wants to help. So ask for directions - soon three strangers will stand infront of you talking to each other as if they were best friends, all doing their best to help you. Or be offered a seat in the metro but decline since your rinkka is too big to fit the seat... and all the passangers on the subway will soon laugh and joke about it as if they all knew each other.
In southern Finland everyone is always minding their "own business" and not doing so is seen as rude. I could imagine situations like this happening in Northern Karelia though... but this is a huge capital city, and people all act like relatives and friends!
The friendliest people are however the "art students". We had been warned about "English students", but Art students are the real pest. They approach you on the street, speak English very well, and seem genuinly interested in you. This means you have to have a long conversation with them everytime (what do you study, what are you doing here, where are you from) until they get to the point (I'm an art student, come see our art, in that building, for free) Apparently it's most definitely not free, and if you don't pay in the end, they threaten with the police. Thank god we were always in a hurry and declined even before reading the warning text about "art students" on our hostel wall.
We haven't once felt unsafe walking the streets of Beijing. It gets dark really early (6 pm'ish. At 7 it's already dark) and all the sights and activities close at 4.30 or 5.30 pm. But even though we somehow always end up walking the streets in the dark (yesterday night being an extreme example of this, but even just normally... looking for a dinner place, returning from the internet cafe, shopping, taking a walk..) we don't feel unsafe or threatened, everyone has so far left us alone, and we haven't even felt the need to fear the opposite.
We haven't gotten pickpocketed either, even though I admit testing this when in the Forbidden City and it's surroundings, by keeping a couple bills quite visible. But no, nothing was stolen.
As we read in the Lonely Planet, there aren't that many beggers, except some arm- or footless cripples around popular tuorist traps. Why are they missing an arm/foot? What can I do to help them? Gosh, I admit, although I feel bad doing so, that I'm happy we aren't headed to India. I honestly feel like crying everytime.
Being in Beijing - Day 13
Sophia and I followed Ruut's tip, and walked a couple Hutongs away, knocked on a window to a hairsalon, and asked (using some sort of sign language, as usual) the two ladies inside watching TV, if they could give us a massage, even though that wasn't actually their profession.
But boy, could they.
For 1 euro each (10 yuang) Sophia and I got the best massages we ever have, and I am adding this hairsalon to one of the must-go places on my Beijing list, just after Jinshan park and the Vegetarian Restaurant.
After this, we walked along a larger road for a while, and actually found a larger store (a mini market in Finland, and here, I suppose, but compared the ones we mostly see... this one was large) and, once again, we went crazy, buying everything from cucumber chips (you gotta try everything, right?) to a bag of something that might be candy... (they don't really seem to have any candy in China? Excpet American Skittles) ...and a lot of oreos. We basically live on oreos, since they are vegan, like a lot of things here apparently, due to the high percentage of lactos-intolerant Chinese. We learned this from Lien, and we are forever thankful. So now we're stacked with candy and chips!
My point with all of this was, that at the moment the three of us are pretty satisfied, we've got candy, we've had a massage, and we decided earlier today to dedicate this day to utter laziness. So while Sophia and Ruut read their books and all the staff gather to watch some soapy Chinese TV-program (as they have all day) while eating their soup, I really have nothing better to do than to blog. And after not being able to use a computer for a week on the train, I think I have a lot of computer-time to make up, until my inner nerd is satisfied.
So, I figured I'd list some things about China and Bejing that we've talked about or reacted on, and sort of compare the two capitals we've been to so far: Moscow and Beijing. Not having to pay for using the computer (haven't yet, at least) and knowing me... this might be long.
(Might?! If just the intro was this long...)
Prepair yourself.
But boy, could they.
For 1 euro each (10 yuang) Sophia and I got the best massages we ever have, and I am adding this hairsalon to one of the must-go places on my Beijing list, just after Jinshan park and the Vegetarian Restaurant.
After this, we walked along a larger road for a while, and actually found a larger store (a mini market in Finland, and here, I suppose, but compared the ones we mostly see... this one was large) and, once again, we went crazy, buying everything from cucumber chips (you gotta try everything, right?) to a bag of something that might be candy... (they don't really seem to have any candy in China? Excpet American Skittles) ...and a lot of oreos. We basically live on oreos, since they are vegan, like a lot of things here apparently, due to the high percentage of lactos-intolerant Chinese. We learned this from Lien, and we are forever thankful. So now we're stacked with candy and chips!
My point with all of this was, that at the moment the three of us are pretty satisfied, we've got candy, we've had a massage, and we decided earlier today to dedicate this day to utter laziness. So while Sophia and Ruut read their books and all the staff gather to watch some soapy Chinese TV-program (as they have all day) while eating their soup, I really have nothing better to do than to blog. And after not being able to use a computer for a week on the train, I think I have a lot of computer-time to make up, until my inner nerd is satisfied.
So, I figured I'd list some things about China and Bejing that we've talked about or reacted on, and sort of compare the two capitals we've been to so far: Moscow and Beijing. Not having to pay for using the computer (haven't yet, at least) and knowing me... this might be long.
(Might?! If just the intro was this long...)
Prepair yourself.
Summing it up through pictures: Day 2 in Beijing - Day 11
One of the dangerous crossings.... here on a "shopping street" close to our hostel.
Our favorite restaurant! Been there two days in a row now... thinking there will be a third.
The gates to the Forbidden City and everybody's favorite dude, Mao.
The neighborhood around our hostel. Food market in the mornings, clothes at night.
Our Hostel sign
bild 6
The sign we followed to find this charming internet cave, the only Chinese characters I recognize.
....and I think Sophia described the Internet "cave" we're sitting in well enough for you to get the picture, without, uh, pictures.
Hope we'll have more luck with uploading more pictures later on, we'll keep trying!
//Hanna (through her Mom.)
Summing it up through pictures: Day 1 in Beijing! - Day 10
Ruut and Sophia trying to find the way to our hostel... since it's already light in the picture, we've been walking for some time... but they found it!
Off to explore the surroundings of our hostel! Here at the morning market.
Inside the Forbidden City. Can you spot Sophia and Ruut...? It's really difficult.
The Forbidden City was very interesting. What an eye-opening experience.
The Forbidden City from above! Sophia and a great view from the temple in Jinshan park.
We are pretty badass
...or not.
But that's what sweet Lien from Belgium, who we met on the Trans Sib (yeah, we say "Trans Sib" 'cuz we're cool like that) wrote in her blogpost(wordpress is apparently not forbidden in China. Damn, we should'a chosen wordpress instead of blogspot)
Since blogger.com only barely works, even through ninjacloak, I'll just have to do it the old fashioned way:
Read Liens blog (and blogpost about our fellow, super cool, 90-year-old trainpassanger Daniel) here ->
http://lienamongtrees.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/about-thinking-youre-badass-but-getting-that-right-back-in-your-face/#comment-23
//H
But that's what sweet Lien from Belgium, who we met on the Trans Sib (yeah, we say "Trans Sib" 'cuz we're cool like that) wrote in her blogpost(wordpress is apparently not forbidden in China. Damn, we should'a chosen wordpress instead of blogspot)
Since blogger.com only barely works, even through ninjacloak, I'll just have to do it the old fashioned way:
Read Liens blog (and blogpost about our fellow, super cool, 90-year-old trainpassanger Daniel) here ->
http://lienamongtrees.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/about-thinking-youre-badass-but-getting-that-right-back-in-your-face/#comment-23
//H
Summing it up through pictures: Trans-Manchuria - Day 3-10
Sophia and Hanna posing with our beloved train. Beijing here we come!
Sophia and Ruut in our compartment, doing what we did most: looking out the window, reading, listening to music and eating, all at once. (well fine, they're drinking not eating here.)
We tried to exercise at every station, since we basically didn't use any energy while on the train... if walking to the toilet or another wagon to visit the swedes/finn/dutchmen doesn't count. Here's Sophia running up and down stairs at a train station in Russia. This was a small station... so you can probably imagine the big ones.
Buying more water at ever station. We became quite fluent:
Priviet!
Voda spassiba!
Nie gas. Litr, litr! (pointing at big bottle) da,da!
(they show price on calculator) Aha! da? (give them the wrong amount of money, they correct you) aa, da!
Spacciba, dasvidanja!
A typical meal, beans and mashed poatoes. Other days it was noodles, soup or soy pasta. We had a samovar, so we got warm water, and even had access to a microwave.
Sophia and Ruut posing in Ulan Ude. The fresch air, the superb view!
Ruut in the Chinese restaurant vagon with Tom (the brit), Yaro and Djeff (dutch).
Our comparment usually looked a bit crowded in the evenings (uh, nights) which didn't make our provodnik too happy.
Summing it up with pictures - Helsinki - Moscow - Day 1 to 2
Hey!
So this blog post(and the following ones with pictures) are actually posted by my mom from Finland (but written here in Beijing) since we had (major) problems uploading pictures (see previous post).
So, since you can only send 5 pictures/e-mail, and we have around 1000 pictures so far, we're only able to share a tiny bit of our journey with you, but at least now you'll get picture proof that we've actually been to the places we claim to have been to!
So, first off: we've really been to Moscow
Excited that our journey has begun! Hanna and Ruut sipping tea in our Helsinki-Moscow train. Be warned: the tea and coffe that are offered on the trains come with a pric
7.30 AM, just arrived in Moscow, trying to find our Hostel. This picture should give you a good idea of how horrible we stood out from the masses. (And still do, now even more since everybody's got darker hair and are at least a head shorter. Oh, and look sorta asian.) The Russian woman always looking they're best in high heels, top of the line clothes, hairdo's and makeup. Us... well, lets just say we're totally rocking the tourist look most of the time. Eh, all the time.
Walked to the Red Square, saw Kreml, St. Basil's Cathedral, soldier's marching in a funny way, tuorists and expensive shops. Didn't see: Lenin nor the inside of Kreml(d'uh). We loved every minute in sunny Moscow, which might explain the happiness that got Ruut and Hanna jumping of joy.
Lian Lian Templeside Hostel - Day 13
...is from where I am updating at the moment.
Somehow, we actually made it here yesterday, although we pretty much had abondoned all hope and were prepairing to call every hostel in Beijing/sit in a restaurant til closing time and then sleep on the street til sunrise. We managed to stay ridic positive though (maybe our swedes "det fixar sig" - attitude acutally cought on?) and in the end we had to do neither, since with our flashlight and directions in chinese from a kind passer-by, we actually found the place.
Today's tip: listen to your mom and don't start looking for your hostel after sunset (especially if your hostel is described as "located in a maze-like Hutong district". Hutong streets aren't marked on a map. And not even taxi drivers knew where our Hutong street was.)
Oh well, enough about last night, we learned our lesson, and we've got loads of hilarious video footage to post on the blog... trying to get on the subway with your rinkkas... not too easy.
Today it's been cold and raining, so after all three of us admitted to spending a lot of time in the bathroom infront of the heater pretending it's the warm sun of Thailand, we decided it's time to head south.
At the moment we're thinking Nanjing, we'll have to wake up early and head for Beijing Main Trainstation to ask for tickets tomorrow.
We haven't sat inside all day though, we did check out the surroundings of our hostel. (Spent a couple hours wandering the streets last night as well, but you don't see that much when it's pith dark..)
I camer to the conclusion I sort of miss Happy Dragon, we had EVERYTHING we could possibly ever need in the same building, or right next door and now we've basically only got rows and rows of Hutongs. Oh well, at least we get to see how most citizens of Beijing live - we are the only foreigners around. We also found a big indoor market place, where we amused the other market go-ers by not knowing any chinese and went crazy on fruit and different kind of pastries... so far China's proven out to be vegan paradise.
(All pastries under 2 yuan...!)
In Happy Dragon we had a room with beds meter wide and a toilet and shower of our own. Downstairs there where a bar and a restaurant, laundry service, several computers and english speaking staff. There where plenty of customers, mostly american.
Here we are the only customers except for an old couple, "Andy", the youngest staff member knows some English, but little else, we all share a toilet and shower and didn't get sheets nor towels.
But as said, it's more authentic, and we have the cutest "inner yard" and a rooftop terrace. And the three of us even have a 6 bed dorm all by ourselves! If it weren't so cold everywhere (there isn't really a difference between "outside" and "inside") I'd really like the place itself, just not it's location.
Still having problems with the pictures (mom's doing her best) but we're going to send the videos over to one of you unlucky volonteers as soon as we find a internet cafe... thank you so much for all your comments on this blog, we really love hearing from you! And since Facebook is off limits in China (uh, so is blogger as well... but Ninjacloak.com is a lifesavor) please keep on commenting so we know what you guys at home are up to (or send us mail!)
At the moment Ruut is out in the rain for a walk and Sophia and I are trying to find any massage place nearby.. (which, ironically enough, there where dozens of by Happy Dragon) ..walking for hours with your rinkka can really mess up your neck.
Now Ruut's back(see, no worries Ruut's mom, she's back safe and sound), and Sophia and I are starting to develop quite a craving for sugar as well, so maybe it's our turn to defy the rain in search for a massage and candy...
...so I'll stop my neverending ramble of unimportant stuff, and maybe next time will actually have something important to report.
Lots of hugs from the three of us
//Hanna
Somehow, we actually made it here yesterday, although we pretty much had abondoned all hope and were prepairing to call every hostel in Beijing/sit in a restaurant til closing time and then sleep on the street til sunrise. We managed to stay ridic positive though (maybe our swedes "det fixar sig" - attitude acutally cought on?) and in the end we had to do neither, since with our flashlight and directions in chinese from a kind passer-by, we actually found the place.
Today's tip: listen to your mom and don't start looking for your hostel after sunset (especially if your hostel is described as "located in a maze-like Hutong district". Hutong streets aren't marked on a map. And not even taxi drivers knew where our Hutong street was.)
Oh well, enough about last night, we learned our lesson, and we've got loads of hilarious video footage to post on the blog... trying to get on the subway with your rinkkas... not too easy.
Today it's been cold and raining, so after all three of us admitted to spending a lot of time in the bathroom infront of the heater pretending it's the warm sun of Thailand, we decided it's time to head south.
At the moment we're thinking Nanjing, we'll have to wake up early and head for Beijing Main Trainstation to ask for tickets tomorrow.
We haven't sat inside all day though, we did check out the surroundings of our hostel. (Spent a couple hours wandering the streets last night as well, but you don't see that much when it's pith dark..)
I camer to the conclusion I sort of miss Happy Dragon, we had EVERYTHING we could possibly ever need in the same building, or right next door and now we've basically only got rows and rows of Hutongs. Oh well, at least we get to see how most citizens of Beijing live - we are the only foreigners around. We also found a big indoor market place, where we amused the other market go-ers by not knowing any chinese and went crazy on fruit and different kind of pastries... so far China's proven out to be vegan paradise.
(All pastries under 2 yuan...!)
In Happy Dragon we had a room with beds meter wide and a toilet and shower of our own. Downstairs there where a bar and a restaurant, laundry service, several computers and english speaking staff. There where plenty of customers, mostly american.
Here we are the only customers except for an old couple, "Andy", the youngest staff member knows some English, but little else, we all share a toilet and shower and didn't get sheets nor towels.
But as said, it's more authentic, and we have the cutest "inner yard" and a rooftop terrace. And the three of us even have a 6 bed dorm all by ourselves! If it weren't so cold everywhere (there isn't really a difference between "outside" and "inside") I'd really like the place itself, just not it's location.
Still having problems with the pictures (mom's doing her best) but we're going to send the videos over to one of you unlucky volonteers as soon as we find a internet cafe... thank you so much for all your comments on this blog, we really love hearing from you! And since Facebook is off limits in China (uh, so is blogger as well... but Ninjacloak.com is a lifesavor) please keep on commenting so we know what you guys at home are up to (or send us mail!)
At the moment Ruut is out in the rain for a walk and Sophia and I are trying to find any massage place nearby.. (which, ironically enough, there where dozens of by Happy Dragon) ..walking for hours with your rinkka can really mess up your neck.
Now Ruut's back(see, no worries Ruut's mom, she's back safe and sound), and Sophia and I are starting to develop quite a craving for sugar as well, so maybe it's our turn to defy the rain in search for a massage and candy...
...so I'll stop my neverending ramble of unimportant stuff, and maybe next time will actually have something important to report.
Lots of hugs from the three of us
//Hanna
Oct 17, 2010
Last update from Happy Dragon Hostel - Day 12
All packed, fed (french toast with strawberry sause and watermelon... mmm) and checked out, we're ready to hit Beijing! Today we thought we'd check out the Lama Temple and the Drum Tower, and around four come get our rinkkas from Happy Dragon and then, by using the metro for the first time, try finding our next hostel. We'll see how that goes...
The staff at Happy Dragon Hostel is the friendliest ever, and when choosing a hostel location is key... and Happy Dragon couldn't be better located! We strongly recommend this place to anyone visiting Beijing, and we're gonna miss it. Keep your fingers crossed our next hostel will be as great, if not better.
Outside it's rather cold and cloudy today, which is a bummer, but let's hope it clears up... or at least doesn't start raining...
//Hanna
The staff at Happy Dragon Hostel is the friendliest ever, and when choosing a hostel location is key... and Happy Dragon couldn't be better located! We strongly recommend this place to anyone visiting Beijing, and we're gonna miss it. Keep your fingers crossed our next hostel will be as great, if not better.
Outside it's rather cold and cloudy today, which is a bummer, but let's hope it clears up... or at least doesn't start raining...
//Hanna
Oct 16, 2010
Photo Uploading - Day 11
Since a picture says more than a thousand words, we'd really like to save ourselves the trouble of writing so much and upload some of our pictures.
...the problem is that nothing seems to agree with us.
At our hostel the connection is too slow, at the Internet cafe(where we are at the moment) picasa speaks Chinese. The answer to that problem, you might say, is to copy-paste the characters into google translate. Sounds simple enough. Well, since google translate also seems to speak only Chinese you might say we have a bit of a problem...
Right now our solution is to send pictures (about ten, so don't get too excited) to Finland, where some unlucky person will have to put them on our blog. Any volunteers?
Let me take some time to describe the Intenet cafe where we are right now:
It's filled with Chinese men that are either playing a computer game or watching porn (all we can do is try to look the other way, for the porn part, as the games are just boring). We also seem to be the only ones who haven't brought loads of food and snacks with us. These men sit, as in a trance, staring at the screen without moving (unless to quickly, and without diverting their eyes from the screen, reach for a snack) for what seems like hours on end, only leaving their seats (very reluctantly, I might add) to go to the toilet. By the smell of the guy next to Ruut, he hasn't left this place for days. Hygene clearly isn't a priority here. Spitting on the floor, burping, smoking and throwing the stump on the floor as well as smearing grease and dirt all over the keyboard and screen is accepted here. But the seats are quite comfortable, big and soft armchairs, no hard chairs here. The only sounds you can hear are the distant noises coming from the headphones closest to you and the clattering of keys (very loudly when the games get too exciting to manage).
Let's hope we get this photo business sorted out, because this is a place we won't miss!
//Sophia
...the problem is that nothing seems to agree with us.
At our hostel the connection is too slow, at the Internet cafe(where we are at the moment) picasa speaks Chinese. The answer to that problem, you might say, is to copy-paste the characters into google translate. Sounds simple enough. Well, since google translate also seems to speak only Chinese you might say we have a bit of a problem...
Right now our solution is to send pictures (about ten, so don't get too excited) to Finland, where some unlucky person will have to put them on our blog. Any volunteers?
Let me take some time to describe the Intenet cafe where we are right now:
It's filled with Chinese men that are either playing a computer game or watching porn (all we can do is try to look the other way, for the porn part, as the games are just boring). We also seem to be the only ones who haven't brought loads of food and snacks with us. These men sit, as in a trance, staring at the screen without moving (unless to quickly, and without diverting their eyes from the screen, reach for a snack) for what seems like hours on end, only leaving their seats (very reluctantly, I might add) to go to the toilet. By the smell of the guy next to Ruut, he hasn't left this place for days. Hygene clearly isn't a priority here. Spitting on the floor, burping, smoking and throwing the stump on the floor as well as smearing grease and dirt all over the keyboard and screen is accepted here. But the seats are quite comfortable, big and soft armchairs, no hard chairs here. The only sounds you can hear are the distant noises coming from the headphones closest to you and the clattering of keys (very loudly when the games get too exciting to manage).
Let's hope we get this photo business sorted out, because this is a place we won't miss!
//Sophia
Day two in Beijing - Day 11
Today was, in a sense, a bit of a failure. Though not an unpleasent one I might add. Anything beats sitting around at home, for sure! We just didn't get that much done...
On our part the day started very late, as Sophia and I had a solid 13h of sleep. We missed the fabulous morning market and the sky was alreday getting clouded (by pollution).
We failed exchanging our Russian rubles into Yuan, which we found out after queing for several hours in several banks and asking locals and various bank clerks about it. Some of them claimed that exchanging anything but euros and dollars is impossible throughout China! One suggested we might go to some sort of Russian district and cajole some Russian to give his/her yuan in exchange of our rubles. On Monday we'll try out the big Commercial Bank though. Our last resort. Our friendly Australian room mate gave us this tip.
But to quote our Swedish guys: "Det loser sig!". So no worries.
A small misunderstanding with the hostel staff made us believe that our laundry would be ready this morning. Turns out it'll be done tomorrow morning instead, which led to Hanna prancing around the streets of Beijing in her shorts and a somewhat runned down top, and me literally in my pyjamas. We felt rather chilled at the end of the day.
Buying clothes was obviously an option, but finding anything that actually fits a tall and wide-shouldered laowai and that isn't meant for men, can be a bit of a hassle. Hanna got stuck in a sweater and I just looked weird in everything. I still have no pants (apparently Chinese women only wear long johns or skirts, so I guess I'll have to conform), but Sophia and Hanna managed to get t-shirts at a souvenir shop near Tianamen Square (yes, we actually managed to do some mandatory tourist stuff today. The square itself was sort of closed off, so hordes of tourists were hanging around it peering at Mao's self contented face).
Later we returned to the fabulous veg restaurant in the hutong nearby, ate til we felt sick and listened to the ongoing buddhist conference. Our poor chop stick technique, was again a source of entertainment for the waiters.
Good night for now!
//R
On our part the day started very late, as Sophia and I had a solid 13h of sleep. We missed the fabulous morning market and the sky was alreday getting clouded (by pollution).
We failed exchanging our Russian rubles into Yuan, which we found out after queing for several hours in several banks and asking locals and various bank clerks about it. Some of them claimed that exchanging anything but euros and dollars is impossible throughout China! One suggested we might go to some sort of Russian district and cajole some Russian to give his/her yuan in exchange of our rubles. On Monday we'll try out the big Commercial Bank though. Our last resort. Our friendly Australian room mate gave us this tip.
But to quote our Swedish guys: "Det loser sig!". So no worries.
A small misunderstanding with the hostel staff made us believe that our laundry would be ready this morning. Turns out it'll be done tomorrow morning instead, which led to Hanna prancing around the streets of Beijing in her shorts and a somewhat runned down top, and me literally in my pyjamas. We felt rather chilled at the end of the day.
Buying clothes was obviously an option, but finding anything that actually fits a tall and wide-shouldered laowai and that isn't meant for men, can be a bit of a hassle. Hanna got stuck in a sweater and I just looked weird in everything. I still have no pants (apparently Chinese women only wear long johns or skirts, so I guess I'll have to conform), but Sophia and Hanna managed to get t-shirts at a souvenir shop near Tianamen Square (yes, we actually managed to do some mandatory tourist stuff today. The square itself was sort of closed off, so hordes of tourists were hanging around it peering at Mao's self contented face).
Later we returned to the fabulous veg restaurant in the hutong nearby, ate til we felt sick and listened to the ongoing buddhist conference. Our poor chop stick technique, was again a source of entertainment for the waiters.
Good night for now!
//R
Oct 15, 2010
Moscow-Beijing - Day 3 to 10
On Friday evening we stepped onboard train nr 20 on Yaroslavsky train station, Moscow, and on Friday morning one week later we exited the train on Beijing Train Station. So, what exactly kept us occupied those six and a half days?
Well, we read (a lot), we ate (a lot) and we sat (a whole lot). In between these time consuming activities we had time to socialize with our fellow passengers: two flashpack-y Swedes, one loony Brit, one deranged Finn and three cocky Dutchmen. (As you can understand, we grew very quite fond of our train companions.) Not to forget the only other girl our age, the multi-linguistic Belgian, and the 90-year-old Frenchman travelling around Asia, whilst writing a book about his love life. Beijing without them feels somehow wrong... We miss you guys!
In our compartment we actually kept a pet. I don't think you were allowed but our Friendly Neighborhood Fly wouldn't leave us alone!
I'll give you an example of a day on the train:
(Note that the time is estimated. Our minds were set on Finnish time, the train's time table on Moscow time, the restaurant wagon on local time and when you add the changing time zones to the equation you've got yourself a difficult answer to the simple question 'what time is it?')
early morning - Hanna wakes up
mid-day - Ruut&Sophia start to show signs of life
breakfast(or should it be lunch...?)
whenever the train makes a stop, we jump off and run up and down the station and all the stairs we can find before being shooed back into the train ('two minutes, two minutes!')
to pass the time we read, eat snacks, play with our magnetic cube(well, that's what it's supposed to be) and watch the changing scenery outside our window.
in the evenings we meet up with the people mentioned above (minus the 90-year-old) until our provodnik harshly tells our guests 'you, you, you - Go home!' and us 'you, you, you - Go to sleep!'. A tiny bit embaressed everyone does as he says, only to repeat the same thing the next night...
We'll try to put up pictures later, doing that on our Hostel's computer would take forever... I'll let the pictures describe the beautidul views we saw.
-Sophia
Well, we read (a lot), we ate (a lot) and we sat (a whole lot). In between these time consuming activities we had time to socialize with our fellow passengers: two flashpack-y Swedes, one loony Brit, one deranged Finn and three cocky Dutchmen. (As you can understand, we grew very quite fond of our train companions.) Not to forget the only other girl our age, the multi-linguistic Belgian, and the 90-year-old Frenchman travelling around Asia, whilst writing a book about his love life. Beijing without them feels somehow wrong... We miss you guys!
In our compartment we actually kept a pet. I don't think you were allowed but our Friendly Neighborhood Fly wouldn't leave us alone!
I'll give you an example of a day on the train:
(Note that the time is estimated. Our minds were set on Finnish time, the train's time table on Moscow time, the restaurant wagon on local time and when you add the changing time zones to the equation you've got yourself a difficult answer to the simple question 'what time is it?')
early morning - Hanna wakes up
mid-day - Ruut&Sophia start to show signs of life
breakfast(or should it be lunch...?)
whenever the train makes a stop, we jump off and run up and down the station and all the stairs we can find before being shooed back into the train ('two minutes, two minutes!')
to pass the time we read, eat snacks, play with our magnetic cube(well, that's what it's supposed to be) and watch the changing scenery outside our window.
in the evenings we meet up with the people mentioned above (minus the 90-year-old) until our provodnik harshly tells our guests 'you, you, you - Go home!' and us 'you, you, you - Go to sleep!'. A tiny bit embaressed everyone does as he says, only to repeat the same thing the next night...
We'll try to put up pictures later, doing that on our Hostel's computer would take forever... I'll let the pictures describe the beautidul views we saw.
-Sophia
Last day in Moscow - Day 3
Our attempt to see Lenin's Mausoleum, at the red square failed, since the entire square was closed on Thursday (nobody really knew why, just loads of armed men and women standing there guarding the place and not letting people in) and on Friday the man in question was out for his weekly sprucing up.
Instead we decided to check out Saint Basil's Cathedral, which lies at the edge of the square.It's actually not one church, but several small ones crammed into one big, colorful and surreal one.(Remember to bring your student card with you if you want to avoid the heftier adult price.)
Once again we we're blessed with extremely good weather, so we decided to just stroll along Moscow's wide streets and head towards Gorky Park to have an outdoor lunch in what we thought would be a serious and serene place.
The park turned out to be half amusement park, half concrete jungle, with not as much as the tiniest flower bed. We made friends with a crippled dove and listened to Christmas carols and hard core techno that kept blasting from the omnipresent loudspeakers.
We had dinner at a strange farm inspired Russian home cooking restaurant, out in a residential area and marveled at Russians who downed one vodka bottle after the other without even flinching.
In the evening we nervously headed towards the train station to catch the Beijing train. Eventually (after a lot of hassle and poorly pronounced Russian train travel related phrases later) we found the right platform and we could relax.
//R
Instead we decided to check out Saint Basil's Cathedral, which lies at the edge of the square.It's actually not one church, but several small ones crammed into one big, colorful and surreal one.(Remember to bring your student card with you if you want to avoid the heftier adult price.)
Once again we we're blessed with extremely good weather, so we decided to just stroll along Moscow's wide streets and head towards Gorky Park to have an outdoor lunch in what we thought would be a serious and serene place.
The park turned out to be half amusement park, half concrete jungle, with not as much as the tiniest flower bed. We made friends with a crippled dove and listened to Christmas carols and hard core techno that kept blasting from the omnipresent loudspeakers.
We had dinner at a strange farm inspired Russian home cooking restaurant, out in a residential area and marveled at Russians who downed one vodka bottle after the other without even flinching.
In the evening we nervously headed towards the train station to catch the Beijing train. Eventually (after a lot of hassle and poorly pronounced Russian train travel related phrases later) we found the right platform and we could relax.
//R
Nihao from Beijing! - Day 10
When asking our fellow train passengers what the first thing they're gonna do when arriving in Beijing is, the answer was always the same: shower. Take a long, hot shower. After 7 days on a train without a shower, Ruut, Sophia and I could nothing but agree.
However, when arriving in Beijing, showering suddenly seemed less important.There was so much to see and we where in BEIJING. In CHINA! In ASIA! Just the three of us. Crazy.
So, after waking up at 5:00 AM, cramming your last things into your rinkka and sadly saying goodbye to the 'home' and the people you've become so fond of, we decided there was no time for showers and other unimportant things, we wanted to experience everything!
So, with Sophia as our amazing map reader, we walked around 4 kilometers, while the sun was rising and bakery's opening their doors, to find our cozy Happy Dragon Hostel, hidden behind an awesome market place. (Think fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meat, nuts, seeds, clothing, tools, and weird Chinese pastry treats, that we of course had to try immediately.)
But no time to dwell, so we left our rinkkas at the hostel, and half past eight found ourselves standing outside the gates of the Forbidden City.
(Tickets cost 60 yuan and the place is huuuuuge.... so prepare for spending at least 4 hours there if you really want to explore the place. Opens at 8.30, and we strongly recommend you be there by then,as tourists started pouring in by hundreds the later it got)
The Forbidden City was impressing, but sadly last nights goodbye party and the early awakening started to take its toll, so we mostly enjoyed the City by sleeping in the sunshine and watching the Chinese tourist go tourist crazy, taking pictures of everything: from us to the items in the gift shop.
Oh, and we saw a lot of little children peeing and pooping... everywhere. Not even the stairs of the Hall of Supreme Harmony or the Gate of Heavenly Peace where safe zones.
And the Clock Exhibition Hall - nice, but a little too hyped by Lonely Planet China.
Something we do recommend, however, is climbing up the stairs in Jingshan park to the temple at the top. The 360 view of Beijing is AMAZING. Entrance costs 2 yuan, and sadly you'll probably not have the view to yourself.
On the way to the Forbidden City we where lucky enough to spot a vegetarian restaurant called... Vegetarian Restaurant, uniquely enough. So on the way back to the hostel we stopped here.... and the food was DELICIOUS. Sorry for repeatedly using capital letters, but this time I really have no choice. Since we're running out of yuans, aka computer time, we'll tell you more about the food after the next time we've visited it. Because there will be a next time.
The staff was extremely helpful (well one of them, the one who knew english. The rest mostly stood around watching us (we where the only customers) and laughed at our failing chopstick use. But being laughed and stared at by the Chinese is nothing new, since we couldn't stick out from the mass anymore then we do...) and we got to visit a Buddhist worshiping room with her, and take part of a Buddhist ritual.
After this, and being tricked by a camera salesperson to buy some sort of lens for the camera (got a new memory card as well though!) we finally took the long overdue shower back at the Hostel.
Tired as can be, we still look forward to tomorrow when we get to discover more of Beijing!
So far this city seems fantastic, with the only minus being you having to risk your life everytime you try crossing a road. When the pedestrian light goes green, we cross our fingers, take a deep breath and rush over the street nervously trying to watch every potential killer (car). In Moscow there didn't seem to be ANY traffic rules, but crossing a street was child's play... the traffic always stood still, so all you had to do was zig-zag over wherever you felt like it. (yes mom, we where still very careful. promise) Here there are traffic rules, but they seem to be: A red light is just a suggestion, and a pedestrian just an easily removed obstacle if you have a high enough speed.
Jeez, enough about today! Will let Ruut and Sophia take over the computer now, and they'll fill you in on what we've been up to during the last week of blog-quietness.
But as said, we're alive, IN BEIJING and life couldn't be better!
//Hanna
Ps. Things were looking bad once today. We couldn't get out from the train station in the morning! You needed some sort of ticket. After harassing every official we could fine with questions they did not understand, we finally tried to get out by showing them our train tickets. Worked.
However, when arriving in Beijing, showering suddenly seemed less important.There was so much to see and we where in BEIJING. In CHINA! In ASIA! Just the three of us. Crazy.
So, after waking up at 5:00 AM, cramming your last things into your rinkka and sadly saying goodbye to the 'home' and the people you've become so fond of, we decided there was no time for showers and other unimportant things, we wanted to experience everything!
So, with Sophia as our amazing map reader, we walked around 4 kilometers, while the sun was rising and bakery's opening their doors, to find our cozy Happy Dragon Hostel, hidden behind an awesome market place. (Think fresh fruits and vegetables, raw meat, nuts, seeds, clothing, tools, and weird Chinese pastry treats, that we of course had to try immediately.)
But no time to dwell, so we left our rinkkas at the hostel, and half past eight found ourselves standing outside the gates of the Forbidden City.
(Tickets cost 60 yuan and the place is huuuuuge.... so prepare for spending at least 4 hours there if you really want to explore the place. Opens at 8.30, and we strongly recommend you be there by then,as tourists started pouring in by hundreds the later it got)
The Forbidden City was impressing, but sadly last nights goodbye party and the early awakening started to take its toll, so we mostly enjoyed the City by sleeping in the sunshine and watching the Chinese tourist go tourist crazy, taking pictures of everything: from us to the items in the gift shop.
Oh, and we saw a lot of little children peeing and pooping... everywhere. Not even the stairs of the Hall of Supreme Harmony or the Gate of Heavenly Peace where safe zones.
And the Clock Exhibition Hall - nice, but a little too hyped by Lonely Planet China.
Something we do recommend, however, is climbing up the stairs in Jingshan park to the temple at the top. The 360 view of Beijing is AMAZING. Entrance costs 2 yuan, and sadly you'll probably not have the view to yourself.
On the way to the Forbidden City we where lucky enough to spot a vegetarian restaurant called... Vegetarian Restaurant, uniquely enough. So on the way back to the hostel we stopped here.... and the food was DELICIOUS. Sorry for repeatedly using capital letters, but this time I really have no choice. Since we're running out of yuans, aka computer time, we'll tell you more about the food after the next time we've visited it. Because there will be a next time.
The staff was extremely helpful (well one of them, the one who knew english. The rest mostly stood around watching us (we where the only customers) and laughed at our failing chopstick use. But being laughed and stared at by the Chinese is nothing new, since we couldn't stick out from the mass anymore then we do...) and we got to visit a Buddhist worshiping room with her, and take part of a Buddhist ritual.
After this, and being tricked by a camera salesperson to buy some sort of lens for the camera (got a new memory card as well though!) we finally took the long overdue shower back at the Hostel.
Tired as can be, we still look forward to tomorrow when we get to discover more of Beijing!
So far this city seems fantastic, with the only minus being you having to risk your life everytime you try crossing a road. When the pedestrian light goes green, we cross our fingers, take a deep breath and rush over the street nervously trying to watch every potential killer (car). In Moscow there didn't seem to be ANY traffic rules, but crossing a street was child's play... the traffic always stood still, so all you had to do was zig-zag over wherever you felt like it. (yes mom, we where still very careful. promise) Here there are traffic rules, but they seem to be: A red light is just a suggestion, and a pedestrian just an easily removed obstacle if you have a high enough speed.
Jeez, enough about today! Will let Ruut and Sophia take over the computer now, and they'll fill you in on what we've been up to during the last week of blog-quietness.
But as said, we're alive, IN BEIJING and life couldn't be better!
//Hanna
Ps. Things were looking bad once today. We couldn't get out from the train station in the morning! You needed some sort of ticket. After harassing every official we could fine with questions they did not understand, we finally tried to get out by showing them our train tickets. Worked.
Oct 8, 2010
Quick update - Day 3
Check out is due in an hour, and since the train isn't leaving until very late in the evening we decided to leave our packs in the hostel reception/common room and go see Lenin and do other touristy things. Take a last good look at mighty Moscow.
This'll probably bee our last post in Russia, so the next time you hear from us we'll be in Beijing! We're all actually looking forward to the long train ride :D. 6,5 days of complete laziness, sounds good to me!
//R
This'll probably bee our last post in Russia, so the next time you hear from us we'll be in Beijing! We're all actually looking forward to the long train ride :D. 6,5 days of complete laziness, sounds good to me!
//R
Helsinki - Mockba - Day 2
GREETINGS FROM MOSCOW!
That's right, we're here, and our trip has actually started!
Honestly though, feels like we've already been in Moscow for ages, and know our way around the city quite well, although we only arrived this morning!
So, about the traintrip...
14 hours felt like all too short a time!
We hardly found time to sleep, since there where too many interesting things to see when looking out the window, too many interesting things to read about in our Lonely Planet: Trans Siberian railroad (WE LOVE IT!) and too much candy to eat (given to us by our sweet, sweet friends. No pun intended) and too much tea to drink (brought by our nice train "mama". Be warned, everything comes with a price.)
When we arrived in Moscow this morning we didn't have any problems finding our hostel, since we'd been smart enough to print out all maps we'd need in Moscow. (we strongly recommend this!)
After that we bought our train tickets to Beijing for tomorrow, no problems there either.
Then we where free to wander around Moscow, and get amazed by all the huge buildings.
We did visit the State of History Museum and found in quite interesting, showing the history of Russia from the Stone Age forward. But it wasn't quite worth the 250r (adult price, 1e = 38r) we paid for it, at least not without the audio guide and more time than 1,5h.
Since visiting Lenin's mausoleum and the Red Square was not a possibility (closed all day due to.. well, no one knows, not even the dozens and dozens of policemen who made sure no one tried to get past the fences) we took the time to ride around with the metro for a bit, only to jump on the wrong subway train a couple times, so we where rather successful, according to us at least. Luckily we bought a 5 ride ticket, costing 125r, so we still have rides left for tomorrow!
We finished our sunny but chilly day in Moscow by eating at a, hehe, fancy Sushi restaurant.
But we aren't planning on visiting Japan, so we think we're forgiven. And we'll try to find some Borscht soup tomorrow instead.
But the sushi was delicious (especially the Spring Roll-ish things) and the price okay, so after buying some breakfast for tomorrow (apples, bread, water, salad, mandarins, something that might be a spiky cucumber and grapes) we're happily back at our Hostel and our budget still holds!
A couple things we learned to day:
-you need a bigger water bottle than you think.
-always carry band-aids and headache-pills with you.
-it gets dark fast
-always carry snacks in your bag (Sophia's homemade Snickers bars kept us going)
-a calculator would be handy, since we keep giving people the wrong change...
All in all, this day has been WONDERFUL, and we still can't quite believe our dream is actually happening. To be able to just walk around and take it all in, with no hurry anywhere is... indescribable.
But, to our beloved folks at home: thank you for the wonderful goodbye at the train station, and we've read all your "Valentine" notes and all we can say is... we love you so incredibly much. And we'll update as often as possible!
Hitting our bunk beds now, trying to get an early start tomorrow, and to find some time to update before we leave for the train to Beijing.
Oh, and perhaps upload some of our pictures. There are quite a lot thanks to Hanna's overactive picture snapping.
We love you all!
*Sophia & Hanna
ps. Guess what Nationality our room mates are(question mark. Can't get it to work)
That's right, we're here, and our trip has actually started!
Honestly though, feels like we've already been in Moscow for ages, and know our way around the city quite well, although we only arrived this morning!
So, about the traintrip...
14 hours felt like all too short a time!
We hardly found time to sleep, since there where too many interesting things to see when looking out the window, too many interesting things to read about in our Lonely Planet: Trans Siberian railroad (WE LOVE IT!) and too much candy to eat (given to us by our sweet, sweet friends. No pun intended) and too much tea to drink (brought by our nice train "mama". Be warned, everything comes with a price.)
When we arrived in Moscow this morning we didn't have any problems finding our hostel, since we'd been smart enough to print out all maps we'd need in Moscow. (we strongly recommend this!)
After that we bought our train tickets to Beijing for tomorrow, no problems there either.
Then we where free to wander around Moscow, and get amazed by all the huge buildings.
We did visit the State of History Museum and found in quite interesting, showing the history of Russia from the Stone Age forward. But it wasn't quite worth the 250r (adult price, 1e = 38r) we paid for it, at least not without the audio guide and more time than 1,5h.
Since visiting Lenin's mausoleum and the Red Square was not a possibility (closed all day due to.. well, no one knows, not even the dozens and dozens of policemen who made sure no one tried to get past the fences) we took the time to ride around with the metro for a bit, only to jump on the wrong subway train a couple times, so we where rather successful, according to us at least. Luckily we bought a 5 ride ticket, costing 125r, so we still have rides left for tomorrow!
We finished our sunny but chilly day in Moscow by eating at a, hehe, fancy Sushi restaurant.
But we aren't planning on visiting Japan, so we think we're forgiven. And we'll try to find some Borscht soup tomorrow instead.
But the sushi was delicious (especially the Spring Roll-ish things) and the price okay, so after buying some breakfast for tomorrow (apples, bread, water, salad, mandarins, something that might be a spiky cucumber and grapes) we're happily back at our Hostel and our budget still holds!
A couple things we learned to day:
-you need a bigger water bottle than you think.
-always carry band-aids and headache-pills with you.
-it gets dark fast
-always carry snacks in your bag (Sophia's homemade Snickers bars kept us going)
-a calculator would be handy, since we keep giving people the wrong change...
All in all, this day has been WONDERFUL, and we still can't quite believe our dream is actually happening. To be able to just walk around and take it all in, with no hurry anywhere is... indescribable.
But, to our beloved folks at home: thank you for the wonderful goodbye at the train station, and we've read all your "Valentine" notes and all we can say is... we love you so incredibly much. And we'll update as often as possible!
Hitting our bunk beds now, trying to get an early start tomorrow, and to find some time to update before we leave for the train to Beijing.
Oh, and perhaps upload some of our pictures. There are quite a lot thanks to Hanna's overactive picture snapping.
We love you all!
*Sophia & Hanna
ps. Guess what Nationality our room mates are(question mark. Can't get it to work)
Oct 6, 2010
And we're off! - Day 1
Last blogpost from Finland, less than an hour til I should be sitting on the train to Helsinki.
And I just finished packing.
Well almost.
Next time we'llupdate, it will hopefully be with pictures and from Moscow!
EXCITING!
Now, what can I possibly have forgotten...?
//H
And I just finished packing.
Well almost.
Next time we'llupdate, it will hopefully be with pictures and from Moscow!
EXCITING!
Now, what can I possibly have forgotten...?
//H
PANIC! - Day 1
Okay, so this is officially the day of our departure.
Out train to Moscow leaves in... 17 hours and 15 minutes.
And I should probably try to catch some sleep before that, but how could I, when there is no much to do?!
I should pack my rinkka, and get rid off half the stuff I have in it at the moment.
Well, half the stuff at least.
I should check that I have copies of all important papers, visas, passport, bankcards, vaccination cards, insurance card... insurance card! Where the heck is my insurance card?!
I should finish packing all the stuff from my room into boxes (my family wants my room during the time I'm off exploring Asia).
I should learn how my brand new camera and mp3 player works... brand new, as in bought a couple hours ago. Yeah, I have a talent for leaving important things to the last minute.
I should go to the bank and yell at the bank ladies for a bit for messing around with our Visa Electron cards.
I should go to Forex and exchange some more money.
I should blog about vaccinations we've taken, hostel rooms we've booked, things we've packed, things we've bought...
I should buy a money pouch. Sexy. And a raincoat/wind-coat. Sexy.
I should probably shower and sorta prepare myself for the journey.
I should... well there are a million things I should do, but so little time...
...hence, I've apparently done what I've always do in situations like this: done nothing of the things I should do, but instead spent a lot of that preacious time whining about them.
But at least you know what's up at the moment, and I apologies for the lousy updating during the past weeks!
It's not like nothing's been happening in the travel area lately, there's just been too much happening in the travel area, feels like lately I've done nothing but stuff that has had to with this journey.
Now, let's all cross our fingers and hope for a miracle... that I'll actually get all of the things I should do, done in time, and then even have time to write a blog post or two, with contents of more importance then this one.
Whether a miracle will happen or not, I'll still post something before we leave Finland, so stay tuned!
As for now.... goodnight! If any of you can sleep with all this excitement in the air. I doubt I can.
//Hanna
Out train to Moscow leaves in... 17 hours and 15 minutes.
And I should probably try to catch some sleep before that, but how could I, when there is no much to do?!
I should pack my rinkka, and get rid off half the stuff I have in it at the moment.
Well, half the stuff at least.
I should check that I have copies of all important papers, visas, passport, bankcards, vaccination cards, insurance card... insurance card! Where the heck is my insurance card?!
I should finish packing all the stuff from my room into boxes (my family wants my room during the time I'm off exploring Asia).
I should learn how my brand new camera and mp3 player works... brand new, as in bought a couple hours ago. Yeah, I have a talent for leaving important things to the last minute.
I should go to the bank and yell at the bank ladies for a bit for messing around with our Visa Electron cards.
I should go to Forex and exchange some more money.
I should blog about vaccinations we've taken, hostel rooms we've booked, things we've packed, things we've bought...
I should buy a money pouch. Sexy. And a raincoat/wind-coat. Sexy.
I should probably shower and sorta prepare myself for the journey.
I should... well there are a million things I should do, but so little time...
...hence, I've apparently done what I've always do in situations like this: done nothing of the things I should do, but instead spent a lot of that preacious time whining about them.
But at least you know what's up at the moment, and I apologies for the lousy updating during the past weeks!
It's not like nothing's been happening in the travel area lately, there's just been too much happening in the travel area, feels like lately I've done nothing but stuff that has had to with this journey.
Now, let's all cross our fingers and hope for a miracle... that I'll actually get all of the things I should do, done in time, and then even have time to write a blog post or two, with contents of more importance then this one.
Whether a miracle will happen or not, I'll still post something before we leave Finland, so stay tuned!
As for now.... goodnight! If any of you can sleep with all this excitement in the air. I doubt I can.
//Hanna
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