Quaky Tokyo

The first time backpacking Asia, I landed in this city with a feeling of 70es being revived on a global scale. Business people emerging from everywhere, having a chat late in the evening, after a long hard day at the office, eating out in tiny fast food places. Really lovely atmosphere. We were really sticking out with those giant backpacks, tired from changing planes and trains all day. But, these people never seemed to notice that it was 11 o'clock in the evening. For getting to know the city, one must adapt to its ways, so we decided to get up early tomorrow morning and explore it to the fullest. 

Waking up to a mild earthquake, now there's an experience. I was told that that was quite normal, but I realized I know nothing about emergency procedures in case of the earthquake. I just stop there with a puzzled look on my face, not standing in the doorway or under something. The whole building was shaking, like a roller coaster. I felt excited and decided to get up afterwards, even though it was 5.40 AM. it was the perfect opportunity to visit the worlds famous Tsukiji fish market where tun prices reach millions of moneys ;) And off we were, just to find out that tuna auction started at 5 and you can't participate just as an observer. It was a perfect opportunity to eat fresh sushi, so we stood in the line, it was exactly 7.20 AM. once we got in the market tiny sushi shop, it was 9.30 AM and we got served a huge portion of sushi and fish eggs with rice and a bit of see weed. It was excellent, even though it was so early in the morning. You have to experience everything the locals do, so we spent a couple of hours at the fish market. 

Frozen tunas that came on the planes this morning were giant. All the variety of fish and shells, and the smell was delightful. We were given the rules on every each step, and basically what they told all of the tourists that they should stay out of the way of working fisherman. 

Again with too little time on our hands, we decided to explore the park, the best place in any city. 

We walked alongside the river, took a metro to get to the royal imperial palace. You can't enter it because the royal family still lives there and I am sure they wouldn't like to have constant visitors that snap photos of them. :) the park surrounding the palace is amazing. All of the herbs, plants and grasses are in their own place, very tidy, orderly and you can stare at it for hours. It was very hot, but no humidity was in the air, creating a pleasant late summer day for the pouring visitors. It was just nice to sit there and read a book while elders of Tokyo gathered and quietly drew landscapes. I find it amazing the business of later generation in Japan and China; they work, get up early to draw in the park, go on hikes or to baths and are very respected by the youth. 

The strolling in the park in the middle of tall buildings is like a breath of fresh air on a hot day- refreshing.

We were lucky enough to witness a traditional wedding in front of a temple situated close to the park. 

That evening was perfect to visit a skyscraper to see everything from up above. There is a top restaurant in busy neighborhood Shibouya loved by young adults who work a lot through week and weekends they like to dress up and hang out in the park. Never witnessed the Goth Lolita's or  any kind of Manga costumes, but night time was packed with people looking to have a good time. The city was even more alive than during the day.

When we woke up in the morning, it was hard to say goodbye to the tiny apartment in middle of Shibouya. We took the bags and went off for the volcano. Yes, a steamy semi-active Hakona volcano. 

From Gui Lin to Yang Shuo

Late in the evening, we arrived to Gui Lin. The train station was a bit far from the town, so taking a cab was the best solution. But how to communicate the message? One semester of mandarin and I never got prepared for that, aaaand I had no wifi. Luckily for us, there was a Canadian trying to get to a business meeting in another city, so he asked if we would share a cab. We were happy to say yes. His Chinese was impeccable, but he had no luck, as he learned the dialect of Beijing. So, a nice Chinese student helped us set a deal and off we were. It was an excellent trip as the Canadian told us how he decided to live in China, for two years now, and some very amuseing stories. It felt like an instant friendship between al of us. Of course, we got invited to his girlfriend and his apartment in Beijing, counting second invite. The first one was to Shanghai, from the lovely girl that got my room for a month. Yeey, meeting people is so exciting.

We got off at the bus station and went to our hostel, which was just 500 meters away. We booked it two months ago, as for the visa to China, you need confirmed accommodation and the time duration of your stay, and it sounded nice, with its name Riverside Hostel. The pictures were nice and revues mentioned friendly staff.

Even though it was late, and it was my first time in China, the hunger beat the fear of unknown foods. It lured us out on the streets in search for some food. Hong Kong must have spoiled us as I didn't have to think of the words to say to either order or express myself, somebody would always understand English. The Cantonese dialect, spoken in Hong Kong, is pretty different than the mandarin one, which I started to learn six months ago, so Hong Kong never gave me the oportunity to shine. 

Yet, there we were, in Mainland China, where nobody spoke nothing but their local dialect of Mandarin, and I had to pull out my symbol cards. I remembered that couple of sentences, but couldn't speak them out in an understandable way (started revising my mandarin tomorrow), so we just pointed to the pictures and got CRABS. I was hoping for the big ones, but these were tiny ones still with shells, with almost no meat in them. So, ignorantly, I started to open them, eating that tiny amount of meet, and after a couple of them, I finally asked the waitress how to eat them. With a wondering expression she basically told me to put it in my mouth and chew. ALL OF IT? Hmm, tried it and it was super. Like chips, and with it, their local beer Liq, it was excellent. 

As we were munching on the crabs, I was looking down the street with all those tiny restaurants and buckets of living fish, vegetables and fruit, the terraces where everybody was smiling and inviting, young parents going out with their newborns in their hands and enjoying their late dinner. It was so natural, pleasant and full of life it just amazed me. Surely it can be a little too much at first, but I felt there is more to discover and I was looking forward to following days.

Later I had a hipohondriach thoughts about how I might be allergic to shell fish, and thoughts that I was going to die, but that just belongs to my craziness, not the surroundings. It is easy to get scared in a new bed, late at night.

The following day, we decided to take the boat on the river Li. We did not ask anybody for any info, just went to the reception. They told us it's a bit late, and we just missed the bunch that left a minute ago. We figured that the boat must go in the opposite direction as well, so we took a bus to Yang Shuo and for an hour and a half of heart attacks (the traffic rules are quite different in China, people over passing right, left, driving in opposite directions and then honking upsetingly when somebody goes towards them, demanding them to move, etc). We came to Yang Shou and sat in the first restaurant to get some info. We found out that no boat takes the passengers back up to Gui Lin, because the current is strong.

I started imagining factories that produce boats on a daily base just to send them to Yang Shou with tourists, and never returning again, so there must have been a graveyard where those boats go to, after serving their divine purpose and then piling them up, or just letting them find their way to the ocean, to serve to the poor fisherman... Aaaaah, that's why they do it. Anyways, back to reality, tHat seemed hardly likely, so we thought that they are trying to scam us, because conveniently, three of them had boats. We went to the docks and indeed, they are sending empty boats back to Gui Lin. Lesson number one: people are generally honest, we should believe them. 

For comfort, I went souvenir shopping on the street market. I asked for the prise of the cone hats, and it was too much. I said my thank yous and carried my own way, thinking the hats are too big to carry them all around the bus stations and airports as we had thousands of places to visit still. Not being good at negotiating (check out the Wild, wild Fez post on this blog), but still the lady wounded up running after me, pushing the prise down to an affordable one (for the Croatian standard), and I went to the bus carrying one large bag of cone hats. Lesson number two: the people are honest while bargaining, too. Anyway, I am glad I didn't get ripped of like in Morocco.

The city of Yang Shou is beautiful and one should definitely take that touristic boat and than stay over in the city for three days or so. As we already payed for the hostel, we had to stay in Gui Lin, but we took that boat the next day:

The river Li is amazing with those pointy heals surrounding it and bamboo rafts quietly roaming on it.

The city of Yang Shou is an interesting one, with lots of bike rental shops, the nature being very close. That made me feel very sorry because you define toy have to sleep here to explore the country side on a bike, or just go hiking alongside the river.

Just a couple more days in Gui Lin and off we go on a volcanic island of Hainan to soak in some sun. The plants here gave me an allergy, so I was sneezing all of the time, but the scenery really made up for it. 

Soulful Hong Kong

Hong Kong literal translation is a port (Hong) full of scents (Kong), it got its name for all of the perfumed items  that the tradesmen were selling in the first period of its making. 

Suffering a great jet-lag, we got on a cultural tour of Hong Kong, organized by Stephen. I found it on the couch surfing events and was very excited to learn something new. The huge guide was sitting on the coffe table and was waiting to be picked up. I always like to hear a human voice rather than get digital or written information, and Stephen was just excellent. He showed us his city with a lot of emotion and answered every question.

So, let me try to show you the beauties that we saw.

We met Stephen at the Sheung Wan train station, where he explained the old city centre was. For the Chinese at time of the Opium war, it was hard to live in the very city centre where all the fighting has been done, so they started to move at the close area near by - Sheung Wan. Even today, those two areas are close to each other- just a station away by metro, but you could really see the difference. While the centre is modern, full of shopping malls, new age buildings, in the olden part the charming ancient spirit rules the streets: colorful signs advertising  everything from foot massages to dry fish, enchanting smells of delicious food coming from everywhere, as the local tiny food shops are very visited. Cars honking, lots of people chatting while rushing the streets in an unorderly manner, here I really felt welcomed to Asia. It's not that we didn't enjoy the central part, where we ran for delicious French made burgers the very second day (jet lag food), I really liked Hong Kong in the parts where the tall buildings ground themselves, at the very bottom where the colors, smells and people are. 

Stephen later took us through the dry fish street, that's of course the local name for it, I forgot the actual name :). It got its name for all the shops that sell dry products to make a soup, which funnily is as important as in Croatian culture- as a child you are not allowed to eat anything else before you finish the soup. Just the ingredients are a bit different: everything is dried or smoked for preservation and judging by the smell, the taste of it is amazing (still haven't had the opportunity to taste it). All the mushrooms, dried fish stomachs, nuts, noodles was so neatly stacked away and some of it still drying on the streets and had its own place in this seamed chaos.

 

Later we went to discover other wonders, but I don't think it would be fair to Stephen to revile everything, so I will stop there, and invite everyone who is once in Hong Kong to find him on couch surfing. 

The group later went to sightsee the Central part, but jet lag was sneaking up from behind, so I had to go take a nap.

The evening was spent just walking around the street unsuccessfully trying to find the dumplings place, but found a cute little restaurant and afterwards a bar. A little heads up: the beer in restaurants is way cheaper than in bars, so if you are on a budget, just stay wherever you were eating to drink the beer.

Me being first time in Asia, I came with a lot of prejudice (just finished readin Jules Verne: Around the world in 80 days IN FRENCH!!), but Hong Kong's beauty and soul blew me away. Sadly, the three days have passed and we have to leave this beautiful view on the harbor 

And go.

There are some photogrammas for you to see the city the way I saw it:

Third time's the Paris charm!

I absolutely adore Paris. I don't know why. The people, the food, the glorious architecture and the enormous city. It is all wonderfull. 

I do know a lot of people from Paris. Nobody likes them. They are told to be stuck up, full of themselves, especially women. Everybody says so, it is incredible, even the fellow French. Nobody likes them. Well, except for me. What I like is attitude. And, surely, these people have a lot of it. I find it amazing going through daily struggles of attitude full people just to enter the metro. They are looking through you while stepping on your shoe and hitting you in the passing with their huge groceries bag. And they act like nothing happened while you turn around red faced and angry. That's the trick. Never get angry. Just put a nice forgiving face and plan a revenge.

This kind of an attitude creating comes handy once in a while, because I think that living in Paris could transform me into one of the ruthless Parisians with a ton of courage, self esteem and nerve. I could just imagine myself bitching about everything in a polite, well brought-up manner and cursing through my teeth while giving the most welcoming smile.

Of course, we went to the theatre as well. In London, we saw two productions, both of them were classical and big. Here, we went to the theatre "Cafe de la Gare", a tiny one, packed with lots of books and ancient objects, and saw a wonderful humour peace picturing everyday life. 

I was asked which city do I like better? It is hard to imagine that someone would even ask me that question three years ago, when it wasn't in my wildest dreams that I could visit them both regularly and actually compare them. 

London is beautiful, I loved the fish and chips, the bridge, the evening dates, and everything else. Paris is crazy, lots of people pretending you are not there, stepping on you and being rude at it. When you go to the Info stand, they just say "upstairs on the right", you say thank you, drag your suitcase battling through the crowd and then find there is nothing upstairs on the right, and peacefully cursing through your teeth go down and ask other tourists where you could buy a metro ticket, where they shake their heads and you all become a great lost group wondering an eternity through the underground of Paris, while you could be wondering outside, sightseeing on the way. Made me think...

But, still Paris is in my heart. I don't know why😎. Of I'll go enjoy my last day in hopefully climbing that Eiffel Tower that I didn't do last two times.

Third time's the charm, and we know Paris has a lot of charm...

Even got to see the Louvre while running through the crowds of tourists. Ahhh, spring....

There you go, see some more of the pictures:

That is a cup of gourmet coffee, apparently. :) lucky me.

Paris is lovely, isn't it?

Kisses for now.

The caves of Interlaken

I decided to go on the trip with the ESN student exchange to Interlaken, the visit of the caves sounded perfectly. So, I got ready in five minutes on a Sunday morning and ran to the metro station to catch the group.

Merely, we sat in our private train car and ate all sorts of sweets. We hoped on another train in Bern, and soon came to Interlaken. The hiking path went alongside the river of glacier water with an amazing turquoise color. The clouds in the sky really made the scenery perfectly lighted, check out the pictures:

After a while, the path lead to the forest, where we sat and ate our quick lunch. It was amazing sitting with such an international group of people, listening to sounds of different languages and laughing to comparisons of mule festivals in Utah and camel festivals in India. We were all laughing so hard, that we didn't even notice that it started raining. 

By the time it started pouring, we were on our way running up the hill to catch our appointment with the guide for which we were already late. Fun times. The ten thousand stairs would be appreciated by Rocky, but not us. There we were, great big international bunch, with soaking wet clothes on our backs, with couple of broken umbrellas faced our awaiting guide in front of a kilometre long cave. 

The cave was an amazing experience. It is super. The reflections in the little focks of water, the sound of tumbling water and the creative names of each cave with sculpture like stalactites and stalagmites (first ones are hanging from the ceiling and the latter sticking up from the floor). We were informed that the cave goes on for another 14 kilometres and the speleologists were making it ready for the public.

While we got out of the cave it stopped raining, so we went down the balustrades to catch our special bus back to the station. We crowded the small bus and in 20 minutes we were back in Interlaken. 

The crowd decided enthusiastically that they wanted to see Thun city as well, but all I could think of was cuddling in my blanky and drinking some hot tea. Thun is an amazing city that deserves a whole afternoon for itself. I'll definetly do it soon. Hope you enjoyed the photos. I do enjoy taking them.