Money money money

If we had a fiver, we'd have the whole set!

Pink is my favourite colour

<p dir="ltr">Well - no it's not. But Jaipur, the Pink City certainly has a lot to like in it, despite being mostly orange. The old city was painted pink from green a couple of hundred years when the wife of the maharaja was complaining about the colours making the city look sad. Don't we all have a story like that? :) So the city became pink, the maharani satisfied and the maharaja could finally go out for a quiet evening beer with his friend the basha from Agra. This is roughly the story our guide for the first Jaipur day, Hafij, shared with us. As I mentioned he was a pretty pushy guy but he was just the right choice to guide us. As mentioned his English was good and in good Indian tradition he treated us more like guests who just happen to pay, as opposed to simple clients. The motto was "This is your rickshaw today, what you say happens", so no surprise that one of us drove the tuktuk by the end of the day :) also he was "protecting" us from scams and cheats, sending them away in loud Hindi, even helping to haggle for a lower price (well, the official price) at the gin store. <br>
We started the day at at corner breakfast place with a couple of samosas and katchouris followed by the usual sweet, spicy chai as a kickstart. It's always fun mingling with the locals, there's no such thing as "your table", everyone sits everywhere and talks you up if they feel like it, in some cases even with useful advice. With both us and the rickshaw refuelled we headed to the Pink City (I know, finally :)) which is as a district not as scenic as I expected. Basically it's the same chaotic daily city life with shops, stalls and scaffolding where in addition to the city mandated pink colour on all houses. There are 3 huge gates into this inner city, and in the very heart it hides the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar observatory and the Hawa Mahal, all good examples of the Indian architecture I expected to see on this journey. The City Palace supposedly holds the biggest armory exhibit in India (doubtful), and holds all kinds of weapons-in-weapons, throat cutting arrows, katars, anything that has place for a pistol appended has one. You can also check out a clothes exhibition, moderately interesting for us, but we at least saw a proper biliards outfit :) Next door isn't he Jantar Mantar, one of king Jai's 5 observatories scattered in Rajahstan. This has buildings as instruments, each perfectly positioned to locate celestial bodies or to tell the time with 2 seconds precision using a sundial. The whole site is surreal, with all the buildings serving a single specific purpose they don't look like proper buildings at all. <br>
Hawa Mahal is the Wind Palace, a building with an amazing facade (in the background) but not much else inside apart from a nice view on the city. <br>
Part 2 to follow, the train ride is slowly coming to an end. </p>

Electricity around the world

We were not too sure how different plug standards would be converted in India before we started - this is one of our better suggestions. :)

The Night Train

1200 kms in 14 hours overnight, who could resist such an offer! Of course the night train prices were a lot more reasonable than an inland flight would have been, so the decision was a nobrainer.
As the train was crossing the main malaria region we decided to take an air conditioned train, apparently something mosquitos don't like, but we chose the lowest class even here. It was still a better than Budapest - Warszawa overnight was a couple of years ago and of course cheaper as well. On this train they serve food regularly, where by "food" I mean stuff that would like to be airplane food when it grows up, an "regularly" means they wake you up when it's time for chowder. You also get free bottled water, tea and English language papers.
As for company we got a nice couple and their 3-4 year old daughter who just started to learn English numbers, they were very friendly and helpful with us and our tourist-questions (when do we eat? When do we sleep? When will they check our tickets? Etc.) The other 2 passengers were high school age 2 boys, who switched one of their berths with us to be near the electric outlet when the beds are down. They were cunning enough to keep the better place when the beds were folded down and we polite Westerners didn't start to argue, of course.
The scenery during the ride was changing very frequently with only the fog /smog being constant. We crossed very European forests and scrublands, dried out riverbeds and an occasional mountain in the distance. The only sign of India outside were the goats and a palm tree every now and then. Getting to Jaipur was easy compared to dodging the tuktuk drivers hunting tourists at the station - one of them even followed us to the hotel which was walking distance and managed to convince us to hire him for the next day :) sure, we may have been loosers with haggling for the price but he spoke good enough English and in general proved to be a pretty good guide. So, hotel found we got our nice room with view on the nearby construction grounds and of course double bed, typical for Indian hotels. Bathroom was OK and the whole thing had a nice garden with statues and an occasional peacock flying in. Oh, and our door was locked with a pretty medieval looking bolt and guarded by a huge plush tiger on the outside :)
After a short break we wandered out to find a SIM card (success, and the first clean store!) and to visit one of the nearby forts. On the road a jeweller stopped us and invited us in to show his store and as it turned out to sell stuff (yes we are this inexperienced :)). He was pretty friendly and explained everything so even with his business side taking control this detour was worth it. For example this was my first time being barefoot in a jewellery store :) he also caught a tuktuk for us to get to a local restaurant which was the scariest looking (thus far) but served meat for good prices. :) The rickshaw broke down half way back to the hotel but the driver fixed it quickly enough not to get so uncomfortable in the dark at the side of a roundabout :)
Right after that we called it a day to prepare with some sleep for the first pretty Indian city, which no one will believe as I still can't post pictures :)

Finally some rest

The first Indian macchiato: click

Let's go global!

After 2 days of just walking around we decided to get more touristy on our last Mumbai day. We had until 11pm to get to the train station, so we decided to head north to visit the Global Pagoda. This is the largest unsupported dome structure in the world with seating for 8000 people so definitely it was something not to miss. The trip, as usual, included a long ride on the local train, but we were already well prepared for that, nothing new there. On arrival to the Borivali station we had to get a rickshaw to the ferry to get to the peninsula the Pagoda is on, but it turned out to be more difficult than expected. Of course there were loads of drivers around but as we were (and still are) obvious tourists they were quoting tripled prices and refused to use the meter on the ride. Eventually a young guy with more common sense turned up and even though he had to ask for directions he got us to the ferry port for the proper price. The ferry doesn't only serve the Pagoda but also 2 fun fairs, Esselworld advertised as one of the main attractions in India (yeah sure) and some other thing. This also meant a very mixed crowd on the boat with a school group, families, the local young and glamorous and inland tourists taking the ride with us. Luckily the motorcycles and loaded bike-rickshaws were transported on another ferry, although that was just a people transporter just like ours. The boat wasn't bad, just slow, it seemed as the driver did the loading/unloading part for the first time but with Indians being happy giving advice on everything to everyone he got all the help required :) The short walk to the Pagoda was nice, pretty palm trees everywhere with the entrance being right next to the fun fair. Before entry they took all our poisons like our whisky flasks (for disinfection!) and cigarettes, all of these worldly evils being forbidden on the holy grounds. The Pagoda itself was interesting, indeed huge from the outside as well, fully covered with golden paint, but as it was only built a couple of years ago the ornaments were more kitschy than nice. Lots of Buddha statues were set up around the gates with a couple of elephants and tigers scattered between them. We had to walk clockwise around the building to find the entrance where of course they had us take off our shoes to get in. And with all our expectations - we could only go in a meter or two with the larger part separated by plexiglass for the 3 meditating people sitting inside. Seemed like a bit of a waste of space :) apparently you can only go inside after completing a 10 day meditation course. We skipped that, but what we saw of the dome was indeed huge. We tried to back out through the entrance but that broke the rule of going clockwise and passing the donation stall so we were quickly ushered back :) tha Pagoda also follows best museum traditions as it has a gift shop, which we skipped and a cafe where we had some strange lunch. Apparently they are not too keen on meat (expected) or strong flavours (unexpected). They had a strange system whereby you had to buy dedicated food coupons at a counter and get your food somewhere else which made it a bit hard to choose for us, not knowing food by name. We went by the clerk's recommendation with some satisfaction - could have been worse :)
Next, a "quick" rickshaw/ferry/train ride back to the city, during which we learned how angry Indian women can get if you accidentally jump on the ladies' coach of the train (very, they hiss like snakes!) and how big an applause you get when jumping on the moving train, Mumbai style. We got off at a random station, finding ourselves in a city market. Apparently here the darkest alleys serve the best chai and any sudden turn of the road can get you to a busy farmers market. The small bananas are quite tasty, but nothing extraordinary. The price seems to be a constant 10 rupees for grocery regardless of buying 1 or 4 of anything. Our next stop would have been Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai, hidden in the back of a guarded residential building, but it was too full of the young Indian elite and too empty of free wifi so we skipped it.
Another train ride later we had a "burgee" (or something) at the station, basically buns with an onion/tomato omelette - they even gave scraps of the daily paper to wipe our hands. It seems used newspaper is used for hand wipes in toilets, wrapping sandwiches and paper trays - not necessarily in this order ;)
A quick taxi ride to the hotel, grabbing our bags, quick ride back to the station later we were ready for our first Indian night train. 14 hours on AC 3rd class with a 3 piece family and 2 university students sharing our couchette, what could be better :) Details to follow!

Mumbai walking

The second day started slow, we took our time deciding if we wanted to stay in the dorm of the first night. It wasn't that bad, but with the train ride it was far from everything. In the first day we checked out a couple of places but neither were good (i. e. cheap) enough. In the end we settled for the Sea Shore Hotel, a nice place on the sea shore, as you may have guessed :) rickshaw took as to the train, we filled it up 120% with ourselves and the bags. The train was fun again, but the locals were very helpful once again and gave us the extra space and all the "useful" advice we needed. At the station we bought our train tickets to Jaipur with a choice of buying with cash and extra administration from the "tourist quota" or paying by card at the "locals" desk. They needed some convincing but in the end we were local enough :) the system is strange, you have to fill in some forms to get a ticket including your age and home address apart from the train information.
Afterwards a nice bearded driver in his Ambassador taxi took us to the hotel giving another feel of the bustling traffic of Mumbai. Then we had to go up to the 4th floor, no elevator, to the hotel, where we had the choice between rooms with or without a window! No way would we have missed the wonderful view on the dirty fishing boats so we took the window of course. We would have taken anything at that point :)
A bit later we strolled out to the fish market, obviously closed in the afternoon but still smelly :) the old wooden fishing boats were nice though. Interestingly the fish market is close to one of the posh quarters with nice parks to sit in, so we did just that. Obviously we had to pop in to a tailor shop for one of us to ask for suit prices ;) Then we followed the locals and went for a walk on the boulevard by the bay. Some  nice chay tea (boiled with lumps of sugar, milk and ginger or cardamom) was just perfect for the view! We sat around for a while, then did loads more walking in the district before heading back to the hotel. We tried and failed to find a proper pub for a beer, even Lonely Planet suggestions led us to places long closed down. We closed the evening with some street food, chicken kebab, to train ourselves for the days to come, and then fell asleep below the noisy ceiling fan. At this point we at least still had 2 separate beds - but that's another story for another day :)
All in all, Mumbai was 2 days of walking around just taking in the atmosphere, skipping most touristy things like museums. It wasn't bad, but it was a very different India experience from what we expected. The story for the 3rd day, with the Global Pagoda visit is to follow, hopefully with some pictures soon.

Eastern Comfort

After weeks of contemplating on a travel destinations and a much rushed preparation once the target was decided on we set off to India on a regular winter Saturday. It was only regular though because the airport was locked down just the day before and snow only brought the country to halt the day after, but that given Saturday was just plain average. Following a "last call" transfer in Cairo we landed Sunday in the AM in Mumbai, and being too tired to fully take in the experience we were just pushed through customs and money exchange counters to be picked up by our pre-arranged driver. The heat and humidity was dazzling just as the traffic with no rules and the amount of people living on the streets right next to broken down huts right next to luxury apartments. Our hostel was somewhere in between, in something which seemed like a dirty alley at that time. Settling in went fine, we scored a Lonely Planet guide for the day and set out for the first train ride of the day. It seemed a bit crazy, yes, but the 8 rupees ticket vs the 400 for the taxi made it an easy choice. The station was "close", so we walked, an experience in itself, taking in the noise, traffic, dogs, crows and people living everywhere among trash ubiquitous. Strangely enough the smell wasn't half as bad as suggested by fellow travellers :) So after the short 2-3 km walk we reached the station, we eventually figured out which queue the ticket booth was and fortunately the clerk spoke good enough English to sell us our tickets. Of course almost everyone speaks English and in general is very helpful from plain men to fully armed soldiers, but we didn't know that yet :)
And the train... Schedule is in Hindi and English but sure seemed Greek to us - stations are abbreviated to one letter, fast and slow trains mix on all tracks regardless of destination, but it can be figured out. As for the rolling stock, in Hungary, similar suburban trains are smaller and more narrow but otherwise similar. Of course back home the doors are closed during the ride and people tend to stay inside the cars without jumping on and off moving trains at the station, but otherwise it's just the same :) In the city we jumped off at the Mumbai Central station just to find a helpful guard who knew Hungarian football history surprisingly well and guided us to the hangar-lookalike ticket office just fine. Of course it was full of stray dogs, like most open buildings, and did not have the service we were looking for. So we just started walking around, passing some parks where locals were playing cricket in their all white uniforms, next to the grubby homeless and the countless motorcycles parked at the side of the road. Very confusing. But we got to the Gate of India in the end, a nice arc de triomph from the British times, surrounded by countless inland tourists. This is all right next to the recently terrorised Taj hotel so military presence is ample - safe or scary, who knows :) going further towards the old Victoria Terminus, another example of the crazy mix of Victorian and Indian architecture, which partially being renovated so hard to see the full beauty (I'll post pictures when I can) After that we strolled through some nice parks in the evening followed by nice, dark alleys :) It's safe for sure, but there's people sleeping everywhere on the street, thrash everywhere, sometimes set on fire... So safe, but not that comfortable :) we took the evening train back to the hostel, it was horribly crowded, it was a bit hard to get down with having to elbow your way out and then try to jump off faster than the people jumping up. Fun :) we got to the hostel just fine and fell asleep like a log after tens of hours staying awake.

To be continued, hopefully we can catch up with the events as they are happening. We're already in Jaipur, the Pink City, with Amber Fort and maybe the Monkey Temple in the plan. We already secured a rickshaw/guide for the trip, it should be fun :)

Walk on the Wild Side

Saturday is family day! I went out to Alphabet City (where they ran out of numbers and call Avenues A/B/C) to visit my aunt and my cousin (+her son and husband). I found the place easily, it's in a lot more laid back neighborhood as I've seen thus far in Manhattan: in the East Village. It has smaller buildings with a couple of stories each, the trademark wrought iron fire escapes, small public gardens scattered between the houses - it's pretty nice. Unfortunately my aunt's apartment building is being renovated so the surrounding area is a bit of a construction zone, but the apartment itself is already finished so it looks lovely. When my cousin and co. arrived with the little one has fallen asleep on their way, so we decided to go out to the NYC BBQ Block Party just the 3 of us, leaving the Granny home with the baby. So we walked quite a bit from ABCity to Madison Square where already loads of people were queuing up for dozens of different types of barbecue. We tried some varieties of pork and beef, all roasted on open flame or charcoal, and they reached from OK to pretty good, so it was worth it as well. We finished it up with a pint (and with some friends of the husband, visiting Silicon Valley developers), and by the time we walked by the Square again it was completely filled up. We just decided to leave it as is and walked back on a different route to my aunts. The little one was already up and has already enjoyed Granny reading one of the Hungarian story books I brought alongs as a present. He was a bit scared in the beginning of the new "bacsi" (he speaks Hungarian!), but he loosened up after a while and even gave me his pet Flying Monkey to play with. After a while we decided to go over to the High Line (a derelict high rise railway converted into a public part) for a stroll, which was loads of fun! The area is great, the park being elevated a couple of meters above the roads and continuing between the buildings of the West Village - it's really unique and nice. It's littered with modern art sculptures donated to lighten up the place a bit, and musicians and small cafes have already found their place here. Our outing was only broken by the coming rain, so we said our good byes -  but also agreeing on a next time to meet.
In the evening I couldn't just stay at home, so I went to check out the "tramway"leading to Roosevelt Island, which essentially is a cablecar similar to the larger ones one can see along ski pistes. It goes up quite high just to go down again on the side of the island (a 5 minute ride), and provides a nice view of the city as well - for the same price as a subway ticket. The island itself is nothing special, a residental are with luxury apartments, but it hosts one of the most serene places you could find in such a big city: a completely empty baseball greens. I took one of the benches there to have my dinner sandwich and enjoyed the whirr of the city rushing by with noone in sight. I guess a couple of stars must have been visible as well - a nice timeout from the Manhattan lifestyle.
Then, it was only taking the tramway back, not finding a good looking pub in the neighborhood, and falling asleep quickly after a feet-eating day.

M.

Strawberry Fields Forever

No, I did not have a hangover and woke up at 5:45 after getting home at 1 AM. Apparently jet lag and booze don't mix well :) This kinda set the mood for the day, after some not-so-good eggs & bacon bagel I was only ready for a salad for lunch. There was a place nearby where you can select some basic greens and a set of toppings (salmon, eggs, olives, etc) which they basically grind up for you, add a hint of your favourite dressing and you're done! As the weather was nice we just sat outside to enjoy the sun and the salad.
The day moved on at glacial speed, and as it finished I set out for my next quest - the Central Park at night. Again, I did not judge the distances well, so I walked up until about 1/3 of the park only, but it was worth it: I saw so many fireflies! At first, I though it was just a streetlight reflecting on my glasses, but then I saw the little bugs flying around. There were so many! And their light was strong too, a nice fluorescent green. One of them even came up close, and it was pretty big, about the size of a nicely grown wasp back at home.
After I left the bugs to do whatever bugs do I walked up to the Strawberry Fields park, which has a nice "Imagine" mosaic in the middle (not the best thing to make pictures of in the dark). I also saw the Dakota House from across the road but it didn't look anything special so I did not cross. The one strange thing about the park is that it's forbidden to smoke or drink alcohol there, so it's completely different compared to what you'd see at home in the City Park or Margaret Island. I'm sure both ways have an advantage...
After a bit more walking I stepped out of the park to check out the neighbouring streets to the west, but they didn't have much to offer but luxury apartments, so I took the subway home.

All in all, not bad way to finish off a week if you want to do it outside of a bar :)

M

Thirsty Thursday

The good thing about Thursdays and visits to other offices is that they tend to go out for drinks with the visitors. On this lucky week, they even took us out for lunch to a burger place on Hells Kitchen, or 9th Ave if you so prefer. It was a smallish place, so our team just filled it up completely, but still they managed to bring us our burgers at a good place. The food was quite good, I had a bbq burger with some of the best double-fried chips outside of Belgium :) I also tried a root beer with it, which certainly is an acquired taste, but it's not that bad :) One of the guys was wolfing down his food at such an amazing pace and with such enthusiasm, we could only laugh - especially in the ended where he put the dot on the i by pulling down a big chocolate shake with considerable difficulties. Not fine dining, but definitely fun dining, in such childish company :)
After a day riddelod with meetings in the evening we went out for a couple of pints to the Mean Fiddler, an Irish-themed place. BTW, a US pint is a bit less than a the usual Hungarian 0.5l, as opposed to the UK pint, which is a bit more than that - anyhow, a pint is a pint! I got my taste of some Samuel Adams lager, quite good, and also some Smithwicks, which is a beer by the Guinness brewery - not as good as their main show. While we were there, one of the many TV screens in the bar showed a programme about Hungarian football, mostly about Puskas and the Puskas Academy of present day. I was surprised, but the colleagues didn't really believe when I explained why I just stopped listening to them for a moment :) OK, possible not the most interesting thing ever, but quite a coincidence. After a while the place started crowding up with people playing beer pong and waiting for the karaoke night, so some of us decided to leave for another place. This turned out to be a somewhat fancy wine place, where we had a California Cabernet Sauvignon with a special selection of Swiss, Italian and French cheeses. All this stuff had the taste and the place even after numbing our palate with those beers before, so all in all it was a good evening. Well, if you don't count the walk back home, I mis-estimated the distance so I had a nice, sobering stroll on the streets of midnight New York.

Did I ever wake up and did I have a hangover? More about that soon! :D

M

Psychadelikatessen

Freshly up in the right timezone the hunt for breakfast began. I coulnd't care less about the pricy hotel breakfast, so after the usual quick morning rituals I headed out via Park Avenue for a change. That's apparently one of the poshier parts of the city, as I could have bought more Louis Vuitton bags and Ferraris than bagels. Which, in the end, I did not buy (neither one), but went for a bacon and egg sandwich, choosing from a selection of bacon and egg sandwiches in a barely open Pret a Manger. The day went well, including the lunch at Toasties (House Special, hot Pastrami with cheddar and coleslaw in a "Hero" bread) and the following biiig presentation. I held this for the whole NY team some 20 people, so I guess only 2 falling asleep should be kinda OK :) One of the sleepers is a guy remarkably reminiscent of Hugh Laurie, minus the walking stick and the demeanor, which is kinda funny. The only other plan for the day was the evening lunch with Hungarian colleagues out here in the city, which was started in a bit undecided manner - where should we go? We had an attempt on "The healthiest food on Earth" served in a Mexican restaurant, but they have a no alcohol policy so we skipped, and ended up at a hummus place, which served beer for our pleasure in addition to the "amazing fish" (their words - it was actually 6/10). It turned out that one of the guys in the group came at the same time, on the same planes as I did... Which came as a lesser surprise than realizing that the girl behind me at the immigration queue was indeed one London colleague, who incidentally got the desk next to me in the office. So kids, if you see someone you think you know from somewhere, you probably do :)
The dinner ended not too late, so we walked back with the "same plane"-colleague... to the same hotel :) Fortunately it turned out that he does not have the same room as I do :) And now, turning the room's stereo to 11 listening to The Dear Hunter, there's nothing else to do but wait for sleep!

M

Under The Bridge

No really - I was there! Possibly not under the same bridge, but still :) And how did I get there? Let's see... The day started at 4:30, or half past 10 in the real world - no accident that I was the first in the office this day as well. I had some wraps from the day before for breakfast (bought a cup of fruits and a wrap at a Au Bon Pain, but only ate fruits in the bathtub in the end...long story :) ), which had a very strange taste due to the combination of creamy sour cheese and some sweet sauce. Otherwise it was an OK day, not very riddled with meetings so I guess I must have done some real work as well. For lunch I was pointed to a place called Nook, which was kinda OK, even their quiche - only the waiter needed computized assistance to add up 8, 3 and 1, and some convincing not to give 14 bucks of change from a 20. 
The plan for the evening was to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, as I was told that's kinda touristy, but I'm not so sure about that reason now. On my way first I walked by the Grand Central station to check it out, it was grand enough for me indeed (but too dark inside for photos). On the way there I accidentally spotted the Empire State Building. How the hell can the tallest building of the city disappear from a block away, I don't know (other than the surrounding tallish buildings as a reason, of course...). From GC I took the train to the Bridge, where the darkest clouds ever made me worry about my lack of raincoat, but in a fortunate turn of events the clouds had other plans for the evening. So I crossed, unimpressed (the Bridge is being renovated, probably obscuring the wow-factor). On the far side Dumbo was already waiting for me - not the flying elephant, this was before the beer, mind you, but the Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This is an area of bars and art shops and in general good atmosphere, a with regular-sized houses and nice dimly lit pubs. The best one seemed to be 68 Jay Street, serving great Brooklyn Lager and Wild Rise pizza. The former is a spicy, flavoury, generally good beer, and the latter turned out to be one of New York's recent sensations - the pizza with the wild yeast crust. All ingredients (as the Elders of the Internet explained later) are imported from Italy, all natural, including the wild yeast which is supposed to give a sour, tangy flavour to the crust. What can I say, it was a good Margherita, but without Google and the pizzaiolo I wouldn't have thought how special it should have tasted. With this behind me I got on the train back home, where finally had a good, full night's sleep. What came next? Check back for our next episode after a short commercial break for all the details!

M

New York City Boy

The strange thing is - walking around in NYC is not strange at all. Probably because you saw the exact same thing a zillion times befor in the movies, but it just doesn't feel completely new. The fact that it's still very unfamiliar just adds to the confusion. Central Park with joggers and bikers in the morning, tourists and locals alike crowding to pictures of some movie shoot, baggy trousers on the silver-colour trains, this is exactly what I would have expected :) It's a bit reassuring at the same time, especially combined with the fact that English is spoken a lot less muddled here than in London. Obviously I'm still a bit lost in a lot of places, one in particular is your usual Midtown deli. For one I can't seem to figure out where they keep the beer. Also I'm not entirely sure yet about the selection of pastries and sandwiches, I can't match up the names on the price list with the actual objects behind the counter. Just this morning I had something made out of too sweet, too crumbly dough dipped in sugar crystals, and I don't know the name of it to make it easier avoiding the same stuff in the future :)
The office is cool, luckily I managed to get out of the "hoteling booth", which is basically an oversized phone booth with a desk and a small single PC screen - I can use the desk of a colleague on vacation instead. There was the usual issue with the entry in the AM where the access card never works as promised but it was resolved quickly. Oh yeah, AM... the jet lag - I always forget which direction they say is worse, but I'm quite convinced it's this way around :) Yesterday I got in after 14 hours of travel still in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon, so I strolled around the Avenues to fall asleep late enough, and still I awoke at 2AM (or 8AM per my internal clock). Maybe tomorrow will be better :) To prepare for it today I checked out Lower Manhattan, the Wall Street and NYSE with the signature bull, and also the new buildings on Ground Zero. I kinda expected the memorial to be in a more obvious place, but I only saw the arrows pointing towards it after a long walk in the opposite direction. Of course the arrows also mentioned I should pre-book so I just skipped this one. Further south was even better, not that many people at this "late" hour around 8PM. The small parks and the high houses gave that part a nice athmosphere, and I also found the street of Irish pubs for later reference.

Let's close this for tonight and log a quest for tomorrow - to find wifi to post this! (Actually in the end office internet was the Holy Grail - I'll still need the WiFi to add pictures)

M

Amazing Journey

It's been days since I last posted... This city is busy! Each and every night I walk around for hours, seeing only minimal parts, and still, there's the same amount to discover!
On Sunday, day of the last post, I walked around the Bund area, which is something like the old city center, like mid-1930s. It's got all the "European" architecture one would expect for that age, and of course an amazing view of the new business center of Pudong. Also, the crowds are huge... I bet about a hundred thousand of that 1.6 billion joined me for sightseeing :P For them, the Danish Girl Scouts were the biggest attraction, with their blue eyes and blonde hair :) I managed to dodge them all, one skill that was worth practicing in the busy metro hours at home! Also, I managed to catch a choir singing in Chinese, video hidden among the pictures (also well hidden :) )
Monday was just work - once I got past the amazing(ly expensive) buffet breakfast and the taxi drive who seemed to want to kill everyone on foot, but did not know the way! It's a good thing I got a walkabout on Sunday, I was able to point out the target as soon as it was in sight (i.e. behind us...) But even this way, the ride was cheap, the office was easy to find in the building, and the colleagues were as welcoming as it gets! I got a seat quite close to all the others, but far enough to make them IM me instead of just talk to me :) There's free ice tea and orange juice and Coke as well (if the fridge is stacked), one thing that's not happening at home. We went out for lunch to a nearby plaza, to some Cantonese restaurant, very close to where I had my Sunday dinner. (Which was in a mock-European place, with some very Chinese pasta-with-fish and beans-with-apricots-with-slimeballs as dessert). The lunch was pretty good, within my bearing of exciting taste, and sharing some interesting things like lotus roots and eggplants in strange sauce :) In the evening, I got afraid of a possible thunderstorm coming, so I just walked around the park that's near the hotel. This was only ~75% meant for - as it was impossible to cross the road which was around the park any other way! :) In the end, it was fine, and I managed to take pics of stray cats near a restaurant as well, which is probably unusual in China ;)
Tuesday took me to work on a different route after a different kind of breakfast ("American style", basically some fat added to continental breakfast). Work was as work is, lunch was in the ground floor cantine (edible but why???) as people had to get back to various meetings. I also held some work-related presentation sessions, since that's why I'm here :) People were somewhat interested, but not as much as the meeting room was smelly :$ Afternoon passed almost-quickly-enough, then I went for a stroll on Huihai road - to check out all the brand shops that are too expensive even at home! Louis Vuitton, Cartier, whatever, you name it... And one corner from this road, you can buy beer for .5 EUR to take home, and buy 100 days eggs from a metal bucket... The metro was close enough to get me home, luckily :) No money spent on luxury and no age-old chickens harmed! :)
Wednesday was a taxi trip in a different direction and another presentation session by yours truly. At least there were more people on this one so I must be getting better! :) Lunch was in a pretty good restaurant on Sechuan road, got their card as well. Not that I would go back any soon... The evening was spent in the Super Brands Mall, to buy a webcam :) Unluckily, my MasterCard was not properly processed at the store, so I may have payed triple price eventually, but the "Oh my God this is huge" experience was almost worth it. I also ate the (hopefully) most expensive ice cream of my life, ever, by accident, but it was pretty good :) On the way home, I realized that on ever corner they sell something related to the Expo and/or something that blinks, possibly with laser lights :)
Thursday was just another day... Big Boss from UK flew in, so we had a pizza lunch with him (Chinese make better pizza than the store on the corner at home, but probably more expensive, as well). He's nice, brought us out for dinner and drinks in the evening, and hes an amicable guy as well, so I'd say he was nice even if he did not pay for all the drinks ;) We got some Chinese "wine", which was more like some spirits, 52%, very fruity, very sweet... I guess tomorrow's headache will remind me of the name :) The dinner was fine, but things get more and more hot an spicy, we should take a break...
And now, I'm "home", the drain for the bathtub fixed, and I'm typing this for you lot :) I guess I should sleep instead, shouldn't I? :)
See you all soon!

M.

(PS. I may add the proper links to the photos "soon", until then, you have to do some guesswork :) )

Chinese Torture

Yay, I finally arrived! Well, I've arrived 12 hours before, but only now do I have time and the strength to write a bit. More time than strength, mind you, the time zone shift on the plane robbed me of precious hours of sleep...
The food was pretty good on the the Finnair flight, I tasted some French red wine with the main course and some port with the dessert. The port was not as good as I would have expected, but it was fine in any case. The entertainment system was also OK, I watched some newish comedy flick with Steve Carell and various episodes of The Big Bang Theory, all of which were quite good for relaxing. Sleeping was not that fine, even though it was possible to recline the seat almost perfectly horizontally, you still had some feeling of slipping down. The first rays of the sun woke me somewhere above the Mongolian plains, which ain't a lovely site, but it's nice. Flying forwards there were sooo many seemingly untouched forests to be seen, that was pretty. Then, approaching Shanghai, we got a glimpse of all the skyscrapers, and the light brownish sea... yuck!
Landing and passing immigration was easy, passing the people trying to sell their own airport transfer services less so. I was heading straight to the MagLev train, to see how those 430kmhs feel in reality. It was an amazing speed, although I would have expected a bit less racketing. Then, after the obligatory photos (shared later), I got to an official taxi, shown the destination printed in Mandarin, an my 15 minute car ride through hell started :) It seems like Chinese drivers obey two rules of the road: head where you want to, and honk! Luckily the drivers are more or less tied to the tarmac...
So, we got to the hotels, mine is now only the second highest - still, the view from the 75th floor room is not too shabby :) (Well I will have to switch to a different or get this fixed up as the bathtub leaks all over the bathroom, but that at least does not obstruct the view ;)
After settling down, I started a time run for the office to see how I would fare on Monday. So adding up all distractions, and the crowd, and the difficulties of getting a proper pass, not only a single ticket didn't do well on this run. Actually I did not even get that bloody pass, as noone spoke English to me when they should have. Probably would have been better with a younger clerk.
The city is amazing, and it's amazing hot as well. I wouldn't be able to tell from the architecture, that we are on the Far East, but all important buildings look like new. Of course if you take the wrong turn, you'll find yourselves in the shadiest of alleys, with strange things being cooked on the street, but sticking to the main routes should be a great experience :)

(I'll wrap up now and continue tomorrow - I'm falling asleep while typing. See you soon!)

M.

Welcome back my friends!

To the show that never ends :)

I'm waiting for my connection to Shanghai, chilling out in the Via Lounge in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport - how cool is that? :) Definitely not as cool as the complimentary welcome scotch ;)

The Lounge is pretty good (as if I had a comparison), nice minimalistic Nordic design, comfy reclining chairs, and a fine selection of food and drinks. And the view - an A340, docked to gate 36 I think :D Pretty fine that's for sure. The Finnair fleet is 6 years old at an average, with a 3 years average on the long haulers, so I guess the shiny white exterior of the plane is not just a cheap paint job to hide the rust.
The weather is supposed to be not particularly chilly - about the same 32C we have in Hungary. But I won't get outside the airport here in any case.
Also, I just checked and the Chinese electrical outlet standard is just the same - as the converter I have in a box, at home :P I hope the hotel is prepared for fools like me :) I might check the duty free though, maybe they have something for me as well, for a price.

I'll just cut this short now, chilling out should be about doing nothing at all, not even typing :)
Here's to hoping I'll have the time and willpower to update this regularly!

M.

(PS: Title shamelessly stolen from ELP)

Wine, women and song

Here I am, sitting on a bed of "London's best hostel", having a slight cold and not much to do, so I decided I would sum up my last week...

I guess the first day I did not cover was last Thurday - on this day I went out to see a real British gig :) (Which just reminded me that I wanted to do the same today... :) )
So I headed out to find King's College, or a bar in King's College, because the whereabout of the venue was not quite evident from the websites I've visited to check on the concert. Eventually I've found it, it was the "Tutu", named after Desmond Tutu, and it was on the 4th floor of a sidestreet building... :) The bar was quite fine, a band was already playing when I go there, so I went to find a beer and waited to see what happens. It turned out that the band originally playing was only the support of the support band, so when the place started to get full, the first one on the stage were The Blizzards, an Irish (and proud of it!) band, who rocked the hell out of us! Technology is a pain in the arse, that's how they commented on the heat of the lights. And how right they were. But the main dish was just yet to come - Captain! They're a new, up-and-coming English band, they have one album out and play quite good rockish music - so I had loads of fun listening to them as well. The club was full of young people, probably from the college :) It was a very nice evening, and I even caught the Tube to get me home.

On Friday my friend, P. arrived for a 5 days visit, so we headed out to meet up with another friend, V., who tends to live in London with various English girls :) We had a nice dinner at my place, I tried to make some really British ham&eggs, we hada few Guinnesses, and the we left to meet V. at his working place, the National Theatre, where he gave us a short tour backstage, but sadly we had to skip the main actresses's dressing rooms :) So we just headed south for V.'s place to a have a few beers in a nearby pub and a night of Texas Hold'em afterwards :) We were quite tired and wasted when we started for my apartment (where I hosted P. for a few days), and especially because the night buses are unknown to me and they have weird and slow routes anyhow we got home at around 4. So it was about time to call it a day :)

Saturday... Time to meet another friend :) T., a girl, was doing some work-related things in the city for a few days, so we decided to hook up near the Tower and visit the said building. The queues for tickets were soooo long despite the horrendous ticket prices! But eventually we got the tickets and entered the gates of the Tower - where we waited for the free guided tour led by an original Beefeater, or Yeoman Warder. He was an older chap, with very, very good sense of humour and a great presentation style. He gave us a short summary of the history of the area (so mostly of the people executed there), and I guess he was one of the best guides I've ever met - including myself ;) He had a really funny comment about just about everything, and even with the visitors he took the chance to talk a few words and generally be a good guy :) After this short tour, during which T. already left (work, work, work), we went to see the treasury - various British crowns, that is, and of course the Coronation Spoon, which is basically a golden spoon. This item made me finally understand where Monty Python's style and jokes come from :) All the other stuff was really flashy, there was the First and the Second Star of Africa, two of the biggest diamonds ever (the biggest one is like a medium egg...), the Koh-i-Noor diamond, huge rubies, and just everything shiny that ever got near England. It was pretty amazing, all these jewels fitted in various random objects, and the grandiosity of it all. There was a short video of the coronation of Elizabeth II., or EIIR (R for Regina, Queen), which made me realize again how fun it is to be in a real monarchy. In some ways, this monarchy lives around people, and gives a certain flair to everything, changes the way how you look at buildings and history. England/Britain is so proud of it's traditions anyway, so this just adds a little bit to this :)
After the jewels and stuff we rushed through the central building, the White Tower, to check out a few of the weapons kept there - they have a vast amount of historic weapons, armor, whatever, it's just amazing! The only problem was that we did not have the time to check it out properly - we had musical tickets for a matinee! What musical, you might ask - well We Will Rock You, of yourse! A musical, based on Queen's biggest hits, already in it's 6th smash hit year, standing ovation each and every night... It started with the bass of Innuendo, giving that ever tingling feeling of hearing the best ever sounds again! And for almost 3 hours we were flooded with this amazing music, presented by quite capable artists, singers, dancers, and of course a live rock band supplying the tunes! The story of the musical is less interesting, it's about how the lost rock music will return in the not-so-far future and free our minds, but the feeling of it all ... now that's what leads to a standing ovation :) It was a very, very good show, I'm glad I decided to go and watch it, and P. liked it even more :)
We wanted to get something to eat after the musical, and we had a nice dinner in an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant. The tastes were pretty much taken away from the food to make eat more eadible for English, but still there were some good moments in it. To round up the evening, P. & I wanted to find a good party in the Soho, but well, we sucked at that :) When we headed to find a pub, they were all closing (11pm... British, bah!), and all teh clubs we saw were a lot less appealing than they were full. In the end, we just took the Tube to have a good night's sleep - now that's a programme rarely advertised in Soho...

Sunday! Changing of the Guards, again, but this time, almost on time :) It was a good show again, I even managed to shoot a short video of the previous set of guards leaving Buckingham Palace :) I made a few pictures of the various critters of the St. James's Park again, squirrels can never get un-cute :) We strolled through St. James's and Hyde Park, to the Speakers' Corner, to see and hear a set of Britain's madmen share their views. This part of town is traditionally the place of protests, and on quiet days anyone can come out here with his or her soapbox and share whatever he or she feels important. This time, there was and old woman sharing her views about how useless life is and how we will end up in a very unpleasant afterlife no matter what we do. There was also a Nigerian guy who explained his views on immigration and how immigrants are handled in various places. There was also a Muslim person who really stood out for... well I don't think even he understood :) But the overall feeling of the place is nice, that random people can go out and share their random thoughts, and noone gets punched in the face :) V. met us here, and we went to have a British meal - me an Aberdeen Angus Burger, P. fish&chips, V. some barbecue chicken. The beers we tried were also quite good, one of them was even Madonna's favourite :) This was all in a pub near James Street, W, and a few streets N of the Bond Street Tube station, if anyone would ever want to find a place I did not give the name of :) We had an Italian macchiato nearby, then V. went home, and P. and I continued our quest for British beer and rock music. Which eventually lead to finding almost every remotely good place closed and heading home with the first night bus again as the Tube closes earlier on Sundays. Well, bugger.

Monday... I hardly even got to work when I heard how badly things turned out with the last piece of work we've done, but that got fixed very quickly - we have neglected a few things we shouldn't have, so I learnt a bit about how some of our processes should be done properly ;) Then I met up with P., who slept at my place again but refused to wake up at dawn, like I did :) He moved out, over to V.'s for his last night and he just gave me my keys - he was quite wasted even having slept a lot more than I did :) The day just crept away, and in the evening I headed to V.'s as well - we were cooking a nice Hungarian dinner for the current English girl :) She's a very nice person, and was glad to have us, and especially, she enjoyed the meal a lot :) As a dessert, we had vannila-cinnamon-apple-honey pancakes with some of the best Tokaj wine I've ever tasted - 17 years old, with a colour even red vines would envy! All in all, it was a great evening, and as it ended at around 2, I did not head back home, but stayed for the night - which led to having to wake up earlier, get home, get dressed and head to work... not the best start :)

And from then on, I basically spent my nights at home, fighting this minor cold, and yesterday evening packing - which was the hardest part so far :) My suitcase is huge, heavy and huge and mostly heavy :) Even though I managed to send my coursebooks to the home office with internal mail, I figure I'll still be carrying a lot more weight than I'd love best :)

So in the evenings I did some basic shopping, said my farewells to the Canary Wharf towersm that's about it. This good bye is a lot less painful than the Berlin one was, for several reasons. For once, this was just 3 weeks, and no matter how I got used to all this, how much I tried to be local, it was still just a longer business trip. Also, London is just not Berlin :) It's great, lovely, wonderful, but too crowded for my taste - here an average day sees the streets about as crowded as Christmas in Berlin... That's something I will not miss :)

Now, I had to move out of my apartment on Friday, so I had to take all my stuff with me to work in the morning, and then I had to get them to this hostel, Globetrotters Inn. Approximately on the opposite end of town... It's not that far by Tube, but I would have preferred a bit less rain on the way here :)
The room is okay, I share it with Chris, who works in IT as well, and is in London for a course, and an unknown girl who just got "home" and who has the bunk below me :) I had a great steak for dinner, but they did not have proper beer so I had to settle for a Stella with it...

Anyway, I have to close this for now, as it's late and people are trying to sleep :)
I'll write more later!

Ps. I did not re-read this post yet, it might be full of nonsense and typos...need to sleep first :)
M.

Bring on the night

I'm alive... I just haven't slept enough for 5 days now... Check my pictures, I'll be back later.

M.

Oooooh I have to sum up so much! I'll try to be quick, as I'm tired, as usual :) Tuesday... I had another training session, split up in two parts. The morning part was quite boring, just a replay of my last training with more emphasis on some parts. I wouldn't say it was completely useless, but I could have spent my time better. Luckily, it was over just it time for me to reach the loo :) Free drinks have an effect... :) The afternoon part was a lot better, we were given some useful information, which I'll probably use as well during my work. In the evening I quickly summarized my ideas in an email on how to solve a current problem - this turned out quite well in the end.
Oh, and this day I had my worst lunch so far :) It was turkey, supposedly "rosted with honey, with stuffing", and well, it was really turkey, period. No other tastes, and definitely no stuffing :) Even the potatoes were without a taste. I managed to get some very good horseradish sauce with all this, that took most of my pain away :) In the evening I went out to check out the Oxford Circus, and well, it rained :) The tube ride was strange though - this was the first time I left for the inner city right after work, and well, there were a lot of people! I could only get on the second train, which was full as well as the first, and there were people left on the platform... I can understand now why londoners complain about the tube, but my overall observation would be that the people were a lot more patient than they would be in Hungary in a similar situation. No pushing, shouting or swearing, even though I'm sure most travellers will be a lot happier if and when the Crossrail project gets another traffic line to the Wharf :)
So, the Circus was fine, a lot of shoppers everywhere, it was nice to get back home and have dinner in peace and quiet :)
Wednesday... No rain in the morning! I tried to take a photo of the Reuters building, with all the scrolling stock info on it - I think this photo does not do justice to reality, but I was in a hurry :)
Work was fine, lunch was great with a spicey cod steak in the cantine on the 12th floor of our Bank Street building :) We had a great view on the city, though the Eye definitely beats this :) I tried to find the Costa Coffee in our offices, but eventually I had to settle for Starbucks - they give a lot better latte than the free coffee machine does. It costs a quid, but in the "offical" Starbucks it would be more than 2GBP, so whatever... After work I went grocery shopping, tried out the third food store in the area, and realized that the choice in English food is quite narrow... I mean I would be able to buy a lot of things, but German salami and Spanish chorizos would blend well enough with Danish butter in just any other country... I want to eat British stuff! Even haggis, if I have to! Easier to say than do around here...
So at home, I had crab pate form the Hebrids, and then I left to try out that boat ride on the Thames I received a "Free Ride"-coupon for - and it was definitely worth it's price :) I had to go out to the O2 Dome to get on the boat, and it rained again, of course... The boat was very comfy on the inside, and very, very fast - I was told this is because it's a catamaran design. I got off near Big Ben, and tried to get home - I was quite unlucky with that, as the direct tube line was not running due to some train problems, so I had to go around town, with 2 changes and million kilometres afoot to get home eventually. The only thing to do was to write this entry, have some cheddar with crackers and a beer...And then, sleep!
Zzzzzz,
M.