Day 5 - Paris

I'm in Paris, and I'm in love with this city.

I almost didn't come here. Paris was an afterthought. I thought it was just yet another European city, similar to all others, but when I mentioned to my colleague, Kyle, that I was going on a Europe trip, he told me about these bread shops and pastry shops in France. I have a sweet tooth, and after hearing that they have a shop just dedicated to pastries, I really wanted to go. And when I found out that the flight was really cheap and short from London, that's when I made the decision. I shortened my London trip by 3 days, and penciled in Paris.

Typical alley in Paris

And boy am I glad I did. As soon as I walked out of the train station from the airport and started walking towards my hotel, I was instantly taken in by the charm of the city, and I knew I was going to love it. The local cozy cafes and bakeries at each corner; small clothes shops hidden in the alleys of tall, ancient buildings; huge, beautiful cathedrals at main intersections; kids playing ball at the local park. It's a combination of these things that gives Paris a charm of its own.

Me in front of Seine River

Seine River

Cathedral of Notre Dame

I saw some stuff in the main city. Cathedral of Notre Dame. Seine River. But I really want to talk about the best dessert I've had in my life.

I had already eaten a crepe for an early dinner, but around 9 PM I was still hungry, so I decided to go into a semi fancy place for dinner. I was actually searching for a dessert place, and this restaurant came up, so I decided to give it a try (it was called Un Dimanche a Paris, or A Sunday in Paris). The main dish itself was excellent, but the dessert! On the menu, it was called a Chocolate Souffle. Here's what the waiter brought me.

Best dessert in my life

The souffle is simply a light, fluffy chocolate disc, topped here with blueberries. The inside is a hot, molten chocolate sauce, that mixes well with the fluffy cake at the top. As soon as it's served, the cake begins to flatten out, and the sauce kind of hardens into a caramel-candy like texture. The white thing you see at the top right corner is frozen yogurt, topped with what I think is crushed meringue. You eat them together, and when you do, you can instantly feel the juxtaposition of opposites in your mouth. There are three levels of contrast at play. First, the coldness of the frozen yogurt meets the warm, gooey chocolate souffle, creating a curious sensation in your mouth. Second, the smooth texture from the yogurt softens the crunch you get from not only the hardened souffle, but also from the crushed meringue. And lastly, the creaminess and the sweetness of the yogurt blends so well with the tart from the blueberry sauce. I normally don't like sour things, and the dessert overall wasn't very sweet at all, and yet, the combination and the ratio of sweetness, tartness, and creaminess was just perfect. I really felt like I was eating a piece of art, and wondered if the pastry chef had studied literature or poetry, or had formal training in music or painting.

Day 4 - Last Full day in London

This was going to be a really short post. I spent the whole day in the British Museum (again).

There needs to be an addition: 3 days

I packed in as many of those free tours as I could:

- Roman Britain (covering from 43 AD to 411 AD)

- Ancient Iraq (covering the pre-historic era in Mesopotamia)

- Enlightenment (focusing on the British Enlightenment)

- Art of the Middle East (focusing on pottery, earthenware, and glassware from the Islamic age (7th century to the Ottoman Empire, as well as giving a lot of background history in Islam and the various civilizations around that era)

- Ancient Rome (Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian (Brit's favorite), Severus)

I actually missed some talks, as I couldn't find some of the rooms on time. You can imagine how big this place is, if I can't find these rooms on my 3rd day here. But missing those talks actually gave me more time to explore various rooms I haven't been in before. 

One of Four Obelisks of United Kingdom

A thought just occurred to me. I should take a picture with these Obelisks around the world. There are 4 in the UK. I missed my first opportunity here, but there's supposed to be 8 in Rome, 1 in Paris, and 1 in Istanbul! So, here I come!

This morning, I had breakfast at Jacks at Clapham Junction. It's similar to what I might get at a waffle house, but maybe slightly healthier. There's no hash browns, but instead there's baked beans, a grilled tomato, and mushrooms. And oh yeah, the brown sauce. I tried it on my eggs and ham, but I wasn't a fan. It tasted like a blander version of an A1 steak sauce. 

Typical Breakfast with 1 egg, ham, sausage link, toast, mushrooms, grilled tomato, and baked beans.

The Brown Sauce

 

Tomorrow, I'm flying out to Paris, to spend a few nights there before I head to Bergen, Norway. The best meal I've had here has been the curry I got from a street stall in Camden Markets. I kind of regret not trying more curry here. But hey, there's always a next time. Plus I need to come back to get my picture take with the obelisk.

Day 3 - London, continued

Started off the day by purchasing a "bacon and egg baguette" and tea for (3.30 gbp for sandwich + 80 pence for tea), from a food truck right outside the apartment. The "bacon" wasn't what I was expecting, and resembled more like a salty ham. Also, it seems like the Brits love their sauces. The cook asked in a heavy British accent what sauce I wanted on my sandwich. Of course, I had no idea, and I didn't even know what my choices were, so I responded, "whatever is the most popular." She said something about a brown sauce, and I was like "sure, that sounds good." Then she said something else in really heavy British accent, which I couldn't quite make out, and I just said "yeah..." and I ended up with ketchup in my sandwich. -_-

"Bacon" and egg baguette, with ketchup

Rest of the day was pretty straightforward. Went to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. Got there around 11 AM, but it was already packed, and I barely managed to get a decent area at the far end of the area. To be perfectly honest with you guys, I don't see what the big deal is, but everyone was clawing their phones out to take as many close up photos as they can, and even videotaping the whole 15-20 minute ordeal. I got out when the bands started playing, and took a nice panoramic shot to show the crowd (on a Monday morning!).

The Old Guards marching out -- see, nothing special. Did I just offend a lot of Brits?

About good 10-15 minutes after the Changing of the Guards. The band was still playing, and you can see people lined up outside the gates to watch the guards.

A nice walkway from Buckingham Palace to Westminster

Next, I revisited the British Museum. I was planning on doing three tours there today (Medieval Europe, Ancient Rome, and Assyrian Relief). These are so so wonderful, and if I stayed here long enough, I would try to do all of them. The first talk on Medieval Europe was really good. Sometimes reading the descriptions and the poster boards gets old, and you don't fully take in everything that you read in those, but when you have someone who can talk to you about it personally, you become more engaged. The last two I planned on doing was canceled, for some reason. I shall return again tomorrow!

On Westminster Bridge

I also did a self guided audio tour from Westminster Bridge to Trafalgar Square, visited the National Gallery, and visited a cafe and a bakery -- got a flat white for 3.30 GBP (a British thing), a Cinnamon bun and a walnut roll. Can the male baristas stop drawing heart shapes in my coffee? Both the pastries were good, but also set me back 4 GBP.

Flat white, from Valerie Patisserie

Later in the evening, I met up with Soj, had fish and chips for dinner, and we walked around the city, eventually coming back to Chinatown for some glorious bubble tea. Pretty good day!

"What if they run away with your phone?" "I can run pretty fast, too."

Days 1 - 2: London

I was really hyped up and over-sold on London before coming here. It all started from an over seas trip, of all places. 2010. I was touring Suzhou with a tour group. One tourist was a professor from Lebanon, who has traveled to many places around the world. She told me that London was her favorite place in the world, and told me so many good things about it. From then on, I had this fantasy that London was going to be the greatest city to visit, ever.

Since then, I had also visited many other places. I've walked through the quaint town of Muenster and Meiningen, experienced the magnificent museums of Vienna and Amsterdam, and stood with the grand architectural buildings in Munich, Cologne, and Antwerp. After having seen them, it seems like London is yet another European city. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting. Irrationally, I was expected to be blown away, but was let down a bit when I wasn't. 

Having said all that, London has been great so far. Yesterday, Soj and I went to the Borough Market, walked across the London Bridge, biked around Hyde Park, and had dinner near Chinatown.

Bread stall in Borough Market

Pastry stall in Borough Market

Today, we had brunch at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant, the London House; visited the British Museum; walked through the packed Camden Markets; rode the London Eye ferris wheel,;and had desserts near Chinatown again.

Camden Market

A goofy picture in the ferris wheel

Soj in front of Apollo Theater

In front of Big Ben

Some more thoughts on London: even though I haven't seen all of London (and I probably won't be able to in my short stay), I can see why London is loved by so many people. It really is a giant melting pot of so many different cultures. It's very common to see many men and women in Muslim headgear, Indians, blacks, whites, asians, and everything in between. There are lots of interracial couples. Listening to people talk, you can hear all sorts of languages, some that I can't recognize. Because of its diversity, you can probably find anything and everything you're looking for. Fine arts, ethnic districts, upscale malls, and grimy bars. It's almost like a super version of New York City.

Another thought on London: what I'm seeing on a typical stroll around London is probably not a true representation of England as a whole. London is very expensive. The currency is the pound sterling (GBP, Great Britain Pound), and the exchange rate is roughly 1 GBP to 1.5 USD. I see the listed prices of various goods in GBP, and they would normally seem reasonable, IF IT'S IN USD. But since it's actually GBP, I feel like I'm paying 50% more than what I'm used to.

Doing some quick research, it seems like Londoners make almost 75% more than the typical British. That's an incredible income discrepancy. Furthermore, Londoners' median income is greater than the typical American income ($68k USD vs $52k USD), so maybe this is the explanation of how things are so expensive here with a city that still functions and isn't totally breaking down.

Final thought: The British museum is excellent. I've only spent 2 hours there today, and I feel like I've only seen 10% of it. I'm very interested in the artifacts from ancient history, specifically from the Egyptian empire, the Assyrian empire, the Islamic worlds, and of course, the artifacts from the Greek and the Romans. I'm definitely going back tomorrow. If you study enough of ancient history, you soon begin to realize that it's all interconnected, and it becomes difficult to talk about one group of people without mentioning the others. It's a side quest of mine to learn enough about ancient history to get the big picture, and understand it as one united block.

Europe, 2016

This used to be a blog for when I went to China for one month to study go, but after 6 years of no updates, I'm bringing it back, and I'll write about my travels. I will start with my European travels which begins in 3 days.

I've decided to switch jobs, and there was a good opportunity for me to take a month break before starting the new job. At first I wanted to go around the world, and visit places like India, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and all that jazz, but after looking into the details, I realized that one month wasn't going to be enough, and I had even less time to plan for it. So I settled on touring Europe.

My tentative plan is as follows, with tentative days of stay in parenthesis:

London (4) -> Paris (2) -> Bergen, Norway (4) -> Rome (2) -> Marrakesh, Morocco (4) -> Athens (3) -> Istanbul (11)

I have a friend (Soj) in London, so that's my start city, and we plan to visit Norway together for a weekend. But as you can tell from the disproportionate number of days I've assigned to Istanbul, that's the city I'm most curious and excited to see. Paris was a last minute addition, as it was so close to London, and my main motivation going there is to eat French pastries. As a comparison, seeing the Louvre or the Eiffel tower is like a 6.5 on a scale 1-10, and French pastries is like a 9. 

My main goal for traveling is to see how people live. Instead of sightseeing the important landmarks or the museums, I'm more interested in seeing the everyday lifestyles of ordinary people, how they move around, what they eat, where they hang out. This is the reason for me wanting to visit Marrakesh and Istanbul. My fondest memories of traveling abroad is when I was able to speak to the locals in their language (in China and Japan), either by asking them for directions, asking how much something was, or what their favorite thing on the menu was. I remember walking into a Chinese pastry shop in Wuhan, and as soon as I asked in my broken Chinese, "Which one tastes the best?" the two girls attending the counter, who seemed bored out of their minds, instantly brightened up and offered suggestions on various things to try. I think there was something special about being a foreigner in a city and asking a local in their own language. I think the feeling would be different if I were to go to London and ask a local for directions in English. Also, I've heard that American tourists aren't particularly well received in Europe. But because I look asian, I might get a different treatment. We will see.

My other main goal for traveling in Europe, particularly, is for the history. I'm fascinated by ancient history, and Athens and Rome seem like the mecca for the time period that I'm interested in. 

So far only my flight to London and Istanbul has been booked. Nothing else is planned. I plan to book things as I go along. The good thing about that is I can be flexible, but the bad thing is that I might pay more for last minute bookings, or worse, some of the tickets and tours might be sold out. 

Today I'm flying into Chicago to see my nephew for a few days, and on Friday night, I'm flying out to London. I'm so excited!

While I'm at it, let's talk about packing. I bought a Osprey Farpoint 40 pack, and a Hikpro Ultralight daypack. I read up a lot on traveling light, and decided to pack all my stuff into these two. They're really packed to the brim, and I'm amazed at how others can travel even lighter than this.

Last update

Shanghai was great.  Apparently the downtown area is not where most people hang out.    人民广场 (People's Square) is where it's at.  I told a cab driver "ren min guang chang" and he was like "ting bu dong, get off my cab" (ok, so he didn't say the last part, but I was shocked to learn that my accent wasn't all that).  I ended up asking construction workers for directions and ended up walking there, which was another adventure on its own.

 

Shanghai did not disappoint, and it's my favorite big city I've visited, beating out Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore.  The subway is really cheap, awesome food vendors, tons of stuff to see, and has got a good mix of the big sky scraper feel as well as the cozy old-school street feel.  Obligatory pics of Shanghai sky scrapers:

West Lake, Hangzhou:

 

 Lingering Garden, Suzhou:

 

Zhouzhuang:

In the TV show Lost, Jack Shephard, the protagonist who worked so hard to find a way to leave the mysterious and dangerous island, eventually finds himself longing to go back.  I'm back home, but I miss China already.  I've been thinking about what exactly I miss about China.  Immediately I thought of street food, but I think it's more than that.  I think it's a combination of being able to explore a new land on your own pace, spending time on the things that seem interesting to you, learning about the different culture and people, with a bit of danger and excitement thrown in, and peppered with confusion and fascination when you run into something completely new.

Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan

Just got back from a walk around downtown Shanghai.  Currently sitting in my hotel room with Japanese TV in the background.  Somehow, I don't feel so safe anymore.  First of all, the moment I walked out of my hotel room, a guy walks up to me asking me if I want to talk to some girls.  I said no, but he kept on following me around.  I didn't know where I was walking to, but I soon found a small store, walked into it, and lost him.  Or so I thought!  When I walked back out, he was waiting for me!  Eventually he got the picture and went on his way.  There are a whole lot less people walking around the streets.  And here, everyone throws a glance at you as you walk past them.  In Wuhan, practically nobody looked at me.  Also, the streets are much cleaner here.  But I dare not venture out into dark alleys here in Shanghai like I did in Wuhan.  It just feels less safe.

I had a great trip in Beijing.  I took an overnight sleeper train from Wuhan.  Basically the way the sleeper train works is that it leaves during the night, and you sleep on the train, and in the early morning it arrives at your destination.  Top speed is 160 km/h.  There are hard sleepers and soft sleepers.  I got the hard sleeper, which was around 280 RMB one way (around $45 USD).  Soft sleepers have softer beds, but they cost maybe 2x more.  There are 6 beds per room, 3 levels.  I got the middle bed.  Here's what it looks like. 

Not for the claustrophobic.  Because the beds are so cramped, people usually hang out in the lower beds, or in the narrow hallway.  Me and this other guy was just standing around the hallway for 10 minutes or so, neither of us saying anything.  Then I throw in a "hey, I'm on this bed, which bed are you on?" in Chinese.  And then it was on.  His name is Yangyang, and he was going to Mongolia via Beijing to see his parents.  Very cool dude.  Anyways later on he brings over his friend, Mei Lu from another room.  Thankfully, she could speak english.  Mei Lu was going to Beijing to take some entrance exam for Beijing University.  She wants to major in Piano and Music.  Her english was really impressive, and she was enjoying her chance to practice her english with a foreigner for the first time.  Another lady in our room got involved in our conversation and the 4 of us were carrying on and having a great time.  I was teaching them Korean; they were teaching me Chinese.

Beijing was great.  I walked Tienanmen Square, visited the Forbidden City behind it, and climbed the Great Wall.  They also took me to a jade museum, enamel museum, and a silk museum (I think these museums are more like ways for them to get tourists to spend money).  Then I took another sleeper train back to Wuhan on the same day.  Overall, it was a memorable trip!

The day I got back, Yan Laoshi's niece (also named Yangyang) treated us all to all-you-can-eat hot pot dinner for being selected for a scholarship (she was 1st in her class)!  Yangyang has been so kind in helping me with the Chinese translations, and also patiently asking all the weird and crazy questions I had about Chinese culture.  Thanks Yangyang!

These are the go books I bought here.  They're all in Chinese, but they were dirt cheap.  These all cost about USD $30.  In the US, one book would cost about $15-$20.

These are the gifts I got from Yan Laoshi's family before I left.

The writing on the fan is written personally by Yan Laoshi.  He asked me what I wanted on it, and I asked if there was a short phrase about studying and self improvement.  Yansen, Yan Laoshi's son, suggested 更上一层楼, meaning that you must climb higher to see greater horizons.  You climb a little, see more, climb a bit more, see a bit more.  In go, I should improve little by little.  Each life-and-death problem I study, each new line of joseki I learn, each end game shape I analyze, I gain a bit more insight and I climb a little higher.

Overall, studying go in Wuhan was fantastic, and I'm so glad I did it.  I now know what I need to do to continue improving my go.  And I learned a lot about China and Chinese people.  Based on the negative comments I had heard about Chinese people in China, I had biased opinions before going on this trip, but afterwards, I now think that in any culture or country, most people are good hearted.  I think the differences in culture and beliefs is what may lead us to think badly of a particular group of people.  For example, this guy cut in front of me at the airport.  On the surface, he's a jerk.  But maybe there's a part of the culture that I haven't considered.  I don't know what that may be... maybe he saw a bit of an opening and decided to take it, if I wasn't going to?  Or maybe he was just a jerk.  Anyways, I think I've become more resistant to make sweeping assumptions.

Next 5 days I'll be chillin' in Shanghai.  I have a tour in Hangzhou tomorrow.  Then I'm doing a Shanghai City Tour, then Suzhou and Zhouzhoung, then Kevin Steely!  <3

I miss playing my piano.