MichaelandKathy

So I decided to suck it up and finally finish my blog entries, so here goes my last leg: Beijing. First day here, my cousin took me shopping in XiDan's Korea City. Indeed, apparently goods that look like they are from Korean (hair decorations, clothes, etc.) are really popular here! I spent pretty much the whole day here as it's huge! It was a total of 5 floors with small shops on each floor. I had to take 2 breaks in the middle just to rest my legs. Later in the afternoon, I ran into a friend of mine from USA!! It's a small world after all I guess :D We made plans to hang out the next day. I met up with my friend and her 2 friends for lunch in Jing Yuan, the largest ... read more

I had an amazing and again, whirlwind trip through Xi'an with my 2 cousins. Very rarely do we get to unite (it's been 2 years since I've seen either), so we decided to take a brief trip to XI'an. Xi'an is actually where my father's side of the family resided until my dad's generation moved to Beijing to attend college. In fact, I even visited my dad's birthplace without knowing it! Xi'an is also extremely popular with foreigner due to duh -- teracotta soldiers! But during this time of year, it was also especially popular with locals due to its herbevoire expo. Yes... you read that correctly. Apparently, the expo involves massive exhibits made out of plants. we didn't go, but can't say i missed out on much... First day, we got off a grueling 15hr ... read more

My aunt and uncles picked me up at the Hefei trainstation. My mom's side of the family is from this city so I was very excited to visit with relatives. In fact, there's not much to say about my stay here other than family reunions that involved a lot of yummy food!! I also took advantage of the cheap haircuts and got myself a perm. Several days into my stay, my cousins and I embarked on our own journey to Xi'an! So, onto the next entry...... read more

Hi folks, I've had a whirlwind of a trip in China with limited internet access. I have some time now so will recap some of my trip. First week, I spent in Shanghai. It was my first time there and had an amazing time with the help of my cousin (who works there) and Cathy, my friend from the US of A. Given my failing memory, I actually kept a journal each day so here goes: day 1: this morning, I went to all of Shanghai's touristy stops by myself. I swear I've never walked this much in my life. I got off the subway at People's square, walked on nanjing lu to the bund, and then yu garden. finally i walked back to nanjing lu and took the subway across the river. I then paid ... read more

Today was my last day at Barcelona. It wasn´t very eventful, and probably for the best, because I am pretty travelled out at this point. I prepared for my 2 hr train ride to Figueres by going to a giant bookstore my old hostelmate told me about and buying Cathedral of the Sea, a historical novel about Barcelona by Ildefonso Falcones. Of course, after purchasing this book, I realized that I had missed the train I was preparing to take, meaning I would have to wait an hour at the train station... good thing I had the book! The train ride there was terribly squished. I think it was packed with tourists from the UK and France going in the same direction to take another train to go home given how all planes and most trains ... read more

What a beautiful day #5 in Barcelona. This morning I woke up to my alarm completely in disarray... It was the first time since I´ve arrived that I had slept through the whole night. Usually I wake up before my alarm goes off. After a few minutes of grapling in the dark, I remembered I was in Barcelona... Today I went to Sitges, which is a beach or resort area about 40 minutes train ride away from Barcelona. Firstly, the train tickets were 6 euro round trip, which means 3 euro one way! shocking coming from a country where train is the most expensive mode of transportation! The beach was a very close walk from the train station. I saw a random assortment of people sunbathing, but it was still fairly empty given it´s a Monday. ... read more

Barcelona day 4? indeed... despite my attempt to get out of this country, i am still here. Barcelona´s main airport closed as I was sitting on my plane to Madrid. What ensued after the airport closure can be summed up with one word: chaos. Every airline´s ticket counter looked like an Apple store on the first day the iphone came out. After waiting in the wrong line for 2 hours, i realized that I couldn´t do anything anyway, and went back into the city of Barcelona. Fortunately my hostel had a room for me tonight. I am going to move into a hostel with 2 girls I met a day or so ago for 2 nights before my scheduled flight out of barcelona on wednesday (fingers crossed that the airport is open...). After getting back to ... read more

Onto day 3 and what will eventually be last day in Barcelona... lonnnnggggg story ahead folks. This morning I wake up to the news that my flight to paris is cancelled. WHAT. I am not all that surprised to be honest, but at this point, i am very very sad. Nonetheless, I decide to embark on what is to be a fruitious day. I leave on the 2nd earliest train to montserra! When I get there, I meet a group of girls on vacation from their exchange programs, so I join them in our exploring. Montserra is beautiful, but you have to know where to look. After exploring the limited ground floor, we start hiking to the top of the mountain. The hike was absolutely beautiful, albeit exhausting. We ended up giving up a quarter of ... read more

Day 2 So today i realized that spanish people have very little shame in public. they will yell, dance, sing... and most of all, drop everything and suck face with their significant other... in public. i have never seen so many people dry hump in the middle of the street. kind of a culture shock. Today I spent most of the morning panicking because my friend´s flight to barcelona was cancelled due to a VOLCANO EXPLOSION. yes... i don´t think i will ever write that sentence again in my life (i hope). basically volcano in iceland exploded and basically all flights in europe around the uk area were cancelled... thanks iceland... for proving once again that you fail at life. I also had to switch hostels. I moved into Hostel Blue which is located in baro ... read more

Day 1 I arrive in Barcelona early in the morning... the flight was brutal to say the least. 7 hour red eye. although i have to say that i am impressed by deta´s entertainment offerings. I start the day off by taking a bike tour of Barcelona. It was a great idea because I got to hit all the touisty spots AND ride a bike! The streets in barcelona are so narrow though... i ran into a child. very embarassing. We hit the cathedral, the palau de la musica, arch of triumph (is there one of these in every city...), sangrida familia, some other historical areas, the manmade beach and learned some basic history about the city... the weather has also been very kind... warm but not too hot. sometimes even on the chilly side. In ... read more