http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Roisin/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Roisin en-us Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:57:15 +0000 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:57:15 +0000 Well here I am back in my beloved flat in Budapest with the morning light grey though it is barging through my front windows. For the sake of my fair and gentle readers I will cast my mind back across continents and timezones to recount my last adventures in and around Beijing. Bu dao Chang Cheng fei hao han says the scrawly handwriting of Mr Mao at the Great Wall of China No arrive Great http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-246445.html Hardly a minute to spare these days as we swing from major tourist attractions to haggly shopping to fine feasts to Beijing pubs where incidentally there is a thriving live music scene singersongwriters to beat the band long hair and patterned plectrums and meaningful chords especially ninths emanating from every edifice and orifice. Missing a day of blogging means that I now have far too http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-246097.html Well I'm stumped and stifled and stilted I cannot think of a single joke using the word Beijing...so I'm in mourning for the punnage potential of Shanghai and Xian. What a Shanghaily disappointing Xianticlimax to my literary tour of major Chinese cities. Oh oh oh Wait As I sipped my black tea in KFC yesterday I'm a sucker for Chinese culture there was nowt but Christmas music on the radio... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-245385.html Despite the reservations of my travel companion about the length of our stay in Xi'an I am delighted that we had today to explore the many sights of this northwestern city as my Shanghaicalibre guide continuously refers to it though it is clearly and firmly plonked in the eastern half of this ginoryear of the mouse country according to my map at least. Hello to my Xi'auntiesSo like w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-244524.html Happy birthday to my coolest most favouritest sisterArrived in Xian yesterday after an easy trip from Pudong airport in Shanghai. On the way to the city centre I saw my favourite Chinese roadsign again Rear end collision keep distance. A look at the main streets yesterday revealed an alarming number of designer shops in what is otherwise a much less affluent city than the Shanghaive of activ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-244160.html Time for Chinese New Year dinner...yippee Incessant fireworks around the area all day. I've just zipped my new suitcase with a meagre 20kgs inside..I didn't think of the internal flights in China when I brought nearer 30 kgs from Hungary. Luckily Hailing can take some of it for me to Xi'an and Beijing. This afternoon we went to the supermarket and I was kicking myself that I didn't bring my came http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-243434.html We went to Shanghai South Railway Station early on Sunday morning to try to get tickets to the picturesqueueue city of Hangzhou. You may have seen on the news that some Chinese stations are aflood with masses of anxious travellers these days and that in some places the trains just cannot travel because of the snow. Happily for us tourists and unhappily for the poor unfortunates elsewhere there http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-243124.html Well I can't believe I'm here at another Saturday with its attendant soundtrack of scales and ditties live at the Pudong Czerny furnace under the watchful ear of Professor Wang...ee orr san 1 2 3. I see in the nooz that much of China is in crisis because of the snow. Shanghai has a few flakes all right but nothing to write home about. So I won't. Frightening stuff on the telly though from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-242009.html Yesterday we went to the beautiful towncity of Suzhou sue Joe which though it is only 75Km from Shanghai was unfortunately separated from it by the mother of all traffic jams. Tranglam trachta sron le toin no fadas out here That's Irish by the way doesn't even begin to describe it I kid you not we were in the car for 10 hours yesterday...5 there and 5 back for a journey that typically http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-241471.html Today I went along with Herself to a conducting course given by a Swedish choral conductor. Hailing and her friend Jenny a lovely girl who is for all the world the spitting image of Maria Doyle Kennedy...yer wan from the Commitments were taking turns translating rehearsing directing and accompanying. Not your average translators these lassies And without wanting to sound too adoring it fair http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-240712.html A few photos from today including fabulous 'firepot' dinner they give you all the ingredients raw and you cook it yourself in a pot of boiling flavours in the middle of the table. Twas delicious and washed down with Baijou the local 52 per cent. The whole thing for three people cost 28 euro. More snow in Shanghai than has been seen for 50 years apparently. It wouldn't make too many igloos th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-240379.html Hello again. I deleted my subscriber list just in case it's annoying getting all those Roisin has written a new blog emails. You can subscribe again if you want. Or just look at the website to catch the latest news from the Roisin channel. The girls in the photos kept peeping in the door I accidentally wrote 'peeing' first but no to have a look at me...so I had to go out and be inspected. T http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-239591.html Well I've just woken up from my Saturday morning Shanghaibernation eaten a deeeelicious lunch of fish head and all shrimps mixed veg and rice read the paper I love Saturday...and tis all asnowing. Apparently snow in Shanghai is a rare and much marvelledat fenomenon. Normal life is postponed at the first sighting of the white shtuff. So no choir rehearsal today. The boy next door has ho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-239567.html Write a blog they said....but why is it always so hard to think of a first line All down to my impossibly Shanghai standards of hilarity no doubt. Finished the Kodaly kodalliance today a day early as students are heading off tomorrow on their Chinese New Year holidaze...yippee Really enjoyed the few days with the methodology girls not the best name for a pop band...it's as well they are into http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-239069.html Hello dayreLife is certainly a whirl around here. Out early home late and any amount of excitement in between. Classes went really well today plenty of laughs and buckets of enthusiasm though I'm afraid that from now on they'll be a bit boring now that all the Kodaly pedagogical showstoppers have been used. Some of them might have to be encored. Feicimid. The teacher went astray a few times http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-238429.html Oh my Buddha I am so tired Didn't sleep a wink last night. Everything has had blurry edges since about 3pm. The classes went very well and I found myself safely on the side of too much preparation rather than too little..whew Kodaly did a good gig and the accompanist wasn't too bad either even with the composer's penchant for serious sharpage and particularly flattage. Invited with others to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-238039.html Not much to write about today because I slept through a lot of it. Hailing went out to teach piano in the morning and her mother stayed in to teach piano so there was no escape I drifted in and out of Hanon scales arpeggios flying Czernys Czernies twiddly Mozarts and demonstrative Liszts. The boy next door came in the afternoon to play his pieces the practising of which could be heard thro http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-237688.html Well My first time to write a blog it is very strange to write without knowing who will read it. Anyway no point dwelling on thatTa me anseo i Shanghai albeit without fadas Itt vagyok Shanghaiban Here I am in rainy puddley Shanghai smiling and waving and thumbsupping to Hailing's mother while our translator is out at her choir rehearsal. The clock is lying to me the time I'm reading http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-237317.html