Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.
Today I happened to pass by just as Trafikanten was installing a brand new transit sign at Oslo’s busiest interchange, Jernbanetorget. This totally made my day! Since every single bus/tram/subway/train in Oslo passes through this station, all their different platforms are spread over a few blocks, both above and underground. Which can be annoying when, like last week, I was … Read More
It’s shopping season on Oslo’s most famous street (Karl Johan), and the stores are filled with images of Christmas and… Toronto? I did a double take when I first walked past this display window: I’m not sure what the aim of this ad is, other than to thoroughly confuse any Canadians that happen to be walking by… but what do … Read More
Since it’s December and minus 15°C out, I thought I’d write about the beach. Or at least about the last time I’d been to a beach, which was in Dalian on China’s Northeast coast. Dalian was rated China’s most livable city in 2006–a fact that kept popping up everywhere we went (or maybe we were just watching too many CCTV … Read More
…because Norway is one of the few countries (along with Japan and Iceland) that still practise commercial whaling.
Not far from where I live is Aker Brygge, a fancy, ultra-touristy area by the harbour. It’s kinda lame. However, I noticed the other day that they have a parking lot for electric cars! Most electric cars here are tiny and kinda flimsy-looking. But there is one that appears sturdy enough (akin to a smart car), made by the Norwegian … Read More
still visible on the ground at 11 AM. (-_-)
Oslo is known to be one of the most expensive cities in the world (but was recently surpassed by Copenhagen according to ECA International–a link that was sent to me by a friend in Geneva, btw). There are many reasons for this (which I still need to figure out), but for one thing the wages in Norway are much more … Read More
I’m in Copenhagen for a few days and thought I’d go see the the Little Mermaid (“den lille Havfrue”, originally created by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen). Ok, so the statue is actually currently in Shanghai for the Expo, but I was curious what would be in its place. So after walking through a beautiful park (filled with runners and … Read More
…is a Canadian dude from Ottawa?! His name in Chinese is 大山 (‘dashan’ or big mountain), and he’s crazy famous. Hilarious because I would never have heard of him in Canada–but Chinese people tell me he’s more famous than Mao. (How’s that for a benchmark?) So I guess it’s no surprise that the Canadian embassy in Beijing now has his … Read More