electric car parking
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
first frost
still visible on the ground at 11 AM. (-_-)
high prices = more pak khom
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
the little mermaid
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
the most famous foreigner in china
…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
liang pi (凉皮)
Liang pi literally means ‘cold skin’ in Chinese, and is a lovely cold snack served in the summer. This dish comes originally from Shaanxi province but you can pretty much find it everywhere in northern China, and in Beijing it is common to find liang pi stands on the street, like so: It’s basically a cold noodle dish, but the … Read More
syltetøy… and banos
so far my favourite foodstuff in Norway has been… jam! it’s more fruity and has less of that artificial gelatin consistency than what I’m used to, which means it’s easier to use a spoon with this stuff than a knife. our cupboard is currently stocked with apricot, strawberry, raspberry, and (deliciously chunky) apple jam–and with a higher turnover rate than … Read More
trains in china
Trains are a great way to travel within China. There are several different categories of train, as identified through the route number. Routes consisting only of digits (no letters) are the regular, cheapest (and slowest) trains. Train numbers starting with ‘K’ are fast trains (kuai literally means fast), T trains are te-kuai (especially fast), and Z trains are zui kuai … Read More
view of north korea
There is a section of the Great Wall just outside of Dandong called 虎山长城 (Tiger Mountain Great Wall), again along the border with North Korea. The wall itself is not all that remarkable if you’ve been to other sections: it looks way too new & reconstructed, with the site obviously renovated to herd tourists. But I must admit the view … Read More
Dandong 丹东
This is my second time facing North Korea–the first time being a tour of the DMZ organized by the USO–but this time it’s from China. I’m now in Dandong, a very industrial looking city with 600,000 inhabitants. 查看大图 As you can see, the Yalu (“duck green”) river separates China from North Korea–the Chinese side looks rather raucous and full of … Read More