There’s hovering art directors and then there’s co-workers that take over your computer all together.
Question: how many girls does it take to write up a how-to for a nail polish remover?
popnea
Zuma Beach 2.0
It’s a bit of a stretch to go all the way up to Zuma north of Malibu just to go to the beach since there’s beaches much closer, but it’s worth it, you don’t have to fight with a bunch of tourists and it’s easier to find parking etc.
Started off the day with a visit to the Mar Vista Farmers Market to pick up snacks and coffee.
You can’t drive by Malibu Seafood without doing a pit stop, perfect for lunch! We were there 10 minutes before they open so we didn’t have to wait in line for that long.
I always order the same thing. Every time I think to myself that O should order something different but when it comes down to it I always end up with the deep fried clams and I never get disappointed. Why change a winning concept?
We set up camp at Zuma Beach, decorating with plants and all!
So much fun playing in the water!
Culver City Art Walk
I heard through the grape wines that it was the Culver City Art Walk today so me and Mika headed over to the Art District. We did a pit stop at Cool Haus. I’ve heard of this place and seen their ice cream truck driving around but I’ve never actually been. They do all sorts of weird flavored ice cream, but I’m not that adventurous when it comes to my ice cream so I stuck with the salted chocolate.
It’s been a while since I was in the Art District of Culver City but the art walk made me rediscover and re-appreciate. It’s pretty cool, I wanna spend more time here!
I don’t really understand this type of art;
I had Mika stand next to this installation to show how big it is, or how tiny Mika is.
Went for a drink at the Jazz bar, they have live music every night, fantastic!
Moved on to the bar across the street to play some pool.
A slightly confusing sign;
Labor Day
I came home from China yesterday morning, ate a bunch of tax free candies and crashed. I tried to wake up so I could hang out with friends in the afternoon but it was impossible.
I’m glad we had today off so I could catch up on the LA life for a day before heading back to work.
Spent the day in the pool and then the 50 Shades movie in the afternoon.
The Bund
Last day in China and I only had one request, I wanted to go down the Bund. I wonder if people that live in Shanghai think of the Bund like I think of Hollywood and Beverly Hills – try to avoid it at all costs, but if you’re visiting from out of town, you should definitely go check it out.
Be prepared to go backwards if you have to use the restrooms.
We had brunch at M on the Bund. We were the first ones to arrive and when we got seated they were already out of tomato juice for our Bloody Mary’s. That’s hilarious because they just open, but also OK, because I am not a huge fan of that drink anyway. Halfway through our meal they must have sent a runner out to the grocery store and they gave us Bloody Mary’s on the house! The Pavlova however was definitely the highlight of the meal!
Since I am really good at getting lost and don’t know left and right, I have learned to pay attention to signs around me that give out some sort of clue of where I am or where I should go. I noticed this sword like Chines character quite a bunch and asked the people that’s been living in Shanghai for half a decade if this is the character for China. They didn’t know but we did some research and yes, it means China/Chinese. Ha, give me another week in China and I’ll be able to read simplified Chinese fluently!
We went to a Beatles exhibit since it was right around the corner.
It was fairly inexpensive to get in and you had the option to buy a guided tour English. I opted out, thinking I’ll just read the signs. Turns out all signs were in Chinese, but since I read all biographies of the Beatles my local library had in my youth, I could kind of figure out what they were trying to say anyway. The fact that they could not spell out their names correctly just made it a little more exciting.
The Beatles had 14 songs on Billboard Top 100 on April 11, 1964.That’s pretty impressive!
Drake had 14 songs on the same list March 7, 2015, but I don’t think that’s as impressive because he’s just got a bunch of “Some other artist, feat. Drake”.
The Swedish Club of Shanghai had their weekly Saturday drink at Skyli’s. I wanted to hang out with my hosts so I tagged along. I don’t get to talk a lot to other swedes that live abroad anyway so it was fun to hear different stories from another part of the world. Uncle Bo still think I am that quiet 12 year old that sit in a corner being bitter and don’t want to talk to anyone, so he was watching every move I made. I bought him a beer so he could relax a little and enjoy himself.
French Concession
Amy was cooking dinner today so we stopped by the Avocado Lady for groceries. The Avocado Lady is apparently pretty famous among the expats in Shanghai and people come from all corners of the city with their shopping lists. I got excited over the store sign, don’t need to do more sightseeing today. I am easy to please.
I suggested Chicken Feet for dinner, didn’t get any positive feedback from the crew.
Every time I drive around Los Angeles on my dinged up scooter I am gonna remember this. I am not having it so bad after all.
I love these trees in the French Concession!
Still no chicken feet?
I wish I had the guts to eat from street vendors, but is it safe to do so in any country?
Shanghai day 2
Woke up to another day of smog, but hey, you can still see pretty far!
Me and my brother went to the fake market. I had nothing on my shopping list, but it is fun to just walk around and look at junk. My brother was in the hunt for new sunglasses.
He is however very cheap and also very firm with his price. I have to be quiet and can barely stop myself from cracking up in the back. The girl behind the counter went on and on about how she was gonna cry because of the price they agreed on and she started to get on my nerves but it wasn’t until she called my brother a mean man that I had to step in and put my foot down, I’m not having any of that. Listen girl, if it’s gonna make you cry because your boss will be on your ass for not making enough profit, you should not do the deal, we don’t have to buy from you, and if you still want us to purchase the sunglasses, just be quiet and ring us up.
She shut up.
Once we were done with the sunglasses we moved on to hoodies for the kids. I realized they were all overpriced and I can go to the outlets in the US and buy better quality for the same price or even cheaper. The ladies still wanted us to give them an offer and when we said it’s not even worth it they said “give me your best price”. My brother said his best price which was fair compared to the US outlet prices.
The lady got super mad, chased us down the hallway and screamed FUCK! I am really digging their selling technique.
We were done with being yelled at, it’s exhausting. Moved on to the fabric market to pick up some shirts my brother had ordered a few days ago. They had made the shirts to small and it was a bit of back and forth with that before everyone was happy. I was definitely ready for a beer!
It’s my brothers birthday so we all went out for dinner, it’s so much fun to hang out with cellphones! To be fair though, I did the mistake of showing them the Siri feature on their phones last night.
The food was delicious, just wish they wouldn’t put cilantro in everything.
Went for after dinner drinks at the Waaden Panadiee, which is how you spell Wooden Paradise in China.
LiKe is too shont to dnink Bad wine. Yes, yes it is!
Mr Bo was starting to get out of focus so it was time to go home!
Shanghai
I thought the 12 hour train ride was gonna be a drag, but it wasn’t all that bad and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise!
My brother met me at the train station. It was just past 9am and we both agreed that breakfast would be a good thing, but we couldn’t decide on what we wanted so we went to Skyli’s for a beer!
I’m happy to be in Shanghai with and a change of scenery, but the weather here is brutal! It takes a minute to get used to the humidity but once you realize it’s the same for everyone, and all of us are sweaty and stinky, you kind of just go with it.
It’s my bothers birthday tomorrow so we had a little pre-birthday celebrations, they had arranged for egg & bacon cupcakes!
Adorable!
I love it when you can sit outside and have drinks on the sidewalk and have people behave like normal. What happen to the rest of the world where you have to sit inside a fenced area like you’re a mad person? Baby Jesus, is that what happen?
Last day in Beijing
They had put up a sign in the shower in my room, just to make sure I understand the floor gets wet when I shower.
They also had very decorative tiles, I don’t know if I’m the one missing something here, or if they are.
The “Time Out 72 hours in Beijing” booklet told me to go to the largest tea market in the northern China, Maliando. I took the subway to the area and started walking in what I thought was the right direction. I thought I was very lost because I didn’t see anything that seemed interesting when I bumped into what looked like a tea market. 3 stories of small shops, just like the guide said. It was very small though and a lot of the small boutiques were closed so I was pretty disappointed. But whatever, I didn’t really want tea anyway so I walked out. Turned out I was at the wrong place and the “real” market was across the street.
This place was huge! It was still early in the morning so I was just about by myself.
A lady approached me and asked if I like green tea.
No I don’t like great tea, but I like black tea. The moment I said I like black tea I realized what a mistake I had made just by opening my mouth. They sucked me in to their little booth, started doing the tea dance and 15 minutes later I walked out of there US $35 poorer and with a bag of fancy tea that I didn’t really want. Yay for me!
I headed back up to Wangfujing, the part of the city which felt like it could be any major city in the world. Very modern, and not very exciting.
I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t been very hungry these past days, maybe it’s because of the heat, or that I’m walking around and forget that I’m hungry. I’m mostly just exhausted from walking and walking, and even more walking. I walked into a shopping center to see if they maybe had a cafe where I could sit down for a coffee and some WiFi when I saw the sign for Din Tai Fung, score! I love Din Tai Fung! They have a bunch of locations all over the world, got Michelin stars for their restaurants in Taiwan and when you try to go to either one of their two locations in Los Angeles, you have to wait for two hours before you can get a table. This made me so happy!
This little street off the main street of Wangfujing was actually a little exciting, I heard you should be able and buy scorpions and stuff here, but the whole thing was closed today. I don’t know if it was because of the rain, or the Military Parade that’s happening on Thursday, or a combination of both.
The city is really starting to gear up for the parade. Every time you tried to cross a street close to a major sight, you had to go through security checks.
I’m glad I planned out my Beijing visit the way I did and took care of the sightseeing the first day, they’re shutting down the city!
Enough of Beijing, time to head down to Shanghai!
The Great Wall
When I was walking around the streets of Beijing yesterday a gentleman walked up to me and said “You are a tourist, the forbidden city is closed, I’ll do a guided tour for you at a temple”. He also asked me where I was from and by this point I had figured that no one has ever heard of Sweden so I went for Los Angeles, California. “Hollywood, you’re from Hollywood!” Damn right I am!
I didn’t want a tour of a temple, but we arranged for him to come pick me up at 7 am this morning to take me to the Great Wall. It’d cost me US $40 including lunch and I had no idea what to expect, or if he was even going to show up.
7 am approached and a big white bus came to pick me up. We drove around Beijing for two hours to pick up other random lost tourists. I didn’t mind, I got to see Beijing waking up on a Monday morning. Unfortunately for the rest of the tourists, he had told everyone pick up time was 7 am so they had been waiting for two hours and were not so happy. The guide apologized and the annoyed tourists calmed down. But then this happen:
A flat tire! I found the whole situation hilarious, but the Greeks, not so much, they were pissed by now.
A few hours delayed, we eventually made it to Mutianyu. Since we were late we were advised to take the cable cart up to the wall instead of the 2h walking trail. It was by now safe to say the Greeks would not give the poor tour guide any tips at the end of the day.
People likes to build walls, Europe had a wall, Israel has a wall, Trump wants to build a wall, but the early Ming Dynasty build the greatest wall of the all, the Great Wall! This section of the wall was built in the early 1400’s.
I personally believe in building bridges rather than building walls, but that’s just me.
Parts of the wall that’s not renovated or maintained is getting pretty overgrown.
I wonder if the guards were bored on the wall or if they woke up every day thinking, yay, I’m gonna look at that view again today!
I was riding the gondola up with a guy who said he’d take my photo on the wall if I wanted to. I didn’t want a photo of myself, and then later I realized maybe that was a polite way of him asking me to take his photo. We will never know. After a while I thought to myself that maybe I should take a photo of me and send to my mother, she would appreciate that. I tried to set the timer on my phone and this is what came out of it; Selfie like a pro!
When we got back from the wall I was tired but not hungry, but it was still early so I took to the street to wander around for a bit, maybe find a convenient store to buy water and cookies for dinner.
I came across these building, I’m not quite sure what it is, but it looks like a culture center/restaurant.
It seems from these displays that they used to have a jolly good time around here.
Everything is off course being watched my Mao.
These dumplings looked delicious but I just assumed they had a bunch of meat in them and I was to tired to try to explain I only wanted veggies so I passed.
I walked into Lao She Teahouse because they had a big sign and it seemed important. Some nice ladies asked if I wanted tea and recommended I took a stroll around the tea house to look at the fancy stuff they had before sitting down in a tea room.
Once I had enough of looking at fancy tea pots I walked into the tea room and was greeted by a not so nice lady. She looked at me and asked if I wanted tea and said it was “very expensive”, US$60/h for the room plus the tea.
Fine! If you don’t want my money I’ll go back to the cheap streets and have an ice cream from McDonald’s for dinner.
