What Chinese think when you say Macau

In Poland we have a card game called Makao, for Chinese people Macau (Macau Special Administrative Region) is also associated with games – card games, and more. 

Guangdong - where the sun hid from us

In Shenzhen, we got stressed a bit. At the beginning Jowita had an unpleasant situation in the toilet. The Chinese probably would not have won the gold medal in the competition for waiting in the organized queue, but you have to give them credit, even after several weeks in the their country they could surprise us. One Lady, which (surely in a great hurry), vigorously like a young kangaroo jumped into the toilet before the surprised face of Jowita. My wife after a short struggle with Polish and Chinese battle cries lost the fight, however the trauma remained.

City on the lake and city on the island

Another city that we visited was Hangzhou - famous mainly because of the West Lake which is for the tourists what honey is for Winnie the Pooh (In China probably more appropriate comparison would be with a panda bear and bamboo shoot ;)).

Shanghai's Identity

 If Shanghai was a man, he would probably be in a smart suit with black leather briefcase and communicative level of English.

Polish tourists, Chinese channels and milk tea

Nanjing

The chaotic journey to Nanijng

The next stage of our journey was to be Nanjing (Nanking). We had already seen Beijing - the northern capital (Bei means north), we wanted to see the southern too. Due to a considerable distance, we decided to take the train once again. We didn't want to go to the train station to buy the ticket (in Beijing when we stood in the line to pick up a ticket booked previously through the Internet, people entered the queue from the right and from the left side and not only ;-)), and we read in our guidebook that it is possible to get the tickets for a small commission in special ticket offices (tickets then are not blue but red and are validated by a person not the machine).

Confucius in snow

Inside the bus there was very little space, I tried to sleep but couldn’t because of the very loud movie. Everyone had speakers overhead and the sound couldn’t be regulated. Kuba couldn’t listed to his audiobook – “The Witcher” in Russian because of this loudness. After 4 or 5 hours we arrived at the station. In Zibo was cold, but in Qufu was much colder.

Taste of Chinese hospitality

We were a little bit nervous before travelling by train in China, mainly because of the language barrier. The station (Beijing South) was very modern and the train looked like rocket and it was moving with the speed of the rocket as well (300km/h). Standard inside was pretty ok, but there was no soap in the toilet. 

Welcome to China!

China welcomed us stressfully. We flew there with the China Southern airlines, initially we were satisfied with the flight. We even got a warm meal. But then... In general, I'm not afraid to fly, but when the greatest turbulences that I've ever had the “pleasure” to experience started I didn’t feel nice. I felt the familiar adrenaline rush and started analyzing the situation with a sense of fear. First of all, I thought with horror how much would a transport of our corpses cost and how sad our parents would be. That drama ended with at Beijing airport.

Farewell with South Korea

We wanted to go to Seoul by hitchhiking , but we gave up. We didn’t find any tips on the internet , and our host Jason discouraged us, suggesting that Koreans are not familiar with the hitchhiking and that they could be afraid of us. We heard earlier about the successful stories of hitchhikers from Korea, but we gave up after previous good experiences with Korail - Korean railways - we have decided to train.

Daegu

Our first thought of Daegu was associated with the fact that it Korean exchange students came to Gdańsk from University of Daegu (Kyungpook National University. As usual in Korea – we didn’t know what to expect. Once again we slept in an American English teacher’s house. Jason didn’t have too much time for us, because every day he worked till late, but during his spare time he told us very interesting stories of his travels - he was in Latin America, where he survived the attack in Rio de Janeiro and restless nights among sounds of shootings in the streets and in Africa, where he was in during the hunt for people with white skin - not associated with racism, but with the magic of the local wizards with human bodies with white skin (mainly blacks albino) preparing a whole range of magic products.

Gyeongju

We said goodbye to Busan with wonderful smell of pancakes fried on butter by Jowita. The three of us went to the subway station and there we said goodbye - Jowita with her brother, and I with my brother in law. Norbert was going to Seoul to airport because of his flight to Scotland, we were going to the bus to Gyeongju .

Busan cont.

On the next day - January 24th - once again we went to meet William. He was going to give an English lesson, but at the same time he was so kind that he offered to take us in his car to the Busan museum . The museum was free – in South Korea they are usually free. Inside there were interesting historical exhibits , ranging from the ancient history of these lands to modern times, all presented in a way encouraging to immerse within the Korean history. 

Busan

On the next day, January 24th, the smell of frying bacon woke us up. Patrick made ​​us breakfast: scrambled eggs, bacon and toasts. It tasted great, especially because in the last 3 months every morning I ate rice for breakfast. It was recently after my stay in Japan and the deficit of meat. ( My Japanese family rarely ate meat when I came to Tokyo to see my brother the first thing I did is I went to konbini and bought three hot dogs on a stick ). So when the meat appeared, a big smile on my face appeared as well (I am such a savage ! ) .

Hello South Korea!

We landed in Seoul on January 20th. As we drove to the center it was white outside of the windows because of the fog and snow. Our hostel was very close to the main station. It was cozy, and very warm . In Korea, the apartment is heated from the floor and the shower is in the same part as toilet no cabin so everything is wet later. We were pretty hungry so we looked for something to eat. In Korean I knew only two words - Anyounghaseyo (good morning !) And kimchi (fermented vegetables, usually cabbage). 

Last week in Japan

As you may know already from facebook fanpage we are both in South Korea, we met after 3 months of separation. This means that I left Japan .. I'm still very close to it but I miss it so much, and I see a lot of differences between Japan and Korea. However, I would like you to write how I spent the last week in Japan.

Nanakusa no sekku

Hello, I invite you to the table !

Today is January 7 - jinjitsu 人日and seven plants day is celebrated:

Nanakusa no Sekku 七草 の 節句

Today Japanese eat rice porridge nanakusa gayu 七 草 粥 from freshly harvested plants. Early in the morning we went to the bamboo forest to search these plants. But what kind of plants ?

Kimono

Today Masako offered me trying on a kimono. She didn't have to persuade me, I felt honored. 

Kimono 着物 is Japanese traditional garment. Japanese used to wear it every day but nowadays they wear it on special occasions (such as wedding, funeral, tea ceremony, Shichi-Go-San). 

New Year's Celebration

At the beginning, I would like to wish you all the best in the New Year. That all your dreams come true ! Because the feeling of fulfilling a dream is amazing. Year 2013 was exiting for both me and Kuba. We visited many countries, but Japan will remain the most important for me. I will never forget what I felt sitting in a Tokyo restaurant when I realized that I was in Japan - the country of my dreams. I 'm still here ! On this occasion I would like to describe to you how New Year is celebrated in Japan.