Road Less Travelled

Poor little whale :(

Patrycja — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:35:08 +0000

I feel so sorry for this litlle whale lost in Pittwater… It’s so heartbreaking to see him/her swimming around yachts hoping to find his/her mum Don’t really like the idea of euthanasia. Prefer nature to take its course. Can’t believe there is no other way to save it?? What would you do if you could?/lang_en]

First gold

Patrycja — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:27:45 +0000

There we go… First gold for Australia at the Beijin Olympics. Stephanie Rice broke the world record and won 400m individual medley. This is our 400 medal at the olympics! Another pool queen has been born

Now waiting for Poland….

Hangzhou & West Lake

Patrycja — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:20:58 +0000

Another excursion out of the city. This time to apparently most famous attraction in this area – Hangzhou with its beautiful West Lake. The train trip itself was an interesting experience (1,5h), similar to a boarding a plane really. To be honest as was not impressed by this place as much, maybe I expected too much?

Boat trip was nice, but views were hazy of course. Went to two beautiful garden islands. At the end walked though another amazing park with all the right views. I wish I’d seen more. Unfortunately didn’t have a chance to see other local atraction or temples (I only dropped in for a moment to a Stamp Museum).

Zhujiajiao

Patrycja — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:32:41 +0000

This little canal town is quite pretty. I was lucky as ot was raining in the morning, so many tourists called off their vistit in this place, that can filled up really quickly. I was proud of myself that managed to find my way there on a public bus without any problems.

Zhujiajiao is build on its network of of waterways. There is old town with many charming Ming and Qing dynasty alleys and bridges. Then you have lots of little shops with food and souvenirs, and there you go – a perfect tourist place! Have a look at some pics.

Back streets

Patrycja — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:37:35 +0000

A few nore photes from back streets of Shanghai.

A few photos of Shanghai

Patrycja — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:43:04 +0000

Have a look at some photos of Shanghai. Let’s start with most popular views and places.

Pudong in three colours

The Bund

People’s Square

East Nanjing Road

West Nanjing Road

First impressions of China

Patrycja — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:49:14 +0000

Although have been to Hong Kong already before, I believe Shanghai showed me the real face of China, or to be precise a large Chinese city (21mln people – it’s more than in Australia!!). My first impressions?

Dirt and mess everywhere… really. Everything is covered with a thick layer of dust. But no wonder when pollution is so bad over there, thus no point cleaning as it gets dirty again the next day. (However, polution didn’t bother me much, which was good).
Traffic is absolutely chaotic!!! It doesn’t matter if the light is green or red… The following rules apply:
- as long as the road is free you can go (applicable for cars and pedestrians)
- right of way is always for a bigger and/or better car
- scooters are allowed on foot paths, and it’s pedestrains’ responsibility to look out for them (please note that half of Chinese people has bicycles, and the other swaped them for scooters. Only few Chinese can afford a car).
- any safty measures are non existient but who would care if the government is desperatly trying to reduce number of people with the one child policy for example
Poverty next to wealth. Sometimes it was unbelievable to see a derelict house next to a super slick high rise building.
Sptting men everywhere… And this is a loud verion… This was so disgusting, and was making me crazy.

After getting used to all above, China became quite interesting and beautiful!. Even the language was not a big obstacle. Any valuable advice? Always know where you’re going while catching a taxi, as usually you have to show the way to a taxi driver. Having a destination address written in chinese is mandatory. Our roman letter are usless over there. Have learned this very quickly!!

Ni Hao from Shanghai

Patrycja — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:00:56 +0000

Greetings to All from Shanghai. It’s only my second day here but already had a few interesting incidents. Doing well overall. It’s lots to see here. Unfortunately it’s raining a bit this morning

30 years of Mardi Gras

Patrycja — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:27:47 +0000

Since I’ve been living in Sydney (8 years + ) have never been to Mardi Gras. And since this is its 30th birthday celebrations (‘bigger than ever’) decided to go and have a look. Below a few photos from that night.

What a summer it was!

Patrycja — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:16:55 +0000

Many of us this year didn’t even notice we had any summer Apart from lots of rain and storms (the wettest summer in six years), not even one day in Sydney was hotter than 31 C !!! It only happened three times in the past (in 149 years of Australian weather records). A bit more stats: average maximum temperatures were 25.2 degrees, making it the coolest summer in Sydney since 1996-97. And all of this because of La Nina. I wonder how long does it last?