Blogging isn't that difficult when all you do is post pictures, but I don't think anyone will feel too offended by that. And if I were to guess, I don't think anyone expected much else... So, as a change of pace, a bit of text! I write this post the night 6th-7th of September, and tomorrow we wake up early to continue our trip towards Jinan. The last two days have been eventful and we have done plenty of sightseeing and some fine (also: not as fine) dining.
5th of September me, my girlfriend Linn and three of our friends, decided to walk down the busy street of Nanjing Road. We set out with no real intent other than to be a part of the bustling street and I think the ladies' best case scenario would involve some actual shopping. But they left empty-handed.
After having walked Nanjing Road for a while we happened to stumble on to a piece of information. The Bund, is a tourist attraction that is describes as a symbol of China and an epitome of Shanghai's modern history, and we were only another 10 minutes or so away, so we pressed on.
 |
| The Bund. A horrible shot, but you get the gist. |
 |
| The Bund at night - as it should be experienced. |
Later that day it was time to celebrate a local (no, not really) birthday boy, at a fancy restaurant. Josephine deserves a lot of praise. There are not many of us that can speak passable Chinese... She can, and has been pulling a lot of weight helping out wherever she can. Ordering food, talking with taxi drivers and generally coordinating a lot of what we have been up to, and now most recently, booking a table for close to twenty people.
Teppanyaki is a style of Japanese cuisine where you and your group of friends join a table where a chef will prepare whatever food you order in right in front of you, immediately. So, the stakes (later steaks) for the evening read as follows: 288 Yuan. All you can eat buffet. Free drinks. A quick note on the service. I did not even have to ask a waitress for more cola, they showed up as I was finishing my glass and immediately poured me another one. That is something I can get behind! The language barrier also had one of them leave a bottle of sake in front of me, needless to say, I did not finish it.
I don't actually try to take photos of people, but it would seem that the normal reaction when someone pulls up a camera is to look in to it. Who knew? Anyway, here are a few pictures of how it all went down.
 |
| Birthday boy - top left. |
 |
| I think those are salmon and cod. I found the supposed cod pretty great, and the salmon decent. |
 |
| Aforementioned and promised - steaks! |
 |
| Obligatory caption. |
 |
| A plate of beef. Three different kinds of sauces and some soy. |
The chef might have caught on that I heavily preferred meat over fish, so I got a healthy first plate of meat. It was then followed up by chicken, pork (If I recall correctly) and ox tongue. The latter of which was bit chewy, but carried great taste.
---
Today we had an early morning appointment with an old Swedish friend, Ikea. Yea, some of our friends that had already been to Jinan reported back that we might want to buy a few things before we leave Shanghai. So we did.
Not much was different. If you do not enjoy walking through Ikea in Sweden, you are not going to like it any more in Shanghai. Although this was a short and not very painful operation. We knew what we wanted, and we left quickly. But not without trying a hotdog (5 Yuan) and a soft ice cream (1 Yuan). Also, turns out Ikea makes a big deal about carrying over the Swedish names of their products which is kind of neat.
 |
| If you know what item this is without reading the English translation it is safe to say that you frequent Ikea way too often. |
 |
| If you really want to try though, this will help you out. |
And to put an end to this day we fought our way through the sea of people on Nanjing Road to reach a restaurant serving a tasty hot pot. Beware though, even a licensed chop sticks user like Gustav could face a struggle with rice noodles. I don't think Tommy is pleased with the respect with which Gustav stuffs his face, or as it happened to be, tries to stuff his face.
 |
| Nanjing Road |
 |
| l.t.r Tommy, Gustav |
No comments:
Post a Comment