Farewell my Lovely
Still time for one more entry from the road! So the big adieu approaches - farewell to little old ladies in their party hats, farewell to snowy mountains, farewell to bizarre space-age-architecture, cheap dumplings and 1,3 billion Chinese. Farewell my lovelies!These last two days in Shanghai have been preparing me mentally for the reality to come (cool and at times rainy that is). But a little Mia-bird informed me that sunshine is promised in Helsinki - for nearly the first time in 2,5 months it looks like the weather in Finland may be better than out here - so I'll take this as a sign that maybe it's not a bad time to come back.
I arrived in Shanghai two days ago - and quite a ride it was too. Nyt menee lujaa - I thought on the train into town, reverting to my native Finnish in the surprise of my train (the Shanghai Maglev Train) going 430km/hour. The taxis speeding in the same direction along the highway seemed to be all reversing slowly, a strange experience. I don't know how fast Formula1 race cars go, so I'm not sure if they would have looked like they were reversing too, but unknowingly, I managed to get to Shanghai just in time for the Shanghai Formula1 race. Oh, the horror!
Well actually I would have been happily unaware of the whole race but for ending up sharing a dormitory at the Youth Hostel with two Chinese girls who turned out to be huge Formula fans. My roomies were excited to hear I was from Finland, since their biggest hero was Heikki Kovalainen. In fact when I met them they were on their way to his hotel to stalk him - and when they returned late in the evening they were full of smiles and pictures of Heikki and themselves. Apparently fans call Heikki "the Nice Man" as opposed to Kimi Raikkonen "the Ice Man". They were dissappointed that the Finns hadn't won, but put it down to the rain. When I pointed out Finns should be used to driving in rainy conditions, they were genuinely surprised; "we thought it was always snowy - because of Santa Claus, you know". Oh those famous Finnish boys!
I've revisited my old friend the Bund, a couple of times. The craziness and the skyline are still here, but admittedly when I saw the Bund first it was Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday of the year, and that did add an extra edge to the atmosphere. Now there were marginally less people, no zeppelins and less hawkers selling bizarre and curious items. Be that as it may, the Bund still makes me laugh and it's as good a way as any to end these months on the road.
Tomorrow the airport, hermetically sealed little packages of food, on-flight movies and then the gentle descent to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I look forward to seeing many of you as I get home!
I arrived in Shanghai two days ago - and quite a ride it was too. Nyt menee lujaa - I thought on the train into town, reverting to my native Finnish in the surprise of my train (the Shanghai Maglev Train) going 430km/hour. The taxis speeding in the same direction along the highway seemed to be all reversing slowly, a strange experience. I don't know how fast Formula1 race cars go, so I'm not sure if they would have looked like they were reversing too, but unknowingly, I managed to get to Shanghai just in time for the Shanghai Formula1 race. Oh, the horror!
Well actually I would have been happily unaware of the whole race but for ending up sharing a dormitory at the Youth Hostel with two Chinese girls who turned out to be huge Formula fans. My roomies were excited to hear I was from Finland, since their biggest hero was Heikki Kovalainen. In fact when I met them they were on their way to his hotel to stalk him - and when they returned late in the evening they were full of smiles and pictures of Heikki and themselves. Apparently fans call Heikki "the Nice Man" as opposed to Kimi Raikkonen "the Ice Man". They were dissappointed that the Finns hadn't won, but put it down to the rain. When I pointed out Finns should be used to driving in rainy conditions, they were genuinely surprised; "we thought it was always snowy - because of Santa Claus, you know". Oh those famous Finnish boys!
I've revisited my old friend the Bund, a couple of times. The craziness and the skyline are still here, but admittedly when I saw the Bund first it was Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday of the year, and that did add an extra edge to the atmosphere. Now there were marginally less people, no zeppelins and less hawkers selling bizarre and curious items. Be that as it may, the Bund still makes me laugh and it's as good a way as any to end these months on the road.
Tomorrow the airport, hermetically sealed little packages of food, on-flight movies and then the gentle descent to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I look forward to seeing many of you as I get home!
Comments
Tää blogi on hieno tarina ja hieno muisto.