This is part 6 in the eastern Europe trip series. I resolve to finish the 5 remaining parts before one year is up.When Luke and I were thinking about the trip we were keen on visiting Russia. However, it seems like Sergey was much less keen about the idea. I don't know about Luke, but I have a great fascination with former eastern Bloc countries, ( Read more... )

As much as I moan and bitch about the meaning of the program I graduated from, I can't help feeling a little proud when I was asked "what do you do?" at the border, and replied "software engineer". I am vain. Well it will pass in time ( Read more... )

This is part 5 in the eastern Europe trip series.We were going to try to stay at the same place in Prague as we did a few weeks ago when we returned to send me off to Canada, but it was impossible. This time we stayed in Karlín, a little off from the Old Town, and I recall the girl in our last hostel advising us to not walk around in Karlín at ( Read more... )

This is part 4 in the eastern Europe trip series.I wanted to begin the Bratislava entry by commenting on how Bratislava isn't on top of the European destinations list again but this was not true, if you were an HKese tourist. Walking in the Bratislava old town was like walking in Tsim Sha Tsui in HK, if every time I heard Cantonese spoken in ( Read more... )

After seeing a CM a few days ago with the catch phrase "only Hokkaido" that listed a few things that were symbolic of the prefecture, and having traveled a bit by JR, I've been itching to find a copy of Asada Jirou's short story "Poppoya" (The Railway Worker). The novella-turned-film made the image of the lone railway worker at a remote, snowy ( Read more... )

This is part 3 in the eastern Europe trip series.First of all a somewhat amusing thing about me going to Prague: My sister visited Europe in 2004 on a study abroad program, and her teacher got her passport stolen in Prague. My mother then had an impression of Prague being dangerous and warned me to be careful there. Prague might have a few ( Read more... )

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I've ran off to Shanghai for the last few days. Shanghai is supposedly one of the most popular places for HKers to visit. A glance at HK travel books will tell you what this implies: the only information contained within involves the latest food and shopping. I await the publishing of travel books that combine intellectual material and food and ( Read more... )

This is part 2 in the eastern Europe trip series.

These two damned days of train travel was the singular source of my stress the entire trip.

When we were planning the trip, Turkey was the stop. My mom questioned my sanity when I told her we were going to Istanbul, saying that given our tight schedule it was too out of the way, especially since ( Read more... )

This is part 1 in an unordered and sporadic series about my trip to eastern Europe. Pictures are mostly taken by Marge, some by Sergey, very few by me until Budapest.I remember being in Kiev fondly. It is nice to visit a city with somebody local, and in our travel group we have Sergey who lived in Kiev for many years. Kiev, like many of the ( Read more... )