Ni hao!

As you can see I`m starting to learn Chinese! It`s harder than anything I`ve tried to do so far in my entire life so I won`t be mastering this new language any time soon … but at least I try.

Enough with the introduction, but just in case you liked the last week`s entry (with the street pictures and all) just know that I`m gathering more material for another entry in the weeks to come. So if you`re here for “up-skirts, pantyhose, boobies, long legs, Asian, school-girls” or any other weird search-word … move along, there`s nothing of this sort here … this week!

This Sunday I`m going to quickly go through some things that drew my attention in the past few days, so all in all, this entry is based on short stories.

Let`s see how short can I keep`em!

1. Mixcloud

In case you`re not fully embracing this digital revolution, I`m here to get you on the right path. For the past year I have been trying to understand funk. Which is kinda silly but let this one slide for a bit. So I started gathering all sort of albums from James Brown to Parliament and Funkadelic to Sly and The Family Stone, but I wasn`t quite satisfied with the selection.

Then I turned to Mixcloud, and found some brilliant people making funk mixes and vinyl sessions and people explaining why they arranged the songs in a particular order, and much more information about this genre. I got hooked from the first day and I haven`t stopped listening ever since.

Every day I download the mixes using Offliberty, and upload them to my iPhone. Usually they are 60 minutes long or once in a while 120 minutes. That`s awesome because I can listen to an entire mix on my way to the office, and (of course) a new one on my way home.

And there are days when I`m no looking for something new so I just “spin” one from the favorites.

If you`re into funk you can follow my Mixcloud account. (I`ll probably never upload something of mine … but “never say never”) or you can just follow Laid-Back, JazzCat and HeavySoulBrutha, if you want the whole scoop.

2. Paper by Studio 53

I have a new favorite app for drawing and notes. It`s called Paper and it just replaced 5 apps that were not used as much.

Why I love the app:

• Looks and feels like a Moleskine notebook, and I got three of those and It`s a pain searching for stuff inside them because they look the same. So the app is worth trying just because of that reason.
  comes free with a powerful drawing tool (the fountain pen) and you can impress just about anyone with that single tool;
• there are 4 other tools (pen, marker, liner and watercolor) that are gorgeous. And the testing mechanism (just in case you want to know if they are worth the 2$ each) is really well made. I was impressed!
• the notebooks can be customized with personal artwork covers.
• the writing feature is the best I`ve seen so far. It`s missing the zoom feature, but when that will be available … I`ll probably ditch the Wacom Bamboo app.
• it`s super-easy to use.

It has some downsides but nothing that can`t be solved in a few weeks of coding.

3. The TaoBao move

Last week I made the thrilling decision to buy a lens from TaoBao.com (some sort of Chinese eBay) and with the help of a co-worker, the package got here on Friday morning.

I was happy as a kid on Christmas day. I quickly open the package (kudos for the over-packaged lens) and start to check it. The first thing I notice is that it does`n look like the one in the pictures. OK… so that means I have to test it thoroughly. Focus ring: fine. Glass: clean. Fungus: none. Aperture blades: clean and working properly. Zoom ring: not moving.

I new it was too good to be true. At a closer inspection, it was the same lens from the add but the front element was replaced (same serial number but the one in the pictures had the filter thread cracked; the one I was holding was in good condition). Then I moved to the back, there were 3 screws from the original lens and a 4th screw that was totally different. And this is when it started to smell even fishier. On the outside it looked really good but when I took a good look inside the lens it was full of rust and it even rattled like sand inside the mechanism.

The zoom ring started functioning but it was really hard to turn and it was in no way usable in the field.

Right now I`m waiting for my money back, the lens is on it`s way back.

Unfortunately it`s hard to find a used one in a store and if you happen to see one, it`s twice the price that it goes on TaoBao so maybe this Chinese eBay is not for me. I`ll just wait until I get enough money to buy one where I can test it. I did try to negotiate with the store owner but the final price was still to high for my budget.

While on the subject of camera gear, if you`re in the market for a Leica M9 or M9-P, or even the 50/0.95 I`d like to let you know Shanghai is full of them. Almost every camera shop (Leica dealer or not) has an M9 and a Noct on display … just to make us feel powerless.

4. The Church surprise

This morning Ioana wanted to go to a orthodox Church. She found one using Google Maps and we headed straight for it. When we got there we realized that the Church was being used as a exhibition gallery.

My favorite piece was the ping-pong table.

The church looked very believable from the outside, but once inside we felt like in one of those Punk`d episodes. We started looking for the hidden cameras.

This happens kinda often here.

5. Shoes

I`m in the market for new running / walking sport shoes. So far Adidas has some ugly designs this year and the cool ones from Porsche Design and Originals are either too pricey or non-existent in Shanghai. Nike hired some color-blind designers this year too, and out of 6 different models that I tried today, only one was a snug-fit; the other were either hurting my feet or screwing with my balance.

Talking about balance, the Shanghai New Balance store on Huai-Hai Road was the most interesting shoe store to date. The whole thing was decorated as a New Balance History Museum with all sorts of warn out shoes, and the sofas for the customers were really comfortable. The store crew actually spoke English! (Adidas store was short on that kind of personnel).

Too bad the New Balance shoes weren`t as good for me as the Porsche Design models but in the future I`ll try more models hoping I`ll find something for me.

So far the ones that stood out are: 420 | 574 | 999

I think that`s enough for this week.

At the moment I`m working on some nice architecture projects that I can`t disclose but expect some sort of visual information in the following weeks. This is one of the main reasons I don`t get to shoot as much as I would like.

Until next time…

Take care, everybody!

After 4 weeks of constant whining I`m pretty sure everyone wants to hear good stuff about China and about what I`m doing here.

I have two topics that I will address in this week`s rant.

1. Perks of working in a big company.
2. Perks of traveling to “slim fit” country

So let`s start with the first one:

Sports and other activities:

On my first day at the office my boss gave me some sort of a tour around the complex. (we`ll call it an orientation but it wasn`t as elaborate). So at 12:00 he said … “let`s go to lunch!”. OK, I got up from my computer, checked to see if I have the wallet on me and followed everybody out of the office to the next building.

While walking up the stairs to the red building (next to our green building) he said “We get free lunch and dinner at 12:00 and 17:30, but it`s not the best food in the world”. “Right ON!” After lunch he showed me the chill-out area. One floor with a pool table, two ping-pong tables, a darts board and 4-6 tables for mahjong or poker. We can only use this area during our lunch break or after work hours. Fine by me, I said.

That first day I went to the ping-pong tables, and everyone was over-friendly wanting to play against me (at first), just to see if I can play or not.

I can play! And, just like everyone else, I have my good days and my bad days; it just happened to be a “good day” at that time and I caught them by surprise.

Here everyone plays ping-pong. I think it`s something that you have to do to prove your family that you deserve college money or something! (I`m joking, of course, but I haven`t seen anyone not knowing how to do it)

I kept going there almost daily for 30 minutes to stretch my arms and legs. At first I was wining, then they called-in reinforcements and the new guys got medieval on my ass. I have never seen anyone play like that in my entire life. Curved balls that feel like they have a mind of their own; the backhand is deadly most of the times (I guess they practice that way more than regular stance) and not to mention alternating top-spin and back-spin with ease. Disturbing, to say the least!

The good thing about playing against better players is that I hone my skills at a rapid pace, and I`m loving it! (McDonald`s)

The 3rd week a package got to our office front desk; my boss opened it and threw me a bag from inside. It was my new basketball equipment.

“You`re playing tomorrow!”
“What? How come!?”
“Don`t worry, they have girls playing in the other team; you`ll be fine!”

I haven`t played in 6 years but hey … I guess I can remember the basics overnight.

And that`s the only thing that I remembered. ) Because I was kinda lame, and after 20 minutes they ACTUALLY assigned me to defend a girl for the rest of the match. OK, no hard feelings … I`ll get better!

And if I`ll have time I`ll be able to join the swimming team on Fridays or attend dancing classes on Fridays and Saturdays.

I love the fact that we have so many possibilities; Too bad everyone is working extra hours almost everyday.

That reminds me about an article I read on Lifehacker

Why “We need to work extra hours” is almost always a bad idea

And on this bombshell I`m moving to the next chapter!

“Slim Fit” Sunrise:

I do love this city because everyone is slim and they all look healthy. Everywhere I look, people try to express themselves through fashion and most of the times they actually nail the outfits.

I`m not saying that everyone should be on the cover of Vogue. No. But they do try to follow the trends and the good part is that all the clothes JUST FIT! Rarely I`ve seen someone burst out of what they are wearing.

But the best feature – LEGS

If you`ve got a pair … show them! I think they teach this in school or something. Because everyone is rather short here, women tend to wear high-heels or platforms. Both acceptable in my opinion unless they are designed by Willy Wonka or Pikachu. In which case … we have a problem! But most of them stick by what is known to be “sexy as hell” – the stilettos.

Can`t go wrong with that!

And they pair the stilettos with (usually) a short skirt or very short pants. I do love the combination and it works best if you have beautiful long legs. (skinny legs are not beautiful, and we have seen plenty of those too)

This “long legs” craving is solved by putting on a shorter skirt or even shorter pants. Works all the time.

In between these two articles (pants and stilettos) there`s usually an area (leggings or stockings) where they can go wild!

I`ve never thought about all the design possibilities and the Shanghai experience was an eye-opener for me. Striped, wrinkled, cut, teared, dark, light, gradient and all of the above combined … they attract attention, and if that`s what they want, then it works flawlessly.

And the switch from heavy thick clothes to the mini-skirt and stilettos happened in a weekend.

That`s when we figured out that spring / summer is knocking on the door.

And for every picture I took, there were 15 other gorgeous women that I missed. So, I`m sorry I “couln`t catch`em all”.

Make sure to check the Picasa Album for more pictures from this series and other street shots. You can also leave individual comments there in case the Facebook comment system frightens you.

See you next week!

Howdy folks! I bet you`re wondering why I gathered you here!?
Well, if it`s Sunday, and I`m abroad, it means it`s time for a fresh set of “bitching and moaning”.
Enjoy!

Part 10. Chinese fruits (likes and dislikes).

As you know already I get to eat fruits every day at work between lunch and dinner so I got to try a few of them by now.

The day we got here, the strawberry picking season started. Anyone could just go on the outskirts of town, pick their own strawberries and pay for them right there one the farmer`s field. It`s way cheaper than buying from the supermarket and you can get the best ones. The taste is not as strong and full of vitamin C as what I have ate throughout the years at my grandparents but they are good and quench one`s thirst really fast.

They have only two types of oranges. The big ones with no seeds and thin skin and the small ones with thick skin, seeds and very sweet.

Bananas and plantains are exactly as you would imagine them.

You can buy a pineapple form the supermarket or from a street vendor. The latter will even carve it for you on the spot, for a few coins more. And that saves us a lot of trouble.

Mangos are smaller and tastier than what we were used to so the first day someone offered me one, I taught is was a pear and went for a big bite of It. The bitterness reminded my why we ALWAYS peel a mango. And the center is just a flat piece of woody material, it`s easy to eat around it so there`s not much to throw away.

After the mango experience every time we had a new fruit brought to the office, I waited to see how my colleagues will go about and approach the element in question.

Dragon`s eyes (Longnan) was something different because they have the exterior texture of a kiwi and have the size of cherries. Start by peeling them and inside there`s grey transparent pulp around a big black hard seed. They do look like eyes and they are not quite as sweet as I expected. They have the taste of a vegetable but they grow on trees. Hard to eat a bowl of those fast enough to actually feel full.

Then we tried a fruit with the texture and taste of a young pear but looked like a green plum. Everything went fine until I got to the hard shell of the seed. It was nothing impressive. So instead of eating that, just buy a pear.

And because I mentioned pears; there are two types most common on the market: the one that looks identical to an apple, and has the texture of a young pear; and the juicy over-ripen type that is very sweet and will leave your hands very sticky. They are both pretty good.

Dragon fruit (Pitaya) is very appealing but even when really ripe it still has a bland taste. It`s like a watered down kiwi.

Sugarcane © http://sipsnapsavor.com/

Speaking of thirsty, I had my first piece of sugarcane. A big juicy stick of wood that you chew on, suck all the tasty juice and then spit whatever wood parts you don`t need. The good sugarcane is a joy to chew on, the bad one (not peeled enough, or just not ripe enough) will slash your gums.

Part 11. Distinctive habits that we have to cope with.

The Chinese think that bad stuff should come out of your body as soon as possible.

Now imagine that everyone barfs, farts and spit whenever they need to! Sometimes after lunch if I go to play some Ping-Pong, the room feels like a war-zone. Men and women are battling for who has the more gas-free body.

I thought I had a bad habit of picking my nose … until China! I saw people in the subway elbow-deep in their nostrils. I saw a gorgeous woman in the subway using gloss on her lips then she took a picture with the duck face ultimately scratching her inner ear like a hill-billy and tossing wax balls in every direction. I was one step away of dying of laughter and eventually getting stabbed with a huge nail but we stopped at my station and I had to go.

Talking about long fingernails, I think it`s the only thing long that men can brag about here. I saw a weird dude dressed like a Cuban guerrilla trooper but with a pony-tail waist-long carrying a suitcase that looked like a sniper rifle case, proudly posing so that everyone can see his accomplishment : a fingernail of about 25cm. I`m not joking! 25 cm!.

If they don`t keep them long, they will probably cut them on a daily basis, in the middle of the street. They don`t care!

Part 12. Opening a bank account and exchanging money.

The first thing the company asked me to do was to open a bank account. One of the colleagues came with me just to make everything work smoothly.

After a “short” 20min walk, we get to the bank and the moment I step in, the guard asks us about our intentions. Good luck getting through the front door without a Chinese speaking translator! After a brief talk with the guy, he sends us to a clerk. The guy hands me a bunch of papers, all in Chinese, to fill out. I start writing and when I get to my name I start with VLAD. The clerk sees that, takes a good look at my passport and snags the papers from under my pen. He then gives me a speech about Last Name – First Name order is very important, and he shreds the documents right in front of me. He then hands me another set of papers. By this time I was afraid to do even the smallest mistake. They don`t like smudges or enforced letters / numbers on the document so I had to be very careful.

I had to fill out 4 sheets with all sort of information. I think the only thing missing was “blood type” and “favorite Sailor Moon character”.

And then with these documents all filled out and verified by the clerk, I went to a booth, but wait … I have to get a number! Well why didn`t you say that in the first place? I could have saved half an hour right there! So I stayed in the waiting area for another 30-40minutes because everything has to be triple checked and double stamped …

20 minutes later I had a bank account at the first bank. I had to do the same thing all over again at another bank … the reason for that is not important.

Fast forward 3 weeks and here I am again in front of the bank near our apartment, wanting to exchange money. Let`s just say I needed all my money changed that day to pay the rent.

I get in and go straight to the clerk and show her the cash. “You want change money?” … No, I just wanted to show you how dollars look like! Of course I want to exchange the money! “How much do you want to exchange?” … “Well, I need 1300$” “Ok, have seat.” She then hands me stack of papers the size of The Library of Congress. Well, I better get to it, I don`t have all day… Imagine making a mistake there …

By the time I get to my forth sheet the lady comes back with new information. “Sir, only 500$! You come back tomorrow. We change 500$ again! You come back Monday, we change rest of 300$”
“Are you serious? Is this a game show? Good job on hiding the cameras!”
“Just 500$, sir!”

Infuriated I overlooked the fact that 500$ would have solved the problem so I got up and left. (it was Saturday and I was losing precious time) I then moved my sorry ass to another bank. The clerk points to the waiting area and tells me “2 hours!”. And the next bank … the same story. By the time I get to the last bank on my list, 45 minutes of wait-time seemed like a breeze so I took a number and a seat. Those 45 minutes became 2.5h due to a customer who probably wanted to do every possible operation the bank allowed. And it was supposed to be fast because I was appointed to a English speaking booth, but there were other people in front of me appointed to the same booth … so I had to keep calm.

3.5h and I had all the money changed. I was happy. By the time I got to the office, there was only 1h of work to be done and then dinner (17:30). We got back from dinner at 18:40, it was pointless to work anymore so I headed home.

Banks in Shanghai … avoid them as much as possible, they are like time traps!

As I promised, I have updated the Picasa Album with captions (some of them quite silly) and I`m looking forward to the next week. We have 3 days off at the beginning of the week and if the weather is good I`ll probably take the Nikon for a spin.

Cheers!

I`ll start this week`s letter from where I left off last Sunday,

Part 4. Job

The first day I was supposed to get to work at 10:00 for the orientation. At 9:20 I got out of the subway station and I was on to work. I had the address written down on a piece of paper, in Chinese and I had full trust invested in the Google Maps solution to my problem. So with those two in hand … what could go wrong?
Well … for starters … EVERYTHING.

So I get to where I taught the place should be, and there was no sight of a nice fancy architecture building in sight. So I start asking around. For 25 minutes I was sent back an forth in between two major streets by people that had no idea where my address was.

Eventually I cracked down and phoned the number on my paper, next to the address. In my head I was calling the contact at the immigration company. In reality I called my soon to be boss. He was the contact number written on the paper.

Told him where I was (not far from the actual place) so in 10min he was there to pick me up. I was still under the impression he`s the guy who handled our papers for China, so the conversation that followed was pretty awkward for him, as he had no freaking idea about was I was rambling about … and (of course) I taught that he knows all about it.

We finally get to the office, and he puts his phone on his desk. That`s the moment I figure he`s not leaving very soon, so he must be working there. The puzzle was complete.

I was assigned to a 2 people team project the first day. Nothing hard, some pavilions with the concept already set. (the Tangram) The thing that scared me was the deadline. At first they said it has to be done in 12 days. But after 2 days the deadline moved to the end of the week (less than 3 days) … so I freaked out a bit. Thursday afternoon (the day before the deadline) we got a memo that said “meeting cancelled, deadline next week”. So I got a good night sleep on that evening.

UA China is a big architecture company that`s focused on residential architecture. It`s their moneymaker. It covers more than 70% of the business. The rest of ~30% is public buildings. That`s where I step in. The company is split into 8 divisions. Seven of them have 40 employees each and they just do residential. We are the underdogs. Our division had 5 people the first day I got here, and now we are 8. And I`m the only westerner here. It`s pretty cool because I get to learn Chinese faster than other people. It`s not that cool because they only speak Chinese. They all understand English at least at a basic level, but it doesn`t come natural to them to speak it. My boss is at the same time a co-worker in this division so everything is really nice so far. As long as my English is at a slow pace, everyone is happy.

Fortunately for me the company offers lunch and dinner on the house. Not the best Chinese food in the world but some days is really good so I forget about the bad ones. Also in-between meals we get fruits, every day different fruit and then repeat… We had some fruits that I had no idea how to eat, and made a fool of myself but that`s ok. It was bound to happen. I was bound to be the group`s entertainer.

The offices are always kept clean and we have almost everything we need … except internet access.
Coming from 10+ years of daily internet access, I found this thing to be a little disturbing, and I must say I found it hard to get used to. Searching for Sketch-Up models is out of the question now, and I have to get around by using the offline library. Music now has to come from my iPhone, and I can`t access MixCloud anymore. And the worst part: if I want to research something online I have to move my ass to the only internet enabled computer in the office. It has only Internet Explorer … IN CHINESE ! Then i have to figure out how to get the information down using only google.com.hk and then send it to my computer via the intranet messaging system. (and it doesn`t work all the time). It`s not very productive and it will take some time to adjust to.

Part 5. More about the food

By now we have learned to figure out what dishes are vegetable based and which have meat. We also figured out where to eat when hungry and poor, and how to stay away from spicy food.

At work I get two meals every day but overall they have room for improvement. Rarely we get something that` s drop dead tasteful and usually it ends in a heartbeat. We eat a lot of vegetables (known and never seen before) and there`s rice every meal.

The soup is not that great either. We could easily convert every Chinese to our style of making the soups.
Most of the time the noodles come in a lot of “water” with some meat in them, but the probability of that meat being bone-less is so small, that I rarely order them. So fried noodles it is then!

Shanghainese food is supposed to be sweet and sour but I hardly ever tasted it so far. I`ll have to keep an eye out for it.

Part 6. The Fake-Market

Last weekend Irina needed to buy a large suitcase to travel with abroad so we headed to one of the fake markets.
It`s no different than our regular market except people are desperate to sell something. They throw themselves at you in hope you`ll actually buy something. They even carry children in their arms just to soften you up.

A lot of foreigners visit the fake market and we stand out like elephants at the zoo; so it`s because of this most of the sellers know a few words in English. How else are they going to scam the people looking for a bargain?

Rules at fake-markets

Rule #1: Go when you don`t need anything at all. It will make you a better negotiator.
Rule #2: Always have small bills. This way you don`t have to wait for change.
Rule #3: Ask the price of the item and offer 10-15% of what you hear. You`ll make them drop their price to half of what they first asked.
Rule #4: Don`t buy the item just yet. Start walking away slowly like you don`t care. They will come after you with a lower and lower price. When satisfied with the price, buy it.
Rule #5: Never pay more than 25% of the original asking price. There`s always someone with the same item that will sell for less.

Top Tip: Never buy electronics that cost more than 20Y. Not worth the trouble.

In the next letter:

Part 7. Getting by with just the iPad
Part 8. Photography with whatever I have on me
Part 9. Why we miss Romanian (European) food … and what to do about it.

Until the next time, you can check the Picasa Album of the trip. If the weather is good I will update it 3-4 times / week, and it will build up to have more pictures than what I post on the blog.

See you soon!

So here we are, the day we drank wine from sunrise to sundown:

We started the trip in Dijon, took the highway all the way down to Beaune, than we headed futher down towards Puligny-Montrachet. That was the southern-most point of our trip, that day. From there we went to Meursault, Volnay, Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges and from there straight home. We had one to many glasses of wine to tell the difference anymore.

Montrachet is one of the most expensive vineyards in France. It was featured in the first season of Oz and James Big Wine Adventure (ep. 4 or 5, I believe). Here we took part in a tasting of 4 white wines (after all, we were in white-wine land) and a rosé. We chose based on selling price of the bottle on the market. I have to admit that both myself and Jo tasted the difference between the cheap (13Euros / bottle) and the expensive one (72Euros / bottle), but in-between … there wasn`t such a big gap to justify the price. They were all very good, so from my point of view … i`d probably go for 50 bottles of the fist one.

Next tasting that we really enjoyed was at a Château de Meursault. Above ground is a museum, and underground it`s the wine cellar. They have the biggest wine cellar that I have ever seen. And because people actually buy their wine, the cellar only stores 2-3 year old wine. I admit, they have a few bottles left from `76-`06 … but no more than 30-40. And imagine that what you see in the pictures below is just half o the real thing, `cause they have their proprietary bottle shape that stacks “head to toe” so you actually see just the bottles facing inside, the ones facing the walls are hidden from the view.

The tasting here was good. 7 white wines 2005-2008 and we sensed some of the subtle differences between them. Price wise … the bottles were 25-90Euros.

We ended our wine tasting adventure at Château de Clos de Vougeot where we got a lesson about red wine … the hard way.

“Have you ever tried an aged bottle of wine”
“No”
“Are you looking for a bottle of wine to drink now … or later?”
“Now”
“Than you came here for nothing”
“…”
“Well, how will you know if what i`m serving you is good for you if you haven`t tasted an old wine”
“Well … that`s why we`re here , we want to learn as much as possible”
“Young man, what we sell here today is 16 month old wine that, for you, tastes like any other red wine. You have to KNOW how this wine will develop after 20 years, after 30 years, after 40 years.”
“Yeah, sounds plausible, now … show me the wine !”
(so she did – she put 3 bottles on the table)
“Try them, tell me what you think”
“The first one is ok, the second one is bitter … ”
(this is where she lost it a bit)
“You don`t say it`s bitter … you say, it has power! character!”
“Lady … it`s bitter, cut the crap!”
(she was actually right, out of the two of us, I was the farm boy …)
“Now tell me which one would you buy, and then i`ll tell you the prices”
(there was a huge difference between the first and the last so I chose the last, but then she struck me with the price)
“The one you chose is 90 euros / bottle, and you have to store it a minimum of 20 years in a cellar at 12*C and proper humidity before you open a bottle”
“And the other ones?”
“The middle one is 45E and the first is 23E/bottle, and these you can open after 15years … but 20years is better”
(we than talked about other stuff, but I realized why an old bottle of wine costs so much … it costs 90E/bottle now, store it for 20 years and 200-400% just because you`re a fancy restaurant … and there you go … 1000$ / bottle)

Overall, that day we had a blast. Good thing we had a driver to get us everywhere … well hydrated.

We arrived in Lyon 1h before sundown so we managed to get a map from the tourist info point, and went on foot north from Place Belecour towards the Opera, and then up and down on parallel streets in between these points.

All the people were photogenic and dressed really good. It was like Paris, minus the black people (no, i`m not racist … I call them how I see them).

The city is spread on two hills and is crossed by to streams of water. It`s magnificent.

On the Fourviere hill they built a cathedral: Notre-Dame de Fourviere, it`s the most beautiful cathedral I have seen to date, and the interior … breathtaking.

I`d love to tell you more about Lyon , but words could never match the city`s beauty.

The next day we headed back home (near Dijon). We were in for a surprize …

Tomorrow I`ll tell you about Bourgogne and the wine adventure. Don`t miss it, I have allot to blabber about!

The next day we hopped in the card for a 280km on the freeway towards Chamonix.
As expected, it rained allot. We were really hoping for good weather there. There`s no worst way of visiting Chamonix than on a rainy day. We had two of them!

The first day we took the special train that takes people to The Glacier (Mer de Glace). It was just like the iPad … magical. Mostly because when we got there, sun rays were protruding through the clouds just to make everything look good. I bet that on a clear day it`s way better, but we had to be grateful for what we had.

Mont Blanc was in the clouds so we decided to visit every street the small town has. We had lunch at a fancy restaurant (hey, might never know when we come back) and ended the day at a local pub, hoping for a better weather the next day. When we arrived at the hotel I tried some long-exposure shot from the balcony. At 5am , lacking sleep, I walked out on the balcony again for some more long-exposure shots. The day was looking grim.

At around 9am we decided to use our all-access passes to go across from Mont Blanc up in the clouds, with hope that if we`re that high, we`ll see the mountain top above the cloud blanket. That didn`t happen. The clouds were to thick and all we did was get wet and freeze.

We did a last effort to get to Auguille du Midi (tallest point to reach by gondola). 3842m. It`s the point from where we would have seen Mont Blanc if it weren`t for the pesky clouds. We froze our asses up there, and it snowed like crazy.

We did the smart thing and got the first ride down and left for Lyon.

Tomorrow I`ll tell you why I love Lyon.

After our 5 days in the Netherlands, we took the Thalys train to Paris Nord, hopped on the metro towards Garre du l`Est and from there after a 3h ride, we hopped off in Dijon. We stayed at a Motel ~50km from Dijon but we spent the 1st day in France in the town renowned for it`s Mustard.

The old town is beautiful and we were blessed by 30min of sun in the afternoon … just to really enjoy the trip sipping a coffee on the street. The last picture represents a huge graffiti on a sidewall of the fish-market (Les Halles).

Tomorrow I`ll tell you a thing or two about Chamonix.

So, as you probably know I made it. I`m an architect.

So to celebrate this and a friends 30th birthday (2 in 1) we headed to the Netherlands for a week. 4 out of 5 days it rained cats and dogs, but we managed to squeeze some strolling time in between the showers.

The pictures ar here just to reboot the blog. Mainly because people wanted to see the pictures on the blog and not have to search for them on Google+ , Facebook, Picasa and where not.

Enjoy.

I mixed some of the films and I`m to lazy to fix that now. This roll was supposed to go before the one with Cosmin.
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Teach me tonight – Roots

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This concert took place at the Romanian Cultural Institute and was part of Harry Tavitian`s Teach me Tonight series, and had the sole purpose of enlightening the audience with a little bit of jazz and blues history.
Although Harry talked about the roots of blues for about 15-20min at the beginning, I`m glad he did `cause I learned some new things. Some got bored pretty fast and even shouted “Let`s get on with the music…” but clearly the concert was not for them.

Harry had two guest players Vali “Sir Blues” Racila (slide guitar, delta blues) and Marcian Petrescu (harmonica) and they were both amazing.

I actually know Vali Racila for almost 11 years now. He used to come to my home town (Bacau) collaborating with the FSC (a non-profit organization created to support the people in need). And through common friends he got to know my father, who later brought me to Vali`s “friends-only” 1h concerts at a cup of tea. I remember one day he brought me two CD`s. The first one was an Emerson, Lake and Palmer album (can`t remember precisely the name) and the other one was Buddy Guy and Junior Well Live in Chicago (1993). I listened to them both and I chose to follow the Buddy Guy way. Since then I`m a blues fan, and in 2007 when I was in Chicago, I met him at his bar. I ran and bought the exact album (The 1993 Chicago concert) and had him sign it. Only God knows were`s that album now, but I sure have the pictures to remember about it.
But I digress. Since then I tried to be at all of Vali`s concerts. Missed a few.

Marcian Petrescu is one of the best Romanian harmonica players. I actually wanted to start studying harmonica with him but I never found the time. He is the lead singer of “Trenul de Noapte” (Midnight Train) band and had the pleasure of opening  Sugar Blue`s Romanian tour concerts, last year.

The whole performance ended just under 2.5h and it was brilliant. The only spice missing from all these ingredients was “more Harry at the piano”, I mean, it was great, but you just can`t have enough piano.

More info about the event @ Harry Tavitian`s Blog -> Here and here
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Alex Galmeanu`s “Contact Lenses” Photography Exhibition

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I don`t want to say bad things about the expo `cause he might kick my ass, but I just can`t resist:

• the space was to small thus overcrowded.
• most of the pictures were wonderful, but a few of them … “what was he thinkin` showing these next to the really good ones?”  (this is my opinion and does not reflect a majority)

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Late ride home

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I snapped this one waiting for the metro one night. Dristor station 11:00 PM.

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