Sweden (2) — Vasa Museum @ Stockholm
Stockholm has many museums. “Vasa” is special for its beautiful name, dramatic stories and insane visual experience! You probably never have imagined this: you buy a ticket, follow a line along some dark hallway, slowly move into a small entrance, you stretch a bit, give a yawn or two, try to wake up some more. OMG SUDDENLY, the light shines into your eyes, you found yourself walking into this giant giant hall, you lift head trying to see where is the roof, then you saw this humongous intact beautiful sophisticated wooden boat. While people around me were saying “wow..” I looked at my clothes “Oh shit, it is not some time travel, I am still wearing the cloths I put on this morning in the hotel room :D” That’s right, it resets the time and brings you back to the centuries ago.
In the 17th century, Sweden was rising to become one of the major powers in Europe. Vasa was a ship ordered for the war to Poland-Lithuania. Although, the decoration is beautiful, the ship is not properly engineered, it is tall and narrow, and it carries guns but the gravity center is too tall. On its maiden voyage passing Stockholm harbor, the gust wind makes the boat tilted, and the water pulls into the gun holes, the ship then quickly sunk. Many people trapped in the boat and get sunk with the boat …
(beautiful decorations cannot save the boat)
(Containers retrieved from Vasa)
Over the centuries, Stockholm people know Vasa was sunk at the Stockholm habor, but it was until 1950s, people were able to locate it. At that time, the drilling to the bottom of the water in the Stockholm habor found special type of dust, later confirmed to be the oak wood on the Vasa. To retrieve the wreck, the divers had to dig underneath the boat so that they can put cable through the tunnels to wrap around the boat. It was dark, cold and swift water down there. The lifting was done in 1961, where the water and sand were pumped out of the boat when it starts emerging the surface of the water. It has been 333 years since last time she was on ground. “Long time no see, dear Vasa.”
The boat was sprayed by special chemicals days and nights to replace the water in the wood. The museum is built around the boat to set up the temperature and humid control. We don’t know how long we can continue preserving it, it is still ongoing research. Using the remaining pigments on the boat, scientists recover the original color of the boat. So we know a bit more about it every day.
(chemical treated oak turns darker)
(how people dive in old days)
Vasa museum is honest and open, you can walk around the 5 stories to inspect any level of details of the boat. In the glass cases, you can even see the skeletons of the sailors found on the boat. Scientists are able to conclude their diet, their social status, what they were doing when the boat is sink. From this perspective, the historians sometimes are like detectives, and they both uncover the truths put together stories from evidences
(the engineering of lifting vasa)
(The story of Vasa is passing down to generations)
The museum is located on the island Djurgården, you can arrive there by taking 10 minutes ferry from old town. Unlike other places, it opens early like 8:30am. The ferry stop is near an amusement park. You saw people spinning on top of your head when getting off the boat 😀 It is not my strength to tell history stories. So I recommend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship) What’s better is to buy an airline ticket to visit Vasa in person ha?!
Sweden (1) — Old Town @ Stockholm
When I was little, I thought Stockholm is dark, and then full of pirates 😀 But Stockholm is a very very beautiful city, consisting of 14 islands surrounded by seas and lakes. The historical buildings have bright colors, red, orange, green, dark grey … reflected in the large body of waters. Unlike Germany, these buildings are well kept, dated back to 13th century. People here speak Swedish but almost everybody knows English. Sweden is a part of EU, but still uses its own currency Kronor (SEK). The price of goodies is similar to US, but the restaurants in the tourist areas are expensive. Credit cards are accessible almost every where, I never touched a single cash as a result. The crazy thing here is that in Stockholm in summer the sun never sets. It gets a bit darker around 10:30pm, then fully lid up again around 3 or 4 am. Often I felt “oh why I am so tired this afternoon”, then I looked at my phone and it was10:00pm 😀 I heard in winter, it is also very cool because of the northern lights.
Old town is called Glam Stam, one of the largest old towns in Europe. It is full of surprising shops and restaurants. We lived in the third floor of a building in the old town. Anytime, I like randomly putting on a shirt, a short and a pairs of slippers, walk downstairs to step on the curvy brick roads, and knock knock the storytelling windows and doors … There is an organized tour (only weekends though) where the tourist company will take you to hop around the roofs of the old town to further examine its coolness. However, when I try to book it, it is already full.
Café Schweizer
It is a famous place for breakfast, fresh squeezed orange juice, homemade minty tea. There are quiches, Swedish pancakes, interesting pastries and desserts. The cafe is full of signatures from their guests all over the world. I left mine somewhere as well, you’ll have to find it one day when you visit :):D
Sara’s art and cafe
The artist Sara Tolf opens this cafe in old town and displays her work. The breakfast here is cheap compared to other locations, and the food is all kept in beautiful containers. The cafe has a window seat where you can curve your legs, read a book under the sun and watch people passing by. Sara achieves the dream I used to have, open a cafe, display some my work, and make friends with people from all over the world.
(street view)
(cozy window seat to see the time goes by)
(adding one more language to Sara’s friendship book)
(Sara’s work with reflections of people in the street)
XXXXXX
This is a cool breakfast place that I don’t want to advertise their name. Their decorations bring you back to old days, their waffle is special not able to find anywhere outside old town. They were playing Adele “Regrets and mistakes their memories made, Who would have known how bittersweet, This would taste” Damn it, this makes me want to cry instead of eat. Everything looks dandy, until …. you are ready to check out and look at your bill, you hate them so much :D. Let me know when you find this place and tell me what music they are playing now 🙂
Science Fiction Bokhandeln
This 4 story bookstore is just for science fiction, fantasy, Japanese cartoons, board games — the nerd center. If anybody here knows “his dark materials”, they have the original UK edition here, which includes everything the authors have written while the American version is actually abridged. The trending in Enurope right now is this Tintin cartoon. You can find shirts, post cards, posts everywhere. It is made by the Belgium cartoonist Georges Remi since 1920s. I selected a few cards for my Chinese friends based on their experiences, they all very much like them.
(cool dinosaur to decorate the bookstore)
(board games, the same kinds, are universal languages)
The playground
Following some kids, we walked into a door. Oh, it is a residential building in the old town. The parents were having picnic in the yard, and the kids were fiercely playing in the playground. We were invited by a Swedish lady to join in them, she is an architect. She said “when I moved in, this place was unused, then I had an idea of designing a playground for kids” Here you go.
Restaurant CC
It is a Scandinavian restaurant that serves meats like moose, boar, elk and reindeer. It is exotic enough to take a note.
What else
(I always like to support local artists, so I bought those simple, not fully polished water color pieces, even don’t remember the shop names)
(can’t resist its cuteness, I bought a bunny purse at the kids’ toy store)
(angry street doodles)
Hawaii (5) – Food, Lodging and Transportation
July 15, 2018 Beautiful Clouds (Exciting world cup final!!!! Everybody in the bar were cheering for the underdog Croatia :):D I love the hug between Macron and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović at the end of the game. Putin was there too to exercise his handsomeness, lol)
Finally, I had to write this boring post for future references 😉
Food: Unlike New Orleans, Hawaii surprisingly does not have many kinds of native food. The ones I know are Laulau (pork/veggie wrapped in taro or luau leaf), Poke (raw fish salad with spices and soy sauces), and preserved salmon heads (only found in the big island grocery stores near the Hilo airport). Hawaii is of course famous for tropical fruits like pineapples and papayas. You can see pineapple and papaya trees growing along the streets and in people’s backyard. Damn it, I was not able to eat any such fruits from our local grocery stores after I came back from Hawaii. Hawaii is also famous for coffee and macadamia nuts. If you are interested in seeing coffee trees, you should visit the beautiful Maui Tropical Plantation
As for restaurants, the must-go at Oahu is “Helena’s“, it is located in an unattractive shopping center, and even the food from the website is not terribly motivating. The parking lot is small and the waiting time is long. But YOU MUST go. The small dishes are all home created recipes, cheap, strange looking but surprisingly yummy. I also liked a Japanese restaurant Yoshitsune on Waikiki, it serves multi-course Japanese style breakfast, reminding of the time in Tokyo! If you look for Chinese, I recommend Jade Dynasty Seafood and Fook Yuen Seafood @ Oahu. The service is not acceptable from the western standard, but the food is authentic Cantonese. We also tried Camellia Buffet at Oahu. It is a place to cook your own Korean BBQ. Unlike fine dining, it is causal and eat all you can, fairly cheap. There are many fine dinning places on Lahaina maui and Waikki with beautiful views and sunsets. In one of the restaurants in Lahaina, I have seen fishes just keeping swimming towards my window, very cute.
(aww, not many pictures for food, I guess I have eaten them too fast :D)
Lodging: Oahu is more urban than Maui and the big island, I recommend you find an apartment or a hotel near Wakiki to experience some party atmosphere in Hawaii. Maui consists of many golf courses, clubs and is more of private rich people’s playground. I like our apartment located at Kanai-a-nalu near Maalaea. It has a big private beach, great ocean view from the porch, far from the commercial Lahaini, relatively close to snorkeling sites, and very relaxing. Finally, the big island is wild. Neither hotels or nice apartments can capture its temper. We lived on some people’s plantation/farm located in the rain forest. There is even not a paved road to the farm. Here, you listen to the rain drops on the roof, pick papayas for your breakfast, enjoy your books on a swing, wake up by roosters’ morning songs, see wild turkeys and boars peeking out from the jungle, get off the car and open a big gate to enter the mysterious place, chase the green lizzards, get up to the bathroom in the middle of night outside the house and then OMG you see milky ways … Recently, there are a lot of volcano activities around the area, I texted my host, and his place is surviving!
(view from the porch @ Maui)
(go to bathroom at night, feel like taking a picture :D)
Transportation: You can take 6-7 hours plane from the west coast to Hawaii. I think seattle, portland, SF and LA all have direct flights to Hawaii. There are international airports on Oahu, Maui and the big island. Hawaii airlines are used for inter-island hopping, taking typically around 50 minutes between two islands. The ferries between these islands are no longer active. There is a ferry from Maui to a small island lanai running daily. On the big island, you surely need to rent a car, you will need to rent a big car too as some of the places are not paved. In the holiday season, reserve the car early as they run out fast. On Maui and Oahu, you will need to rent a car as well. But if you plan to only stay at Waikiki, you might survive without a car. Hawaii is the cheapest place to do things like Sky diving, and the travel companies arrange shuttles to hotels to pick up and drop off people.
Hawaii is also famous for star gazing, biking, hiking … due to the weather and time, I am not able to do them all. Looking forward to visiting it again in the future!! If your time is limited, I recommend you only stay in one island, and consider my favorite so far, the big island …
Ordinary people
Just a few days ago
I met a girl whose name is Jessica
she left home Johnston when she was 17
headed to Japan for her fortune
learns to drink Jasmine tea there, and
wears dandy jewelries daily
She drives a 1970s beat-up jeep
to the Juice store where she works
plays jars and jams in the kitchen during the day, and
sings in a Jazz club at night
between drunk and awake, she dances and jumps on the stage
mumbles about how her youth is a joke and how she misses her lover
An ordinary people, just like most of us
(p.s.,like cheeses go with wine, stories may be better with the music :D)
Shithead Played Too Much Today
Sorry, I did not bring my blue pen today. Red isn’t too bad eh? Also… sorry about the hairstyle, it was not on purpose 🙂
Hawaii (4) – Waikiki
2018 520 (happy “I love you” day), cloudy with cheer
Recently, I encountered this Microsoft github page: https://github.com/microsoft, what makes a chuckle is this revolutionary title “Open source, from Microsoft with love” (:D words cannot express)
Never-close Waikiki
The best way to tour Waikiki is with a group of your people and preferably is to celebrate some festivities, like 80 years birthdays, reunions with your kindergarten friends, lol. It is a place where you are supposed to party at the beach, watch a long firework at the rooftop, take a boat out for jet-ski, surfing, parasailing, night night shopping at these never close stores, food truck crawl, clubbing … Waikiki is like Vegas but much bigger and diverse than the strip and does not have the gambling aspects. There are many many beautiful resorts, good restaurants, and many tourist groups from all over the world (I met a Chinese girl who currently live in Japan and had a fun chatting with her on a boat)!
Some practical tips to share:
- If you want to live at Waikiki, there are many hotels and apartment complex walking distance to Waikiki, it easily costs you 300$ a night for a 2-bedroom apartment, especially holiday seasons, but it’ll worth it if you enjoy the following: wake up for a morning run along the beach in the salty smell breeze, walk across a few blocks to look for what’s new at the food trucks, wait in line for some authentic Japanese breakfast (Yoshitsune at Park Shore hotel), go up to the rooftop to do a morning swim or sit in the warm Jacqueze watching blue oceans and waves, or just stay at your porch for some stretches, whistle at these hot girls passing …
- If you stay somewhere else and just want to look at Waikiki, most of the hotels have parkings, but certainly will be expensive, 10$ for an hour or two.
- I heard Hawaii is the cheapest place to do skydiving (no doubt a beautiful place too). There are many companies offering water sports. I used Xtreme Parasail and had a good experience . You can book while you arrive there.
- Almost every good hotel here offers a night buffet. It costs more than 50$ a person, these places have nice views, but nothing special in my opinion. I have tried 100 Sails Restaurant & Bar, one of the best rated buffets, but “eh” it is just okay. I feel more exciting about a place called “Helena Hawaiian Foods”, which I will describe in more details in the future blog posts when talking about the Hawaii food
- I came here around new year time, the firework here lasts more than 1 hour long I heard (myself falls asleep before it is over:)). Parties, music, dances went on at the beaches at the new years eve, very good atmosphere to welcome new year, I will certainly try another time!
- Here, I often went out shopping or people watching after 10pm. The weather is warm, the lights are bright, many people around maybe jet-legged :), I walked in my slippers, wear my tank top and shorts, stop at a few places where the street artists perform, buy an ice pop to suck, feel like I go back to my teenage time. Only wish is that all my awesome friends are around 😀 :D. There is this place called “Volcano Shakes”, it offers the head size ice cream, very impressive and tasty. The shopping mall here is very beautifully designed with a big tree in the middle.
- Diamond head is a place that you can see Waikiki from the distance. It is 10 minutes drive away from Waikiki. The parking lot is small, so you might need to wait for the spaces. The hiking is not difficult, there are stairs and concrete paths. It probably takes 15-20 minutes to get to the top if you walk fast. The view from the top is breathtaking.
- There are also China town, and the city of Honolulu that are worth a stop. They are about 5-10 min drive distance from Waikiki. Street parking available.
“Loving Vincent”
The movie is produced by a Polish studio, consisting of 65 k oil paintings created by the artists recruited world wide. All the paintings are following Van Gogh’s style and paintings. The theme song is Don Mclean’s “starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey…” Although the storyline is so simple, watching this movie is a must-do ceremony for all the Van Gogh’s fans.
I often fall for the first sight and then later figured out why. It is the case for Van Gogh. Initially, I was attracted by his “sunflower”, “starry night” and “bedroom at Arles”. I found these paintings are HIS. Then I even didn’t know the word “impressionism”. Later during middle/high schools, I read “the lust for life”, an excellent biography for Van Gogh by Irving Stone. There I had seen more prints of his works, portraits of farmers, coal miners, swirl strokes of skys and fields, self-portraits, shoes. After I came to US, I started seeing his works in person at Met, MOMA, Guggenheim, Smithsonian DC, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art @ Kansas City … yet waiting for visiting the Amsterdam Van Gogh’s museum. My bedroom hangs a collection of my favorite, among which, there are two prints from Van Gogh’s paintings, “first step” and “A Wheatfield with Cypresses (occasionally called A Cornfield with Cypresses)”
I especially like his late stage works like the ones above, and like the “wheat field with crows”. I can totally link his works to who he is and what he had said:
“Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum”
I can also totally understand a person who is so quiet all the time is actually full of passion and energy. He was very faithful to himself. He loves paintings and his brother Theo, so he went out painting every day and wrote to his brother Theo every day.
“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.”
He said to his doctor Gachet who loves art but was too coward to pursue art fully “I lived in a truth struggled, but you lived in the lie”. Wisdom tells us “you admire what you don’t have” I wish one day I can be as courageous as you Vincent!
Hawaii (3) — Pearl Harbor
You’ll need to visit Pearl Habor for its beautiful and tranquil scenery and for its unforgettable stories.
Pearl Habor is geographically important in the world war. Attacking Pearl Harbor is not random or being crazy. Japan strategically planned the attack in attempt to removing its threat at the Pacific. When I was there, I felt many Americans visited Pearl Habor with tears. The monument carved thousands of young soldier’s names — they died at their 18 or 19, and they are a similar generation of our grandparents. Besides sadness, there is also herosim if you think about later how Americans got back and destroyed Japanese aircraft carriers who attacked the Pearl Habor, how Japanese admitted that attacking Pearl Habor is a war crime, how American B-29 bomber destroyed Hiroshima, then how US dump dollars to help rebuild Japan after the war…
Some tourism tips to share: the most important parts of “Pearl Habor Historical Cite” are the memorial park and USS Arizona (there are also a submarine and an avionic museum if you plan to spend more time here). The park is free, but you are not allowed to bring in big bags. There are some break-ins reported at the parking lot, so leave your important belongings at the hotel. The parking lot is small so be prepared to wait for parking. To visit USS Arizona Memorial, you will need to get here early in the morning to get tickets (the tickets are free but limited to the certain number of admissions per day).
USS Arizona is one of the 8 USS battleships sunk during the Pearl Habor attack. US started building their battleships in 1880s and there are 48 battleships named after the state. Many have been destroyed during the wars. USS Iowa, one of the two battleships still remained today if I remembered correctly, is open for tours in CA after she served in WWII and Korean war. The residents of Iowa can board it for free.
History is the worst class in my school, I mostly relearned history through my adult travels. Hopefully today I did a fair job of reporting my impressive experience at the Pearl Habor 🙂 A few days coming back from the Pearl Habor, then I heard this story: at the boarding gate, one young soldier, in his military uniform, arrived late. All the passengers stepped back, let him walk to the ticket booth and board first. One of the passengers said “I am the first class, and I want to give my seat to this young soldier to thank him for his service”. After boarding, all the passengers sat around the soldier said “thank you for your service to our country”
Elgar: Enigma Variations (op36)
Compared to Rachmaninoff, Bach and Beethoven, Elgar probably is not so famous. But his Enigma Variations is quite interesting. It consists of 14 pieces, each of which describes a friend or an aquatint of him. The music is named using the initials of that person, e.g., the famous C.A.E is for his wife, who is also his life time advisor. When writing Enigma Variations, he was portraying who their friends are and how they amuse themselves. See the following excepts from the music notes distributed by the Des Moines Symphony:
“utilizes the high and low woodwinds to portray the distinctive voice of Richard Baxter Townsen”
“reflects the frequently changing moods of Richard Penrose Arnol”
“denotes the charm and grace of Miss Winifred Norbury.”
“this Variation is a record of a long summer evening talk”
“a young friend hesitant of conversation and fluttering of manner.”
“the music suggests the dog’s rushing about the bank and paddling in the water”
“was written while Lady Mary Lygon was on a sea journey. The solo clarinet quotes a phrase from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture and the hollow sound of the timpani played with wooden sticks suggests the distant rumble of ship’s engines”
The stories are so diverse and real. Elgar was living in the country side of England when he composed this piece, so from the music, you can hear the beautiful landscapes and the nature of wind and lightening. The deployment of the instruments in this orchestral piece very accurately reflect the characters explained above; you almost can visualize them when you close your eyes.
This piece is quite light to my taste, it says “life is beautiful, peaceful, weekends there are friends visiting from time to time, you smell fragrance of the grasses…” I probably like more intense, dramatic, painful, serious, chaotic, emotional pieces like Rachmaninoff’s, you sometimes feel you just … cannot hold it …
