1870`s Russian lovestory

Best theatre experience in a very long time! Anna Karenina!

Introduced by a very good friend of mine that I met in Mongolia, is the Russian writer and one of the world greatest novelists Leyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Among others he wrote the novel Anna Karenina, which was given out in the 1870s with the topic of life`s biggest mystery, l.o.v.e

With spectacular actors, a great show and heartbreaking scenes, this made it the best theatre I have seen. Also not to forget the humor, effects, music and scene-shift they used to get their audience to just dream into the biggest lovestory of the 1870``s Russia.

Read more about the theatre here (in Swedish)

So, thank you Harm - for introducing me to this fantastic man!

Gobi sand on my pillow...

After only two days in Mongolia, Ulan Bator, I have got a heart for the country. The people here are some of the most friendly, big-hearted and care-taking people I have met so far on my journeys. I feel safe here.

After some complains about the norwegian language at this homepage; I will write in english from now on...

So, my journey started off in Russia, the 26th May, with 12 hours at the Moscow airport. Enough time to observe the vulgar, loud speaking, down-to-earth russian women with good humor and clothes designed form the 90s. Much of the time went to work and sitting at the "Pektopak" which is "Restaurant" in English (source: Jakob Grandin, see picture)

Well, after 8 hours flight to Beijing, I easily found Leo Hostels which was a great tips from Marthe Røgeberg (http://mblogg.blogg.no/). The hostel was full with people, design inspired by the 70s with christmas accessories all over and Jimi Hendrix live concert shown at a monitor loud in the common area. Lots of people walking in and out, I was wondering what they were doing. Many backpackers, but also some lonely souls looking for a partner. You could easily see that the place had been open for some years. The standard was okey and we payed 60 YEN (60 SEK, easy calculations!) per person per night. Fantastic price! Stuff that we did was: Went out at a place called "Propaganda", danced and had GREATE FUN! Home at 7 am :P Met the chinese culture, pink "Little Kitten" accessories, a lot of spitting, misunderstandings, nice food, huge crowds and the well-working sub-way system. Went to the Great Wall with a Chinese friend of Irina, ate a lot of noodles, had H.U.G.E problems with the language and to get around, went to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Museum (fantastic, and got inspired to the GCSF course at Cemus) and met a lot of greate people (including Mr.Rush which helped us with the tickets to UB)

The 2nd of June we were off to Ulan Bator (UB), with more struggle of getting hold of the tickets than you can imagine. We payed 1350 SEK for the train trip (quite expensive?) for 29 hours to UB. But what a ride! Crazy views of timeless landscapes! The train trip was amazing! Though we hit two sheeps along the way, and could see the results of the drought on bones/sculps from dead animals along the railways. Sad, but my eyes opened on how the hard life in the desert could be like. 3rd of June I woke up with a layer of sand from the Gobi desert on my pillow, with sand in my nose and ears. I slept well anyways, but felt a bit filled with foreign particles.

At the UB station we were met with Tunga (my local contact from the University), and her brother (Chinså). We went straight to the apartment to drop of our stuff. Great apartment! Huge and very nice facilitated, a terrace, big bed and all basic every-day-life devices. The day after we went horse-back-riding in the steppes some hours out of UB. SO AMAZING! As I was galloping alone out on the steppes, up on great hills, I could feel freedom and good inner feelings of exploring new parts of the world. The horses was owned by a family in a Ger (Ger=Nomads/Mongols tents) that we also visited where we tasted some of the dairy products that they made there (to be honest; I have tasted better...but I better get used to it as I will stay with a family like this for 2 weeks :))

Well, with sore buts and thighs we went to the National Museum of Mongolia and the Contemporary Arts Museum of Mongolia the day after. This is also the day that Irina was going home. It has been so nice traveling with Irina, and it felt quite sad the moment she left. But today (day after) I woke up with sun-shine, did yoga, ate breakfast with horse fiddle music and now I am all busy and into the work I will do here. So, I have more than enough time to keep myself busy. I am at the moment sitting at the Cafè Amsterdam with a cup of Cappuccino.

Well, I will try to keep you updated on my adventures. The internet is not connected in the apartment yet, so I am dependent on these internet cafès at the moment.

I hope you all are good at home, and even though it seems like I am busy with all my new impressions; you pop up in my head now and then. For you that think this is just amazing and fantastic; it is also a lot of organizing, culture chocks, practical difficulties, hassle with easy every-day-doings and sometimes extremely tireding :P Just so you know ;)

(Pictures from my phone, will upload the ones from my camera soon)

To be continued...

Russian Restaurant (Jakob ;))
Beijing at night
We met some swedes along the way!

Propaganda Club in Beijing

Beijing 7am :)
"Morin Khuur: The Horse Fiddle. Symbol of the mongolian nation, the sound is expansive and unrestrained like a wild horse neighing, or like a breeze in the grasslands. Horse is the most honored and spiritual animal in Mongolia among the 5 traditional ones. The magic sound is to touch everyones heart. It is marked as a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of human identity by UNESCO. The body of the fiddle is made of cow bladder or crusted scum of newly born calf." - National Museum of Mongolia.

I am reading " Sult" av Hamsun at night, such a great language!

A light keeps me sleepy and reflective over all impressions during the day...

Cello og fløyte!

I de siste dagene har Hanna og jeg spilt sammen. Det har vært så fint! Hanna spiller fløyte og jeg cello. Første gangen vi spilte sammen hørtes det HELT SYKT jævli ut. Falskt og med ulike note-nøkler (om det er noe som heter det...). Men nå har vi skrevet om Hannas noter og vi kan spille sammen. Dog litt kjipe låter, mest folkeviser. Men mange er veldig fine også. Nå kan vi hvertfall "Hvem kan segla for uten vind" og "Bussanlull". Fint!

To uker til jeg drar. Føles veldig rart på mange måter. Dagene mine her i Uppsala blir mer og mer absurd og kontrast-fylt. Igår hadde jeg intervju med tolken for prosjektet mitt, føste gangen jeg pratet med noen fra Mongolia. Det fikk bra. To minutter etter fikk jeg en telefon; vi ringer fra Stureplan (brat/stekare-området i Stockholm) å lurte på om jeg ville ha en dag med hår og make-up styling med gratis drikke for en photoshoot. Først holdt jeg på å bare legge på røret fordi jeg fatta ingenting. Men så fatta jeg å tenkte, "det må være en bak-tanke med dette" (typisk meg...) vel det var ingen bak-tanke, min venninne Sanne hadde gitt dette i gave til meg. Jeg kunne ta med to venner, perfekt når Mette og Linn kommer den 17 Sept! Vel, så fikk booka inn det. Fem minutter etter sitter jeg på vaksinasjonskontoret å tar vaksine mot Rabies. Ti minutter etter, på utviklings-samtale på jobben. En time etter, middag med Anders. Puh! Hvilken dag!

Disse bildene skal jeg prøve å bruke på en måte, kanskje på min rosa skisse som synes under. Det er fra Klimateksistens konferansen i 2008. Nå er det ny konferanse i November. Skal bli ferdig med det til da tenkte jeg. En tanke er også å skrive noen sitater som jeg ble inspirert av på ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) konferansen vi hadde i forrige uke.

Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)

Endelig en bra film på kino! Om dere har mulighet til å se denne filmen, bør dere gjøre det. Jeg likte den veldig godt. Fikk lyst til å flytte til Amsterdam eller Paris, drikke vin, male og kysse dagen lang. Det oppriktige livet i Uppsala blir plutselig veldig kjedelig når man sammenlikner med Paris` kunsteriske, poetiske og kjørlighetsfulle miljø og liv på 60-tallet, selv om det livet også har sin pris...

Vel, her er trailer og omtale.

www.gainsbourgfilm.com

Reise til Monglia

For de som er interessert i en tur med den trans-sibiriske jernbanen i sommer; her kommer litt info. Som dere ser på kartet tar man den trans-sibiriske jernbanen fra St:Petersburg eller Moscow til Vladivostoc, så videre med den trans-mongoliske railway til Ulan Bator (Mongolia) ...og så videre til Beijing for de som vil det. Jeg vet ikke enda om jeg skal fly eller ta toget begge veier, men jeg skal hverfall ta toget hjem fra Ulan Bator til St.Petersburg i starten av August 2010.

For dere som vil reise med meg, er det kanskje best å fly til Beijing (eller ta tog begge veier), så komme til Ulan Bator den første uka i August - så ta toget "hjem" til St.Petersburg og videre gjennom Finnland, Sverige så Norge med meg.

Se bilder her, også ulike prislister finner du her. Jeg har sjekket en del blogger. Det kommer veldig an på hvordan man vil reise hva det koster. Om man reiser direkte uten å stoppe mellom Moscow og Beijing tar det 5 dager ca (anbefalt er mellom 10-14 dager inkl stopp etc). Det tar 8 timer fra St.Petersburg til Moscow, og 30 timer fra Ulan Bator til Beijing. Om man ikke stopper har jeg sett priser på rundt 4000 SEK, om man stopper blir det litt dyrere. Dette er for andre klasse, og på bildene ser dette helt ok ut.

Det med visum viser seg være litt komplisert. De som reiser og booker med et byrå (som kanskje er enklest, men også dyrest), gjør dette byrået dette for deg. Altså de fixer russisk, kinesisk og mongolsk visum. Erfaringen med dette er at de tar veldig overpris og at man lett kan fixe dette selv for en mye billigere penge (visum og billetter etc) Jeg må ha speial-visum fordi jeg skal være i Mongolia så lenge, men i Russland og evt Kina trengs kun Transit/Turist visa om man kun skal være der i mindre enn 30 dager.

Her er en del info om visum etc på denne bloggen. Her fins også en del visum info.

Det ser ut som man kan få en riktig billig reise om man ser på denne bloggen.