Buna Bucuresti din nou!!
Aceasta fost mult timp de cand vorbim. Sunt inca de invatare Romana!! 🙂
Sper ca ti inteleg!!
Sunt inca in China acum, am fost aici de la September!
Nu sunt prea mult de oameni vorbeste in limba Romana aici – numei meu MP3!!!
I know that this section should be really only about Bucharest from people in Bucharest however I’ll always keep in touch with the Hungry Mole for when I return and also to maybe give some updates on how things are going for an ex-Romanian-Irish traveller!!
Well I have to say that although it’s difficult without any Romanian people around I’m still persisting with trying to learn more Romanian! Not so easy in China, it is a little unusual for an Irish guy to be in China learning Romanian, however I shall continue while I can.
I’m in a city called Foshan which is about 2 hours drive from Hong Kong, it’s quite a large city with about 6 million people (bigger than all of Ireland haha) and right beside another city with 10 million people, Guangzhou, so you can imagine it’s pretty busy.
Foshan is very much an industrial type of city while Guangzhou is more for tourists so there are very few western faces at all in the city, this usually leads to a lot of people having a good long look at you when you walk down the street, takes a bit of getting used to; I remember it was much easier to be anonymous and relaxed in Bucharest….. until I opened my mouth of course haha, you can’t hide an Irish accent in Romania!!!!
I’m sure it’s beginning to get cold back in Bucharest right now, I do miss the idea of some snow seeing as it’s really like an Irish summer here in China right now, it will get a little colder soon but not like Bucharest – I’m sure the temperature has dropped quite a lot and that there’s not so many people enjoying coffees at 12 or 1 AM on Saturday night in the old town!!
It was almost this time last year when I went to Bucharest first so after being in Romania for almost a year I hoped I would be better able to speak and understand the language but it really is about practise – I have been using a couple of linguistic web sites to help improve my language skills – one site is called “LiveMocha” – I’m not sure if anyone is aware of it but it seems pretty good to me, I’ve been using it for only about a week now but I have to say that it’s good because it helps you speaking, writing and learning etc with different methods and as it covers a lot of different languages of course anyone who wants to work on their English or any other language may also fine it useful, I’d be interested in hearing what people might think about it.
Well anyone who has been reading Simply Bucharest will know not only of my fondness for travelling but also for the food and drink you get along the way – I still miss very much being able to have some Mici or Sarmale washed down with a 1 or 5 palincas 🙂 especially as it is very different to the cuisine in China, I know everyone has tasted Chinese food but the biggest surprise for me was how different Chinese food in the west is to actual real Chinese food in Asia, it’s pretty much a different type of food altogether; yes there is rice and noodles and soups but the preparation, how it’s served and how it’s eaten is really very unique to here; Chinese food in the west is exactly that western Chinese food!!! I do like the food here but you certainly have to become used to the culture and traditions here, you only use your hands to hold the chopsticks, very rarely using them on the food if at all, you don’t have a knife so you use your teeth to cut, yep, I’m sure there are some people reading this who’ve eaten Chinese food alright without this experience but I can only tell you what I’ve seen and experienced here!!
The range of food is huge also; the general feeling is here that when it comes to food that if it grows or lives you can eat it… so you can expect pretty much anything on the menu from plant roots to chickens feet – honestly, there are no limits. It takes some getting used to but right now I’m looking forward to getting home for some steak and chips haha.
I did try and track down something that might represent the equivalent to Romania’s Palinca here in China, funnily enough there is a drink here that is probably the closest you will get which is called Mao Tai – it’s not really a Brandy but is referred to as a type of wine, even though it is about 60% alcohol 🙂 ….. I’ve tried it a few times, it’s very nice as an aperitif, you just have to know when to stop lol, when it stops becoming an aperitif and starts to become a session of “Gam Bay’s” (Bottoms up or Knock it back) then you can probably forget about the next day!!….. worth a try though!!
I do recommend for anyone who is coming here to plan well in advance for any place you want to visit, access is pretty easy by train etc but literally the size of the country makes travelling around China the same as travelling around Europe or the States – I know it’s probably an obvious statement when you think of the size of it but it can be forgotten that it can take you up to 5 hours to fly the length of China!! … so in short take a good look at where Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are, if you take a slow train from Hong Kong to Beijing it will take you over 24 hours travel!!! Of course when they get the bullet train fully up and running things will get faster and better but it’s not fully operational right now.
I do hope to see more of China if I do get back here in the future, not so easy when you’re working as well so maybe in the future 🙂
Ok well I guess I could call this section Simply China but it’s definitely too big to be simple and certainly I would need to be here for much longer and travel a lot more to be able to give any real insight into living here but I hope it gives just a little taste!!
My regards and happy Christmas to all reading with continued success and long life to the Simply Bucharest site, it’s very good and very informative and of course thanks to the Hungry Mole 🙂 – pe curand!!!
La revedere pentru acum si ne vedem mai tarziu!!!
Pa Pa,
The Quiet Irish Guy (in China)
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