And it was hot…So freaking hot Last weekend, Boyfriend and I got out of Shanghai to explore the neighboring cities of Nanjing and Suzhou. Nanjing is about a 1.5 hour train ride north west of Shanghai while Suzhou is 30 mins west. We left Shanghai at 8 am and got into Nanjing early in the morning. As our first activity, we went to the Nanjing … Continue reading Alisha Explores Nanjing and Suzhou
This past weekend was my team’s offsite to the city of Haining. Haining is about 2 hour drive southwest of Shanghai, and a 2 hour drive northeast of Hangzhou (another big city in this area). The big thing to see in this city is the Qiantang River Tidal Bore, the biggest tidal bore in the world What is a tidal bore? Well, I had no … Continue reading Alisha Explores Haining City and sees the tides change
This past weekend was the Labor Day holiday here in China and Boyfriend’s sister and brother-in-law were in town. After a few days exploring Shanghai, we decided to go to Hangzhou to see the West Lake. — Hangzhou is a large city about 105 miles from Shanghai, and ~56 mins away by train. It’s the home of e-commerce giant Alibaba (i’m sure you’ve heard about … Continue reading Alisha Explores Hangzhou, and apparently most of Shanghai does too
Some days, I forget that I’m living in a foreign country where I don’t know the language and I don’t know the city. Some days, I feel like I’ve been smacked in the face with China telling me “YOU ARE A FOREIGNER. WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE” And most of the days, I somehow get by, pretending I know where things are, miming my way … Continue reading Alisha Lives in Shanghai for 1 Month: An Update
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” – H. Jackson Brown Jr’s mother quoted in P.S. I Love You: When Mom Wrote, She Always Saved the Best for Last. …to Shanghai This has been … Continue reading Alisha Moves…
“E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!” Again. And again. And again. — Boyfriend and I spent a fun weekend in Jamaica celebrating the wedding of one of his childhood friends (and his bride). We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, which was a first for me. All of my international trips have involved a lot of moving around and sight seeing. So it was a really nice break to just … Continue reading Alisha Explores Jamaica
We looked around. Boyfriend and I were actually the only people at this beach club who wasn’t of German nationality —————— The morning we left San Sebastián started raining badly as we arrived at the airport in Bilbao. In 1.5 hrs we landed in hot sunny Palma de Mallorca. And this where we first started noticing the Germans We caught a bus to the downtown … Continue reading Alisha Explores Mallorca: the land of Germans and the end of our Iberian Peninsula trip
The beginning of our vacation from our vacation Also where we continued to stuff our face with food We got into San Sebastián quite early on the overnight train. We walked to our hostel and left our bags to get our brunch meal at the famed Atari Gastropub. Delicious. We walked around the town and explored all the nooks and crannies. We took siestas and … Continue reading Alisha Explores San Sebastian: Food, Relaxation, and Food
“PORTOOOOOOOOOOOO PORTOOOOO DUN-NUH NUH NA-NUH NA-NUH PORTOOOOOOOO” We may have been in Lisbon, the Porto fans were 10x louder. ———- Lisbon. Not sure what to say. I had a love hate relationship, but mostly a lot of dislike It started off with our accommodations. We booked what may be my last Airbnb for a while (I’m not saying I’ll never do it again, but it … Continue reading Alisha Explores Lisbon & Sintra: Firecrackers and Bacalau
Food. Wine. More Food. More Wine. Porto, a city full of hills, port wine, and amazing food. Someone had told Boyfriend and me that Porto was flat. They were oh-so-extremely wrong. It is so hilly. After getting on the bus from Vigo, I was passed out the entire 3 hr bus ride to Porto. When getting into Porto, we had to walk up a massive … Continue reading Alisha Explores Porto: Port Wine & Francesinha
Alisha Explores 