new blog

This blog has mostly been used for travel the last two years or so. Therefor i find it natural to start a proper travel blog where i will tell evryone about my adventures. Go visit it at http://landtravelblog.wordpress.com/. Unless something spectacular happens, consider this my last post, everything else can be found on my other two blogs.

Att utforska stan med spårvagn

När man flyttar inom Sverige bör man som bekant registrera sig ho skatteverket så man är folkbokförd på rätt adress. Officiellt har jag nu flyttat till Göteborg tre gånger de senaste åren (på grund av turer i Taiwan och så) och därmed också registrerat mig som boende i Göteborg tre gånger. Västtrafik (lokaltrafikbolaget i västra Götaland) kollar tydligen vilka som bosätter sig i regionen med jämna mellanrum och skickar nyinflyttade ett välkomstbrev där de förklarar hur bra lokaltrafiken är för att sedan erbjuda personen gratis resor under en tvåveckorsperiod. Allt man behöver göra är att fylla i en liten lapp och skicka tillbaks den så dimper det ned ett så kallat provåkarkort i posten. I och med att jag flyttat hit tre gånger har jag fått tre sådana kort, men hittills har de förblivit dåligt utnyttjade, inte så med det senaste. Förra veckan var jag ute på tre olika turer och utforskade stan med hjälp av mitt fina kort.

Jag åkte kort och gott alla linjer från ändhållplats till ändhållplats och fick på så sätt se stora delar av stan som jag inte sett tidigare. Jag fick också se de centrala delarna av stan väldigt många gånger men så kan det vara ibland. Här under ser ni alla mina tidtabeller, egentligen använde jag inte dessa men det finns en karta över varje linje i dem så de var smidiga att ha för att knyta ihop allt.

Ni som känner till västtrafik inser säkert att jag missat två linjer, nämligen nummer 13 och nummer X (jag tror det är 104 som är någon specialvariant) anledningen till det är helt enkelt att desa två linjer inte går på vettiga tider då det är värt att vara ute och åka.

Hursomhelst, jag delade upp min resa i tre dagar, därav de tre raderna med tabeller på bilden. Första dagen började jag med linje två från Krokslätt ned mot frölunda. Därifrån bytte jag till trean som tog mig till östra ändan av stan i torp. Från Torp tog jag linje fem i en båge åt andra hållet ut på Hissingen och sedan tillbaks med sexan upp till kortedala. Därifrån var jag tvungen att göra en liten omväg upp till Bergsjön för att hitta första stationen för linje elva. Denna tog mig till motsatta ändan av stan och ut till havet vid Saltholmen. Till sist tog jag nian upp till Angered. Vid det laget hade det mörknat rätt mycket och jag var hungrig så jag passade på att ta en Kebab där i Angered (ganska passane med tanke på mängden invandrare där ute). Efter Kebaben bar det av hemmåt.

Nästa tur började lite för sent för att täcka in riktigt alla de linjer som jag hade hoppats, jag åkte helt enkelt ned till Mölndal och vände och åkte upp till Angered igen. Angered är betydligt finare på dagen när det är ljust ute än på kvällen kan påpekas. Därifrån blev det linje åtta till Frölunda där jag plockade upp en kompis som bestämt sig för att slå följe en bit. Tillsammans åkte vi ettan ut till östra sjukhuset men mer hann vi inte innan det började bli mörkt.

När jag gav mig ut igen på tredje dagen hade jag faktiskt tröttnat lite och det blev inte bättre av att jag blev tvungen att ta bussen för att hitta tians första hållplats. Nåväl ut på hissingen igen med tian och sedan tillbaks en ganska god bit för att hoppa på nummer 13 vid linnéplatsen, oturligt nog upptäckte jag först då att 13 bara går besvärliga tider så jag valde att skippa den, åkte ned till Tynnered och tog till sist sjuan till Bergsjön.

Resultatet av allt resande är föjande; hissingen är inget särskilt kul område, inte heller Angered eller sista sträckan mellan frölunda och Tynnered. Bergsjön däremot är fint, för att inte tala om de mysiga kvarteren runt Majorna och förvånansvärt nog också Torp.

Jag tog lite kort för att dokumentera min resväg men det slutade mest med en samling bilder på ållplatsskyltar, det enda om är värt att visa är en på Jenny vid Östra sjukhuset:

Eye infection

BLoody hell!

I got a bit of an eye infection yesterday so today i went to check it out. It turns out that I need three kinds of antibiotica to cure it. Three kinds! I didnt even know they had that many.

Also, the doctor told me thaat my optician has been lying to me, you cannot sleep with contact lenses. Or perhaps the doctor doesnt know about the ones that I use, co they have been working fine for the passt year or two. Anyway, I have to go buy some glasses now, and use my eye drops once every hour, hope i will get cured soon.

The story of things going wrong

About two weeks ago I moved back to Sweden. I spent the first day at my parents house celebrating my mothers birthday (Happy birthday, mom) then left for Gothemburg on Sunday. Since I didn't have any keys to my new appartment I slept at my friends house (thanks Jenny), so far everything was fine.

On monday I went to school in the morning then at lunch went to pick up the keys and to check out the new appartment, everything went OK, then after class in the afternoon it all started going badly. I was planning to go online and ook a rental car so I could get te stuff from my storage room but alas, my internetconnection was not working. No matter, the next day I down town, bought a wifi module for the USB and, hey presto, internet was back.

My joy at having internet again was short lived howeer, since my computer more or less died, I just could not get any picture on the screan no matter what I tried. So, for th remainder of the week i was confined to the computer rooms in school whenever I wanted to access the internet. At the same time, my need for using the intenet was great since I had to try to solve my problem as well as book that car. While trying to figure out how to solve these problems I also discovered that I cannot send text messages to my girlfriend, the reason being that my phone company does not have any partner in Taiwan, so, when everything else is done I will have to find a new phone company too.

Anyhow, living without a computer is not as bad as it sounds, I get lots of excercise walking to and from the computer room in school and I ran in to an old friend while sitting there on a friday night. What made my whole situation worse was this Tuesday when I went to rent that car so I could inally pick up my stuff from the storage (using a tiny travel towel and not having any kitchen ware is rather annoyin). So off I went, picked up the car I booked and drove off. I picked up the first round of stuff and brought it home. Now, I am living on a sort of enclosed yard hat can either be reached by stairs or a small road on the hill. Driving a car I naturally took the small road but discovered too late that the raod was blocked with a gate at the entrance of the yard. The road was so small that I could not possibly turn around, I had to back down the hill, around the rather tight bend than half way up another hill untill i found a point where I could turn. That was hell, especially since it was a rental that I didnt want to scratch. I am thankfull that my dad tortured me with lessons in reversing a car round corners and such.

Having turned around I went up to the office, got the key to that gate and delivered my stuff. By now it was time for lunch so I parked the car and walked to a restaurant. Coming back from lunch I discovred that one wheel on the car was flat due to a peice of mtal piercing it. I called the rental place and they adviced me to change the tyre. The problem was that there was no spare one, instead there was some kind of foam that you are supposed to fill the wheel with. The problem was that the instructions said you should not use the foam for fixing the sidewall of the tyre - exactly the place where I had a puncture. So I had to call the rental place again they in turn sent a tow trucjk to take the car away. I then had to go back to the rental place, get a new car and finish moving my stuff.

At then end of the last run I told the storage space clerk that I wanted to end the contract so I didnt have to pay for February, the clerk then informed me that I was aready passed the date for ending the contract and that I would have to pay for February anyway even if I ended it. Oh, well it is not very expensive so just a minor setback. The next day when i returned the car they told me that insurance did not cover the pnctured tyre so I had to pay for the replacement, a rather more hefty amount than I had hoped for renting a small car.

So was that the end of my trouble? No, of course not. The broken computer started working again, at least to some extend so I checked the all knowing internet if the problem could be fixed some how. They informed me that it was hardware related - something that i don't like dealing with when it comes to laptops but I decided to open he thing up and see what I could do. I should not have done that, for in the process the keyboard lost contact with the motherboard so now I cannot type either. Luckily the touch screen keyboard lets me use the omputer to some extent and the mouse still works but that is only when the screan decides to work. I should have taken care of that now by ordering a new computer, hopefully I will be back on track by next week.

Is this the end of my troubles? Let's wait utill I have a new phone company before I celebrate.

The update that never came

You might have noticed that I havn’t updated this site in a while despite having celebrated new years eve and so on. To sum up quickly then, I went to Taipei with some friends and saw the fire works at Taipei 101 and battled the crowds at the MRT station as everyone who was there decided to take the subway at the same time. I visited Yinis parents one last time and her dad taught me how to make tea. I neglected to update the blog because I was busy last week studying for my final exams.

Now I only have one exam left on Thursday and on Friday I am going back to Sweden. It is kind of sad to be leaving but at the same time it feels pretty good that I will come home again. I feel that this blog has more or less served its purpose, I believe i will not write much after i go home but I will keep the blog up to let people read if anyone is interested. I will, however, keep posting on http://photowithoutcamera.wordpress.com/ so feel free to go there and check out my writing.

 

See ya!

Tedde and Lisa need more space

Continueing where I left off in the last post, we ended up at a sea front park full of driftwood sculptures, maybe not the nicest place along the way but the statues were at least creative.

click for larger panorama

Sculptures made from driftwood

From the park we drove further north until we came to a beach where we should be able to swim, none of us really felt like swimming but we did have some fun playing in the water. We also discoverd that the big building right by the beach was an unfinished hotel that had seemingly been abandoned.

 Our exploration of the hotel lead to the lobby…

…which has a fantastic view as you can see

General look of the place, inside and out

The last stop on the way north was a small park where the main attraction is a small stream, the whole point is that, due to certain circumstances the water seems to run up the hill, too bad it is impossible to show it in a picture.

Having marvelled at the gravity defying stream for a while we turned back and went to the other side of the city where we found the place that makes Taidong worth travelling to. No that Taidong is not nice, just that Hualian is very similar but so much more convenient. The place I’m talking about is the Liji Bad lands, it is basically just a dried out riverbed, an oh so cool landscape for playing around in. It might sound very childish but playing with dried mud is more fun than you might think. I could probably spend a whole day there just playing.

Again, click for larger panorama

A bright toy in the grey landscape

This really looks surreal

 

Is it a rock? Is it clay?, I honestly cannot say

Exploring the mud and the cliffs on the riverbank

My brother smashes some dried up clay

A dark, brooding landscape shot to end with

After playing around in the variably dust and muddy field we all felt we needed to clean up so we drove to the next town for a dip in some hot springs which was nice as usual.

The next day was bleak and rainy and our attempt at being tourist failed rather miserably by going to an unfinished culture park and sitting around in some aborigine style houses in the rain. We decided not to visit any other places since the weather was so bad and went back to Hsinchu instead.

On Monday it was back to school and work for me and Yini and Tedde and Lisa were left to explore the city on their own some more. In the afternoon me and Tedde drove out to the abandoned park that me and Yini discovered earlier this year and had a look at the giant stone steps in the river. Tuesday was even more busy and I only had time to Join my brother in the evening. We took them to sushi express for a nice dinner then drove out to try the Taiwanese culture drug Betel nut, or Binlang as it is known here. The taste was just as horrible as always and the girl selling it was just as scantily dressed as always but it is part of the Taiwanese experience.

Anyway, that was all we had time to do during my brothers short visit but it was fun, I hope Tedde and Lisa enjoyed being here as much as me and Yini enjoyed being their hosts. Now for some final pictures:

Stone steps in the river

Tedde and Lisa enjoying the sun on a last tour of the city

Sushi!!!!

The second post about Tedde and Lisa in Taiwan

As I said, on Thursday we got on a train to Hualian, our original goal was further south but that takes such a long time so we decided to stop half way. In Hualian we did what every Hualian tourist does, we went to Taroko Gorge and just like every tourist before them Tedde and Lisa marvelled at the beutiful scenery.

Kissing the cliffs

Holding the rock

You need balance to walk in the river

 

General landscape pictures

After Hualian we moved on to our final destination, Taidong in the very southeast. Due to rather undeveloped communications on the east coast we only got there late in the evening instead of in the afternoon as planned but that was ok. In Taidong we rented some scooters and went exploring northward along the coast. The whole east coast is generally a nice place, a random stop along the raod landed us at a nice beach.

Tedde and Lisa during their first scooter adventure

Random beach is also nice.

Next up was Xiaoyeliu, another park with cool rock formations, pretty similar to the real Yeliu up north and Shitiping in Hualien but still nice. I think the two visitors enjoyed it.

Lots of holes in a rock, fancy

Rock formations are nice

On the way to the next stop Lisa snapped this shot of my brother:

Slightly scared Tedde

To keep this post within reasonable length I will stop here.