August 5th, arriving in Shangri-La

This was the story I wrote in my journal on August 5th, the day I arrived in Tibet.

All is good!

So in Shanghai, my flight to Chongqing was delayed for an hour, which meant I was freaking out and thought there was no way in hell that I was going to make my connection to Diqing (the Mandarin name for Shangri-La). The flight to Diqing was at 330 and we were on our descent into Chongqing at 315. On the plane I can't stop staring at my watch and making stressed out noises. I don't have a chinese mobile, I don't have any way of reaching the CERS staff to tell them what is going on, and for some reason my credit card isn't working, so if I miss this connection I will be stuck in this city I have never heard of before in my life. Out of the gate with 15 minutes to spare, I sprint to the connection desk, screaming for help, they give me a boarding pass (for some reason in Shanghai, they said they couldn't print the connecting flight pass and that it, along with manually moving my bags, would have to be done in Chongqing), take my baggage tags (without asking me what my bags look like), and usher me through dark staff only passageways and stairs to the gate where boarding is just beginning. PHEW so I made the flight. then I realize SHIT MY BAGS ARE NOT TRANSFERRED I AM SO SCREWED I LIVING IN THE MOUNTAINS THERE WILL BE NO WHERE TO BUY ANYTHING I WILL ONLY HAVE THE CLOTHES ON MY BACK (also only 1 slightly smushed tampon in my backpack I've had in there for ages to last me half a year!) at which point I look out the window and I see a hunched over chinese man down on the ground running towards the plane with my two bags in tow. YAAAAY.  

To top it all off, the plane I got on to get to Diqing--the same exact one I came off of from Chongqing. 

Crisis averted! (why they wouldn't tell me it was the same plane and let me just sit there and not take my bags off the plane, who the hell knows)

View of Shangri-La from the front of the Center

This place is absolutely beautiful! High in the mountains, I am a little winded but this is just an extraordinary space.

The Great Firewall of China

Finally, after two and a half months of being in Tibet, I can now access blogger (and facebook and youtube) since Hong Kong doesn't have the same internet restrictions as China. To come will be blog posts both about life here in Hong Kong as well as catch-up posts about the time I spent in Shangri-La.

Off to China!

I am leaving in two hours for China! Though I thought it wouldn't be possible, I packed three seasons worth of clothes/necessities in my one big backpack. I am starting to get a little homesick already, I spent my morning walking around New Haven taking in all the places I love in my hometown. With a few hours left, I am petting Tilly as much as I can and printing out some pictures of friends and family to keep with me at all times. While I am thrilled for the prospects to come, I am going to miss it here!

The last few days

Cason and I are currently in Paris. After tonight, our eurotrip will be complete as we both leave tomorrow morning. What a wild and amazing time it has been! We came from Amsterdam, which while known to be the drug/sex/rock and roll capitol of Europe, was in fact, outside of the centrum, one of the most beautiful charming cities I have ever visited. We spent most of our time at museums and exploring interesting neighborhoods. The "9 streets" area in the Canal Ring West was by far my favorite where each building was a different bright color and funky boutiques and cafes spilled out onto the street in every direction you looked. One boutique was this leather store that made wallets, bags, and the most beautiful mens and women's shoes I've ever seen.

From shoe stores to stroopwaffles (which made up a large portion of my diet in amsterdam), we had a good time in Amsterdam.

We were blessed with amazing weather in Paris after what seemed like october weather in Berlin and Amsterdam, and went to the huge Paris Pride parade yesterday to enjoy the afternoon. With our final day, we went to Istitut du Monde Arab before Cason leaves for Lebanon tomorrow morning and enjoyed each others company in the beautiful city of Paris before we part ways for our respective gap years.

more Berlin!

That night, we went to a Berlin Pride street festival full of crepes, music, currywurst, and an exceptionally high amount of leather. The next day, Cason's dad flew into Berlin and we met him for lunch and a trip to a flea market selling millions of nicnacs. We discovered that German junk looks very similar to American junk. Later that afternoon, Cason and I explored Fstein, a student neighborhood with millions of cute cafes and interesting boutiques. We went to this organic burger place that used all local ingredients called Frittiersalon and had the BEST burger outside of louis lunch imaginable. I got the texas burger which came with a fried egg on top and it blew me away. To top off the amazing meal, Let's Go highly recommended an organic vegan ice cream stop around the corner from the burger place so we made our way in that direction. The vegan Chocolate Soy ice cream was AMAZING. I had a cone with that and passionfruit and while I know those flavors sound pretty disgusting today, it was delicious and I would recommend it to everyone.

The next few days, we explored other parts of Berlin, saw the East Side Gallery, the book burning monument, the DDR museum, spent more time with the Crane family, and got a tour of the American Embassy in Berlin!

one portion of the East Side Gallery 

We also made some great friends at Helter Skelter who we did everything with in Berlin as though we had come to travel together. Our last night in Berlin was one of the guy's birthdays, so instead of going out to eat we went to the supermarket and bought ingredients and made a vegetarian feast to celebrate a birthday and also to bid Cason and I adieu as we left for Amsterdam.

Berlin

We arrived in Berlin Friday night and found our way through the Mitte to our hostel, Helter Skelter. Our first day in Berlin was museum crazy. We saw the Pergamon (which we got into for free!), the Topography of Terror,  Checkpoint Charlie, the Monument to the murdered jews in europe, the homosexual memorial, and even managed to squeeze in a night visit to the Hamburger Banhof. Each museum/memorial was amazing and so informative. I lucked out traveling with Cason because he has studied all of the art we saw at the Pergamon and was my personal tour guide through the beautiful arabic exhibitions. Our roles switched at the Hamburger Banhof when I took Cason on a tour of Berlin's equivalent to MoMA.

Richard Long's exhibition "Berlin Circle"

prague

After a late night train from vienna, we arrived in prague around midnight and made our way through public transportation to hostel chili, our home for the next three days. Unfortunately, our street in Czech did not have a single vowel, so I have no idea how it is pronounced besides for "psssttspspppssrss." Prague is a beautiful city! We spent hours wandering on the narrow winding streets leading off to secret treasures of cafes and beautiful views. On one day, we trekked out 45 minutes (it doesnt take more than 20 minutes to get from A to B in the center of Prague) to go to this tiny cafe, cafe Slagr, that was a local hangout that served pragues best pastries.

Totally worth the hike! We also lucked out in Prague because the Choate trip visiting Europe overlapped in Prague so we got a free tour guide and tickets to the Castle district.