Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Exiting the main train station at Hamburg at 9pm a few days ago, the traveler was looking through the maps under the dim street lights to find his lodging for the night. Suddenly, an obviously intoxicated German girl approached me from across the street, asking first in German, and finding my incomprehension, then in English whether I had any alcohol with me. Even though I politely told her that I do not have any, the girl, finding out that I am from California, quickly forgot about the alcohol and began a twenty-minute tirade on how Germany sucks and she wants to move to California. In particular, she just kept on ranting about how much the weather is horrible in Germany, and even though she lived all her life in Hamburg, cannot tolerate the cold winters. But at that moment, the weather was still in the lower teens. Yes, the wind chill did make things a little uncomfortable, especially for the exposed hands, but otherwise, winter in Europe, so far, felt pretty bearable, and defini

The Nobel Peace Center in downtown Oslo is currently running an exhibition on displaced peoples and refugees around the world. In terms of countries represented, all the usual ones are on display. Yemen with its Somalians washed up on shore, Serbia with people displaced by the war in Kosovo, Georgia due to war with Russia, Congo with civil war refugees, Columbia with people suffering from drug wars...the exhibition seemed like nothing surprising until, in one uniquely decorated corner of the exhibition space, Norway was represented. And the Norway portion was the highlight of the exhibition itself. Norway? The host of the Nobel Peace Prize does not normally come across as a destination of refugees from anywhere, partly because it is so far from another zone of conflict or sources of poverty, and partly because, frankly, there is little that attract refugees. With a small job market and super expensive cost of living (perhaps on average the highest in Europe), refugees on the botto

Walking around cities of northern Europe, it is never hard to find the traditional and the modern side-by-side. The most glittering glass office buildings with the most cutting-edge design often stands next to the oldest churches dating from imperial eras centuries in the past. The best efforts of the city and national leaders to preserve heritage often cannot be fulfilled completely; it seems that even here, the businessmen do not like typing away on their computers in a 17th century building. The phenomenon here is not particularly unique. After all, every country in the world faces similar dilemma. Some sees a need to keep physical pieces of history alive for posterity, while indeed, modern business and people have certain needs that cannot be satisfied by those historical relics. Yet, strangely enough, here in Europe, and Copenhagen in particular, there is a unique feel of harmony as little pieces of modernity are injected into century-old townscapes. Over in Asia, modernity

After a tumultuous journey on a part-filled ferry , the weary but excited traveler finally launches himself upon the Continent, devouring every sight he can possibly manage. And the trusty (and excessively massive) travel guidebook has certainly not failed me when I am deciding on what route and sights to take in at every destination. But as I mentioned so many times before , traveling is a human experience , and the feelings and attitudes behind the sights to be visited tops the list of definitive memories. And after three days and four countries, the traveler would like to share a few impressions not found in the travel guides... (1) Red Light Districts are highly over-rated, really. The establishment has been a matter of imagination for people everywhere, especially in certain parts of Asia where the practice is, eh, a bit more "discreet ." Watching scantily clad girls moving about behind a window under a red light in some narrow alleys, really, is amusing only for ab

It is sometimes shocking that sometimes, a single bus ride can leave a lasting impression that can hardly be ever changed. The situation is just long enough for certain views to be formed, but at the same time short enough for the views to be highly generalized stereotypes, most often confirming previously held second-hand impressions and stories. Yet, even as the traveler is typing away on his laptop on the hard ground of Brussels Central Train Station, at a savagely unmitigated 3-degrees-Celsius wind at 6:30am, somehow the impressions just stick in the mind more than anything else. For some reason, a quiet midnight journey on the cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais, tonight, was turned into a madly drunk 3-hour party by a horde of British and French high school students, nominally on some sort of school trip, but with no obvious parental or teacher supervision, seemed to be bent on spreading their notoriety far and wide on the Continent. From the second we the passengers got