Umm so yea I get I giant pod to myself... this makes flying fun
Someone forgot to tell them I don't belong here. TIL the massage chairs in the first class lounge are free with no time limits. (Thanks credit card points for this surrealist first class experience.) #travel #china #koreanair #travelhacking #points #vip
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Why yes I am reading vogue September issue in Chinese
Headed to Seoul
I couldn't not check in here for the commentary
So hard to leave the dorm cave
I fell perfectly OK about skipping tourist activities today. Not sure the garden was worth its. #shanghai #china #omg #rain
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Gotta love the person in the Chinese government who said "we should have a hotline for foreigners and it's absolutely essential we provide Esperanto translation." #china #shanghai #esperanto #travel #lostintranslation
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Time to get ready for a day out!
And they are OFF!!! Just wrote the final postcard of the 200 I've penned over the past several weeks. When yours arrives, please let me know! I'd love to see the time they take to arrive from China or Russia and the condition they're in. (And oh yea, feel free to throw in a few dollars into the Oh My Dollar! Kickstarter on October 10th to help offset international postage and make the Get Your Money Together workbook a reality!) #postcards #travel #bowie #cats #ohmydollar #shanghai #china #tea #personalfinance
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Such a cute cafe, with free wifi.
A rainy day in Shanghai so I am using the afternoon to finish my last 20 (out of 200!) postcards to folks! (And I checked into a great hostel that emailed me freaking directions, solving last night's ghost hostel woes). #rain #shanghai #china #slowtravel #travellife #postcards
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Rainy hungry face
New style icon
ATM run
There are 5 competing sound systems here
Very hip metro design
Here goes dinner
Okay, it's dark and smells a bit like smoke despite being nonsmoking but I found it, and that is what counts.
This is what my face looks like when it turns out your "railway station" hostel is actually 13 miles from the railways station you came in on, and so you spend an hour on transit (after 20 mins in line to buy tickets) and walk 25 mins with a 17lb backpack in the pouring rain only to discover... there is nothing at the address Booking.com gave you. You email the property, and of course they tell you to get on wechat, which you can't activate in a public place because it is too loud and it only does voice activation... so now you're at Starbucks, unable to use their wifi because they don't believe in your Chinese phone number which is apparently a special useless foreigner phone #. And then you just decide that you're going to book a hotline 4-star hotel as close as possible. So...this is my face after I spent $50 on a room when I already had a hostel booked. Because my hostel appears to not exist. I am doing nothing else today except maybe work out in my 4-star hotel gym. #travel #fuckups #charmedlife #notasglamourousasitlooks #china #shanghai
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My hostel Does not appear to exist. Time to regroup and make A new plan
Took 25 mins to acquired but done
I would like to marry this train. Kthxbye
Made it and only kinda had a heart attack
Cannot find the fucking ticket office
The Great Wall at Badaling is my ideal hike: lots of stairs, handrails, amazing vistas, and readily available trash cans and bottled water. And approximately 3000 other people taking selfies. #greatwall #china #badaling #travel #obligatoryselfie
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Home is where the hutong is
Kiiittiiiies
Omg I found the hipster hutong!
Never too many arrows
I can't even get over this. The Beijing subway had a good 10 minutes of videos where a cartoon helper creature sees accessibility issues and magics things like curb cuts, bumps for blind pedestrians, lower counters for wheelchair users, and ramps. It is so rare to be in a city that cares enough about improving accessibility that they make 10 minutes of PSA cartoons to blast on the metro. I almost stayed on past my stop to finish watching them. (Also Moscow has a lot to learn from Beijing's metro accessibility, even if it is more beautiful.) Pro tip: filming the PSA about curb cuts will get you weird looks in the metro. #transitaccessibility #psa #accessibility #travel #china #beijing #metro #subway #curbramps
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So good I came back. The menu is like 50 pages minimum.
I trekked far to come to a coffee shop that could definitely be in Portland. Beijing does intense coffee snob hipster cafe exceptionally well, if I do say so. #coffee #beijing #travel #pourover #7dollarcoffeeinchina #nottea #hipster
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New hair though not quite as short as I wanted!
Just mailed 85 postcards!
Back home!
My teal glasses are classic, but I was too tempted by the fast&cheap prescription glasses available at Beijing's markets. Got these two new pairs (they are different- look close) for $35 total and they were done with my prescription in a half hour. #beijing #glasses #travel #fashion #bargaining #china #opticians
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Thanks for the directional signs, Beijing, pointing me and all other Lily's back to my hotel. #transit #lilybejing #signage #subway #metro #china #beijing
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I need a shirt
Clearly this is my station
Good thing I am going the other way
Fast as fuck shopping trip
Just spilled coffee all over myself. Keep going? Buy new shirt? Go back and Change?
New glasses and coffee
Back at hostel
Adorable!
Only one train left- one of the fastest trains in the world (Bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai- 300KM per hour). At this point I am a bit touristed out, and plan to take Beijing slow and drink a lot of tea, visit Chinese traditional gardens, and write and mail postcards. Of course though a trip to the Great Wall. #trains #travel #transmongolian #trainberd #maps #travel
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Morning!
Unreasonably cute treehouse cafe in 161 hotel
Hotel is cute! But most importantly, has a shower. My room does have the worst view
Waiting for train departure
Waiting for train departure
They are playing intense anthem like music over loudspeaker
