Sweden - Eurovision Grand Final Live at Malmö

I've officially been 2 weeks in Sweden but I haven't had the chance to update my blog!

I had to write something today because... it was the Eurovision Grand Finals! I am currently living in Lund, Sweden, which is about 10 minutes away by train. Yes, it's very close. And what a great timing for me as well!

There have been celebrations in Lund and Malmö throughout the week, but we were so busy with projects and meetings so we didn't really participate in the festivities on the weekdays.

Lund, with the slogan "We party too!", organized great performances at the city centre.

My friend and I decided to go to Malmö around 4 PM to walk around the city for a little bit.

I went to Malmö last week, but I still don't know many places in Malmö. It's not as big as Paris, but it's definitely pretty big.

The streets were filled with supporters from all over Europe. They were wearing their flags, had their faces painted... the city was really lively.

Just across the Central Station of Malmö is the Eurovision Village.

Thank God the weather was so beautiful! It was sunny, around 23 degrees C and a little windy.


It was a really pleasant feeling to see people enjoying the festivities on the streets, looking forward to cheer their countries, and perhaps just to watch the Eurovision grand finals (like me).

We wanted to buy the ticket at the Arena but of course they were sold out. Fortunately, we could watch the Grand Finals live on the screen at the City Centre.

When we came around 4 PM, there were magnificent dance performances filled with energy and passion of the youth from various dance studios.

Their dances made me feel energized after a long week of meetings until 11:30 PM. Living together with your project team members is nice, but it means that you can have a meeting at any time of the day, including close to midnight.

But anyways, aside from the performances and the buzz around the city, there was also the Street Food Corner, featuring traditional dishes from the area.

To be honest, I was very disappointed when my friend appeared to be disinterested to try these foods because she was craving for sashimi. In the end, I managed to try one of the foods served there:

It has a really unique flavour. The flavour itself is not in particular strong, but what makes it unique is the radish-looking root vegetable they put in the dish. I wasn't sure if it was radish, but it looked like radish and maybe it tasted like radish. I haven't had raw radish before, so I'm not entirely sure about this.

And we also went to a cheesecake cafe called Pronto. My friends from the program and I really liked the cheesecake here, but my friend who came all the way from Ireland didn't have a good impression of this. I still think that the raspberry white chocolate cheesecake was wonderful and if I ever go to Malmö I will definitely eat it again.

Back from the food business. Around 6-7 PM, the city became even more livelier than ever. I encountered these passionate supporters from Denmark:

Even though I'm in Sweden, I felt that 50% of all the Eurovision contest supporters in Malmö were Danish. Aside from the fact that Copenhagen is just across the bridge from Malmö, it seemed to me that they really love their country :)

My friends then texted me, saying that you can sit down on the grass at Folkets park while watching the big screen outdoors. It was quite a long walk from the City Centre.

It was really crowded with people from all over the place. I think my group kind of stood out a little bit because we were a mix of different countries: Guatemala, Italy, Indonesia, Singapore, Argentina, the Netherlands, China, Colombia and Greece.

Most people who came there were people of the same country. Nevertheless, we had so much fun, as usual :)

By the way, the Danish are powerful drinkers. Look at that 1 litre beer can! It's HUGE!!

We were having fun at Folkets Park until the Eurovision Grand Finale started. Why? It was because the sound system there was horrible and was beyond salvation. All we heard was boom boom boom boom and we heard nothing like a human voice. Everyone there looked so disappointed, and many started to leave the park - for home, or for the city centre. In our case, we tried going back to the City Centre because we heard that the sound system there was much better.

And that was actually a great decision.

The crowd was lively, and it was surprisingly peaceful to be amongst the crowd. There was no one pushing you and there was no big fear of pickpockets or dangerous drunkards. Even if it was not your country, you still cheered for them (the Swedish and Danish flags never ceased to wave no matter which country's song it was).

It was a great night, and a really awesome experience. I'm glad I didn't decide to watch it from the TV at home.

By the way, the Danish won. I thought Sweden would win again, but I can see why Denmark won :)

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France - Japan Town in Paris

While in Paris, I met my online friend who was travelling there for a few days. Thanks to that, I discovered the "Japan Town" of Paris. I don't know if this area is officially a Japan Town, but the streets around this area are filled with Japanese restaurants, shops, hair dressers and even a convenience store. There is also a supermarket that sells mostly Japanese and Korean foods.

Take the Metro on Line number 14 and stop at the station called Pyramides. Take the left staircase of exit number 1, and once you're up, turn back. You'll see a Japanese shop that sells clothes for puppies (if I'm not wrong it's called Wan Wan). Walk straight until you see a diagonal sharp turn to the left called Rue St Anne. The street is a bit small, but you will not be disappointed.

As I walked through Rue St Anne, I saw several ramen shops, and one of them is called Sapporo Ramen 2 (サッポロ　ラーメン２）as you see in the picture. A while ago I tried to look up for restaurant recommendations in a Japanese website called OvniNavi. The Japanese are normally very passionate about foods, so I trust their reviews. And they probably have more similar taste buds as mine. 

First, I tried the miso ramen at Sapporo 2. 

Since I was alone, I sat at the bar just in front of where they prepare the noodles. I had expected the restaurant workers to be Japanese, but I think all of them were Chinese. They were speaking Mandarin and another Chinese dialect I was not sure which one it was. I was a little disappointed because I was eager to practice speaking Japanese again. But again, I came here for food.

The ramen looked delicious, although its toppings are a little bit simple: chashu (pork belly slices), bamboo shoots and beansprouts. I wanted some ajitsuke tamago (soft boiled egg braised in soy sauce) but none of the menu offers those eggs. The portion was a little big, but it is the typical portion size for ramen.

And actually... 

I had a very huge appetite on that day. I ordered a lunch set, which I believe was around 14 euros. I get one bowl of miso ramen with chashu, and a mini katsudon. 

The katsudon (deep fried breaded chicken) was not very appetizing, and it was a little bit too salty for me. I couldn't finish the rice. Well, part of it was because I was on the verge of food coma after a big bowl of chashu ramen.

After a huge meal, I decided to walk further along Rue St Anne and found a convenience store called Juji-Ya (十時や).

Here, the workers speak Japanese ^_^

You can buy bento boxes, onigiri (a little too expensive: 2.30 euros each!) and Japanese food products. This shop is not the most complete shop you can find, but they sell interesting ingredients that are not commonly found in Asian shops in China Town. By the way, China Town in Paris is located in Porte de Choisy. I normally take the tram from Cite Universitaire metro station towards the direction of Porte de Vincennes, and it's only about 15 minutes by tram.

You can find other restaurants along the Rue St Anne including sushi, okonomiyaki and even takoyaki. By the way, when I say sushi, it doesn't mean only raw salmon and raw tuna. Sushi shops are everywhere, but most of them don't have other nice fish cuts like toro, tai and hamachi. I don't blame them because we're in Europe and from my understanding, my non-Asian friends refer to sushi as anything with raw salmon or raw tuna. No other options. Not even ikura or unagi. It's probably the same for me: there are many types of sausages, but sausages are just... sausages.

After walking through Rue St Anne from one end to another, I decided to make little detours. If you take left or right turns along Rue St Anne, you will still find plenty of Japanese shops and restaurants. What's crazy was that I found BOOK-OFF, a second-hand book store that is famous in Japan.

There are two BOOK-OFF shops there. One is dedicated for Western books (mainly French; I hardly saw any books in English), and the other one is dedicated for Japanese books and products like CDs, DVDs, and game consoles.

What's cool about BOOK-OFF is that the price for second hand books are cheap. Here, they sell them for 2 euros, which is DIRT CHEAP, taking into account that things in Paris are generally pretty expensive.

For those who are excited about manga, there are plenty of those translated in French.

If I were to stay in France for more than a year, I will definitely learn French from reading manga :P

Oh, and (not too) surprisingly, Rose of Versailles (VerBara) series is famous in France.

Oh, and I tried looking for a book to practice Japanese. I found them. Quite pricey (>20 euros)...

But the main problem is that the explanations are in French. Which makes them pretty much useless to me. Even on this book, I can understand all things written in Japanese but absolutely nothing in French.

Aside fromt the second hand books, BOOK-OFF also sells up-to-date books and DVDs.

My exploration around Japan Town ended by drinking a glass of bubble green tea latte at Zen Zoo.

I'm almost 100% sure that the owners are Taiwanese who can speak Japanese. I would say this place has the best bubble tea in Europe that I tried so far: perfect chewiness and sweetness of the tapioca pearl, good tea and reasonable price.

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