What will I miss?

 Coat / Palton - H&M || Dress / Rochie - H&M || Jeans / Blugi - Zara || Boots / Botine - Primark || Belt / Curea - H&M || Bag / Geanta - Mango

My dear darlings, this will go into history as my last post from Shanghai, because yes..the time has passed and on Saturday we will be going back to Europe, back home. :) And even though these photos were taken at the beginning of December, I thought they are still worth posting because of the lovely and unique location which stands in my background. And between us, I also like this outfit, shhhhh...

But as the outfit is pretty much self explanatory, I thought I'd rather share with you some of my impressions of this city and of living in China for a while now. More exactly I would like to tell you what I believe I will miss from here and what not. :)

So, what will I miss?

- First and foremost, the city itself. It is truly a lovely city to live in, it has a lot to offer, there are many places to be seen and things to do, it has tons of restaurants, bars, lounges, clubs, but it also has museums, art galleries, malls, markets, not to mention all the touristic objectives. Ok, that was a random listing, but my point is that you can't really get bored here, there is always something to do, something to see, day or night. I will definitely miss its complexity and I think I will even miss its contrasts. :)

- The skyscrapers from the Financial District and my favourite area, the Bund, which is truly breathtaking. I can't even explain to you the feeling it gave me when I first saw it and I loved it ever since. I find tall buildings quite fascinating and I think I will even miss our cozy apartment from the 22nd floor and the pretty view we had from the balcony. :)

- I will probably even miss the subway because it's very clean, fast, reliable, there are trains coming every 2-3 minutes and the whole network is very well organised. If you can avoid using it during the peak hours (when it is absolutely packed with people), it's perfect.

- I will definitely miss all the trips we took this past year, all the beautiful places we've seen and the discovery of this new world and culture. Moreover, due to a favourable location, this city also enabled us to visit other countries here in Asia, countries which from Europe are more complicated and expensive to be reached. If we had more time around here, I would have also liked to see Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. But they will still remain on my list :)

- Finally, on a more general matter, I will miss how easy it is to make payments here and how fast everything works. You can pay everything with your phone and as long as you have a long-lasting battery you don't need to carry any cash or cards with you. When you order things online the shipping is unbelievably fast (you may even get your package the same day if you order it before noon) and generally, I think that everything is quite well organised.

Having said that, I have to be completely honest with you and tell you also what I won't miss, right?

- Firstly, the air pollution. Especially during the winter time the air quality is pretty bad and wearing masks every time when you go out is pretty uncomfortable, in my opinion. On two occasions during this year we had "the pleasure" to even experience hazardous air quality (with an aqi over 300) and that was in May, when we were in Nanjing and on New Year's Eve. Everything was white and foggy and the air barely breathable.

- Then, the crowds. The multitude of people which are everywhere you go, anytime you go and especially at the tourist attractions and during the weekends. We planned the whole year in such a manner to avoid visiting places when there were public holidays and sometimes (for e.g. Beijing) we even tried to avoid the weekends because it's truly impossible.

- Last but not least, I won't miss the food. I had a completely different idea of what Chinese food meant before coming here and I'd rather return to the European-Chinese food :)) Don't get me wrong, I did eat Chinese food here and there are things that I like but there are also things which I couldn't even imagine trying, like frogs, scorpions, bugs and other weird stuff. I liked the dumplings, the vegetables, the lotus root, the Sichuan food, etc but it is not something I could eat every day. And I also didn't like the typical Shanghaise food because they put sugar in everything and it is all so very sweet. Ahh, I can't wait to have some eggplant salad, the good old sarmale and other goodies.. :))

I don't even know if you will read all this, but I really felt like writing and point out some things at the end of this maybe life-changing journey, and if you do read it I would love to hear your opinion and thoughts on it. :) Have you been here? What did you like and what not? Or are you planning to visit China?

Have a lovely weekend,
A.