Yantai Trip

My one day trip to Yantai was as spontaneous as some of my other trips, the location decided about 3 hours before the flight would be leaving Beijing. My decision was based on what I could find on the coast, that still had tickets available before 2pm.

As my plane descended over the new landscape of Shandong, I found myself reminded of the terrain of central California, the rocky formation specifically rung similar those around San Luis Obispo. The whole ride into town from the airport, the song Ventura Highway stuck in my head as we passed imagery reminiscent of one of my many rides up the coast.

After I got to town and walked around the beach front area in the center of town, I checked into my hotel and did some googling. What I learned made it all click into place, the area surrounding Yantai is considered the 7th best wine making climate in the world.

Rocky hill tops caught my eye

Windmills

230 Fifth

On the roof of a building near the Flat Iron one can find 230 Fifth, the same place I spotted in my previous post. This place is tricky on the wallet, you've gotta show up early if you want to get a seat, and as it gets later the view of the city makes it difficult not to stay and order another highly marked up drink. That's how over the course of 3 hours I spent 100 bucks on wine and a plate of fish and chips. The view and atmosphere here are well worth a visit, however next time I come here I'm bringing a flask along with me.

view west

Haight Ashbury (Continued from Golden Gate Park)

Immediately after exiting the east side of Golden Gate Park, I found myself surrounded by homeless people again. It felt just like exiting the subway station on Mission Street, except these bums were actually standing and discussing things instead of screaming random shit into the air. I passed these groups as quickly as possible and walked down Haight street. There were more bums as I walked along and another type of entity I couldn't quite pin, they seamed like backpackers, they looked like they probably slept on the street, but they were more organized and less deranged and smelly. As I took a photo of one of the land marks, one of these walked up to me and demanded to see the photo I'd taken, she then went onto carefully explain that she didn't tolerate people taking photos of her and that I could take the picture again without her in it. I wasn't quite sure what to think about this but my best guess was that this chick was on the run for murder or something, so I gladly deleted the photo while she watched.

Cock n Bull Pub - Bondi Junction

Tonight I met up with a friend and we searched around Bondi Junction for a good dinner spot. After failing to get into Kelly's Bar and Grill on the top floor of the mall, we tried the seafood place on the floor below. Unfortunately the serving size was small enough that we decided to seek more dinner elsewhere, back outside we ran across an Irish pub attached to the Grand Hotel called Cock n Bull. Although the name was generic and it's probably a chain, it seamed to be a bit more original than the surroundings so we proceeded.

outside Cock n Bull