Zagreb? No such country.
Today I went to the City Police for my ARC (Alien Resident Certificate-and who says I am not on Mars? Alien residing here.). I obtained it without any troubles, and with lots of pleasant smiles. Never, nowhere in Europe I got the papers so quick. And they spoke English, yes, not as it is usual in some other countries that ladies in such office speak only (very) local dialect.
Then I wanted to change some euros-just 20 eur, to get rid of them. Here exchange offices are not so often as in Europe, rather you should try in bank. So I went. It took me half an hour. Ladies were pleasant, but 3 of them were managing with my, as they said, "euro dollars". I doubt they ever have seen any. Problem was that they had only 100,50 and 10 eur on the banknotes list for euros. After few phone calls, boss decided they can buy it from me-and it was big, 5 floor bank, not some small hole. Name was Cosmos Bank, so you understand I HAD to go there! Filling the papers, making copy of the passport etc. took quite a time. The best was when lady tried to find Zagreb in the list of countries for entering the code. Then I showed her "Croatia"- her level of recognition was equal as for "Zagreb", but (fortunately) it was in the list :-). Their fee was 1%, but "minimum 180NT$". Finally of 810NT$ (today's rate was 1eur=40.06NT$, them selling for 44NT$), I obtained 700NT$, it seems they understood it's a bit too much to take 180NT$, nice of them. But, if you do not need, better do not change euros here.
Biking back home, I made some day-light pics in the city - btw. it is Hsinju-I think this is Yale transcription and I find it much better than Wade-Giles Hsinchu or pinyin Xinzhu. A pity they do not use it...so I'll stay with Hsinchu, this you usually find on Internet.
Ying Shi door is the most photographed object in the city. And it deserves it. Behind is a nice small park above the water-Hsinchu is one of the rare cities which preserved its water canals in the city. Not always pleasure, as you can imagine (smell!), but we remember Venice, eh? One day this will be walking-zone, now it's quite busy rondo.
Appearance of the canal in the city is usually less romantic than in the very center:
Sometimes you are surprised in the less expected place:
I am curious what tells the sign near the bike :-).
Then I wanted to change some euros-just 20 eur, to get rid of them. Here exchange offices are not so often as in Europe, rather you should try in bank. So I went. It took me half an hour. Ladies were pleasant, but 3 of them were managing with my, as they said, "euro dollars". I doubt they ever have seen any. Problem was that they had only 100,50 and 10 eur on the banknotes list for euros. After few phone calls, boss decided they can buy it from me-and it was big, 5 floor bank, not some small hole. Name was Cosmos Bank, so you understand I HAD to go there! Filling the papers, making copy of the passport etc. took quite a time. The best was when lady tried to find Zagreb in the list of countries for entering the code. Then I showed her "Croatia"- her level of recognition was equal as for "Zagreb", but (fortunately) it was in the list :-). Their fee was 1%, but "minimum 180NT$". Finally of 810NT$ (today's rate was 1eur=40.06NT$, them selling for 44NT$), I obtained 700NT$, it seems they understood it's a bit too much to take 180NT$, nice of them. But, if you do not need, better do not change euros here.
Biking back home, I made some day-light pics in the city - btw. it is Hsinju-I think this is Yale transcription and I find it much better than Wade-Giles Hsinchu or pinyin Xinzhu. A pity they do not use it...so I'll stay with Hsinchu, this you usually find on Internet.
Ying Shi door is the most photographed object in the city. And it deserves it. Behind is a nice small park above the water-Hsinchu is one of the rare cities which preserved its water canals in the city. Not always pleasure, as you can imagine (smell!), but we remember Venice, eh? One day this will be walking-zone, now it's quite busy rondo.
Appearance of the canal in the city is usually less romantic than in the very center:
Sometimes you are surprised in the less expected place:
I am curious what tells the sign near the bike :-).
1 Comments:
I guess you already knew what the Chinese character on the sign says...but sometimes it's good to pretend not to know it ;)
The sign means
don't park here !
(the character means stop/park)
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