Vacation time!

I felt very grateful for a chance to visit Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) over the holidays:

There was public transportation, so I didn’t have to walk much.

Travel with friends, blissful happiness.

…

Just upon arrival, I noticed something interesting, or maybe it wasn’t really that interesting. Maybe it was just dumb:

I guess some things will always remain incomprehensible to me (“Achromatic – again”).

But then I noticed something that seemed ever more justified and expected:

“娃回来吧 – 我错了!” (“baby come back – I was wrong!“)

Someone had plastered these all over a bridge in 海拉尔 (Hailar). People were walking by. Someone was selling lambsticks. Maybe 娃 (“baby”) never crossed this bridge anymore, or maybe she had stopped reading the stickers?

At the foot of the bridge, I witnessed a man and a woman fighting. Someone else would have to print stickers soon.

…

All of this wasn’t what I was looking for though.

I was happy when I found the cows:

Out on the yellow-turned grasslands, there were even some yurts with cows on them:

There were earth mounds with decorations that seemed fascinating:

And there rested the elegant marshlands of 额尔古纳 (Ergun):

It was good.

Then on one evening, when our hats and gloves were protecting us from the night, while the the streets were asleep and the chimneys were filling the air with the scent of distant warmth…

…I could suddenly feel the walking winter nights of 河北 (Hebei) and 山西 (Shanxi) within me, crystalizing out of every breath of this cold charcoal air.

The night became an endless night.

The street became a street to walk on.

It was so beautiful it hurt.

Soundtrack: Simon & Garfunkel – “Sound Of Silence”