Rune Hammersland

You should visit La Paz because of the topography. Not because it is a great city, which it hardly is, but because of the way the city climbs up the walls of the valley it’s situated in, near 4000 meters above sea level.

A sidenote: the travel companies in this city claims it is among the cities in South America with the least crime rate, but still every Western Union has at least one guy in front of it with a shotgun.

PS: I didn’t have any problems with the altitude (apart from getting short winded now and then).

I stayed at the hostel “Miraflores House”. The owner is VERY nice and helpful. He gave us a map and told us about places to stay away from, amongst more. A really great guy.

I guess some things makes it worth the visit; like the volcanos and such, but I really didn’t like this place. Too much rock, and too little vegetation. But then again that has to do with the volcanos.

Every year there are two major events at Voss. One is Vossa Jazz, which is a Jazz festival, and the other is Ekstremsportveko, which is a week dedicated to extreme sports. Both events attract people from all over the world.

Voss is warm in the summer, and pretty cold in the winter.

The metro is essential, and as others said: cheap and wonderful. I had this random russian guy staring at me from the other side of the wagon for about five minutes, before I realized my t-shirt said: “I Masturbare I”. I actually bought a t-shirt with the subway map. Kind of tacky, but nice to have for pointing out where I stayed when I visited Moscow.

It’s kind of cool that all the stations are different, and every single one is full of decorations. The russians said this way it was easy to distiguish between stations, even if they weren’t paying attention to the speaker system.

You could stop by if you’re in the area, but it’s expensive, and not worth the trip alone (but I guess people stop by when they visit the Red Square). A lot of western stores, and not at all typically russian.

Allthough it’s kind of shabby looking, it’s an interesting place. The clubs are full every night.

It’s OK, but you should consider other parts of the wall, as this place attracts a lot of tourists. There are some pretty steep steps here as well, but there is a great view as you get closer to the top. If you want to wander across the wall, and not “climb”, you should definetely check out the other spots.

You should rather go to the Summer Palace. You’ll se a lot of the same architecture, but more vegetation, and it’s all over a better place to spend some time. The Forbidden City gets quite boring about half way through.