Yo Yo!
Youtube is finally behaving and I am almost up-to-date with Eastenders! Alex is insisting that I will have to let it go, but I refuse to give in. Who says a traveller can't watch TV?
From Tai'an Alex and I got an overnight train to Nanjing. I was pretty worried about the accommodation we booked considering the bad reviews it got, but it turned out OK in the end. Whilst in Nanjing we visited the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre which was really shocking and quite upsetting. I was fully aware that it documented the murders of approximately 300,000 Chinese by the Japanese in 1937, but was unprepared for the graphic photographs of people having their heads chopped off. The day brightened on the way home however when we discovered the most amazing donut shop (see below for photos). I have decided that England needs more donut shops! The next day we headed towards Purple Mountain with the intention of climbing to the top. We were told we had to get a cable car in stead (which was not actually the case), but this suited me fine as I had never been in a cable car before. Was quite scary for me at first as I think it looked incredibly unstable, but I did survive! We didn't really stay long at the top. It was quite misty and so the view wasn't brilliant. We walked down the mountain and headed for pizza! After an exhausting and frustrating 5 miles + walk later we managed to find the pizza restaurant, Alex blaming the Lonely Planet map for the trek in stead of his poor navigation skills the entire way round. The pizza was good, but not worth the walk as Alex insisted it would be! We left Nanjing on the Thursday and headed for Shanghai. As there was no slow, rubbish trains we ended up paying more for the super fast hour long train which suited me fine!
We stayed with Alex's cousin David and his gf Michelle in Shanghai which was incredibly kind and generous of them- the hostel we would have stayed at would have cost us a bundle, they let us do some needed washing, and they showed us around different parts of Shanghai! We went out with them for dinner several times and I tried food that I would never normally try (for anyone who is wondering, this food wasn't massively experimental for the normal person). For in-depth discussions on food please visit Alex's blog, www.alexanderjohnstone.blogspot.com. We also visited the French Concession with them, looking at some buildings and walking through the park. Here Michelle and I went zorbing which was exhausting but something I can cross off my 'list of things I want to do in my life'! Michelle also took us to a water town an hour outside of Shanghai with some of her friends which was really good to see. Unfortunately the masses of tourists and the smell of fermented tofu (which I have decided is the worst smell in the world) made the day more tiring, but still worth doing.
Alex and I also took a couple of visits to the Bund, which is like the equivalent to Canary Wharf. Again this was good to see, but was full of tourists. Close by was an art museum/gallery type thing which was surprisingly enjoyable! We also went to the world expo one evening, managing to avoid what could have been some monstrous queues during the day. The size of the expo made it very difficult to see the majority of the pavilions. We did however visit a few, and we were able to skip the queue for the UK pavilion as British citizens! I felt sorry for everyone who was waiting in the 2 hour queue as it was pretty rubbish. I was pleased with the model soldier I saw but the main feature was a model representing the seed bank (which I didn't know existed) in the UK. Spain was also kinda strange, representing their country with a massive mechanical baby (photo below).... the baby was very cool, strange, creepy all at the same time, how it represented Spain I don't know. Holland on the other hand was very cool (you should be proud Shell)... It was fun, had sheep everywhere and then lots of different models representing different parts of their country. We also did a bit of shopping in Shanghai, again not buying much, a jumper, some shorts and a million DVDs. I have managed to get Alex watching gossip girl and I think he is a Chuck Bass fan! David also downloaded some of season 4 for me which made me very happy! Looking forward to catching up...
Unfortunately due to the Chinese holidays we have not been able to get a train to Xi'an yet, and in stead we have gone to Hangzhou. Updates on the next part of our trip however will have to wait ...
xoxo
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