We were all pleasently suprised by the train!! We had 2 seperate cabins for the 11 of us and the beds were nice, clean and comfy!!
The train ride was 21 hours long, so we spent a lot of the time hanging out in the hallway playing card games, talking and watching movies. We enjoyed getting to see the scenery- it was like our own scenic tour through China!! :) We actually made friends with a Chinese rock band a few cabins down from us. They were all really nice and spoke english really well, they showed us their music and invited us to come see them perform in Beijing... we never made it to their performance, but it would have been cool!
I had a fun time staying up late telling everyones fortunes ;) I think the boys had fun experiencing girls night activities!! After 21 hours on a train a 13 hour flight home sounds like nothing! Coming into Beijing was a lot different than expected- Our city is very humid and tropical and Beijing is the complete opposite. We almost felt like we were back home, our skin was dry again, everyones hair was straight and you didn't feel wet all the time! I don't know if I have every felt as clostraphobic as I did getting off the train and trying to get on the subway. People are everywhere and they are determined to fit as many people onto buses and subways as possible. We got used to this as we spent time there, and it was much nicer without all our luggage! Here is Raven and I on the Subway for the first time!
We stayed at a really nice hostel Candy Inn, it was more of a hotel than a hostel. They provided us with shampoo, towels, cute little toothbrushes, and I think the beds there were nicer than the ones in our rooms :) Me Andrea, Erin and Raven were even put into a room by ourselves! Here is a picture of Erin, Anna and I in the alley way of our hostel!
We got into Beijing pretty late, so we didn't do too much that night, except explore around our hostel. Our first stop was to get FOOD, since all we had eaten was candy and noodles on the train. We found a good restraunt close by and we were able to try lots of new foods. The food up north is very different than down south! Outside the restraunt their was a man cooking goat on a stick- so Joey, Ryan and I all tried it! It was probably one of the most delicious meats I have eaten here!
Across from our hostel was the confucious temple, so we decided it would be a good time to go check it out! Well, there was a large wall all around it and we were unable to find the door to enter. We spent about an hour walking around the wall and never made it completely around to find the door- but we had fun trying to find it! :) The area around the wall was really old, so we got to explore and see houses where people just live inside four cylinder walls with hardly anything else. It was all very sad to see and interesting at the same time.
After walking around for an hour and having Erin and I there, we were bound to need to find a restroom. I think this restroom was the best squatter situation we have had so far. We have had to use some disgusting bathrooms, some just ditches with walls seperating them, others that were just gross but never any this open! I wish I had a better picture! It was hard to take one since someone was always in there using it!
Erin, Anna, Andrea and I all walked in and just started laughing! :) We decided to send two at a time in, well it would have worked great except of course other people had to come in and use the restroom! It was quite an awkward experience for all of us!!
We spent the rest of the evening exploring around more, we went to a park, found some good treats to eat and then crashed after a long two days!
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