China!
Welll we just completed country number 10 and it was defiantly one of my favorite ports!
Day one of China was all about roaming. My friend Ashleigh and I decided to just go and see where we ended up. We ended up at a market and then at an amusement park! Ha-ha. We got off the ship and started looking for the ferry to take us across the harbor to the other side of Hong Kong. (If you didn’t know because most people don’t Hong Kong is the Puerto Rico of China. I didn’t understand that concept till we got more stamps and had to fill out customs forms 2 times.) So when Ash and I were trying to find the ferry we found the Hop on Hop off Hong Kong tour bus. We could get around the city for a flat price and take our time oh and it included a Ferry ticket there and back. That sounded good to us. We bought our tickets and headed on to the ferry let me tell you they don’t waste any space people flooded onto this ferry like they were running from something. The ferry ride lasted all about 3 minutes but it was a really pretty view. We went to get on the red line tour bus but it was full so we jumped on the Green line one that went to an island. It’s a topless bus (no perverts not shirtless) it was a double decker bus with no top. We sat up top so we could enjoy the view. It was beautiful! The sky scrapers were everywhere and they were so pretty, the city was just amazing. As we were driving we saw the apartment buildings and they were so no up to standard with the rest of the city. They were all run down and didn’t look too maintained. We got to a stop that was called Ocean Park Adventure Park. It looked really cool but we decided to stay on the bus. As the bus drove away we saw a sign that said Panda’s here. We immediately regretted our decision but we looked forward to what we might see. As we drove alone we saw a breath taking view of the ocean and mountains and beaches. It was absolutely beautiful I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The bus was whipping down the street around the corners it was so funny. Ashleigh and I were laughing about how we were going to lose a hand taking a picture. As we rode on the bus we had headphones that explained what was around us. We finally got to the stop that we were going to get off at which was a world famous market called Stanley Island Market. I don’t know why it was famous but it was expensive. We walked around and knew the next bus would come in an hour. We wanted to go see how much it was to go in the amusement park so we could decide if we wanted to go in. We walked around and bought a few things then headed back to the bus. We got on the bus and it went back the other way. We were either going to go jump on the red bus or go the amusement park. When we were riding back we saw the amusement park was split in half by a mountain and had a cable car that went over the mountain which was pretty cool! So we really wanted to go at this point. We got to the stop and jumped off realizing if it was too expensive we would have to wait an hour for the next bus. We walked up to the ticket counter and she told us the price and it was really cheap for an amusement park. I asked her “umm is that for everything inside” with much confusion she said back yes everything but food. So I looked Ash and said PANDAS... RIDES … LET GOO! So we paid and headed into the park. We went straight for the panda exhibit. It was so cool to see pandas they were just so cute. I never thought I would get to see them! After looking at An An and Ji Ji the pandas we headed to find our next bit of fun. There was a cable car that went over or a train that went through the mountain. We decided we were going to take the train there cable car back. We jumped on the train and they made it a ride like you were going underwater it was so cool. (I know living in my kid world again.) When we got to the other side I saw a rollercoaster and log flume I was in my glory. Ashleigh doesn’t like roller coasters but I told her she was going on it weather she liked it or not. She didn’t like that too much. We started walking now you had to walked down and go down this and go down 3 sets of escalators to get to a ride it was crazy. We finally got to the long flume ride. Being 10 again we got super excited and waited in line. These little kids thought they could cut us but when we went to cut them back they made a scene so we just stayed in our spot and waited. We went on the log flume that we thought was going to be awesome… That was false it wasn’t it was short and pretty stupid lol. After we headed to this roller coaster and Ashleigh said I don’t want to go on and I said lets go. So we waited in line. One thing we learned in this line that Chinese people don’t have personal bubbles like we do. Ashleigh is one person that has a HUGE personal bubble. There was a lady in line that was basically standing on her. It was hilarious because Ash didn’t move her feet and the lady just kept getting closer. The line got cut off at us so the next ride was ours. I was super excited because we would be in the front but Ash didn’t like that too much. She looked at me and said “Amy I hate you” with so much love in her voice. We go on the front seat of the ride when we got off the ride she said oh that wasn’t that bad. Little did I know she had never been on an upside down ride. We were walking over to the other part of the park and we saw a Seal Exhibit. It was cool because the seals were fighting. On jumped on to the rock and it was the BIGGEST thing I had ever seen in my life. We started cracking up and were so entertained. We got to the upside down roller coaster and we are standing in line and Ashley is saying “I don’t want to go I don’t want to go” she still hadn’t told me she had never been on one. It’s our ride and the Meany I am we went in the very back seat because everyone knows that the way front and the way back are the two best seats. She was like Amy are you serious. I’m sorry if I puke. So the ride starts to go and she is freaking out. The ride wasn’t that big of deal. Kind of like the corkscrew that Canobie Lake Park. The ride is over and she looks over and says “That was my first upside down roller coaster lets go on again”. I started cracking up and sure enough we went on again but sat in the second seat from the front. We had a ball. After that we headed to the Aquarium that was in the park to. How can I describe this aquarium to you? The Aquarium itself was awesome we saw giant sting rays and all sorts of cools stuff. We walked into the building and there were about 3000 people in this little walkway. All doing their own thing stopping taking pictures. Our personal bubbles just were totally invaded. It was hilarious. We enjoyed it for about 15 seconds before we decided to bolt through the crowd and get the hell out of there. It was like try to move through walls. It was impossible. We were darting around things but we thought it was NEVER going to end. Finally we got out and I thought I had just been freed from jail not even exaggerating. We took the cable cars back and headed back to the ship. I got back to the ship and got changed and went out to dinner with my friend Molly’s family. It was Molly, Mandi, Tom, Marisa, Maggie, and Jake. Carly, Gail, Marcus went but they had to leave. Ed and Kayla didn’t make it. We watched the World famous light show that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and then headed to dinner. We went to a restaurant that had not one bit of English and we had no idea what we ordered. Molly’s parents ordered a little bit of everything for us to all split. Everyone got a beer and I stuck with my coke a cola haha. They started bring food and we had no idea what we were eating but I decided to be super brave. Eventually we found out we ate some fried Eel, Chicken, beef, Some kind of shell fish that had little bumpy things on it( super chew but I guess it was good) I jumped leaps and bounds that night trying things. But dinner was excellent. Her parents paid even though we all offered money. After dinner the rest of them went out and Maggie and I headed back to the ship for the night since we had a long couple days ahead of us. I had an all around great day in Hong Kong. I would defiantly go back there.
The next morning started our adventure. We woke up in the morning finished packing before heading out to the airport. Carly Kayla Gail and I headed to the airport in a taxi. We got to the airport and checked in and headed to the terminal. There was free wifi so I got to Skype my Mom and Sister!! Which was very exciting! We boarded the plane and were off to Beijing. We flue China air, it was a nice plane. It was a 2.5 hour flight, so I took a nap. But as I was napping I heard them come by with drinks and then a little while later I smelt some food. I figured the food you had to pay for since it was only a 2.5 hour flight. But nope it was free. I got fruit, bread, butter, and a tray of spaghetti, desert, and a drink all for free. It was great and very tasty and unfamiliar. I am used to snack packs of pretzels on the flights at home. Once we landed we had to go through customs again and I had another face to face that had a hard time believing my passport was me. She looked at me about 4 times and said “You have short hair” then looked down and said “you have no hair” I said yes ma’am I shaved my head. But she just didn’t get it. She looked again asked me to take my glasses off and looked down very confused and gave me my passport. It was quite funny to me. The whole group of 170 headed out to the buses to get checked in and head to the hotel. I asked my friend Maggie if Kayla and I could be in their group of 30 the next day. Her exact quote was “I have to ask Wex” now I knew who Wex was but I wasn’t sure why she had to ask him. Then I found out … They had a list. Wex said we could so I was very excited because they are a really funny group. We went to the hotel and then Gail, Carly, Kayla, Lindsy, Naya, and I went out to dinner. We enjoyed our walk through Beijing that kind of reminded me of a calmer NYC. We saw street venders on one side but decided to go into a restaurant because it was quite cold. We defiantly picked the wrong restaurant because there again was NO ENGLISH included in this dinner. It was one of the funniest dinners I have ever had in my life. So many funny things happened. We ordered things we didn’t even know what they included. Lucky what I ordered was excellent. Carly ordered something that tasted like napkins. OH man we couldn’t stop laughing at this dinner. I have some quotes I wrote down that I will post in a separate blog. After our interesting dinner we headed to go check out the street venders... it was very interesting. There were pineapples dipped in sugar on a stick which were SO GOOD! There were fried anything you could think of. Snake, fish, beetles, dog, testicles, everything just everything. They were throwing things at us to scare us it was so funny. We were walking long taking pictures and sadly some guy asked me if I was pregnant. It was the saddest funniest thing ever. I got so mad but I was laughing. I looked far from fat let alone pregnant. We have no idea why he said that but it was so funny. We saw fried Ice cream and just everything. After wondering around freezing our butts off we headed back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast and then went on our way. We went to another hotel and broke up into groups and that’s when the fun began. We had a group of twenty eight. But there was a good group of us that stayed close and had a great time. It was Sammy, Kayla, Marisa, Maggie, Wex, Mike, Slim, Andre, Naya, Jamal, Chelsea, and a few more. Little did I know that this week I was going to make some of my best friends on this trip. We went on the bus and started our trip to the great wall. We went first to the Forbidden City which was really cool. Wex, Slim, and Mike all go to school together and there is one more of them that completes them but he went with another group. His name is Marcus and he is quite a character just like the rest of them. They just made the Forbidden City that much funnier and fun as well as everything else we did. After we saw the Forbidden City we went to Tiananmen Square which everyone was calling Timitz Square ( which is deck five center of our ship) . When we were walking through the square and everywhere else people would try to tell you things. There were these little crazy toys that a 2 year old would play with it spun around and lit up and this is when Mike and I became best friends forever and ever. We walked by 6 people in a row that were selling them and Mike was a huge magnet for these sellers he saw the them and said “ dude I’m 20 what would I do with that” they would all walk up to him and say one for you one for you and every time his response would be “No.. Nope..Na.. Nope” but the just didn’t get it. When the six people asked him he mumbled “ If I said know to the first 5 why would I buy one from you” and I just started cracking up laughing. The things that come out of this kid’s mouth I couldn’t stop laughing. When we were walking back to the bus we saw a boy that was wearing a Chris Brown hat. They had literally said Chris Brown on it Mike saw it and just said “ watup brotha” like the kid was going to understand him. One we got back to the bus we headed to the market where we did some shopping before we headed on our 2 or more hour trek to the great wall. We ate lunch before our drive to which wasn’t very good but we all dealt with it. After Lunch we squashed on to the bus that had NO leg room at all and started this long drive. Most people fell asleep for the drive. We didn’t realize the night that we had ahead of us. We lucked out with a good group and not a drunken group haha. Our group was full of laughs and good times. It was awesome. When we arrived near the great wall for dinner we headed in for dinner and had to wait a little bit which mister slim was no to happy about because he was very hungry. Finally they started bringing out food that was alright. The other groups started coming and some people you could tell were already completely drunk. It was FREEZING outside. Every time we would go outside we would say WE HAVE TO SLEEP IN THIS! We just couldn’t believe how cold we were going to be. We sat around this restaurant for a while before we started our full on TREK to the great wall. Finally we all got bundled up and when I say buddle up I was wearing 4 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of pants, 2 thermals, a t-shirt, and a winter North face with hat and gloves and I was still cold. We started our trek that was a 45 minute walk to wear we were parking it to sleep. We had to pick up some sleeping bags on our way up. Each person got a mat and 2 sleeping bags. It was dark by the time we were walking up the walkway to the wall. We started climbing stairs after stairs and I could just hear Mike mumbling things behind me and I couldn’t help but crack up about the things he was saying. Finally we could see the great wall and we figured we were almost there. We got up on the wall and the feeling I had that I was ON “The Great Wall of China” was just unbelievable. Whoever in their live can imagine being on top of this beautiful man made structure. We finished our climb up to our watch tower where we set up our sleeping bags and walked around and hung out with everyone for a little bit. Kayla Mike Marcus and I were all chillin out talking to people that were walking by and laughing at drunken people. We were all cracking jokes and just laughing our asses off. After a while we decided to head to bed because we had another long day. Climbing had warmed us up but after standing for awhile it was quite cold. The temperature was actually -11°C which is about 13°F! Which is pretty damn cold to be sleeping outside, but we just kept thinking about the fact that we were sleeping on the Great Wall and whoever does this ! NOONE. When we climbed back up to our watch tower to our sleeping bags we all crawled into our sleeping bags but it was still quite cold. I don’t like my face covered when I sleep but it was either FREEZING face or face covered. I finally had fallen sleep and some girl came RUNNING up yelling about how some dumb ass drunken girl fell down the stairs . She was shining the flash light yelling and I just wanted to tell her to shut up and go away but she didn’t. Eventually I fell asleep but it was a long night of trying to stay warm and tossing and turning. Finally after wondering all night what time it was and when it was going to be morning. I woke up and it was the coolest thing to wake up to. To sit up and be on the Great Wall with your best friends made the cold okay. I sat up and looked over the edge to see a beautiful view of China and the rest of the Great Wall. It was absolutely breathtaking and indescribable. I could finally say that I slept on the Great Wall. What an amazing thing to be able to say. I just stood with my sleeping bag and took everything that was going on in. The fact that I was in China, that I was traveling the world, that I had been to So many countries, that I was one of the luckiest girls in the world, that I was on The Great Wall, that I had made such amazing friends in such a short time, then the bitter sweet that this eventually has to end. We had to trek all the way back down to put our sleeping bags away and then we had to climb back up. We hiked the Wall for a bit before going back to the bus. We got some of the most beautiful pictures of the trip and just enjoyed each other’s company. After hiking the wall we headed back to the restaurant to wait a bit until the bus left. We piled on the bus and headed back on another 2 hour drive to see the where the Beijing Olympics were held. We ate lunch first at a wonderful restaurant with great food. We had a lot of laughs because we were all so exhausted. After lunch we headed over. We only got to see the outside which I didn’t like very much because I didn’t like too much but you can only do so much. It was so cool to stand in the same place Michael Phelps stood along with a ton of other Olympic Gold Medalist. How lucky was I to go there. I just stood and looked up and spun around to realize where I was right that second. I was on the Olympic greens and I couldn’t believe it. After walking around the Olympic Greens for a bit we headed back to the bus to go do some more shopping and then head to the train station. Finally it was 8:20 p.m and we were getting on the train after a very long couple of days. I had never been on a sleeper car train before, and it was quite an experience. I didn’t know how it worked. All 170 of us got on the train. We took up 4 cars. It was actually a lot of fun .The train was from 9:20 until 7:25 A.M. We hung around and played cards for a bit until I got tired and fell asleep. We had a few really stupid people who trashed the train because they have no respect but I mean I guess you always have morons. As I was falling asleep I was just looking up realizing everything I had just done. I had just slept and climbed The Great Wall of China and then saw the Olympic Stadiums. Who gets to do that all in two days? Not many. I just took a deep breath and realized how lucky I really was. Let’s just say I feel asleep with a nice smile on my face!
The next morning I woke up in a panic because the train was stopped. I was scared we missed our stop but then I realized that our stop was the last stop. It was our turn we got off the train and headed back to the ship. Little did we know that when we arrived at the ship all of our cranky selves were going to have to go through Immigration and stand in a long line for about 2 hours to get back on the ship. None of us wanted to stand in line but we had no other choice. We got on the ship and relaxed for a little while, while our passports got taken to get stamped. After waiting around for a bit, all of us who just spend 3 whole days together decided what is one more day. We all headed out but got split up. Wex, Mike, Chels, and I all walked around a place called Peoples Sq. Because we realized we didn’t want to spend any more money and just enjoy the scenery. I couldn’t have picked better people to walk around with or a better place to be. We had such a great time doing absolutely nothing. We had our final encounter with the squatting toilet which over these past couple ports has been an adventure. We almost saw two locals fight which was pretty funny because they were both so scrawny. We went to star bucks and figured out that Mike didn’t know what a Carmel Macchiato was and he couldn’t pronounce it. He pronounced it Machiado hahaha it was so funny. Wex wasn’t feeling good so he ventured in a taxi back to the ship, which I am assuming was a project because no one spoke English. But that was the fun part of getting around the city. Chels, Mike, and I walked around trying to find a building but had no idea where we were going. Every time someone would offer Mike something he would have the same response and I would just start bursting out laughing. One man walked up to us and said “bags… watches” just like all the rest. Mike looked at him and said “nope” so he walked up to Chelsea and was talking to her and then he walked around and said “ohhhhh… you look like Cinderelllaaaa” I looked back at him with straight confusion and said “ hey buddy Cinderella ya she has hair” Chelsea and Mike just couldn’t help but start hysterically laughing. It was so funny. A couple minutes later we were crossing the street and some lady said “bags.. Watches” something we hadn’t heard before. She offered Mike something and he came back with “ yup bought that yesterday” she said “you did how much” and he said “ 50 cents” she looked at him really confused and said “ well.. How about a new bag for your mother” he came back with “ bought that yesterday” and kept walking. Let’s just say she didn’t like him to much haha. But we got a nice laugh out of it. It felt like every 5 feet there was something “ bags.. Watches.. Shopping” and every time “Nope. No shopping”. We wondered for a good 2 hours until we got to water and found the building we were looking for to take pictures of and it just so happen that we found the boat too. We walked back to the boat and went in so we could take a nap and eat some dinner. A little later I made a quick last minute decision to go to a Chinese Acrobatic Show through Semester at Sea. It was one of the best last minute decisions I have ever made. It was probably the COOLEST thing ever. The people had such talents and it was so enjoyable. There were people flipping and jumping and balancing pots on the heads oh man it was crazy. My jaw was on the floor the whole time. If anyone had a chance to go to see one of these shows, I would highly recommend it. After I got home form that I hung out for a bit and then headed to bed for the night.
The next morning I woke up and we decided to just walk around the city for the day. Jules, Chris, Becca, and I all just roamed around for a bit and did some last minute shopping for the day and then headed back to the ship.
China was probably one of my favorite places. Doing the things I did was absolutely crazy. Sleeping on the great wall was damn cold but 100 percent worth it and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am grateful for everything that I did and wouldn’t change the people I did it with or anything for anything.
CHINA = A MUST GO TO PLACE! :-)
Welll we just completed country number 10 and it was defiantly one of my favorite ports!
Day one of China was all about roaming. My friend Ashleigh and I decided to just go and see where we ended up. We ended up at a market and then at an amusement park! Ha-ha. We got off the ship and started looking for the ferry to take us across the harbor to the other side of Hong Kong. (If you didn’t know because most people don’t Hong Kong is the Puerto Rico of China. I didn’t understand that concept till we got more stamps and had to fill out customs forms 2 times.) So when Ash and I were trying to find the ferry we found the Hop on Hop off Hong Kong tour bus. We could get around the city for a flat price and take our time oh and it included a Ferry ticket there and back. That sounded good to us. We bought our tickets and headed on to the ferry let me tell you they don’t waste any space people flooded onto this ferry like they were running from something. The ferry ride lasted all about 3 minutes but it was a really pretty view. We went to get on the red line tour bus but it was full so we jumped on the Green line one that went to an island. It’s a topless bus (no perverts not shirtless) it was a double decker bus with no top. We sat up top so we could enjoy the view. It was beautiful! The sky scrapers were everywhere and they were so pretty, the city was just amazing. As we were driving we saw the apartment buildings and they were so no up to standard with the rest of the city. They were all run down and didn’t look too maintained. We got to a stop that was called Ocean Park Adventure Park. It looked really cool but we decided to stay on the bus. As the bus drove away we saw a sign that said Panda’s here. We immediately regretted our decision but we looked forward to what we might see. As we drove alone we saw a breath taking view of the ocean and mountains and beaches. It was absolutely beautiful I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The bus was whipping down the street around the corners it was so funny. Ashleigh and I were laughing about how we were going to lose a hand taking a picture. As we rode on the bus we had headphones that explained what was around us. We finally got to the stop that we were going to get off at which was a world famous market called Stanley Island Market. I don’t know why it was famous but it was expensive. We walked around and knew the next bus would come in an hour. We wanted to go see how much it was to go in the amusement park so we could decide if we wanted to go in. We walked around and bought a few things then headed back to the bus. We got on the bus and it went back the other way. We were either going to go jump on the red bus or go the amusement park. When we were riding back we saw the amusement park was split in half by a mountain and had a cable car that went over the mountain which was pretty cool! So we really wanted to go at this point. We got to the stop and jumped off realizing if it was too expensive we would have to wait an hour for the next bus. We walked up to the ticket counter and she told us the price and it was really cheap for an amusement park. I asked her “umm is that for everything inside” with much confusion she said back yes everything but food. So I looked Ash and said PANDAS... RIDES … LET GOO! So we paid and headed into the park. We went straight for the panda exhibit. It was so cool to see pandas they were just so cute. I never thought I would get to see them! After looking at An An and Ji Ji the pandas we headed to find our next bit of fun. There was a cable car that went over or a train that went through the mountain. We decided we were going to take the train there cable car back. We jumped on the train and they made it a ride like you were going underwater it was so cool. (I know living in my kid world again.) When we got to the other side I saw a rollercoaster and log flume I was in my glory. Ashleigh doesn’t like roller coasters but I told her she was going on it weather she liked it or not. She didn’t like that too much. We started walking now you had to walked down and go down this and go down 3 sets of escalators to get to a ride it was crazy. We finally got to the long flume ride. Being 10 again we got super excited and waited in line. These little kids thought they could cut us but when we went to cut them back they made a scene so we just stayed in our spot and waited. We went on the log flume that we thought was going to be awesome… That was false it wasn’t it was short and pretty stupid lol. After we headed to this roller coaster and Ashleigh said I don’t want to go on and I said lets go. So we waited in line. One thing we learned in this line that Chinese people don’t have personal bubbles like we do. Ashleigh is one person that has a HUGE personal bubble. There was a lady in line that was basically standing on her. It was hilarious because Ash didn’t move her feet and the lady just kept getting closer. The line got cut off at us so the next ride was ours. I was super excited because we would be in the front but Ash didn’t like that too much. She looked at me and said “Amy I hate you” with so much love in her voice. We go on the front seat of the ride when we got off the ride she said oh that wasn’t that bad. Little did I know she had never been on an upside down ride. We were walking over to the other part of the park and we saw a Seal Exhibit. It was cool because the seals were fighting. On jumped on to the rock and it was the BIGGEST thing I had ever seen in my life. We started cracking up and were so entertained. We got to the upside down roller coaster and we are standing in line and Ashley is saying “I don’t want to go I don’t want to go” she still hadn’t told me she had never been on one. It’s our ride and the Meany I am we went in the very back seat because everyone knows that the way front and the way back are the two best seats. She was like Amy are you serious. I’m sorry if I puke. So the ride starts to go and she is freaking out. The ride wasn’t that big of deal. Kind of like the corkscrew that Canobie Lake Park. The ride is over and she looks over and says “That was my first upside down roller coaster lets go on again”. I started cracking up and sure enough we went on again but sat in the second seat from the front. We had a ball. After that we headed to the Aquarium that was in the park to. How can I describe this aquarium to you? The Aquarium itself was awesome we saw giant sting rays and all sorts of cools stuff. We walked into the building and there were about 3000 people in this little walkway. All doing their own thing stopping taking pictures. Our personal bubbles just were totally invaded. It was hilarious. We enjoyed it for about 15 seconds before we decided to bolt through the crowd and get the hell out of there. It was like try to move through walls. It was impossible. We were darting around things but we thought it was NEVER going to end. Finally we got out and I thought I had just been freed from jail not even exaggerating. We took the cable cars back and headed back to the ship. I got back to the ship and got changed and went out to dinner with my friend Molly’s family. It was Molly, Mandi, Tom, Marisa, Maggie, and Jake. Carly, Gail, Marcus went but they had to leave. Ed and Kayla didn’t make it. We watched the World famous light show that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and then headed to dinner. We went to a restaurant that had not one bit of English and we had no idea what we ordered. Molly’s parents ordered a little bit of everything for us to all split. Everyone got a beer and I stuck with my coke a cola haha. They started bring food and we had no idea what we were eating but I decided to be super brave. Eventually we found out we ate some fried Eel, Chicken, beef, Some kind of shell fish that had little bumpy things on it( super chew but I guess it was good) I jumped leaps and bounds that night trying things. But dinner was excellent. Her parents paid even though we all offered money. After dinner the rest of them went out and Maggie and I headed back to the ship for the night since we had a long couple days ahead of us. I had an all around great day in Hong Kong. I would defiantly go back there.
The next morning started our adventure. We woke up in the morning finished packing before heading out to the airport. Carly Kayla Gail and I headed to the airport in a taxi. We got to the airport and checked in and headed to the terminal. There was free wifi so I got to Skype my Mom and Sister!! Which was very exciting! We boarded the plane and were off to Beijing. We flue China air, it was a nice plane. It was a 2.5 hour flight, so I took a nap. But as I was napping I heard them come by with drinks and then a little while later I smelt some food. I figured the food you had to pay for since it was only a 2.5 hour flight. But nope it was free. I got fruit, bread, butter, and a tray of spaghetti, desert, and a drink all for free. It was great and very tasty and unfamiliar. I am used to snack packs of pretzels on the flights at home. Once we landed we had to go through customs again and I had another face to face that had a hard time believing my passport was me. She looked at me about 4 times and said “You have short hair” then looked down and said “you have no hair” I said yes ma’am I shaved my head. But she just didn’t get it. She looked again asked me to take my glasses off and looked down very confused and gave me my passport. It was quite funny to me. The whole group of 170 headed out to the buses to get checked in and head to the hotel. I asked my friend Maggie if Kayla and I could be in their group of 30 the next day. Her exact quote was “I have to ask Wex” now I knew who Wex was but I wasn’t sure why she had to ask him. Then I found out … They had a list. Wex said we could so I was very excited because they are a really funny group. We went to the hotel and then Gail, Carly, Kayla, Lindsy, Naya, and I went out to dinner. We enjoyed our walk through Beijing that kind of reminded me of a calmer NYC. We saw street venders on one side but decided to go into a restaurant because it was quite cold. We defiantly picked the wrong restaurant because there again was NO ENGLISH included in this dinner. It was one of the funniest dinners I have ever had in my life. So many funny things happened. We ordered things we didn’t even know what they included. Lucky what I ordered was excellent. Carly ordered something that tasted like napkins. OH man we couldn’t stop laughing at this dinner. I have some quotes I wrote down that I will post in a separate blog. After our interesting dinner we headed to go check out the street venders... it was very interesting. There were pineapples dipped in sugar on a stick which were SO GOOD! There were fried anything you could think of. Snake, fish, beetles, dog, testicles, everything just everything. They were throwing things at us to scare us it was so funny. We were walking long taking pictures and sadly some guy asked me if I was pregnant. It was the saddest funniest thing ever. I got so mad but I was laughing. I looked far from fat let alone pregnant. We have no idea why he said that but it was so funny. We saw fried Ice cream and just everything. After wondering around freezing our butts off we headed back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast and then went on our way. We went to another hotel and broke up into groups and that’s when the fun began. We had a group of twenty eight. But there was a good group of us that stayed close and had a great time. It was Sammy, Kayla, Marisa, Maggie, Wex, Mike, Slim, Andre, Naya, Jamal, Chelsea, and a few more. Little did I know that this week I was going to make some of my best friends on this trip. We went on the bus and started our trip to the great wall. We went first to the Forbidden City which was really cool. Wex, Slim, and Mike all go to school together and there is one more of them that completes them but he went with another group. His name is Marcus and he is quite a character just like the rest of them. They just made the Forbidden City that much funnier and fun as well as everything else we did. After we saw the Forbidden City we went to Tiananmen Square which everyone was calling Timitz Square ( which is deck five center of our ship) . When we were walking through the square and everywhere else people would try to tell you things. There were these little crazy toys that a 2 year old would play with it spun around and lit up and this is when Mike and I became best friends forever and ever. We walked by 6 people in a row that were selling them and Mike was a huge magnet for these sellers he saw the them and said “ dude I’m 20 what would I do with that” they would all walk up to him and say one for you one for you and every time his response would be “No.. Nope..Na.. Nope” but the just didn’t get it. When the six people asked him he mumbled “ If I said know to the first 5 why would I buy one from you” and I just started cracking up laughing. The things that come out of this kid’s mouth I couldn’t stop laughing. When we were walking back to the bus we saw a boy that was wearing a Chris Brown hat. They had literally said Chris Brown on it Mike saw it and just said “ watup brotha” like the kid was going to understand him. One we got back to the bus we headed to the market where we did some shopping before we headed on our 2 or more hour trek to the great wall. We ate lunch before our drive to which wasn’t very good but we all dealt with it. After Lunch we squashed on to the bus that had NO leg room at all and started this long drive. Most people fell asleep for the drive. We didn’t realize the night that we had ahead of us. We lucked out with a good group and not a drunken group haha. Our group was full of laughs and good times. It was awesome. When we arrived near the great wall for dinner we headed in for dinner and had to wait a little bit which mister slim was no to happy about because he was very hungry. Finally they started bringing out food that was alright. The other groups started coming and some people you could tell were already completely drunk. It was FREEZING outside. Every time we would go outside we would say WE HAVE TO SLEEP IN THIS! We just couldn’t believe how cold we were going to be. We sat around this restaurant for a while before we started our full on TREK to the great wall. Finally we all got bundled up and when I say buddle up I was wearing 4 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of pants, 2 thermals, a t-shirt, and a winter North face with hat and gloves and I was still cold. We started our trek that was a 45 minute walk to wear we were parking it to sleep. We had to pick up some sleeping bags on our way up. Each person got a mat and 2 sleeping bags. It was dark by the time we were walking up the walkway to the wall. We started climbing stairs after stairs and I could just hear Mike mumbling things behind me and I couldn’t help but crack up about the things he was saying. Finally we could see the great wall and we figured we were almost there. We got up on the wall and the feeling I had that I was ON “The Great Wall of China” was just unbelievable. Whoever in their live can imagine being on top of this beautiful man made structure. We finished our climb up to our watch tower where we set up our sleeping bags and walked around and hung out with everyone for a little bit. Kayla Mike Marcus and I were all chillin out talking to people that were walking by and laughing at drunken people. We were all cracking jokes and just laughing our asses off. After a while we decided to head to bed because we had another long day. Climbing had warmed us up but after standing for awhile it was quite cold. The temperature was actually -11°C which is about 13°F! Which is pretty damn cold to be sleeping outside, but we just kept thinking about the fact that we were sleeping on the Great Wall and whoever does this ! NOONE. When we climbed back up to our watch tower to our sleeping bags we all crawled into our sleeping bags but it was still quite cold. I don’t like my face covered when I sleep but it was either FREEZING face or face covered. I finally had fallen sleep and some girl came RUNNING up yelling about how some dumb ass drunken girl fell down the stairs . She was shining the flash light yelling and I just wanted to tell her to shut up and go away but she didn’t. Eventually I fell asleep but it was a long night of trying to stay warm and tossing and turning. Finally after wondering all night what time it was and when it was going to be morning. I woke up and it was the coolest thing to wake up to. To sit up and be on the Great Wall with your best friends made the cold okay. I sat up and looked over the edge to see a beautiful view of China and the rest of the Great Wall. It was absolutely breathtaking and indescribable. I could finally say that I slept on the Great Wall. What an amazing thing to be able to say. I just stood with my sleeping bag and took everything that was going on in. The fact that I was in China, that I was traveling the world, that I had been to So many countries, that I was one of the luckiest girls in the world, that I was on The Great Wall, that I had made such amazing friends in such a short time, then the bitter sweet that this eventually has to end. We had to trek all the way back down to put our sleeping bags away and then we had to climb back up. We hiked the Wall for a bit before going back to the bus. We got some of the most beautiful pictures of the trip and just enjoyed each other’s company. After hiking the wall we headed back to the restaurant to wait a bit until the bus left. We piled on the bus and headed back on another 2 hour drive to see the where the Beijing Olympics were held. We ate lunch first at a wonderful restaurant with great food. We had a lot of laughs because we were all so exhausted. After lunch we headed over. We only got to see the outside which I didn’t like very much because I didn’t like too much but you can only do so much. It was so cool to stand in the same place Michael Phelps stood along with a ton of other Olympic Gold Medalist. How lucky was I to go there. I just stood and looked up and spun around to realize where I was right that second. I was on the Olympic greens and I couldn’t believe it. After walking around the Olympic Greens for a bit we headed back to the bus to go do some more shopping and then head to the train station. Finally it was 8:20 p.m and we were getting on the train after a very long couple of days. I had never been on a sleeper car train before, and it was quite an experience. I didn’t know how it worked. All 170 of us got on the train. We took up 4 cars. It was actually a lot of fun .The train was from 9:20 until 7:25 A.M. We hung around and played cards for a bit until I got tired and fell asleep. We had a few really stupid people who trashed the train because they have no respect but I mean I guess you always have morons. As I was falling asleep I was just looking up realizing everything I had just done. I had just slept and climbed The Great Wall of China and then saw the Olympic Stadiums. Who gets to do that all in two days? Not many. I just took a deep breath and realized how lucky I really was. Let’s just say I feel asleep with a nice smile on my face!
The next morning I woke up in a panic because the train was stopped. I was scared we missed our stop but then I realized that our stop was the last stop. It was our turn we got off the train and headed back to the ship. Little did we know that when we arrived at the ship all of our cranky selves were going to have to go through Immigration and stand in a long line for about 2 hours to get back on the ship. None of us wanted to stand in line but we had no other choice. We got on the ship and relaxed for a little while, while our passports got taken to get stamped. After waiting around for a bit, all of us who just spend 3 whole days together decided what is one more day. We all headed out but got split up. Wex, Mike, Chels, and I all walked around a place called Peoples Sq. Because we realized we didn’t want to spend any more money and just enjoy the scenery. I couldn’t have picked better people to walk around with or a better place to be. We had such a great time doing absolutely nothing. We had our final encounter with the squatting toilet which over these past couple ports has been an adventure. We almost saw two locals fight which was pretty funny because they were both so scrawny. We went to star bucks and figured out that Mike didn’t know what a Carmel Macchiato was and he couldn’t pronounce it. He pronounced it Machiado hahaha it was so funny. Wex wasn’t feeling good so he ventured in a taxi back to the ship, which I am assuming was a project because no one spoke English. But that was the fun part of getting around the city. Chels, Mike, and I walked around trying to find a building but had no idea where we were going. Every time someone would offer Mike something he would have the same response and I would just start bursting out laughing. One man walked up to us and said “bags… watches” just like all the rest. Mike looked at him and said “nope” so he walked up to Chelsea and was talking to her and then he walked around and said “ohhhhh… you look like Cinderelllaaaa” I looked back at him with straight confusion and said “ hey buddy Cinderella ya she has hair” Chelsea and Mike just couldn’t help but start hysterically laughing. It was so funny. A couple minutes later we were crossing the street and some lady said “bags.. Watches” something we hadn’t heard before. She offered Mike something and he came back with “ yup bought that yesterday” she said “you did how much” and he said “ 50 cents” she looked at him really confused and said “ well.. How about a new bag for your mother” he came back with “ bought that yesterday” and kept walking. Let’s just say she didn’t like him to much haha. But we got a nice laugh out of it. It felt like every 5 feet there was something “ bags.. Watches.. Shopping” and every time “Nope. No shopping”. We wondered for a good 2 hours until we got to water and found the building we were looking for to take pictures of and it just so happen that we found the boat too. We walked back to the boat and went in so we could take a nap and eat some dinner. A little later I made a quick last minute decision to go to a Chinese Acrobatic Show through Semester at Sea. It was one of the best last minute decisions I have ever made. It was probably the COOLEST thing ever. The people had such talents and it was so enjoyable. There were people flipping and jumping and balancing pots on the heads oh man it was crazy. My jaw was on the floor the whole time. If anyone had a chance to go to see one of these shows, I would highly recommend it. After I got home form that I hung out for a bit and then headed to bed for the night.
The next morning I woke up and we decided to just walk around the city for the day. Jules, Chris, Becca, and I all just roamed around for a bit and did some last minute shopping for the day and then headed back to the ship.
China was probably one of my favorite places. Doing the things I did was absolutely crazy. Sleeping on the great wall was damn cold but 100 percent worth it and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am grateful for everything that I did and wouldn’t change the people I did it with or anything for anything.
CHINA = A MUST GO TO PLACE! :-)
NEXT STOP JAPAN!
No comments:
Post a Comment