Shanghai was a very pleasant place to be. On Sunday night, our friend Andeep (fellow TTC intern) discovered us in the common area of the hostel as he was aslso staying there with his friend Marcel. We did indeed stay up to watch the football (though I was sensible making sure that I got a an hour or so's kip before rising at 02.30. I was most upset that Germany lost =(
We continued our cultural excursions the following day (one couldn;t possibly refer to the morning) by visiting shanghai museum. We put our umbrella duels on hold for this. It was a nice museum but my favourite exhibition was about the greek olympics which isn't very Chinese at all!
We moved on from this back to the Bund but this time we crossed the river. We took the sightseeign tunnel, which was tunnel and lots of flashing lights with a voice narrating what it was supposed to be i.e a meteor shower or the sea. It was so awful it was funny. Included in the price of the ticket was entrance to possible the worst fish museum/aquarium one could ever imagine. We did each choose our favourite style of fishing net. Entrance to a sex museum was also included. This was more interesting - it showed the old methods of sex education. Nothing to do with STD's or anything but more ornements or pictures that a mother would show her daughter before her wedding night. just so she knew what she was in for!
We headed back, opting for the ferry this time to get us across the river. I think we may have walked back to our hostel and eaten somewhere along the route... wait yes we did! I remember now. Upon our return to the hostel we spyed Andeep in the cafe bar and went to join him. We chatted to him, his friend and 2 american guys. We sat down with a few beers and had some crazy conversations about very trivial things which reminded me of my friends and made me miss them. The americans suggested going to a bar on the 87th floor of some famous tower across the river. Everyone consented so off we went. It was a very expensive bar, the cheapest option being to split a bottle of wine. It had lots of tables by the windows, yet after circling the bar and inspecting the lovely if smoggy views, all 7 of us ended up stood down a little dead end corridor. It had windows tru enough but who knows why we didn't pick a good seat!
We got thrown out of this bar at closing time (surprisingly early) and moved onto bar street for a few games of dice. It was around this time that I said something that wasn't taken too well by Craig. It wasn't anything offensive, mean or insulting but perhaps too blunt in stating the truth. Craig is not one to argue so sulked so Izzie took it upm herself to have a chat with him on the way back to the hostel. I had to stay. Not that I minded I have a great time with the guys.
The private chat contined over breakfast, to which I was not invited. I took the chance to talk to Andeep and Marcel who both said that it wasn't my fault he got upset. It left me feeling like a third wheel that my 2 friends who had only recently met were going off without, I didn't much enjoy it.
After they finally reappeared we had to wait for my washing to finish but then we disappeared to a propaganda museum. It was full of posters of Mao's time in power which was actually very interesting. My knowledge of Mao was non-existant before I came to china allowing many people to despair of me. I am now fully updated .. sort of. We moved on from there to the temple. during the taxi ride there, I treid to translate a message from a friend of my Dad's. Reading Chinese is like breaking a code! I got halfway through but gave up on the last half and asked the first english speaking Chinese person at the temple to translate it for me. It was a small but nice temple with an impressive artist working upstairs. They had some ginormous koi fish too. There was a vegetarian restaurant attached so guess where we ate! We chilled out for a while back at the hostel, I updated my travel journal and wrote a few postcards before going to a very nice italian restaurant in an old tram carriage. Yum yum.
We plonked ourselves on a sofa for some chatting but I went back to the room to pack before the other 2. I chatted to our roomies about elephants. I was asleep before they returned because of an early start. Those two seem fond of sleep deprivation though I am more aware of what kind of monster I turn into when tired and hungry.
We are now in Nanjing. Craig made friends with our taxi driver who tried to teach him Chinese, although we couldn't tell you what. We grabbed some lunch (I was heartborken by the lack of a veggie burger in Burger King) and headed to a musuem dedicated to "the Rape of Nanjing" when the Japanese invaded. It was a haunting and vaguely creepy place, built on the site of a 10,000 mass grave. There were no replicas and there was an area semi-excavated so that you could see the skeletons, actual skeletons, up to 7 one on top of the other as 30,000 people died in total. We moved on to a confucian temple which was a bit more enlightening. Actually in between these two sights, Izie got herself a tattoo. She got her chinese name liya pn her foot. We had to amuse her when it was being done to avert her attentions and I held her hand. I can't say i think that much of it, but it means something so at least it's not an ugly tattoo for no reason! Not that I dislike Nanjing, which is a very pretty, little place, but I miss Shanghai!
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