So as you may know, the GPA has now come to an end. After thousands of photos, five packages mailed home, hundreds of items left behind accidentally, many new friends and countless adventures, we made it home in two pieces!
Even though things have continued to be busy since we got home, I’ve found sometime to recount the last leg of our journey which mainly included visits to our family and friends.
One of the main reasons for choosing Asia for our great adventure, was an invitation from Jake’s brother and sister-in-law to stay with them in Beijing while they were living there temporarily. So from Hanoi we took a bus to the Chinese border. Unfortunately, we took too long at the border and our bus left us there with nothing but our bags and a plastic pass with Chinese characters on it. After showing our pass to a couple different bus drivers, they signaled us to wait. Not knowing how long we were going to wait, or if we were even going to get on another bus, I was getting a little nervous. But as with every other nerve-wracking experience on our trip, there was no reason to worry. We made it to Nanning and didn’t even have to wait that long at the border.
We spent a couple days in Nanning, where many tourists do not go, so we got our fair share of weird looks and some good food (including garlic stuffed oysters nom nom) and headed to a town called Yanshou. We spent two days there biking around the karst scenery and the local villages.
It was quite touristy with both Chinese and western tourists, but once you got on the trail, you rarely saw another cyclist. I definitely did not regret our decision to skip Halong Bay in Vietnam, as this scenery must have been at least comparable and I would much rather travel by bicycle than by boat anyway.
After Yangshou, we took an overnight train to Shanghai, and stayed for a couple days checking out the foggy skyline and designer stores before taking the bullet train to Beijing where we finally met up with Daniel and Stacy.
We spent a week with them and their dog, Gizmo and their neighbours dog, Dong Dong. Here they are:
Dan took us to many different types of Chinese food like Szechuan, Yunnan and the famous peking duck. We also went to a Chinese brew pub too! It was so nice to spend some time with them and see where they live in Beijing and hear what it is like to live in China. I really want to thank them for letting us relax at their place, use their computer and for getting us addicted to Game of Thrones. I can’t wait to see them again, but in Canada this time!
In Beijing we took some time to see the Forbidden City, which was the ancient royal palace. It was very nice, but overwhelming big, especially when it is full to the brim with people. Here I am with some other tourists who wanted my photo:
We also went on an amazing hiking tour of the Great Wall of China. We went with a group called Beijing Hikers, which took us about two hours away from Beijing and we got to hike on empty parts of the wall with spectacular scenery for about four hours. While in Beijing we also checked out an art district, bought some cute antiques, and ate as many dumplings as we could.
After Beijing we flew to another previously walled city, Berlin. I really liked Berlin, especially when we took an “Alternative walking tour” that showed us all the artsy districts, street art and cool bars.
We checked out the wall and took a slightly disappointing bus tour, but managed to at least see all the important buildings, even if the bus tour didn’t tell us much about them. Berlin was just such a cool city to me in the sense that the city was not just a place to live, but where people felt they could really be a part of it. From using an old jewish market building as free living quarters to having parties in the subway station with free music every Saturday night to having a bus system based solely on the honour system to street art being legal and encouraged.
It just seems like there is more to living in Berlin than just living there, you are part of something and really a citizen of Berlin than just a citizen of Germany. I’d probably have to live there to see if that is the reality, but that was the vibe I got from Berlin and why I liked it so much. Also something worth mentioning was that Jake ran into a friend from his highschool there! How crazy! So we hung out with her for a night, which was a lot of fun.
On our way to Hamburg we missed our first train out of our whole trip. I thought traveling in Europe would be easier than Asia, but I was proved wrong. We eventually made it to Hamburg to the little town of Bargetheide where my Dad, Stepmom and little brother live.
While I relaxed and applied for jobs, Jake spent most of the time entertaining the crazy nine year olds. We went to the beach, saw my Uncle and my cousins and ate some great food. Once again, it was really nice to hang out with family and see what life is like in Germany. Here is a photo with Tuscan and my uncle Ron cutting the birthday cake:
Do you remember the friends we met in Hanoi who live in Paris? Well their place was our next stop. Believe it or not, it was actually the same price to rent a car and drive to Paris than take the train, so we go ourselves a Nissan Note and drove the ten hours to Paris, stopping at a castle along the way.
We then met up with Hervé and Pauline at their place in Paris and spent a couple days wining and dining with them, and checking out the beautiful city of Paris.
We saw Nortre Dame, the Effel Tower, The Sacre Coeure, the Arc de Triomphe and many things while just walking around. Here is Jake with Herve and Pauline outside the Notre Dame:
We then took a train to London, where we almost got turned away at the border. We didn’t have proof of our flight out of London, or jobs in Canada, or any money, so the border agent didn’t think we would leave London. At that point I was more than ready to return to Canada so I wanted to beg our case that we were ready to go home and wouldn’t stay even if we were allowed! But we finally convinced him by showing him our hostel reservation was only for five days, so he let us in which was a great relief.
We finally met up with my friend Rochelle, and the time spent with her was really great, as I hadn’t seen her in year, and we had gone from living and working together, to not being in the same country anymore. She showed us around London, took us to some great restaurants and saw Wicked with us too. Here we are in front of the Tower Bridge:
It was such a great end to the trip to see her, and spend some time with her again. Who knows where either of us will be next, so it was great to dedicate k days to see where she lives, and spend some time catching up.
Jake and I spent our last night at a pub in London where they happened to be showing a movie called Frozen. I took it as a bad omen for coming back to Canada, as it was a movie about three people who get stuck on a chairlift with vicious wolves circling the bottom. Even though I was really ready to go back I think something was telling me to remember how cold Canadian winters can get and to be thankful I was able to skip out on part of the winter.
We made it home and were lucky to be greeted by another one of my best friends, Steph and her boyfriend Alex, and her parents John and Deb, who we are living with in Toronto. What a great end to the trip! I am definitely happy to be home and excited to see what adventure will be next!
