Well after all the waiting, I'm finally here! The flight did not drag as much as it could have done, just over 9 and a half hours in the end I think. Managed to get some sleep on the plane. Got through the airport nice and easy and took a shuttle bus to the railway station. When we got dropped off there, there was no sign of a railway station though! Some man with a bike took us what could only have been about half way to the hostel and then tried to tell us the amount he quoted us was in euros so in Chinese money it would be a lot more-er no thanks, why would we have agreed a price in Euros?!
After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at the hostel having walked for about 45 mins (with the massive bag). Hostel is ok, not bad for 2.40 (sorry no pound sign on this keyboard) a night! We had booked 2 beds in the dorm for 10 but got put in a room for 4. We had to spend the first night sharing with some snoring Koreans, not good considering the jetlag! Went to bed at 6 in the evening, slept for 4 hours and then the noisy ones came back. I have never heard snoring like what this guy was doing, so that kept me up for a while. Ended up getting some more sleep and felt refreshed in the morning. No hot water when I had a shower so that woke me up fully! Think I just picked a bad time to have a shower, there is some hot water now (thank god).
Went to Tiananmen Square yesterday and walked around the Forbidden City. That was really big and impressive. The hostel is only about a 10 minute walk from Tiananmen Square, so really well located. Went up into one of the gates in Tiananmen Square and walked around the "museum" in there. It was so cold and windy all day, never known anything like it and probably never will again! Thank god I had all my layers and nice think hat and scarf-thanks ASB!
Had dinner in the hostel and later on came back to the restaurant/bar in the hostel, 80p for a large bottle of beer-would you believe, I didn't to start with! So it seems I may have to acquire a taste for Chinese beer while we are here!
Still really cold today but not as bad as yesterday, the wind wasn't as bad today so that was lucky. Went to Beijing Zoo today, only 1.50 to get in. As it was so cold not all the animals were out, still saw gorillas, rhinos, other monkies, zebra, giraffe, elephants (and probably some more that I have forgotten about already) and last but not least the pandas. They were so cute. There was 3 in individual enclosures and then we found an enclosure with 7 or 8 smallish ones, all playing and eating bamboo, it was so cool to watch them! Needless to say got some pictures-need to work out how to upload them then I will put some on. Got the subway to the zoo, only 20p, really good subway and easy to use and helpfully everything was repeated in English and the ticket machines could be changed to English too!
Better be off now, need to sort out extending the stay in the hostel and hopefully get a room with a bit more warmth than what we have at the moment. Our heater doesn't seem to be working properly which is not good when it's so cold!
Update you all again soon, hope it's warmer where you all are!!
x
