Endless Summer Tiny World

So we made it to Beijing!! Finally!! We had a 15 hour flight to shanghai, and then 2 hours to Beijing. We got in and the airlines left chelsy’s bag in shanghai (don’t worry she has it back now!) we hopped on a bus stopping near where we needed to but didn’t know where that stop was and no one on that bus spoke English! The buses were packed and just as I had been told the Chinese people are not very good at forming lines, instead it’s just a pushing and shoving match to get on the bus. We finally got our bus driver to figure out where we were going and tell us when to get off the bus. This was at about 1:30 am, as our plan didn’t even land til almost midnight. We got dropped off but in the dark, in a strange area, being unable to read signs much made following our directions a challenge so we just got a cab for the last 10 minutes to our hostel.
Our hostel is really nice and the staff is great! This morning we got up early, because the time change is messing with our sleep schedule, and we did some odds and ends before heading out to the forbidden city.
We saw tiananmen square, walked to the top of the gate, and then into the city. The forbidden city is huge!!! But so cool. All the buildings are just amazing to look at. The roofs are great and all the details in these buildings is amazing. It would take forever to see everything, so Chelsy and I only lasted half the day, but I thought that was a pretty good amount if time! We then hiked up the hill across the street, the hill is made from the dirt they dug out of the moat around the forbidden city, and we enjoyed the view for awhile before moving on. We then went to the lama temple, a Buddhist temple, where everyone was burning incense and we saw an eighty foot high statue of buddha that is carved from one piece of sandalwood!
On the way home we stopped and had our first real Chinese meal…. It was sooo spicy and Chelsy and I both decided our chopsticks skills have got to improve or were gonna lose lots of weight! But maybe that’s a good thing…..
Oh and I forgot…there is no Facebook in china! I know I’m shocked too, how can a country this big not have Facebook?? But I guess that means you’re all gonna have to keep up with me either through email or right here!
Tomorrow’s plan is the great wall!! I’m so excited!

So far the trip has started off great! Chelsy and I met in Chicago and flew to long island, ny. The airport in long island is called slip but we didn’t realize that so when the lady went to put the tag on our checked bag we thought she was asking if we were going to Iceland! Now if we had bought a $60 ticket to Iceland we wouldn’t have been upset, it just would have thrown a little wrench in our plans! So our joke the last couple days has been that we were in Iceland. The weather in NYC is nothing like Iceland though as it’s in the 50’s and 60’s the whole time we’ve been here.
Chelsy and I have a friend, Bert, in long island that we stayed with. He was one of the guys from the tour we were just on. Our first night we took the train into the city and met up and went out with a bunch of his buddies! It was a long late night so we spent half the rest of the day sleeping. We then decided to get out of the city and we headed up to the cabin Bert and his friends and family have been building for two years. It was gorgeous up there. We were up in the catskill mountains and spent the night sitting around the wood stove.
The next day we headed to the local ski mountain and went snowboarding. It was pretty crazy because there was no snow on the mountains anywhere except on the ski hill where they were making snow. It was great weather for boarding though….. Sunny and no wind! On the way back through the city we stopped and had dinner with our friend Rachel Cooper, who we know from the ship. It was great to be able to catch up with her!
This morning we headed out to the beach near long island and also stopped for some traditional new York pizza. Even though we didn’t see much of the city we had a great time! Bert and his family were so nice to us and treated us so well! It was a great start to our trip! We are now headed off to china! It’s a long flight but I can’t wait to be there!!

Sorry It's been forever since I have updated this. The rest of my tour was amazing!! I have made such great friends and it is sad to not see them everyday. But as with everything, the ship and this tour, ... [Continue reading this entry]