An overnight train will get you from Xi’an to Pingyao and another overnighter will take you back to Beijing. However, someone I met on the train told me I could have saved time taking a faster train from Taiyuan to Beijing, I didn’t mind it anyway since I have the superpower of sleeping in the noisiest, most uncomfortable places. When I told people I was going to visit Xi’an and Pingyao over China’s Golden Week, some said “Oh, you’re going to Shanxi” or “You’re going to Shaanxi?” It was only later that I found out Xi’an is in Shaanxi while Pingyao is in Shanxi and they are two completely different provinces.  I probably arrived at about 7am before it got very, very busy.

After filling my tummy with some local noodles that I’d assumed had fish in it but didn’t, I went on to collect my return train ticket from a hostel which refused to store my backpack for the day and later decided to charge me 50RMB (or some other ridiculous amount) after much persistence on my end. Fuck that, I thought, and continued knocking on the doors of several other hostels but they either refused or wanted me to pay. It was unexpectedly disappointing when even the international youth hostel in town turned me down. Downheartedly, I walked over to Yamen Hostel and gave it one last shot. The lady boss agreed immediately. “How much?” I responded skeptically. It was free! I got a bit bolder and asked if there was a bathroom. After making a quick observation, she replied matter-of-factly that there was and that I must be tired and needed a wash-up. I’d only wanted to use the toilet but she offered me the shower and dismissed my offer to give her some money for it. She even helped me rent a bicycle without the usual deposit although I wasn’t staying at her hostel seeing I didn’t have much cash on me. I had lunch of some baked pasta and a hot chocolate at her hostel instead of trying out more Pingyao snacks as my way of saying thanks. By late afternoon, I was exhausted and went back for another cup of hot chocolate, barely able to keep my eyes open. I won’t even use the washroom at McDonald’s without buying anything and I definitely couldn’t hog a table and simply pass out after all the kindness she’d showed me, so I asked if she knew if there was anywhere I could get some shut-eye given all the cheap hostels were fully booked, and she let me sleep on the sofa in the entertainment room explaining no one really used it at that time of the day. I slept soundly for about an hour feeling re-energised and more hopeful about China when I woke up. Thank you, to the lady boss of Yamen Hostel.

Yuyuan Garden

Meeting my mate, Mark (who’s doing a massive holiday around the world with his missus, lucky bastard), definitely put the icing on my vacation. It was Spring Festival and Shanghai was about as quiet as Beijing, minus smoking in public areas. The skyscrapers in Shanghai were incredible and led me to this article on The Mainichi Daily News making an interesting connection with the Tower of Babel. We stayed at Le Tour Traveller’s Rest Youth Hostel and had RMB30 breakfasts every morning: sausages, eggs, toast, juice and tea, quite a luxury! Other than doing typical touristy stuff, we rode around Shanghai on rented bikes from the hostel and tried to go clubbing but failed to find anything decent. There’s a Singapore Day coming up in Pudong in April and hopefully I’ll make it there provided the flights are cheap then; miss Singapore food!

From a Finnish sauna to a Roman steam bath, that’s how I felt in the ridiculous summer heat from Beijing to Qingdao. Don’t get me wrong, I love the humidity because I’m from Singapore but anything above 35°C is just crazy. Clouds. I miss seeing clouds after ten months of cloudless days (and starless nights) in Beijing. German influences (I was told seeing my lack of geographical, architectural knowledge) is strewn all over the hilly landscape in Qingdao which reminds me of Florence. The town is old and pretty much intact though you see footprints where tourism sneakily left and continues to take over the world.

It was a nice walk from the train station to Kaiyue International Hostel: small grubby restaurants with styrofoam boxes of seafood laid outside, watermelon sellers, retired shirt-less men playing chess. There was a small, Japanese-inspired shop selling little potted plants where I wanted to get something but the boss told me it’d be cheaper in Beijing, minus the hassle of bringing it back. He lived in Beijing for a while but settled down in this little outfit that his missus wanted.

The beer festival was a letdown, almost as disappointing as the one I attended back in Singapore a couple of years ago. Bad music, expensive beer and there’s something about space-to-people ratio that I take into consideration when gauging the success of an event; no excuses that it was a weekday evening. Some stupid mascot wanted to charge us 10RMB after we’d taken photos with it! I wasn’t going to pay and we all walked away thinking fuck that. Please understand that this may be a completely biased opinion because I’m not a beer person as Mark had noted but I did still enjoy Qingdao thoroughly. Who needs beer fests when you could get smashed at the hostel bar or buy a 2RMB Tsingtao beer-in-a-bag off the street?

I haven’t been to the Great Wall since I’ve came to Beijing and usually not one who does touristy stuff but the Tsingtao museum was really interesting. Jess got a bottle of Tsingtao with her own label (you can put your face on in) and I just couldn’t get enough of the beer peanuts. Factory visits are always brilliant!

I’d visit the safaris in Africa and scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef if I were a jet setter but I am just a poor ESL teacher so I still visit the menageries even though the aquariums and zoos in Asia have been rather depressing so far. The Qingdao aquarium was no exception with what looked like a dead turtle segregated from three others in a miserably small enclosure to penguins with clipped wings that made felt like I was in a taxidermy museum.

Wore my swimmers under my clothes and we headed to No. 2 beach at the end of the day which was supposedly less crowded than No.1 beach. It was relatively clean to my standards because Singapore’s aren’t any better. And Mark taught me what rock pooling was, a shame it wasn’t part of my urban childhood because it’s one of the simple pleasures in life where it doesn’t cost anything to have fun. By the way, the public showers cost quite a bit at the beach and there are no toilets. Yes, I had to do it in the sea.

We only managed to get standing tickets for the train back to Beijing because they were sold out. We all agreed that we wouldn’t have minded six hours without a seat if it were much cheaper but they were the same price! In the end, we each found a cosy spot for ourselves that is the luggage compartment and some empty space behind the back seats as I made myself comfortable by ripping off pages from the in-train magazine to sit on. Tip from a Chinese man who kindly offered hungry Gloria some buns and bananas: tickets from Qingdao to Beijing may be fully booked but you might be able to get tickets from Qingdao to other stations then top-up or upgrade to a standing ticket for the rest of your journey. Good to know!

Next stop, South Korea!

Can’t be bothered writing the full story because I accidentally deleted my blog’s database last night and I tried to recover it via Google cache. This was one of the pages that I couldn’t recover completely.

Long story short, I got to know Zhao-san, Chinese studying in Fukuoka who brought me for some wicked nomihoudai with free cosplay costumes for rent. Stayed at Kaine Guesthouse, great location and very friendly staff. We even had a nabe Christmas dinner together, along with a mini gift exchange session. I got a cute ceramic, bouncy tiger from an Okinawan guy. Some lady got my 2010 schedule book; boring, I know but it serves the purpose.

All-you-can-drink KTV

Juxtapose

Photo by Yohei-san

Les Misérables

Caught the infamous Les Misérables, cheapest seats in the house – Upper Circle £15.00. I recall sitting at the last row of the theatre, the seats were so crammed (I’m about 5′2″ by the way). It was my first time watching a musical. A Korean guy who didn’t speak much English sat next to me. He was a cycling traveler, the first I’ve ever met, and he wore a thin racer costume in the middle of winter.

Transportation is crazy expensive! I was glad I got the London Pass with Travel – “Unlimited journeys on all London Underground, Buses, Trams, Docklands Light Rail and Over-ground Trains within zones 1 – 6, saves you ALOT of money.

Rub in one direction

I had an interesting experience at the London Brass Rubbing Centre taking an elevator down the Crypt and creating my own Christmas art.

The Chelsea FC Stadium tour was really enjoyable with an engaging guide cracking jokes and keeping the kids entertained. Funny, though not surprising, that I was the only girl at the Chelsea FC Stadium Tour, the participants were fathers with their sons and dudes in a group. By the way, I’m not biased towards Chelsea or anything, it came free with the London Pass.

Not in the mood to blog about visiting Harrods, Selfridges, Camden Market or the likes. Grab a free copy of Visit London and TimeOut London instead.

Beautiful Verona

Just for kicks, I booked a night at the Casa Padri Stimmatini del Santuario di Nostra Signora di Lourdes monastery via Monastery Stays. I thought it’d be a good idea since it’s pretty cheap (17.50 EUR a night) and sounded interesting. Well, it would’ve been if I weren’t a noob.

I took a cab to the monastery because according to Google Maps, it’d take me a day to walk there. It was located on top of a hill. I didn’t meet anybody there except a man who shouted out of his window because I was at the wrong block, and another man who checked me in. No nuns, no cafes, no restaurants, nothing.

It was early afternoon but crazy thoughts were already beginning to flood my mind. I called my sister in Singapore and she said, “Jie, I think you better get out of there. Forget about the money (paid for the lodging), just leave!” I packed my stuff and attempted to sneak out quietly but I bumped into the man who checked me in. I froze and my heart stopped. He asked me where I was going and I told him that I was going out to get some food, complete with my backpack and handcarry on the trolley thingy I bought in Rome. He didn’t probe and so I quickly took my leave.

There were no cabs, hardly any cars. I waited and waited for the bus that never came and panicked when I realise I didn’t have a ticket. I decided to walk and so I went downhill, dragging the bag behind me and going ‘ke-bump! ke-bump! ke-bump!’ down the steps and took a photo of Verona. I didn’t have a map, I didn’t know where I was going and there were no strangers to help me. I was lost. I trudged on in the rain till dark and I felt like crying but my head disagreed so I sucked it in and kept going. I finally found civilisation after walking for about 3 hours (not that long now that I’ve verified the time with the train tickets) and took 2 buses and a train back to Florence.

P/S: I was pretty upset about Verona for awhile after that incident and swore not to go there again, but that’s just me being silly. If given another chance, I’d return to the monastery and visit Juliet’s balcony.

Hotel Domus Florentiae

Lovely way to start the day

Bed and breakfast cost me 113.28 EUR for 2 nights. Apart from a very dark corridor that smelled a little funky and a slightly mouldy mirror, this is a very quaint hotel with clean sheets, decent breakfast and free wifi. There was a vintage wardrobe that came with an antique key that I really liked, and a balcony. I have a thing for balconies because I don’t have one at home (and also because you can smoke there).

Spizzico and Chinese takeout

I couldn’t resist getting some Chinese takeout after 5 days of cold cuts, croissants, pizzas and pasta. If you’re wondering – yes, Spizzico is good and I haven’t had a pizza in Italy that’s not delicious, and no, I didn’t finish everything for dinner. I probably reached the hotel around 7pm, twittered and checked my mail on my trusty iPod Touch, polished off the Chinese takeout and half a pizza, watched some MTV and news in Italian, went to bed, woke up in the wee hours and finished the other half of the pizza. Yes, it was cold. No, I didn’t have a microwave or oven to heat it up. Went back to sleep.

Morning. Hopped on the Eurail again, Firenze SMN to Pisa Centrale. Leaning tower, checked.

Leaning tower of Pisa

Things got more interesting from there on. There was a strike or something on my way back to the Pisa Centrale. I think some of the locals felt irritated when our bus got caught in the traffic but I thought it was rather exciting because we don’t have strikes or riots in Singapore.

Strike in Pisa

While waiting for the train back to Florence, Yukari approached me to help take a photo of her and we became friends on the train. She thought I was Japanese which was quite funny that she couldn’t tell that I’m not. We communicated with what little Japanese I spoke and with the help of her translator. Yukari was on a working holiday in Paris and came to Italy for a short holiday. She was living in a hostel where she got to know Ryota and Kojima. Ryota was a fugu chef who came to learn Tuscan cuisine and Kojima was on his grad trip.

Yukari and Ryota at Michelangelo

Carousel

We walked around till late and I had my first good meal at a restaurant with my new friends. Not sure if it was a Christmas market but there were people dining at this carousel-like structure and there were booths selling wooden toys, fresh herbs and candies. It was about midnight when they walked me back to my hotel and I realised it wasn’t so scary to walk about at night after all.

Roma Termini

I was so relieved when I saw the sign Roma Termini. Didn’t matter if it was slightly wet that morning, I followed the directions and found myself at Yes Hotel. The lift was broken so we had to use another one located at the back of the hotel which turned out to be a vintage elevator, I like! Here’s a really bad video of  the machina in action (Mr Tatonka and I, tugging a foldable trolley thingy I bought in Rome to help me with my hand carry):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsvGDIyro_I]

My first meal was at Trattoria I Leoni d’Abruzzo. The staff at Yes Hotel gave me a name card to this trattoria because I was absolutely famished but most places weren’t ready to serve lunch as I arrived 10-ish (I think). They probably have some referral thing going on and you get a discount if you turn up with the name card that has Yes Hotel and -10% Discount stamped on it. I lost the receipt and can’t recall how much my meal cost but I vaguely remember that the food was average.

Trattoria I Leoni d'Abruzzo

Sitting in a restaurant and swaying side to side in my head after 20 hours of train. – Me, via iPod Touch

I booked Yes Hotel through their website and it had the best directions to guide me from Termini Station to their hotel. I wasn’t really on a rough-it-out, stay-in-guesthouses kinda backpacking trip previously and spent 125.90 EUR for two nights. Will definitely recommend this hotel if you’re not on a backpacker’s budget for the excellent location, friendly staff and cozy rooms.

Can’t exactly recall what I did on my first day in Rome but thanks to digitally dated photos, I reckon I must have visited the supermarket.

Supermercato

Meat section

After exploring the area near my hotel, fatigue and first-timer’s-jitters of travelling alone when night falls (awfully early) ushered me to a nearby internet cafe where I e-mailed my friends and checked what time Mr Sun’s getting up the next day so I could catch him at the Colosseum.