We were really tired after our long day yesterday and so chilled out after the free breakfast of super-sweet toast, egg and very very pale sausage. I thought the one in the in-flight breakfast was just suffering from plane aneamia but it seems that's just how they like their sausage.
We moved rooms to a dorm to save some cash and although we'd been warned about the infamous snorer by other guests, we somehow managed to get put in the same room - probably because everyone had scarpered. I'd asked one of them why they didn't wake him up but I understood as soon as I saw the size of him! We asked to move too because I know what I'm like when I'm tired and I'm not sure our travel insurance covered picking fights with Chinese giants!
Had a walk around the funky shops on the street and I think Matt was grateful that we had so much stuff because otherwise I'd be leaving Beijing with a large cache of cute, colourful and totally useless crap.
I tried to venture into the world of Chinese food a little more and so we spent some time perusing the goodies on sale. The only vegetarian thing that I could find seemed to be a strange concoction of crepe, eggs and doughnuts all wrapped up and smeared in different coloured goo. It tasted of nothing (as one would expect fried flour and fried egg to taste) but it was well worth the money just to witness the concentration and precision in making it and the fascination of all who were watching. I gave in and tried some chicken on sticks shorty after. Given the success on stick based snacks I also tried sugared strawberries on sticks and they were the best food yet.
We decided to go and take a look at the drum tower and bell tower nearby. They were the centre of old Beijing and were interesting looking buildings. Between the two there was a recreation space where we watched people play with feathered hackey sacks. There was also a kind of park but all the apparatus were like mechanical gym machines. There were cross-trainers, steppers, and bikes as well as a few other things.
We ventured further in Beijing city centre and realised that the kooky stuff they sold near us featured in every shop nearby. We spent a while looking around and giggling at all of the (strangly alluring) nonsense that was on sale. Matt had been despairing over the impractility of his perishing jelly bean bag for a while so we looked for a new one. Somehow, we ended up with a Chairman Mao bag. I was totally unsure of the ethics or morality but since the rice bag that I bought it Kathmandu had swastikas on (a core symbol in the Hindu faith I might add), I didn't feel like I could object.
We took a detour around the lakes. They looked very romantic and almost mystical with the silohuette of traditional buildings and the cityscape in the distance and the light of a sunset reflecting on the ice. The lakes were lined with bars and we strained to recognise various lounge version of a plethora of unlikely songs as well as a few pretty acoustic chinese songs. The stalls nearby sold increbibly intricate sugar animals (on sticks of course!) and I was quite tempted by the giant sticks of candyfloss but my new healthy eating regime prohibits eating anything bigger than my head.
The search for actual food started again and we tried a cafe by one of the lakes. There wasn't much on the menu that I fancied and the 'fresh bovine spinal chord' really wasn't floating my boat so we headed elsewhere. We eventually stopped and had dinner in a place called 10 3 - it didn't have anything to particularly recommend it but the woman working outside, whose job it was to entice people in, had made me jump so much that I got the giggles and felt more inclined to eat there. We branched out from vegetable noodles and ordered vegetable pasta too. It wasn't quite what we wanted but the lady serving us seemed reluntant to let Matt looked at the ipad menu for too long - maybe she could sense something.
Back at the hostel I tried to get the hang of communal sleeping arrangements but just couldn't seem to master the art of taking everything into the shower in order to get washed, dried and changed. It's a lot like camping but at least there isn't so far to walk when you realise you need to get dressed again and go and fetch your towel. Nor to do the same again when you've forgotten your pyjamas too.
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