We had a hearty breakfast at the hostel and got to know a really nice couple around our age (Selena and Dan) and had a long talk with them. They've been traveling through south east asia and now china for the past 4 months, pretty much exactly what we're going to do, only in reverse.
They shared some hilarious stories and some sad stories from their trip.
Next thing we knew morning had turned to afternoon and it was time for us to go exlore.
We went to three places. The bell tower, the drum tower and the muslim quarter.
I know I said Shanghai and Beijing were different, but Xi'an is very different from both of those as well.
I think that Xi'an is a happy middle. I like it here.
It's got a little bit of a market feel, a little bit of big city feel, and lots of historical bits to explore, too.
The bell tower was the biggest waste of money ever.
The drum tower was pretty cool and we watched a rad drum performance. The two tickets came together, so I guess it wasn't that big of a bust.
We wandered around the muslim quarter which was like its own little world. SO many market shops selling dried... everything!
A big thing there was walnuts. They were roasting them in big bins in front of many of the shops in barrels full of really hot sand. It was pretty interesting to watch the process.
We bought what we thought were walnuts (because there were walnuts on the rapper) but it ended up being walnut brittle stuff that tasted (to me) like pepper.
Stuart LOVED it.
Me... not so much.
The traffic in those narrow cobblestone streets was completely rediculous and we witnessed a pretty intense yelling match between a guard and someone riding a motorcycle thing.
Speaking of which:
Something to mention about China that I have not mentioned yet is that there are people dressed up as guards/police EVERYWHERE! They wear these official looking green outfits with official looking green hats. It's really bizarre because sometimes they'll just be standing around joking with local vendors, and sometimes they look like they're like 16 years old... so I don't know what the deal with them is or what their role is, but we see them around all the time. (Most prevelant in Beijing, less so in Xi'an)
We bought some dried kiwis that ended up being not half bad (...but not half good, either)
One thing that was a bit sketch was that there is meat sitting out ALL the time with the sun beating down on it and people buy it! Yuck...
That evening Stu and I stumbled upon a restaurant close to our place that was totally great.
I had the biggest most amazing cucumber salad I've EVER had with these spicy red pepprs, thinly cut garlic and a peanutty sauce. MMM mmm.
When we got back to our place we spent a lot of time visiting with people in the hostel and planning what was going to be up for the next day.
We decided to go to the Terracotta Warriors with a group of 4 friends we'd made.
Later on, after a jolly good night, beat from a long night and a fun day, we went to sleep!
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