beijing 3 day recap

It’s been a few days since I last wrote, but I’ve been to Beijing (so I couldn’t take my laptop). A quick recap...

Day one: We went to Tianmen Square + Imperial palace/Forbidden city and Beihai Park. When we got out of the airport bus, a little kid stuck his hand into dad’s pockets and dad freaked out, and straight after, a bigger kid stuck his hand into dad’s other pocket and gave him a card, as if to pretend that they were giving out ads. We thought that they were stealing things from us, because dad lost “$70” (it was actually around $7…dad exaggerates =P). At Tianmen square and Forbidden City, there were heaps of people trying to cheat you and steal your money by pretending to be tour guides, taking your money and leaving you tourless. There was a man trying to get mum to buy a ticket from him for me, which meant that mum would pay him and we’d never get the ticket. Apart from that, the Forbidden city/Imperial Palace was really great, but there was a lot of construction happening because of the 2008 Olympics (!!!!!!!)
For dinner, we met up with mum’s cousins and relatives that I haven’t met (again). I met my niece, who is one year younger than me O_o. We both got annoyed when the others started calling us aunty and niece >.<. We talked a little bit, I tried to speak mandarin, she tried to speak English…it was all so confusing and hard but we swapped emails after.

Day 2: We went to the Great Wall!!!!!!!! It was so cool, wasn’t too hard to climb it, for me, coming down was really hard =P. Mum kept stepping on screwed up bricks and tripping over =P. Dad bought a really awesomely weird hat!!!!! It was pretty cold there, SO WINDY!! Again, there were a lot of people trying to get money from you. After the Great Wall, we went to a garden…called Ding Ling =P hahaha. It wasn’t memorable enough for me to remember what the hell I was looking at, I can’t remember it…lucky I have pictures =D. Then we went to the Summer Palace. That was similar to the Imperial Palace, only it was freezing cold and really windy (again) Mum said that it was better in summertime (wonder who that smart person was who name the place SUMMER palace). She went in winter once, and the whole lake was frozen =D. It was mostly gardens and traditional houses etc. The last place was Yuanmingyuan, a place with remains from a fire. We all didn’t like that much, we bought tickets and walked HEAPS to get to the remains (we were soo tired) and then when we got there, we had to buy MORE tickets to go in >=[. So we just took a photo and took a mini car back.

We had hotpot for dinner that night, it was yummmiieeeeeeeee…Dad loved it so much he wants to buy a pot to take back home =/. After dinner we went to a famous street (Wang fu jian) for a little bit of shopping, and by coincidence, we met a relative we had dinner with the night before. I thought Dad was drunk when he saw them though… I bought some pens and then we looked around some more (shops were closing down) and went home

Day 3: Good weather that day, was really hot by the time we left. We went to the Temple of Heaven, I liked it there =P. There were a lot of old people doing whatever they wanted, singing, dancing, playing music…I found it hilarious, but it’s good that they can do all that without people laughing at them. The actual temple was under construction -__-, but we went to the echo wall!!!! That was SO cool…I would stand at one side of the massive circular room, and dad at the other and we could talk to each other because that wall sent the sounds around through these holes. There were also a lot of little toddlers out on an excursion there, it was soo cute…little boys had really cute haircuts =P

We went back to the street for some more shopping and mum bought some Chinese calligraphy brushes, 3 really cool plastic sealing things and clothes. After that, we took a taxi back to the hotel and rested for a little while and went to the airport. I had a blood nose =/ was too hot.

That’s all we did, I’m back in the hotel in Shanghai now, we’re about to go out somewhere =/. Last night I had the fried dim sim things that I love so much =D. Only they were cold and not too nice…

BYE

Soph xx

arrived in shanghai

Wow, so right now I'm in Rainbow Hotel in Shanghai, but I was in Hong Kong last night/morning =S. Yesterday, we arrived back in Hong Kong and had dinner to sort of celebrate grandma’s 80th birthday (which is 5 months away) but mostly meeting up with mum’s cousins. They gave me a crystal necklace O_O.

Next day (today) we boarded the plane at noon to go to Shanghai. It didn’t take too long compared to going to Europe or Australia, but still was about 2 or 3 hours.

So now I’m in the hotel watching the lady put in y folding bed =P. The net here costs 0.60 RMB for a minute and 90 for 24 hours -__-"

Soph xx

LONDON <3

Sitting in Heathrow airport, going back to Hong Kong tonight! Today we were still in London and it was similar to France, we stopped in some places just to take photos, like St. Paul’s cathedral, the Big Ben and Buckingham palace. We saw the palace guards change places as well; it’s like a mini ceremony every time. We spent an hour in the British Museum, which was similar to the Louvre, but it was free. I almost stole a map by accident, I didn’t know it costed £2 (around $6).

After lunch (Yum Cha -_-) we had free time for around 3 hours. We took a taxi (SO COOL! So much foot space and it sort of ‘separate’ from the driver) to the London Eye and spent around an hour there, lining up, buying tickets and souvenirs and then going on the actually wheel. Dad bought an information booklet with all the information about it in it. There are 35 capsules on it fitting 25 people in each. It goes 135m high, and it’s SO SLOW…but it’s so worth it, London looks amazing from the top. I have heaps of photos to take a look at later. After the Eye, we took another taxi to Hamleys, the best toy store in the world (I think). Mum used to work there, so we were just going to see how much it had changed after 15 years. There were so many cool toys, but I only went to buy lollies!! There were candy cane-ish things in so many flavours, bought 10 to share them with friends. Hah.

We walked around some more, looking in stores, but never buying anything. England is SO EXPENSIVE! The rest of the time was spent here in the airport, and there’s no customs here!

Gotta go board the plane now, BYE

Soph xx

amsterdam; clogs, cheese & diamonds

Sitting in Gatwick airport right now, there’s no internet again =(, but I’m hoping there’s internet at the hotel tonight. Had some weird experience at the security checking place, I’ve never been felt all over like that before…

Today we stayed in Amsterdam and went to visit a clog factory, cheese farm and diamond factory. At the clog factory, I got a pair of clogs!! Yayyy…! We watched a man make some clogs and explain how they were made. I watched him burn in writing onto them as well. Mum bought some more souvenirs and then we moved on to the cheese farm. We didn’t buy anything there, but we tried a lot of different cheeses and lollies and watched a lady explain how cheese was made. My favourite cheese was the smoked ones, I didn’t like the goat cheeses at all >.<
After the cheese factory was lunch (chinese AGAIN!!) and then to the diamond factory. It started snowing just before as well!!!! The diamond factory was really cool (even though it was in Cantonese again as well…) I tried taking some photos but my camera’s focus decided to hate me, so all the close-up photos are blurry. After that, we drove to some other place in Amsterdam to walk around and look in shops again. We didn’t buy anything, but there were a lot of…strange…places…”red light districts” for…adults lets say…

That’s all we did today, and just waiting for the plane now!

Soph xx

belgium; brugges to amsterdam

We spent this morning in Belgium as well, but we left the hotel in the morning to go to Brugges. We spent about an hour walking around and looking in stores, and all we bought was some chocolate. Belgium has really, really, reallyyyy nice chocolate =P. There was chocolate everything: shoes, phones, rabbits, boobs…everything =D. I also finally found a post office to send Viv a happy birthday postcard. I’ve been looking all over the place for one (literally) and I FINNALLY found one =D. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIV!! I hope I got your address right…

After Brugges, we left for a 4 hour bus trip to Amsterdam, Holland. We stopped at Maccas for a toilet break and left, but when we were halfway there, a tour member realised she left her LV bag there (sooo sick of hearing LV…LVLVLVLVLV…the tourguide pronounces it L-OH-V…). So we had to go all the way back again. I hadn’t actually realised that we were turning back until I we got there.

When we arrived in Amsterdam, we spent a little while shopping and walking around again. I tried on some clogs!! They don’t hurt as much as I thought they would, and there were so many different patterns and shapes! Mum bought a beer opener with a clog on it to give to someone.

Right now, I’m in Novotel hotel near the airport, we’re leaving for London tomorrow evening. There’s no free internet here =(. My bed tonight is in the same position as it is at home, so I’ll be able to sleep well for once!!

Going to check out the bathroom now, goodnight!

Soph xx

shopping in france; bus to belgium...chocolate!

Nothing really interesting happened today…but we went shopping!! Haha, there were so many things to see in the department store though, we bought heaps of perfumes =P One with a really cool bottle, and 3 sets of perfumes that were exclusive to France. We got heaps of free samples with them as well. After the department stores, we walked along the smaller roads and I got a pair of jeans for 15 euros, which was pretty cheap (I'm running out of clothes to wear haha =P )

After shopping and lunch, we had a 3 hour bus trip to Belgium, also nothing interesting, but Belgium is pretty cool…CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE!!!!! There was also a famous statue of a little boy that’s peeing O_o. The story behind it was that a 5-year old boy lost his father during the war for 2 days, and when his father found him again, he was peeing so the father ordered for a statue to be made to commemorate that moment. So weird.

And now I’m in Royal Crown Hotel in Brussels (Bruxelles) AND IT HAS FREE INTERNET!!!!!

Gotta go take a shower, goodnight!

Soph xx

louvre, notre dame, arc de triomphe, versailles, seine river & eiffel tower...!

I’m sosoososoooo tired…today we went to the Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de triomphe, Versailles, Seine River and the Eiffel Tower. We went to the Louvre first, which was really frustrating for me because I couldn’t understand the Cantonese and I couldn’t read the French >.<. It was pretty cool though, I loved the stuff in it…the Mona Lisa’s really scary O_O and so small!!

We stopped at the Arc de Triomphe for photos and then we went to the Notre Dame. We had a look around, and there was a stained glass that was made 800 years ago. There were these little machines around the place where you could put in 2 euros and get out a gold coin with Notre Dame things engraved all over it.

The next place was Versailles, which is outside of Paris and we went to King Louis XIII, XIV and XV’s palace which was SO COOL…the garden looked never ending with trees, statues and fountains all over the place. After that, mum and I went into the palace (FREE…=P) and had a quick look around because it was closing. Mum bought some stamps as a souvenir and they shut down everything right after we left. We had some group photos and then got on the bus to eat dinner.

Dinner was French food again, we had a really nice lobster soup that wasn’t lobstery at all…and then an entrée that was a salad and goose liver (I didn’t eat it…I gave it to dad) then main course was a choice of medium rare steak, lamb, fish or duck…I had lamb which had French fries toooo…then the dessert was apple pie. YUM!! Heh =P.

After dinner, we switched buses to go to the Seine River for a night time boat trip. It was absolutely FREEZING, dad was so cold…I didn’t feel it for some reason though…I took 1083741093874813 photos of the Eiffel tower, every hour, lights start flashing on it, it’s so awesome…

We then got off the boat and went to the Eiffel tower (at around 10:30pm). We only went to the 2nd floor, which was good enough for me since it was so cold…you could see everything from there, it could’ve been better during the day though, so you can see clearer, but it looked amazing with all the little lights around the city (I have photos, will upload some when I get back to Australia and have a stable wireless connection)

Its midnight right now though, so I’m off to bed, goodnight!!

Soph xx

bus to paris; eating snails

Nothing interesting happened today, all we did was spend 8 or so hours on the road from Switzerland to Paris. I slept once after lunch and listened to my iPod the whole way.

Lunch was AWESOME…I ATE SNAILS!!!! =D they’re really nice, not snaily tasting at all…I think it was garlic or something O_o. You had to use special tweezer things and a fork to eat them, they were hard to get out of the shell. After snails was pork steak in mushroom creamy sauce…mmm…and then ice cream

THEN I SAW THE EIFFEL TOWER!! I think we’re going into it tomorrow, but I saw it with lights at night as well

That’s all today that was interesting…dinner was good as well, there was a man who sang for his wife (their anniversary and her birthday) and sang to our tour group as well, it was funny, even though I didn’t understand a word anyone said =P.

So now I’m in a hotel (with a revolving door =D) and again, there’s internet but it costs 22 euros for only 24 hours O_O.

We’re not going anywhere now…some people from our tour group are going to a nightclub sorta thing, some famous one that I’ve never heard of, but if I go, I’ll be too pooped to stay awake to see the Eiffel Tower and Louvre and all that tomorrow…

GOODNIGHT…even if its not even 9 yet…

Soph xx

switzerland; alps & luzern

Yesterday was our last day in Italy, so this morning we head off to Switzerland…a 3 hour bus trip and a stopover after about 2 hours which was AMAZING…THERE WAS SNOW!!!!!! *spaz* After the quick stopover, we went through SO many tunnels, the longest one was 17km and it took 14 minutes to get through it. We finally arrived at the Alps!!!! Probably one of the BEST days!! There was so much snow…I wish we could go skiing though <_< probably easier to ski than Mt. Buller was, it was so much prettier and smoother I guess…we had to take 2 cable cars and 2 cable buses up to get to the top. Lunch was also really cool, it was at the top of the mountain (at around 3000m high) and had really nice views…dad was fascinated by how they got the food up so high O_O. After lunch, mum and I went to the very top of the mountain and made us get headaches and all that…so dad didn’t go, instead he went to a fake glacier walk through thing…he freaked out after walking 5 metres into it because it was so cold, but it wasn’t really that cold once you actually go into it. Dad hadn’t even walked to the end of the entrance ahahah.

After coming back from the Alps, we came back to Luzern and went out to see some famous lion engraving thing…something about the war and French revolution O_o. Then we went shopping again. Bought a few shirts and souvenirs and CHOCOLATE!! Heh.

Well I just had dinner and I ate it all, didn’t expect that…it was pasta, potatos and pork steak…I didn’t eat the turnips =P and I couldn’t finish the chocolate mousse ='(. After the massive dinner, we all felt fat so we just got back from a walk

And now its only 9pm…so I think I’ll figure out the shower (hotel showers are dodgy) and go to bed…goodnight

Soph xx

venice & milan

After sleeping a little bit less last night, we woke up today to go Venice and Milan (MILANOOOOO). Venice is literally all water. There are 128 islands (I think ) and we went to the main one to see the glass factory (I think Venice is famous for that too…) I have a video of the man explaining what each coloured glass in it (the brown one has manganese in it or something ). We also saw someone making a glass vase which I took a video of as well. The man dropped it halfway making it but the glass was super-strong and didn’t change at all. There were SOOOO many cool glass models, jewellery and stuff…mum bought a glass boat inside a bottle.

There were SOOO many masks (because of the plays...amphitheatre) in shops so I said that we weren’t leaving until we bought a mask. After going through heaps of stores, we finally got one that was a half-face mask with music notes over it (going to put it in the piano room). We also bought some glass necklaces, earrings (and 2 mask earrings!!!!) and I got a pressie for Viv (PENGUIINNNN!!!)

After Venice, we took a boat ride back to our bus and started to head off to Milan(o). Milan was SO COOL, we saw a church that has been under construction for about 500 years. from far, it looked like it was made from icy-pole sticks or something…

THE SHOPPING IN MILAN IS AWESOME!! It’s pretty expensive (Venice was better) and I got a cool necklace its like: O_o-0o—O__oo all the way around. There’s all the brands (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, MACDONALDS ahahahah…it even looked like a brand from the front)

Well now, I’m sitting in ATA hotel on my massive folding double bed…the hotels get better every day!!!!! There WAS internet…I connected to it…but turns out it costs T_T…I feel so disconnected

Soph xx

leaning tower of pisa

Today we went to the leaning tower of pizza!! Pisa!! Yeah...it was really cool…didn’t actually imagine it to be literally leaning though (for some reason). We didn’t actually go into it (not enough time) but I took heaps of photos. The leaning tower is actually the bell tower of a church which was next to it. We wanted to go into the church but we didn’t know that we had to buy tickets until the Italian ticket guard told us in mandarin that we needed tickets =O. We went into some little stores around it and bought a marble egg and holder. Everything around the area was all leaning (cups, chess boards…)

That was all we did basically, we spent AGES on the road…but I had a really nice hot chocolate (CIOCCOLATTA =P) in the morning (and spent ages trying to tell the counter lady what “hot chocolate” was)

Soph xx

rome; colosseum etc

Wow…what a day…arrived in London and switched planes to Rome. Got to rome and went straight to lunch, which unfortunately was Chinese food. After lunch, we went to Vatican City, which was SO COOL!! The church was amazing…so much work done by bollini (I think his name was…our tourguide was an Italian woman with a demented accent) and Michelangelo, I think she said it took 180 years to finish. I got photos and videos, its so cool O_O

After that, we went to the Colosseum, which was also really cool only the placed closed before I could go in. There were fake gladiators around the place and I went up to them to get photos…posing and everything with the gladiator stuff. Only they told us AFTER we had the photos that they costed. And then I decided to go into the actual Colosseum, found the entrance and some UK guy told me that he’d just been kicked out because it was closed. So I didn’t end up going in.

After the Colosseum, we went to a place with a famous fountain. The tradition is that you walk down the stairs and face your back to it and toss 1 coin if you’ve been to Rome, 2 coins if you’re married and 3 coins if you’re divorced. I didn’t do any of it, there were too many people and I wanted ice-cream . We went to a gelati place and there were like 20 flavours there, so much nicer than Australia!! I had a berry + biscotti (cookies and cream only it had real cookies in it…like big chunks…yummm…)

So full of ice-cream and looking around in cute little shops, we went to dinner (same restaurant…Chinese …) and I barely ate a thing, but bloody oranges are nice bahahaha and I dropped my bloody orange…and I went…BLOODY ORANGE!! Heh

Well now I’m at the hotel and I’ve been awake for 20 hours. I feel like a zombie zZzZzZzzZzZzZzZZZzzz…

Goodnight

Soph xx

on the plane to london

On the plane again…going to London this time, but just a stopover…am going straight to Rome with a tour group of 34 people. . I can't understand a word the tour guide says, it’s all in Cantonese . I think the order of the countries is Italy (Rome, Milan, Venice), Belgium/Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and then London again. What kinda tour guide that takes tours to Europe can’t speak English?!?!?! Sounds like I’ll be doing the talking while we’re in London. I love the British accent its so elegant =P. I actually slept on the plane for about 8 hours (yeah Vic I'm doing the sleep MTQ…zzzzz). London is 8 hours behind Hong Kong time (10 hours for Australia) I think…The aeroplane is bigger than QANTAS (IT HAS A SECOND STOREY!!! I WANNA GO ON THAAAAT!!!) but it feels smaller. I can’t move my neck…its so sore… Just checked the map thing on the TV…WE’RE ALMOST THERE!!

Gah. This time Westlife seriously sang me to sleep. I made a little on-the-go playlist

Mandy
Heal
When a woman loves a man
On my shoulder
Turn around
I did it for you
Home
You raise me up
Flying Without Wings
My Love
The Prayer
Rain
When I Get There
Per Sempre
Take it to the Heart
Don’t Tell Me
Amazed
Here I Am
Born to try (original demo)
Because of you
Hear me (live)
Breakaway (live)
Stuff like that there
A moment like this

I would start from Mandy…and see how far I could go without falling asleep. I’d get to the 3rd or 4th one every time. So I started from Because of you and fell asleep before it even finished. The head rests on the chairs can flip down so you don’t fall asleep onto other people.

I can see out my window…and there’s all these little lights from houses!!

Woooo..I think we just crossed a time zone and now its breakfast time…

Soph xx

macao

Well...went to macao yesterday (really differnt and so dirty) and saw a famous church that had all been burnt down excpet one wall...its the most famous attraction in Macao (like going to sydney had you have to see the opera house)...and we went to see "black" sand which wasnt really black...it was just brown when it got wet by the sea because the water was dirty. Also while my uncle was buying a boat ticket to go back to Hong Kong, Dad, Mum and I went to a casino place...like crown with all these little shops with cool stuff. THE TOILET WAS SO AWESOME!! It had automatic everything...flush, tap, soap and even the hand towel...you put your hand over the sensor and the paper towel just zooms out =D. That was it for Macao basically, then we took a ship back to Hong Kong.

Also went to Shen Zhen the day before that to buy all this cheap stuff...I FINALLY GOT AN IPOD COVER!! It was only around AUD$2. We all got new watches, mine for only AUD$5. There was also HEAPS of fake stuff...Converse for AUD$2 (they were held together by glue, you could feel it when you tried them on)

We also went to a place there that was like a mini-china expo...it had mini versions of all these attractions of China. There was a great wall that came up to my knee, but it was still super long. I'll post pictures when I get a chance to upload them all onto my laptop.

Soph xx

still on the way to HK

It’s like 10pm AEDST right now…I'm so tired…still sitting here doing nothing. I’m done watching Charlie and the chocolate factory and Harry Pooter 4.

I went to the toilet for the 1837435879th time a while ago, to a different toilet (the other one was occupied) and the floor was covered in pee.

Gross

Aeroplane toilets scare me…especially the flush button

And now Westlife is slowly singing me to sleep…zzzzzzzz…zz…

But its only like 8pm Hong Kong time…which stinks, I’m gonna be so friggin jet lagged

We were just served ‘dinner’ which was some gross noodly thing…I just ate the tim-tam

I’m SO THIRSTY…I’ve had like 6 cups of water and I still want water

But if I have water, I’ll have to go pee in the next 5 minutes.

And this trip to Hong Kong is only (ONLY) 9 hours…to Europe is gonna take 12 hours

Which means…*does maths* 9+9+12+12= My brain cant be stuffed working that out, but its more than one day

-__-"

I WANT I need a tissue

I WANT INTERNET

AGAIN…NOW before Westlife seriously make me go to sleep

Am switching to…to…something that will keep me awake

CRAZY FROG O_O

Soph xx

on the plane to HK

Hey everyone…anyone…someone…

On the plane right now, from Sydney to Hong Kong. Really bored, watching Brokeback Mountain on the little TV screen thingo…its so sad!!! =(. Heath and Jake are really good actors. I think there’s internet connection here but I don’t have a plug to plug into the hand rest to connect to it…

Nothing really interesting has happened yet, my eyes itch so bad…gahhh….and the toilets are scary O_O I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to turn the tap on. There’s really good movies on the TV thing though…family stone…CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY *spaz* heh.

Was really funny at the security check thing though (didn’t bring scissors this time HAHA) there was a random explosives check-up, and they picked on my grandma…you should’ve seen how freaked out she was, she wouldn’t let go of her bag (even on the plane). Mum thought they picked on her because she looked suspicious holding her bag 24/7.I

wanted to connect to the net at Melbourne airport but dad made me buy a book -__-“. So I grabbed the da vinci code…it’s a pretty strange book, really good though…

Aww man…this movie is sad =’(. I wanna watch Charlie and the chocolate factory now…

Nothing really interesting left to say, I’ll go and do some graphics now…my laptop lights up the whole plane, I swear everyone’s staring at me multi-tasking…watching TV + typing + colourising…Hahaha lady must be freaked out by the lips =P

I WANT MSN

NOW

Soph xx