Hangzhou and Christmas Report

Alex is here!!! :) We were in Shanghai 2 weeks ago... It was quite awesome. I finally realized I can get around in China using my Chinese. A fun thing ;) We went to see the Pearl Tower, the one I feared to go on with David. It was pretty cold and cloudy. So, you can go up two levels – to the middle or the top. The top is a really expensive trip, it's better to stick with the middle. It is definitely something cool to see, but it is quite boring and I'd have no interest to go there again. . .

What I always liked about Shanghai is the People's square. People can say whatever they want, that it's just ''one of t-h-o-s-e overrated tourist destinations'' but I really think it's impressive how beautiful it is. A park in the middle of a busy city. A perfect place to take photos. It just the clouds would let though some sun.

So well, we went to Nanjing. Nanjing is not interesting this time a year. It's cold, dark, rainy. Xinjiekou has a lot of cheesy (przypalowe) Christmas decorations, which all remind us that China is hosting the 2008 Olympics. We went to see the Confucius temple, but never actually made it there. It was nice, we hang out with David a couple of times, went shopping, to the photo machines. And the Mao Kong restaurant, and also FuckDonalds. A lot of times, which makes me almost embarrassed, as I am totally opposed to that company.

So Christmas was coming, and maybe spending it in Nanjing wouldn't be the best idea. We wanted a nice place and a pretty Christmas. So on the 23^rd we decided to go to Hangzhou. The same day we went to get train tickets (6 hours), booked a hostel and packed. So out train was leaving at 7am... It was so cold outside, but felt so good to leave Nanjing. 6 hours train ride was so totally no problem for me, as I had a great pillow ( ;P) So ok, we decided that there is no more sitting in. So on Monday when we came, we decided to go to the city center, as it was too late and everything else was closed. So we ended up in this posh area with Gucci and Rolex stores.. hm we went to a cafe called Honeymoon dessert. So we had a honeymoon dessert, which was really expensive, but it was definitely the best coconut milkshake I've ever had in my life.

Tuesday we went to see Linyin Temple, and we made this one little mistake of not eating breakfast, not wearing warm clothes, and not drinking coffee. (was that one or am I bad at maths?) It was really beautiful. Lo-ve-lyy. The most impressive was on temple where they had loads and loads of statues of monks. They all had a different 'style'. Some were laughing, some were looking angrily, some were gazing playfully, and some were examining the people walking past.

Alex is not a careful child and tripped and bumped his head and bent back a couple of his fingers.:O

So in the evening it was Christmas, when we came back from the temple we were so cold tired and hungry but we just passed out for a couple of hours. And when we woke up, Alex took me out on a Christmas dinner date to a place... Lou wai lou... When we saw it we were both speechless for like... several minutes. Coz it was a freaking place that I would imagine the president to take his wife out... It was totally cool. I've never been on a date in SUCH a place ;) And we ordered a couple of dishes: the speciality in Hangzhou, a fish in sweet and sour souce, which I loved so much that I think I ate it all :P Lotus root which was sweet (nice), chicken served cold (mmm), mushrooms which tasted like ohhhh, so good, a shrimp and other things dish... oh, it was all so good. And then we came back and I felt asleep, and I haven't slept that well for over a century.... oh..

and today it's already quite late so we should get going to see the West Lake.

Merry Christmas!!!