travel

Dont you just love travel,

The long farewells before you leave, milking every last second till you run out to the awaiting bus to rush off. Driving along doing your mental farwells to the country side as the landmarks slide by disapearing behind you for the last time in a long while. Waiting in the cold with snow lightly falling around you when someone suddenly realises why their cold... a jacket left behind at home. A mad dash by a sibling to the station bearing what was left behind for them only to see your train dissapear off in the distance. But it is great when you find a nice conductor to send it down the line an hour later to your waiting arms.

What about when your flight is delayed, and you sit, waiting, wondering if it will ever arrive, 4:55 turns to 5:20 turns to 5:55 turns to 6:30... are you ever going to leave or do they cancel the flight? Oh and the connection in helsinki (those dastedly helsinki connections) with a flight to beijing with only 45mins grace (the numbers dont add up, you’re going to miss it!)

Thankfully they apologise for te inconvienience and feel you at the airport while you wait, and you somehow manage to get mroe food than your voucher allows for, YaY for free cookies, they come in handy the next day on the cold streets of helsinki...

So its safe to say the connection has been missed and a loverly night on the floor of the airport in finland awaits. Well it was safe to say the connection was missed, however, we didnt quite spend the evening on the floor of the airport.

Rather, we were shipped off to the local Ramada hotel, a 4 star joint with 3 meals catered for, a gym, sauna and amayingly comforable beds! All paid for by the airline. Smoked duck for dinner, buffet breakfast with crossants, bacon, and much much more and a salmon lunch. Not bad for the first meal of our trip where we are ‘doing it rough backpackers style in china’.

Though our plans were slightly hindered and i missed out on my chance to catch up with an old friend flick in beijing it was a nice chance to hang out as a group and ust relax before our big journey in China begun. We managed a brief visit to helsinki city centre to visit some nice churches and wander the streets. I chased rabbits through the snow in front of finlandia, a massive theater center in the heart of the city, i didnt manage to catch any though =(

We arrived in beijing this morning, and have made our way to the hostel we are staying at, everyone is pretty wrecked from the flight and taking the opportunity to crash for a while before we explore the city streets and get some food. YaY! Chinese food! The first in a long time for me, its going to be great. I did got for a quick walk with the guys though, nick, daniel and lars while the others slept. We wandered teh back streets and checked out a few stores. i seem to be remembering a fair few of the chiense phrases i learnt back in my school days, i look back at te last time i was in beijing, its 7 years! It doesnt seem like that long ago! Practiced my haggling skills, they need a little practice, i managed to bump teh price UP by 2 yuan (oops), I think i got confuzzled when thinking in numbers in 2 different langauges, i dont know how all you guys who speak english as a 2^nd language do it so well!!!

Anyway, i should go and snooze a little before we wander the streets. Will be heading off from beijing on Friday i think, will be an interesting train trip to xining! We’ll see!

Zai Jian! (good bye)