Mongolia - Beijing

The very last train ride from Mongolia to China went like a charm. This time we crossed the border at night, so there weren't any major problems with heat and stuff like that. This last ride with be the most beautiful one. The scenery as we drove through small tunnels and moved along the rivers was awesome. We bought delicious chicken feet which we did everything with except eating them. They were too slippery to catch boogers with though.

At the hotel in Beijing we had a short briefing before heading to one of the main attractions of this city, tian anmen square. It turned out, however, that the group itself would become a tourist attraction. All the tiny chinese came running up to us and wanted to have a picture with the giants from the west. It was kind of funny and made me feel like a superstar. Some might say this isn't healthy to my ego, and they might be right. We had a great chinese dinner in the evening and then went for a massage. It was my very first proffesional massage and I liked it. It was chinese style, so we had pyjamas and there was no oil or other liquids involved. Lucky Marni got a pyjamas someone had perioded in haha. After litterarely being rubbed the crap out of, we went back to the hotel. Most of the group were going to the great wall the next day and needed to get up early.

Most of the group went off to the wall. Ms Illeterate and I went to the silk market. A stressy place were the sellers are angry, pushy, aggressive and annoying. However, they have alot of cool stuff and it's worth to check it out. Walking with a girl there is really unpractical since they assume you wanna give your "girlfriend" something. I recommend splitting up there or go with people of the same gender. We met up and had a nice evening at a tea house. I got some ginseng tea, maybe that did the trick, because after spraypainting the rails through Mongolia, my stomach is back to normal. Who would've thought that chinese food is what makes a Norwegian tummy quiet? In the evening we had a last massive dinner and party. We had to say good bye to Ilya that evening, because he had to fly home earlier than the rest of us. Slowly but surely we kept on losing people the next couple of days and now there are only a few of us left. The wonderful trip with these guys is over and I'm left with memories and knowledge. The most important thing I've learnt is sneaky-balling. This involves trying to sneak a testicle or two into a photo. It's good fun and later on, if you look carefully, you might see one;)

I can't really separate the days anymore, but I've been to the summer palace, lama temple, forbidden city and more. The summer palace is gigantic. I thought peterhof was good, but this is awesome! It's so gigantic, beautiful and full of buildings. In such a park even I would be able to charm a princess with a boatride under the bridges in the moonlight.

In china green light is just there to tell you it's safer to cross the street. The food is excellent, but I don't wanna know what I'm eating. The chinese are many, nice and many. They're also tourists in their own country, so most of the tourists are chinese. Beijing is so western and is the most modern city I've seen in many aspects. So strange since this is supposed to communism, whereas Russia was still like the Soviet Union. The hostel I'm staying at is great and the host is a cool guy who practices kung fu and has good movie taste. If you ever go to Beijing, sleep at "fly by knight hostel". I had a local showing me around the olympic stadium which was awesome and I've also lost my camera which was not so awesome. I'm writing like a baby now, cause I just have to get some of this stuff written down while I still remember it. It's hard finding time for blogging. 

I'll try to make a nicer post next time. Cheers!