After a long day of crazy lessons where I had been bumped into a really hard advanced class (that I struggled all day with) it was finally 4pm and I had a free evening with nothing planned. On my way back to my dorm I bumped into Hazel who suggested going for a walk around the city since the weather was good~ So off we went on what turned out to be an adventure !
I've got to hand it to them, Hangzhou as a city is really beautiful with some pretty cool buildings, it looks great in the daytime and even better at night when it comes alive with lights and the hustle and bustle as people finish work, I've always loved the atmosphere of the streets in China and Hangzhou did not disappoint.
Hazel and I just picked a random direction and walked wherever something looked interesting which is a method I really love to do when travelling, we found a really huge English looking tower that we nicknamed 'Big Ben' and was our point of reference for when we were near the campus as it's so tall and odd compared to all the other Chinese style buildings.
After picking up some bubble tea we tried to find some shops and something to do, it was really good to chat together, I think that was one of my favourite evenings as I got to really know Hazel, we totally have the same sense of humour so the whole night I was laughing so much my stomach hurt! She's one crazy hopper loving girlie~
At one point we were walking along a street when a lady behind us answered the phone pretty violently, kind of screaming into the phone but it's a little more normal in China - anyway we she scared the living daylights out of us because she was right behind us when she answered, and after hanging up she said 'sorry' to us in English and when I replied in Chinese she was amazed! She started questioning us on where we are from, our Chinese ability and other things then introduced herself as someone working for Mary Kay and asked if she could have our contact details to be models in the next makeup competition shoot!! We literally couldn't believe it, only in China eh! As it happens we later found out that the shoot clashed with our classes so we couldn't make it, but what a funny experience! This is why I love China! Haha!
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We kept walking on our little adventure and found a shop selling animal parts like chicken feet, necks, organs etc, so we bought a chicken neck each, the lady was a bit surprised since usually a person would order a weighted amount, for example 500 grams of neck, or 1kg of feet but we went over there and asked for just 2 individual pieces which took some explaining, but after a few minutes with a bemused expression she handed us two little necks individually wrapped bless her - probably the weirdest customers she had had all day!
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Meaty snacks! |
At this point we were pretty tired, we had been walking almost 4 hours and had explored quite a bit, we were getting a bit of attention in the city area and a few people were shamelessly taking pictures of us without even asking - we made an Oreo which killed me I laughed so hard~ Great memories :)
On our way back we realised that of course we were lost (Hazel was also part of our lost group at West Lake - seeing a trend here?!!) It had already gotten dark and China just looks so different at night time, we couldn't remember the way we had come and were stuck for ages trying to figure it out. We still hadn't memorised our campus's name at that point and our university has 5 campus's so it was a bit impossible to explain to a Chinese taxi driver where we wanted to go. With both our phones dying we luckily bumped into a lovely Italian lady who just happened to speak English, Italian, French and Chinese fluently (ohmygoodness I want to be her!), and she helped us out by translating and writing down exactly where our campus was, she was pretty cool and her life was inspiring! I would love to be like her in 5 years time, working in China full time with a pretty decent handle on Mandarin - one can only hope!
After all that, Hazel and I were really determined to find our way back without a taxi as we had already walked all that way, luckily Hazel found a street name that she remembered looking at on our way into the city which basically saved our lives and bought us much closer to the campus, it was a kind of large alleyway with lots of tiny shops (that were closed) so it felt a bit dodgy to be in a quiet area but all was okay as we ended up coming out of the street and finding Big Ben! You should have seen our reactions we were sooo relieved, I almost wanted to kiss the building!
On our way back we passed the Barbecue Guy and it smelt so delicious so we picked up some food to eat on the way back - I have no idea how they get all that flavour onto a vegetable because it is genuinely one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, always look forward to that when I go to China! We took our BBQ and walked home, totalling around a 5.5 hour walk and a pretty amazing time seeing real China and getting to know Hazel! ~