Getting to the train station and going through passport control was actually pretty easy! The waiting room was crazy busy..spotted duty free standard covering myself in perfume was required- flower bomb reminded me of Shelley. Stocked up on Pringles and Oreos for the 20 hour journey.
WHAT a cultural experience!! Jesus Christ..we got onto the train and there are cabins of 6 beds 3 bunk beds in a tiny space. Me and mart we're in different ones which wasn't great (amen for the kindle) and to get up to our top bunks was challenging..kind of monkey like! Basically wedged myself in and there was no way in hell I was going back down. I had a Chinese family in my cabin which looked like they'd brought a mini kitchen with them..I think you can smoke in the cabins cause it STINKS. Vile. So weird just hearing everyone's chitter chattering of very fast Chinese..such an odd language! They always sound so angry. 20 hour journey to go! I think I need more Oreos.
Mart was fine as he made a friend in the bunk next to him..Edward sweet Chinese young man who spent the night teaching mart English. He was so proud of himself he came back showing me all he'd learnt. I however. Fell asleep next to a walrus and woke with a shock mid night as she talks in her sleep as I woke with a start to see what the noise was I was a little horrified to see what resembled a Japanese corpse. Scary stuff! Made it to our hostel and we had a pretty bad day.
It's SO hard to get around..no one speaks English and the maps are all in Chinese even the tourist ones and the signs are all Chinese so really your just clueless. Took 3 attempts to find the train ticket office..he nearly made me cry when he told me all the trains we're full for days..with many hand actions I managed to find out there was a slower train leaving for xian on the 24th..booked that one.
My cousin had warned me about the people- the culture difference is quite astounding. It really does baffle me how you can get such a difference makes me so glad/proud to have been raised in England with our polite ways and manners. Chinese people are so rude!!
It even got to the point where I was really trying to converse with this woman using hand signals and smiling and she was that rude to me mart called her a fat whale and told her that's she's probably hungry that's why she's being so rude (obviously she didn't speak English) normally I really would of shouted at him but she'd offended me that much I actually agreed! I also really struggle with the spitting issue. I already knew this was the norm here in china (there's a lot of Chinese people in Australia) that to hock up phlem and just spit it on the street. But it's VILE. It actually makes me heave so whenever I hear/see it people think I'm a loon who looks like she's going to throw up.

Just everything is such hard work..it's a sure sign how rich Chinese people are I've never seen so many shops! Designer ones at that. But do you think we could find a simple deodorant? Not even kidding. 3 hours it took! We must of gone into every shop in Shanghai that sold cosmetics and the last one when I'd nearly given up we found one can of deodorant. Thank god. Also quite shocked how expensive it is for drinks and generally to do stuff. Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Alex, my mom and of course Aunty Betty for the money we've been given recently. It's made such a huge difference to us (particularly the mystery money that appeared in my account this week). It's such a hard thing budgeting money for a year and a lot of unexpected things (mainly stupid holidays) have come up recently and put a massive dent in the budget which caused a lot of stress and times where we've felt a little helpless and trapped. But with our families both being so generous it's enabled us to just relax a little and take extra flights and find a slightly better hotel and eat things other than noodles -well better noodles anyway haha! On the home stretch now and we've definitely got enough to last us (mart has been through the budget about 400 times). So it's much appreciated.

Anyways After using google maps which is normally my savour (even that comes up in Chinese symbols) I found an English tourist map hurray!!
So I spent the night circling things and translating and plotting the directions in the subway etc.
(That's one positive the subway we can use!)
The room doesn't have windows (the hostels alright actually) and I've discovered that's what gets me up in a morning. Natural light. So with the lack of windows I slept in! Mart was very happy..
Got the subway to the other side of the river and went to explore the towers. We saw the oriental pearl tower and the 2 big ones Jin Mao and Shanghai world finance centre. Very tall! I'd researched prices and knew there was a bar in the jin Mao one with no entry fee like the others so we went for a very expensive drink to get a Birdseye view of Shanghai. It was actually really pleasant but that's when the heavens opened. Rain rain rain. And it's cold here (15 degrees). We'd planned to go down to the cool docks but it rained that much I was shivering so we just headed back to get warm. It reminded me a lot of home.
We have plans tomorrow to head a little out the city as we're tired of shops we can't afford so see how we get on there and then on the night head to the famous bund area and check out a jazz bar or a famous club that has a shark tank going through it.
Fingers crossed for a better day because so far me and china are not getting along too we'll!

On a more positive note it hasn't been all that bad (we haven't been outside on a night time yet apparently that's when Shanghai is at it's best) it's been quite comical some of the reactions people have had to mart. Little kids gwarping random people taking pictures of him and lots of double takes! It amuses me greatly.. Dreaming of the heat of Dubai already as I'm freeeezing cold and we don't have any warm clothes :(