We managed to wake up around 11:00am, which isn't too bad considering we'd been on a train for 21hrs and managed 45mins sleep. Not knowing a great deal about Xi'an, we decided to make our way to the history museum and Small Wild Goose Pagoda . It was definitely worthwhile and gave us a chance to understand Xi'an and how prominent it has been in China's history. On our way to the Small White Goose Pagoda, we had a few superstar moments, with a people coming up to us and asking for a photo, something I don't think will ever become tiresome.

We got talking to Tom a Chinese Guy, who was visiting xi'an for national holiday. We caught a taxi to the center of Xi'an and while he went to McDonald's, Steve and I visited the Drum and Bell Towers. The tower's were recommended as one of things not to miss out on but we found them a tad on the dull side, although I did get a chance to bang on the drums, not noticing the 'please do not bang on the drums' sign. We then met up with Tom, who had seen the towers that morning and we made our way to the Muslim Quarter, a massive street market packed with hundred's of stalls offering different types of food. Tom decided to treat us to a local dish which appeared to resemble curried potatoes, definitely something that had our mouths watering. Unfortunately it turned out to be a gello' like substance with a very acquired taste. Steve asked Tom what we were eating but due to the language barrier, the best Tom could muster was"nuts with seeds in" leading Steve to think we were tucking into curried Testicles! Trying to be polite, I carried on eating but as soon as we said our goodbye's to our new friend, I gladly gave the rest of the dish to the nearest homeless person i could find. We later found out that It was a vegetable melon dish and not curried testicle...I honestly think the latter would have taste better!

We headed back to the hostel as it was BBQ night and met Kara, a New Yorker who is also traveling from to Beijing and Hanoi over the next 2 weeks, so will probably be bumping into her along the way. As we were chatting away, we heard a guy shouting in pain and looked up to see him spin and then collapsing on the floor. Thank god for Kara, who realised that he was having an epileptic shock and knew exactly what to do. Everyone was pretty shaken up but the guy came to after 5 mins and made his way to hospital via ambulance. Just before we retired to bed, we met our new room mate, Thomas from Luxembourg, who looks and sounds exactly like Jean-Claude Van Damme.