Hi all,

Right, we left off last time half way through our time in Pingyao. So... Monday was my birthday, but since we were due to catch a train to Xi'an Monday night, we had a birthday meal out in Pingyao the night before. We didn't bank on the fact that in a little town everyone goes to bed early, so we were ready for some celebrating, but were told to keep the noise down as everyone else was in bed! Nice food though...

Next day I was very happy to receive a couple of cards and a present, as well as a few birthday wishes by text, so thanks to you all! We spent the day visiting the things we missed the day before, including wandering along the city Walls (more photo calls for Esther), visiting the Confucian Temple, and most interestingly, the old Government buildings. These sound a bit dull, but were actually full of fascinatingly grotesque torture implements, including a cute little rocking horse with a seat full of nails. Nice!

Yes nice day was had by all :-) Once we hot-footed back to the hotel, we chowed down the most bland,unseasoned chinese dishes I've ever had :-p then we said goodbyes to the staff and jumped into an electric cart to the station for the dreaded 11 hour train journey to Xi'an!

I've been dreading this journey all day but Cathal reassured me that it would be a doddle and hopefully not as bad as the last train ride...it was even more uncomfortable. I was hoping not to be sharing with all men for a start (excluding C of course) but ironically it was the Danish couple who took a interest in C&I back at
the hotel, one morning over brekkie!

We said our hello's and polite convo was made all round. As it was the old man's birthday we decided to have a beer or two and invite our fellow bunkers to join us...but before we opened our first can, one half of the couple decided it was time for bed and hopped up to her bunk! We convinced the remaining half to have a drink as it was aid of C's birthday...as it goes it didn't take much persuading :-D
More polite convo later...We found out that Denmark is completely flat. Who knew? C on his 2nd beer mentioned with much enthusiasm how Denmark have great ski
jumpers! C was of course wrong and we were told that the Danes are not great ski jumpers at all! In fact they've never had a winter olympics gold medal in any sport!! :-D Quite a few beers later we watched a movie on the iPod and
tried to catch some ZZzzz...yeah right! No more trains..I plan to go via plane even
if it costs me 2000 yuan!(£200)

Er yes, seems I had Denmark all wrong! So the next morning, in a bid to mend international relations, I embarked on some conversation about what we enjoyed about Pingyao.. This seemed promising until I mentioned my enthusiasm for the various torture devices mentioned earlier.. This was met with raised eyebrows.. 'ah.. We enjoyed the garden with the pond and goldfish.. Guess we must have different interests..' At that point I decided not to dig a deeper hole and kept my mouth shut till Xi'an!

At Xi'an we were picked up at the station and taken to the Xiangzemin Youth Hostel (nicer than you might think, but still American Backpacker Central), and had a big breakfast! In the absence of Ketchup, Estee has found a new condiment to go on her bacon sandwiches... Strawberry jam. Yes, you read that right! I haven't tried it myself.. (Estee is yelling 'it tastes good!' as I write).

We were so knackered and achy from the train we slept for a couple of hours, then spent a really good afternoon in the Little Goose Pagoda, and it's park and museum.. Impressive and peaceful.
Oh...I also hurt my ankle when making my way back down the Goose..mind those steps! :-( and C has caught some kind of head cold too!

C&E x