Thursday 3rd May
I woke up with a sore throat - little sleep again due to snoring/ hard matresses and it being colder at night. Frank gave me his quilt as an extra liner, which did make a difference, but he was colder too. Not being able to get back to sleep and felling groggy and grotty, I just got showered, which was a little walk away, but I felt refreshed.
Breakfast outside in the sunshine and Mr Wheat gave us coffee in individual filter bags. Very bitter, Frank loved it but we had to put milk in it to take the bitterness away. (i.e we ruined good coffee!)
Walk and a wander round town and then sorted our fast train tickets to Beijing. There's a taxi rank outside the station, last night about a dozen people were saying
"Hello? Taxi? Taxi? Taxi?"
Now only one or two would ask during the day, last night they assumed we had come out of the station needing to get to our hotel and not knowing the way. As I imagine many taxi's do world wide.
Anyway, we found the renowned beach - 10mins away - result. It was bit cooler though on account of the wind! Much cooler. No swimming for us we concluded, although a shallow paddle in the Yellow Sea was a must. Confirming too that the water was too bloody cold too! Ha. A very nice beach though.
Lots and lots of people taking photos, looking and smiling at us. Denim is big here, we observed. Lots more jeans and denim jackets in China, even in the sunshine.
Across the city we found it to have a big Germanic influence, a very European feel to it. There was a German Colonial rule in the late 19th Century. A-ha, that would explian that then. And it would explian the exquisite catherdral there, which is popular with wedding photography as we spotted 11 weddings being shot. Yes 11, with more on the way!
There is a groovy looking street with a 'Coffee, tea or me' café. An ice cream was had - a big ice cream, which is made on an ice cold plate, scraped up into rolls (5 of) and put in a plastic cup with mango and strawberry chunks. You get a lot of plastic with food in China. Examples being you'll get a large dumpling, in a plastic bowl, with a platic straw/spoon, in another plastic container in a plastic bag. Nearly every item you get has its own plastic bag - even if it's in a container.
Of we trott again and eventually, after getting some helpful directions from locals found 'Beer Street'. The big beer cans on top of the brewery helped too. We sat down for a meal in the first diner. Ordered from the english menu and the lady asked
"Beer?"
"Yes, please."
"One?"
"? Two please"
 A quick strange look from her, but she seemed impressed. Sure enough our 2 "beers"  came out ... in 2 jugs. Jugs that held 3 and a half pints in! Remember had empty stomachs on arrival. Needless to say a good time was had by us. And by the Chinese family beside us (the son was the spitting image of Kim Jung-Un), who were playing drinking games while granma was asleep in the chair. Before we left we discovered the diner had a western toilet. Whahoo, go go go!
Giggling and trying to walk straight we asked a local man for directions for home. He was very helpful and keen, describing what bus we needed, (103 or 4 [¥1]) to Huiquan Square, then the metro back to the railway station. Very helpful bus driver too guided us. Got back, buzzing, and went looking for a bit of night life...no joy. Instead we bought beers  and felt sneaky drinking beers in the hostel at our little table outside.
Bedtime, I nicked 3 matress liners to soften up my bed, Frank grabbed another quilt. There were so many unoccupied beds.

Friday 4th May
Very sore throat again. The lack of sleep has taken its toll, even though we both slept better than the night before. Maybe a day sunning ourselves at the beach will help.
To breakfast again, in the sunshine and this time Mr Wheat gave us very good coffee from a coffee set - special kettle and filter, he took his time pouring it out for us. We traded what conversation we could - he is the type of person you'd love to hear his stories. (The coffee was, again, bitter. Frank loved it, but being used to the white stuff with our cafeine, we added milk - probably wasting the whole effort of Mr Wheat. It was a treat though).
He then showed us the pool room, a mash up of Mexcian bar/Victorian smoking room. Big book shelves, solid dark wood chairs, a sofa, balcony and of course guitar - which was not only out of tune had a nut broken off of the head so couldn't be adjusted. Well with that Mr Wheat took the guitar and ushered us to follow him, down the stairs, through the arches and out the gate into the street ('Where are we going? We are supposed to be going to the beach. How do we tell him?') Round the corner and into a music shop full of instruments of course! Ohh, we grinned to see if it could be fixed. Alas it couldn't be done. Oh well.
We shimmied off and spent alot of time on the beach, people watching mostly. We also became an attraction too.
Later we looked around the market area next  to the hostel and got some street food. It was here we saw bugs for sale to eat. Big bugs. We couldn't quite drum up the nerve to try, but one day we will.
Back to our room for a little chill out and then ate dinner at a western style resturant - no english, so back to the point and smile technique.
Got back to the hostel and tuned the guitar in with a small tool we found. Had a few drinks and played pool before bed.
Then I found a western "potty" toilet! Hazzar!