Growing

So this post will be one that will be a compensation for all these days that I haven't written a word...

First I'll start with saying that it's so obvious that I come here to write as soon as I have some work to do for Uni. I keep looking for escape :-) I have an essay to hand in, and I have another 3 weeks or so to finish writing it. I've only read some literature so far and found some articles. So let's hope that I actually get to write this assay. I need to write 15 pages in German. Wish me luck.

Other than that, we had some nice activities lately, for example we went on a weekend with Rob's family, a bicycle tour that was dedicated to Rob's dad, who loves riding his bike. It was a birthday present from all the kids. I, of course, lazy me, didn't ride the bicycle, but I was in charge of the picnic car, so I met the happy family on the way each day bringing them some food. I also had all their belongings in the car- since we slept in 2 different hotels that weekend. It was a really beautiful weekend, I took amazing pictures, and it was honestly fun driving alone in this absolutely inspiring scenery. It was in the area of Stuttgart,  in the Swabian Alb. I really recommend  going there if you have the chance.

Other than that- I just had a tooth pulled out, one of my lower wisdom teeth, which has been there since I'm 18, so it was really hard to let go. I'm still recovering, but I didn't suffer from much pain since they took it out, so I guess I was lucky there. But the whole procedure was a bit complicated because........ well....... because...........


I'm pregnant :-)

yep.

And that's one of the reasons I haven't written here in a while. The first 3 months were horrible. I had sickness throughout the day, and lost 4kg just because of that. The last month was much better. I'm starting my fifth soon, and I feel ok.

Anyway, I wonder who of you is reading this and will now know the news. My Israeli friends all know already, but you guys around the world - I haven't had the chance to tell you, and was actually wondering if I should even write it here on the Blog or not. I decided that I should, I mean, at some point I would have written that I have a baby, and that would have been even funnier no?

Now I just hope and wish for, as they say, a "boring" pregnancy, and a healthy baby!

That's it for now, told you this will compensate for a long time not writing...

NEW

We got our couch!!!

It's actually a sofa-bed, but it's great. It's comfortable as a couch and as a bed (well, not from our own experience, but was the most comfortable one we tried in the stores). It's red and it's really nice! It's so nice to own your own couch, you can't believe it. We haven't had one since we were in China, there we had a really bad and ugly Ikea (we think) couch that used to sink in the middle, where ppl sat on it most of the time.

And what else is new?

We got tickets to Argentina!

We're going for a honeymoon there for 3 weeks! I'm so excited!
Now all we have to do is decide what we wanna see there and what we'll have to leave for the future, hoping we'll be back there at some point in our lives, coz Argentina is huge and seems like there's way too much to do there! Any tips will be appreciated.

So that's really nice, I wish you all a great week!

Some impressions from Bavaria

As I promised, here are some stories about my travels with Yifat around Munich and Bavaria.

Lets start with a picture from our apartment, from the day Yifat came,
a day in which you could see the Alps (it was such a clear day):



On Sunday when Yifat landed, we went home for a bit and then wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day it was outside. The temperature was really high (relatively of course) and the sun shone in the blue blue sky. We went to the Olympia tower which is right in the Olympia park (where the notorious Olympics in 1972 took place), watched the views all the way up to the Alps, and looked at the whole city.




After that we went straight to the last day of Oktoberfest, which was really great, and we really understood why ppl from all over the world go there. Well... I guess once or twice is enough though...

In the next days we walked around Munich a lot, and saw quite a lot of it, which was really good for me, coz I wouldn't have learnd the streets so fast after moving unless Yifat came. Since she took most of the pictures in Munich, I'm not going to put any here, but I guess I'm going to put pictures from here in the future, concidering the fact that I'm going to live here in the next few years.

After wondering in Munich, we took two days to travel in Bavaria a bit, on the one day we went south to the famous castle Neuschwanstein, which was the inspiration to the Disney caslte:

The caslte in very nice Autumn colors

View from one of the windows in the caslte (yes, WOW!!!)

We actually drove there through the town Garmisch, a very posh ski area, and the views there were really breath-taking:

The middle of town: Garmisch

In the evening after the castle we drove back to Munich, stopping in lake Starnberg. On the way there we took these really nice country roads Bavaria has to offer, and got stuck in traffic. Not normal traffic, but this kind of traffic:


You see, there was a whole heard of cows walking back to their stable, after a day of eating and walking in the sun. We had to drive really slowly behind them, until they reached their goal. Was really funny!!!

We only got to the lake in the evening, to have a drink on the shore, in a nice Beer-Garten, but it was still very nice:



The next day we got up early and went east to Chiemsee. It has two islands in it (well two big ones, it actually has a few other smaller ones), on which there's a lot to see. Here are some pictures from the way (it was a very misty morning, which reminds me of the song with the same name, by Bob Marley), and I got some really nice pictures from a rest area on the way:

Driving to the lake we realized that our day is going to be very hazy and cloudy and grey. Nevertheless, we had a nice day (even if it was cold) on the islands:


On the next weekend we drove to Rob's parents to walk in the old town there, and on Sunday we drove home through Regensburg, which is a really nice town.

I hope you enjoyed our little travels in Bavaria, lets hope that there are going to be a lot more!

Our trip to Spain

(this post was written a few days ago, but due to the lack of internet connection is being posted only now)

Madrid

We got to Madrid on a Tuesday in the evening. We flew with Easy Jet, therefore our flight was obviously late in one hour. In the airport in Berling Rob worked on his thesis presentation, while I just slept.

Charles and Ana were great: they came to pick us up from the airport. There's nothing nicer than someone picking you up from the airport! Meeting them again was so nice. I really misses them. We went straight to have dinner, knowing that if we go home we'll never want to go out again. They took us ti the center, where there's a lot of Tapas bars. Of course we ate Tapas - and it was really good food. We realized that the food in Spain is going to be really expensive, and so it was.

When we got to their apartment they continued the good hospitality with giving us their own bed while they slept on the sofa.

The next day Rob and I just walked around Madrid (ALL DAY LONG!!!) and saw quite a lot of things. Madrid is a really nice city, but I must say, in the end it is just another beautiful capital city in Europe.

Madrid

We got to the palace,

and realized that the guards are changing.

It was a really nice little ceremony with horses.

I love these Facades.

It makes the city so special.

Toledo

On the second day in Spain we took Ana and Charles's car (have I mentioned that they were really good hosts?) and drove to Toledo. The drive took about an hour and we were there. Luckily we had a GPS in the car, which made things much easier, even though it wasn't so hard to get there.

Toledo is a really nice old city, that used to be the capital of Spain hundreds of years ago. We went to the old city which is still surrounded with walls. It was a really beautiful place, and you could really feel the history in it. Toledo also has a long and cast history of Jewish people that lived there, sinice they held high positions, of course, until they were exiled from Spain. Because of that there are two synagogues in Toledo, though one was transformed into a church at some point. The big one was actually kept almost as it was, except for the fact that it's empty nowm the walls are covered with the decorations from then- which was a few hundred years ago. It was really ineteresting for me to go see such an old synagogue, especially coz there's really old churches and cathedrals everywhere, but synagogues dodn't always survive.We came back to Madrid in the evening, and brought some food to eat at home- which was really ncie coz Ana got lots of good food too and together it made into a really nice dinner.

On our third day we went to the Art Museum Prado in Madrid, which if considered to be one of the best ones in the World.. It contains of mainly paintings from really famous artists, such as Velazques, Rubens, El Greco, Goya etc. I must admit that both Rob and I decided that we're not fans of paintings from that time.

We went home in the afternoon since we all took a flight to Barcelona in the early evening.

The gate to the old city in Toledo

In Toledo there was a really nice mixture

between Judaism and Christianity.

You can see it until today.

The view over the roofs of Toledo

One of the cathedrals

Barcelona

When we landed in Barcelona, Ana's father came to pick us up from the airport. He took us to their house, and Ana's parents did everything to make us feel comfertable in their home. They live just outside of Barcelona, on the other side of the mountains, which really reminded me of the Carmel Mountains in Israel. We spent the weekend there, enjoying Ana's mother's great Spanish cooking. We took the train to Barcelon on Saturday and walked in the city and saw a lot of it. In the evening we went out. It wasw a special weekend in Barcelonam called La Merce, and there were a lot of concerts, street performances, and so on. The main event was on Saturday night: a fire parade.

The Catalan Government building in Barcelona

We walked into this church,

which was really really beautiful,

and suddenly we saw that there's a wedding going on!

We stayed till it was over, of course.

Fire fire fire!!!

A fire blowing dragon

It was a lot of fun, and only small damages were reported by Charles, who spoted some holes in his shirt...

The next day, Sunday, Ana spent with her dad at the Bull Fights (it was his favorite bull-fighter and Ana's first time there) so we spent the afternoon with Charles in Barcelona. It was a really nice day, and we walked along the beach, had a typical Spanish Paella for lunch, and enjoyed the sun.

The port of Barcelona

Beautiful beach of the Mediterranean

Paella, the Spanish specialty.

Jamon (ham).

The main dish in every Tapas Bar.

Early on the next day Charles and Ana left to Madrid, back home to work. Her mom took us in the morning to Barcelona (which was really nice of her) and there we stayed in a small hotel (which was right in the center, but ther street next to us was occupied by hookers the whole day!!! vert inetersting experience I tell you!) We stayed there till the end of our trip. We planned on going somewhere nice and warm in the last two days, to just lie on the beach, and get a tan and relax, but the weather..... OOOOOF!!! The stupid weahter decided that we don't deserve a real relaxation, and it was raining the whole time! Sp we walked a lot in Barcelona, and saw quite a lot of it. Wednesday was a holiday there, of the saint of Barcelona Santa Eulalia. They had a parade and in general the streets were full of ppl. On one of the dats we webt ti see the Picasso Museum, which was really nice, really really nice. The food was good, but again- really expensive. In general I think we really liked Spain, though we would have loved to have a few nice sunny days in the end...

In the last two days we went to see a lot of buildings

that were designed by Gaudi.

I like his designs, it makes the whole area much happier.

Park Güell

also designed by Gaudi.

Last picture:

the view from our airplane,

as we took of on our way back...

We went back to Dresden on a Thursday, and then started the marathon of me seeing everyone I wanna say goodbye to, and Rob preparing his presentation, that took place on Monday.

About that and more on my next post.

Busy busy busy

I only found time to write now, after so long that I haven't written, and still I don't have much time now- coz I'd like to go to bed early...

Last week I started my new course at the uni. I must say that I'm not loving it... But I'll still try to give it a chance. One of the things that are hard is the fact that I run around all day everyday almost, and that really makes me tired. As I said before, I have classes every morning and three times in the afternoon.

I got my visa prolonged last week too, it took 5 min, 35€, and one bitch who yelled at me saying: "do I need to speak Chinese to you so you'd understand???" only coz she had my passport in her hands and the power to decide what to do with me I didn't answer her: "well just try speaking Chinese to me- coz I would actually understand what you're saying- if you just dare!!!"

On the weekend we drove west to Rob's grandma's bday weekend. "On the way" we visited Kevin in Trier, and had a nice trip next to the Mosel river, and also met Liya in Düsseldorf. Meeting Liya was great- but was so short... I wish we could have stayed there for a few days... Anyway- she knows (hint hint) that she's more than invited to visit me here in Dresden!!!

Burg Eltz

One of the most beautiful castles I've ever seen

I calculated it and we drove around 1600 km in one weekend! That's crazy. I can't wait to have a weekend where I stay at home and sleep in every day... Coming soon!

Anyway, I'd like to go to sleep now coz I have to get up in 7 hours (I need my beauty sleep),

Will try to write here again soon!

Oh, and Happy Pessach (Passover) to whoever celebrates it!!!

Around the world

So there's this website, where among other things you can make this kinda map, so I tried to find out in how much of the world I've been to. And I got so disappointed... I mean... 9%??? how little is that???
I wanna go to so many places still that if I start writing their names down it'll never end...
I can't even choose one place I really wanna go to first. I mean - if i have to choose one- should I be practical and choose a country that's close to where I am now? or somewhere far far away? somewhere cheap coz I have no money now, or somewhere that will be affordable only when if I'm rich? you see, there's almost no place on this planet I don't want to visit and check out. When will I ever do that??? with what money??? It's the chronicles of a known failure. Hopefully I'm wrong.

My new computer

This is my first post from this computer! Mine was very sick as you already know from all my stories about it from China, and now I have a new laptop- and I'm getting used to it. I like it that's for sure.
Since we came back from Sinai, we went traveling in the north part of Israel, slept on the beach of the Kineret lake for two nights, and traveled especially in the Galilee. It was very nice, and again I promise to put pictures soon. After that we went to Jerusalem, to spend Yom Kippur there- that's the day the Jewish ppl fast for 24 hours to ask for forgiveness for their sins. We spent it with my friend Yifat, who just moved to Jerusalem to do her 5th and 6th year of med school there. This day almost nobody drives in Israel, and the streets are filled with ppl and kids riding bicycles and other wheeled things. The most religious ppl don't do that of course. Jerusalem as usual is amazing, the feeling you get when you're there is so special, it's really hard to explain. Rob & I fell in love with it again. On Sunday, right after the holiday, we went to a museum- that shows all of the city's history- it's called Migdal David (the tower of David) and it's very recommended.
Adi, my best friend from school gave birth to a pre-mature baby, on the 6th month of her pregnancy - now the baby is gonna stay in the hospital until it's strong enough to leave... I cross my fingers the baby will be strong and healthy!
Rob left to Germany 2 days ago, and I'm going back there in less than a week- it feels weird to leave again for so long... My mom is going today for a week which means I won't see her again b4 I leave... It's a very weird feeling.
I've been trying to learn German alone here, yesterday I was good- sat for more than 3 hours. Today I'll do it after mom leaves, until the evening- it's another holiday today- and I'm going to my aunts place for dinner.
I really need to start doing sports again, especially Yoga. I feel so bad about not doing anything, a real icky feeling. I hope I'll find a good Yoga teacher in Germany, coz even though I have a really good Yoga book - I have no self discipline and I need a class to actually go to. I fear the fact that I'm not going to understand the teachers again- which really makes all the difference for me. I'll try to find out where there's a teacher that teaches in the method I like, and I'll see how much it costs. But even if it's gonna be paying money that I don't have- I'm going back to doing Yoga... Until I find a good Yoga teacher- I'll try to go to the gym at least...
I'm stressed about not having a job in Germany yet, I keep using the money I don't have (my savings...) and I really don't like this feeling. I haven't worked in a year, and it feels so useless... I really need to know that I'm making money, and not just spending it.
I'll write more in the next few days, I'm going to have lunch with my mom now (who bought so much food for me for the time she's gone- it's amazing).

A fox, a camel and a dead hog

Charles called on Friday night. He said they were in Jerusalem for 2 days, and asked if I wanted to come meet them on Saturday in Tel-Aviv. I agreed happily, and the next day I drove off. I met them at Charles's cousin's house- a really nice renovated apartment in a very popular area in TLV. It's very rare to find a good apartment there, so I asked for details and was told that her parents bought it for her. Lucky girl! Immanuel, Charles's cousin is a really nice and interesting person. She came to Israel alone, from France, at the early age of 17.5, studied here in uni later on, and now works for the french edition of The Jerusalem Post. Impressing.
It was so great to see Ana and Charles in Israel! Well, just seeing them was great... We all went to the beach, and cramped up on the TLV beach like the rest of the Tel-Avivian species. I really don't like Tel-Aviv, the only nice thing it has is shopping... We made plans for the next few days, and so it happened that on Sunday they took the train to Haifa, we toured around the city for a couple of hours, and in the evening we took the car to the Kineret (The Galilee sea). We put up 2 tents (one for me and one for the happy couple) and played cards (lost a "7"- the good finder will be rewarded - coz these are really nice cards), drank some beers and generally had lots of fun together. I really missed Rob on that situation, but they were such nice company that it made these feelings became a bit more subtle. On Monday morning we woke up and went straight to the lake- to swim. That day we travelled all over the Gollan heights with the car, and in the evening we went to the Kineret again to camp for the night. The next day we stopped in a winery in Kibbutz Amiad to Charles and Ana's request, and were really surprised to find out that they only make liqueurs from all kinds of fruit and other ingredients. They let us taste some and I ended up buying a really good dark chocolate liqueur... Yami!!!
After that we went to eat Humus in Akko, and wonder the old city and market, and then we went to Rosh Hanikra, to see the grotts, made by the sea. The view there is always really amazing... After that we went to my moms, for a shower and dinner before the bus to Eilat at 23:30. It took us 5.5 hours on that bus (was really fast!) and we arrived to the little oasis that sits on the red sea. We took a taxi to the Taba terminal border cross with Sinai. We arrived a bit too early for our ride on the other side- so we watched the sun rise over the red mountains of Jordan. We crossed the border and Charles and Ana saw the difference between Israel and Egypt: new and advanced vs. old and conservative, Efficiency vs. laziness and taxi drivers brotherhood. Our ride got there and we drove to the beach. It was (and still is) hard for me to accept the tranquility and silence while knowing that this society is such a men's society. There's hardly any women around (they're all home with the kids) and they are all business men with lots of kindness and serious faces (I know, it sounds ironic- but it's true). Sinai is so empty these days that Charles and Ana who fell in love with it, got really upset. The Bedouins there just told them that that's the way it is, and when tourism is so slow they just look for other business opportunities, and that as long as they have their health they feel rich. My European friends had a hard time accepting that, but in the end I think they almost did.
I left Sinai this morning, after 2 days, knowing that I really should go back soon- it's just so beautiful there... And so relaxed and quiet. Ana said something that really made me think: on a normal day anywhere else (and especially in China- where we all came from lately) you see hundreds or even more ppl a day. In Sinai you tend to see about 5 ppl a day... It's amazing what it does to you. After the first day- when you get used to it- and all your thoughts have settled and stopped bothering your brain- you hear the silence. And it's great. And so peaceful...
Pictures soon...

Oh! and the title is what it is coz it's all animals we saw when traveling (well we saw much more)

Last day in Shanghai

Qingcheng hou Shan (Qingcheng back mountain)
On the way up

Last week in Sichuan was great and the weather was nice to us. On Sunday, as I already mentioned, we went to see the cute and adorable Panda bears in the Panda breeding center in Chengdu. I could watch these animals forever!!! Here's a picture that kinda sums up what they do all day, and how lazy and cute they are:

Lazy and sweet
Panda.

On Monday we took a bus to a place called Qingcheng Shan (read it like tsingcheng, Shan = mountain). There are two main places there- the main front mountain- which has a few temples on top, and some cable cars, and the back mountain- where we went- a bigger nature reservation, with one temple on top, and a few villages. We got there just after noon, and started climbing up. It was so beautiful! They did put stairs all the way, and from concrete of course- but they did it really nicely and even made the concrete look like real wood. The vegetation was amazing, a bit subtropical, and lots of it, it was so great to breathe such clean air in China.

Lots of waterfalls and fresh air

It took us about 3-4 hours to climb to the first village, and since it was already getting late, we decided to stay there the night and go down the mountain the next day from the other side. The village was obviously for tourists, most of them come there just to have lunch and then they continue going down. The room we took cost us 80 Yuan a night, which was the price after negotiating… It wasn't a nice room and it was cold there all evening (we slept with the sleeping bag on us and 2 more blankets to be warm) but we referred to it as just a place to sleep in and leave first thing in the morning. We had an expensive dinner as well, but at least it was quiet there and we were the only tourists there at night so it was nice. The next day we woke up (I already fell asleep at 20:00, and slept all the way to 08:00!!!) had breakfast and headed up to the top of the mountain- so we can go down the other side.

The bridge might look like it's made of wood,
But it's made of concrete.
Still- it's nice work.

Up on top (about 1600 meters high) the air was actually a bit thinner, and I found it harder to go up these last "few" stairs, even though the last day I had climbed so many of them with almost no prob. The way down was just as beautiful as the way up, if not more in certain spots. Again- it was all green, with lots of waterfalls, streams and the sound of beautiful colorful birds.

At the bottom of Qingcheng Hou Shan

We got back to Chengdu on Tuesday evening after trying to get there the shortest and fastest
way- but obviously in China that doesn't work, in the end you find yourself sleeping on a van for an hour- just to find out that the driver doesn't have enough ppl to go to Chengdu with, so you get off, after wasting so much time, and take the normal bus through the bus station, that brakes down in the middle of the highway, the driver goes to the back of the bus, with a screwdriver, does whatever he has to do, and keeps on going…

The last two days in Chengdu we basically enjoyed the nice weather, and met Kevin and Wang a lot, and had good food. We booked a flight back to Shanghai, with e-long (booking company online), and found out that they didn't reserve the tickets for us with the discount price (the prices change every day) coz we didn't send them a confirmation with a signature by fax. We called them and explained that the problem is that they sent us the e-mail requesting a signature in Chinese- and what can we do- we can not read Chinese, and the woman in their call center, who spoke English to us on the phone when we booked the tickets- should have known!!! After a big mess, and a lot of stress they agreed to give us the discounted price, and we could relax until Friday afternoon- the time of our flight back.

We spent the last few days here at Andrew's place, which is great – coz it feels so homey. My dad was here for a really short visit yesterday, he made so much effort to be able to be here while I'm still here, that he took a flight that goes through Istanbul and Bangkok as well… it took him about 40 hours to come here…. We spent the day together, and had a Chinese dinner at the small restaurant we went to with Kevin and Wang (the one with the old lady who speaks English, and never moved out of Shanghai). Today he already flew to his next business stop, taking with him a small bag full of stuff I have no room for, and want them to get to Israel. Thanks dad!!!

Tomorrow's our flights to Germany, I can't believe I have less 24 hours left here, I haven't left China in about 7 months and it feels weird to leave now- and leaving to Germany, not to Israel yet…

I'll try to get connected to the internet in Dresden again, but most likely we wont have internet for a while, at least until we're settled in our apartment- which we still have to choose (Rob's making appointments for us right now to see places when we're there). In the first few days we'll stay in a Zimmer (the German word for "room", it's apartments for rent for a few days, instead of taking a hotel) and hopefully we'll find an apartment that we like as soon as possible!

OK that’s it for now, hope to write here again soon!

P.S please see the pictures I added to the last post

In the land of hot chili peppers

We're in Chengdu now, the capital of Sichuan province in China. We got here a week ago on Saturday, and met Kevin- Rob's best friend. It was his girlfriend's b-day, and right after the flight we went to have dinner with them- and her parents and friends. When we got here the weather was warm and nice, and we could run around in flip flops and a t-shirt. But the next day it already cooled down a lot- which confused our plans. We chilled out here on Sunday, met Kevin for lunch at his favorite noodle place, and then we went to see their apartment. He was telling us how much the place needs a change- and how uninviting it is. He said he thought about getting a comfortable chair, and how they never have any time to do all those things. So when he went to work for a few hours, we decided to go to Ikea and buy them a comfy chair... We got it, and went back to his place, going through the cafe he was teaching English in, asking for the keys to his house. He didn't really understand why we want the key (I stayed outside with the big box so he doesn't see it) and we went to his place to assemble the chair. You should have seen his face when he came back home!!! Only his smile was worth the whole thing!!! After that we rearranged their whole apartment so it feels warmer and more welcoming (it's my hobby to redesign places in my head) and now it feels so much better to sit and hang out.

On the way up.
Le Shan

On Monday we went to Leshan- which is a mountain 150km away, and right next to it- on the river side there's the biggest Buddha in the world - 71 meters high. The fresh air and the nice scenery, we worth it, plus the big Buddha was really impressing.

The biggest Buddha in the World Le Shan

We went back the same afternoon, and went to the Pessach Seder that a few Israelis arranged here in Chengdu. There were about 50 ppl there, and it was nice. It was Rob's first Seder, and I had to explain everything to him- while noticing that I don't know the reason to some of the customs myself... On Tuesday we were really lazy, and we met a really nice couple to chat with, Helen and Werner, she's from England, he's from Austria, real close to where Rob's mom's from, and they live in Australia. They came to China from Japan, and the only reason they came here was to take the train from Chengdu to Lhasa- but it took them a while to get the tickets and the permit. So we enjoyed their presence for the time...
On Wednesday we took a 4 hour bus to the east- to a place called Dazu. The town is a normal Chinese town, where everyone stares at foreigners and shouts out when they see one... At a certain point we just decided to take a picture of anyone who stares or yells: "Lao Wai" which means: "old outside person" and is a not very nice way to call foreigners. The next morning we woke up to no hot water in the shower, and I found out that my daily contact lenses have a big black circle on them- to make the eyes look bigger. I wore them for a day- and every time I looked in a mirror I couldn't recognize myself. That day we went to Baiding Shan- where there are carvings in the clifs- of a lot of Buddhas. It was really amazing, and worth going there.

Until the last detail Amazing carvings in Baoding Shan

We went back to Chengdu the next day on a very crappy bus that we had to change after driving it for 30 minutes. When we came back we heard from ppl who stayed the last few days that it rained a lot- and it made us feel a bit lucky about getting away from the rain. Yesterday was Saturday- and we didn't do much, just met Kevin and Wang in the evening, after saying goodbye to Helen and Werner who took the train to Tibet in the afternoon.
Today we went to see the Pandas- and even though it was already my second time there- I enjoyed it so much!!! They're so cute!!! We're going to go back to Shanghai on Friday, and until then we'll go climb this mountain called QingCheng Shan for a couple of days.
So- If you read till now- congrats, I promise to put pictures here as soon as I can. All in all This is a really nice and relaxed holiday, but I'll be lying if I said I'm not counting the days till we leave China...

Hangzhou

Warning: This post is kinda long

Yesterday I puled myself to Hangzhou, even though deep inside I knew I should stay in bed for at least another day or two. I took the subway to the new train station in Shanghai - they build it in the past year or two, it didn't exist last time I lived here. I see it from the outside all the time - it's just amazing- it's supposed to look like a big Chinese umbrella and it actually does... you can see for yourself in this picture:

Shanghai South Railway Station a view from the outside

I change metros there every day on the way to uni and back, but I never got to go to the actual station. This place looks totally like an airport rather than a train station in east Asia. It was absolutely easy to find my way around (I think it would be easy for ppl who don't know any Chinese at all too), and it's definitely efficient which is a very surprising thing when talking about China... I arrived there in the morning (after getting a wake up call from Rob at 8:14AM - wake up shmake up- there's nothing sweeter than waking up from a phone call from you tipsy loving boyfriend...) so that drove me to leave on a normal time- being in the station at 11:10AM. I asked for a ticket to Hangzhou - and the teller told me the train leaves in 40 minutes. I was really relieved to hear that there's seats, and that I don't have to wait for long. I bought the the cheapest there was (I guess that's what was left) it cost 25RMB (= about 2.5€） and headed to the entrance to the gates. There I found an x-ray machine (they have one in all the train stations- even the ones you think are so not worth the security coz they look like a dump) went through that and looked for my gate. The nice lady in the entrance told me to go to waiting room number 7 - so I headed there and was very impressed with the inside design of the place too...

x-ray machines even in the crappiest train stations

As soon as I set down on the seat- I noticed that my train was "boarding". I followed the herd and found myself going down an escalator to the platform. I found my seat on cart number 13, and set down. It wasn't the cheapest ticket for nothing: my seat was one out of three crowded seats (out of five in a row divided in the middle making a 2 seats row and a 3 seats row with an aisle in between). My seat was just next to this kid and his grandpa, and here in China I must admit- I haven't figured out a way to tell who cares about those seat numbers on the ticket and who doesn't - it appears to be 50-50 in the population... In the end instead of sitting on my aisle seat- I found myself sitting between a Chinese guy (later on he left and came a young woman) and the grandpa with the 4-5 year old (spoiled like all of these one-kid-per-family-kids) on his lap. The kid I must say seamed kinda smart but as I said- very spoiled. across from us set a middle aged couple that was just as noisy as all the Chinese ppl, and a young guy that while sitting down on his seat was finishing his noodle-meal-in-a-box (it's very popular here as travel food or something to eat at work). The whole time I was being squeezed by the kid / grandpa that were moving around as if it's a new national sport. The kid saw one of the food carts ladies walking through - and told his grandpa that he wanted to eat lunch now (it was almost noon and the Chinese ppl can not go through a day without eating their lunch at noon and their dinner at 18:00. Really - they just can not). He looked at all the nice boxes the lady had and picked them all up looking at them to see if they're nice. He picked a blue box and said he wants that one, but the lady told him that this one is spicy and he should better pick something else. He looked a bit confused for a second, saying that he wants the blue one coz it's just the most beautiful one... but his grandpa and the nosy lady across from us agreed that he should take the orange one. The nosy lady butted in and told him: "it's beautiful, but it's also spicy!". The kid was convinced and there was peace for all. Until he decided he doesn't wanna have more than a few noodles and the chase after him began in the whole train....
After 2 hours and 10 minutes of being a playground for one little kid and one old grandpa, we finally arrived at Hangzhou. By the way- I totally managed to fall asleep on the train- even if it was only between squeezing and only for 20 minutes). To start telling you about the differences between the old east Hangzhou train station (there's a new one in town) and the Shanghai South Railway Station - it's like telling the difference between an airplane and a horse carriage. The smells, the colors (well the lack of colors in this case), the lady who was laying on the platform- not moving when the security guys touched her frightfully... Third world compared with state of the art. Got out of there as quickly as possible and took a taxi to the youth hostel to meet Omri, whom I know from the China forum online. The youth hostel is located in the center of town, right next to the lake, which is a great location. I really liked the streets next to it, and this lake, as touristy as it is- has something special about it - especially under thick mist. I checked in the hostel, got a lower bed in a 4 bed dorm room, put my things in the locker and headed to meet some more ppl.

The entrance to Mingtown Youth Hostel, Hangzhou

We met Diego and Adriana, he's an Israeli who was born in Argentina, she's Colombian. We had lunch and then headed to the place where it's all gonna happen: Adriana's place (lives with a few more lovely girls- just like her) to cook the x-mas dinner. After a lot of ppl in a small kitchen (well, bigger than mine) and a few hours - we had some dishes set on the table- and we dug in... The evening was one of the most pleasant, fun, warm and welcoming I've ever been to. I even got a nice bracelet from one of the girls- as a x-mas present (thank you Cecilia) - this little gesture of giving presents to the ppl you love- I think I'll have to write about it one day too (we don't have a holiday like that in Israel, well at least we just like giving presents for fun...). Even though I still didn't feel totally healthy - I didn't wanna leave. In the end we left at around 02:00 and I was asleep by 03:30 (it takes a while to get ready for bed when you're doing it in the dark to not wake up any of the other 3 ppl you have in your room).

In the morning I met Omri and Diego for breakfast in one of the endless Starbucks coffees in China. This one is just by the lake, and it was really nice walking there on the bank while rain drops were falling on my head (had to say that line from the song...).

A golden ox merging from the lake
West Lake (Xihu), Hangzhou

As it was raining a bit and I wasn't feeling very well - I decided that I'll go back to Hangzhou soon, and of course take Rob with me... I took my backpack from the hostel, and went home...

(still not feeling great- laying in bed since I got here...)