day 116, Beijing

Woke up feeling not too grand, got showered and sorted meself out, packed me bag and moved it into Seb and Nicci’s room as they are staying a night, and met in the lobby with everyone. We caught the bus to the temple of heaven, which was amazing, some amazing architecture and sights, amazing lawns and trees and a great place. From there we went to the pearl market which was a experience, 4 floors filled with shit, most of it fake and lots of people trying to get your attention slash grab you, and it was brill. Got some Chinese food and walked back to Tien’enman  square which was fantastic. Lots of Chinese people wanted pictures with brigitte and hollie which made us giggle then back to the hotel to grab our bags and move to the new hostel. Found the hostel pretty easily, it’s bloody fab, voted the 8th best hostel in the world (for april) cheap and clean, on a cool high street with a good bar area, got some water, cash and orange milk (it was great and half the price of normal milk(!)), then had a meal in the bar with kim, kelly, jake, hollie, brian and Brigitte, me kim and kelly got 3 dishes and shared em and it was awesome. Booked in the hostel till Thursday where hope to get a train to Xian! Bloody love china, at the moment it’s my favourite place I’ve ever been to. It’s also good to get back to being independent and travelling on my own, taking responsibility and having a lot more freedom. I had an absolutely amazing time the last 3 weeks, it was great to meet such a lovely bunch of people, I really like all of them and hope to keep in touch and will miss little things about each of them (eg Brian telling Brigitte that’s she’s looking well every morning in a innocently creepy way) and it was great to be met off the train and be taken to the hostel/hotel though I’m really looking forward to the rest of it!