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Wow its been a while since I updated. I need to try and remember what I have done because it has been very eventful. I last updated in Xian, China and now I am in Hamburg, Germany.
Beijing was a really good experience for me after staying in some very remote towns and cities in the rest of China I decided to find some other westerners. I arrived in Beijing early morning and set out to find a hostel that was recomended to me by an American couple that I met in Guilin, it was really cold in Beijing which made the long walk downstairs and accross the courtyard to the Bathrooms dreaded and that was during the day, at night i think it would have been impossible. The hostel wasnt quite as lively as I was hoping so after the first night I changed to one that was mentioned in Lonely planet which is against my principles but it seemed like a good option. In the first hostel I stayed in a dorm room with an Israeli guy called Roy who I spent a bit of time hanging out with while in Beijing. The first day in Beijing I had a look around the forbidden city and Tienanmen square and even went to the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao, my second Mausoleum in a few weeks. There were so many tourists at the forbidden city that it took away from it a bit. The second day at the Leo hostel (the second one) I joined a tour to the secret wall (a stretch of the great wall with package tourists or entry fees), it was cool being on an unrenovated stretch of the wall. We trekked for several hours and the only people we saw were the people from the hostel. Our tour guide was a lady about 70 years old, she had to be quite fit for the amount of hikig we did. I met an Australian girl who was visiting her English boyfriend in China and that night I went out with them and another English guy and an English girl for pizza. We went to a place that has the biggest pizzas you could imagine. 4 people could only just finish one of them. The next day I spent the morning exploring the Temple of Heaven. On my way through Qianmen I had a German girl called Biata approach me and ask if I wanted to share a Beijing duck with her which I had already planned with Roy so I invited her along with us for dinner that night. We went to a very fancy duck restaurant which cost alot but was worth it for te certificate certifying it was a proper Peking duck. I went back to my hostel afetr that which was quite the party place and went to bed. When the people that were staying in the room got back at 2 I woke up and talked to them for a couple of hours. There was a girl from Cuba who was very friendly and a Mongolian guy called Neema who I hung out with over the next few days. The next day me and Roy went in search of the underground city which is a series of tunnels built under Beijing, they were builtin the 70s and you can access everywhere in Beijing using these tunnels which were set up in anticipation of an attack on the country, you can even get to the great wall using the tunnels which is 70km away. Apparantly if you add up the distance of all the underground tunnels in CHina they are longer then the great wall. That afternoon it rained alot so me and Biata went to an art gallery and stayed there in front of the heater for quite a while. I staed back at the hostel that night and hung out with Sophie (the english girl) and the others from the hostel, we ended up going out at midnight and not getting home til 4.30. Had a lot of fun that night. The next day I went to the Lama temle with rOY AND Neema which was a little boring. Had a quiet night and went to bed quite early. Te next day which was my last in Beijing me and Sophie went to the clothes market as there were a few things I needed but everyone tried to rip us off so we didnt buy anything. I decided I would do my best not to sleep that nigt so I could sleep on the plane during the next day. I hung out watching dvds with roy then went and met up with some people hed met and so I managed to avoid sleeping but the problem was my flight was delayed and then they kept bringing me food on the plane so I didnt sleep at all on the plane. Also when I got to the airport the flight was overbooked so i got told they had no seat for me but ended up with a really good seat next to the emergency exit so I had heaps of leg room. Beijing was really great andit wa good to justrelax for a few days before getting to Europe. The pollution in Beijing was not bad at all and the sky was Blue the whole time except when it was raining andyou could even see stars at night.
I arrived in London mid afternoon and went and met up with Blake, my uni frend who just moved to London. By this stage I was quite sick as Id started to come down withsomething in Beijing which progressed due to lack of sleep. I spent the following day sightseeing in London and managed to push through jetlag. I got on a sightseeing bus and did that most of the day as well as a river cruise. I did a jack the ripper tour at night which was good but by the time i got back to where I was staying I fell asleep straight away. I bought a mobile phone in London so please everyone sms me, the number is +447757594320. I got on a plane the next afternoon to Copenhagen, I almost missed the flight as I thought it was at 3 but it was actualy at 2. I had checked in online so i just made it but my flight was from the new terminal 5 at heathrow which has been plagued by problems so when I arrived in Copenhagen I wa told me luggage was still in London. I was freeloading in Denmark with a Danish girl called Anne and her housemate Charlotte which was cool because i just relaxed for several days and tried to get over my sickness. My luggage arrived several days later... Denmark is so much different to what I was expecting, there is a lot of unrest there an expample of which is the riots that took place a few weeks ago, while I was there there was anothe demonstration, this time a massive street party with several thousand young people celebrating victory after the last riots, there were fireworks in the streets and flares. Also I went to Christiania which is a hippy commune located within the city. The people live in fairytale style houses and there are nice views but its a very weird place. I spent a day at the end over in Malmo Sweden, just because its so close that I thought I may aswell go, only half an hour by train. It was good.When I got back I did a canal tour through Copenhagen, one of my only times siteseeing. It was Annes birthday on my last night so she had all her female friends over so it was me and 5 girls, I thought I should leave but she insisted I stay, they were really cool the danish girls but also very crazy. I got the train to Hamburg yesterday, the trains here are really good. I spent yesterday afternoon riding around Hamburg, I am starting to get a bit less sick which is good, it rains here all the time but its still a really cool city. I am here one more day then going to Amsterdam.
I think that basically covers what I have done. Asia was really amazing but now I am onto the 2nd stage of my trip. Its such a contrast, coming from Asia where everythings cheap to Denmark where a coffee is 10 dollars. I met so many great people in Asia who I am hoping to stay in contact with. Travelling is a really great experience and it seems to be so much easier to meet people, an example is when I went into a bookshop in Beijing and I heard a guy and a girl talking Spanish so I asked where they are from and they said Chile so I told them I will be there at the end of the year so he gave me his email and told me to contact them when I get there. The conversation only lasted 3 minutes and yet I made a contact. Also in the hostel in Beijing I talked to an american guy for about 5 minutes who was staying in the dorm room and then the next day he gave me his email and told me he has family in New York who he can put me in contact with when I am there. I think such encounters are more common in Asia as you can clearly tell where someone is also a foreigner whereas in Europe I think the experience will be very different as I look the same as the local people, especially in Denmark and Germany so it is much harder to make connections which is why I am couchsurfing so that I can meet some local people. I will update again when I get the chance.
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