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We arrived in Qingdao that evening at about 11 and found 3 taxis to take us to the hostel. We got in ours assuming that the meter was on as we knew it would be about 30 each. Half way through the journey we realised that the meter had actually been turned off. We questioned the driver and he told us that our friends had already agreed on a price of 150 which was outrageous as it should cost between 90 and 120. We argued with him for a bit and then tried to ring the others. Our methods of communication let us down. Out of the 12 of us only about 4 of us had working phones and they were often out of battery or credit. I had accidentally dropped mine down a train toilet and Beth had left hers charging at Ella's house in the rush to get the train to Shanghai. So we would have to wait until we arrived. When we did we were dropped off at the wrong hostel and ended up paying the 150 in the end thanks to the driver's obstinacy. When we did find our friends they angrily asked us why we agreed to pay one 150 and only then did we realise that we had been hoodwinked!
The next day the boys wanted to head to the Qingdao beer museum, so Beth, Ella and I walked down to the old German Catholic church. Then we decided that we would walk over to the old pier and the beach and have a look at the stalls. On our way we bumped into some other foreigners who were also teachers down in Guangdong. Then we headed over to McDonalds and I bought a delicious piece of chocolate cake and some hot chocolate, then we walked over to a small temple near the sea. It turned out it was closed when we got there so we all headed back to the hostel for the beer float. At the hostel it turned out that you could pay £2 and drink as much Qingdao beer from 8-9. We had assumed that this meant 8 PM to 9PM but as it turned out it was 8AM to 9PM! It was about a quarter past 8 when the boys paid up and then had a stressful forty-five minutes to drink as much as possible while us girls sipped on cocktails. We were talking some other foreigners in the bar and the told us the clubs were quite far away but we thought we knew where we were going. In the end we wandered around for about half an hour asking Chinese people in the dark until we finally found an M2 which was packed but way too overpriced so we left and walked down the road until we found a Chinese club. On the way out we bumped into the foreigners that we had met earlier that morning near the pier. We ended up outside a 7-11 drinking wine. I back with some of our crew, while the others went to a sports bar to watch Manchester United play at 3 in the morning. Pete, who had lost his walled along with £80 was quite depressed so we piled him with wine and when he got back in the morning (having slept through the match on a couch) he went on a half an hour tirade about Game of Thrones before we could get him to go to sleep.
The next morning after breakfast, Rob, Beth, Dan and I headed over to the train station to catch our 26 hour train to Harbin, sitting. Sitting on Chinese trains is not a pleasant experience, especially if you don't have a window seat and it's for more than a day! In the end though, we found an empty carriage and asked the stewards if we could sleep in there and they said yes. The only minor hiccup was a thief who almost made her way through my handbag but Dan chased her away.
Watch this space for two more entries!!!
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