Ni hao!

Today was a pretty amazing day, we went to the Olympic Stadium and had a look around. We are still not sleeping properly so were awake at 5.30am and couldn't go back to sleep. After numerous games of cards and watching a film on the Ipod we decided to get up and do some exploring. As there is quite a few restaurants near to our hotel we can continously smell cooking which has made us feel quite nauseous and we just couldn't face Chinese breakfast. We found a bakery (called Holiland!) and had Danish pastries and bread rolls - just like the McDonalds yesterday we really couldn't face it! Bad travellers!!

It was really really cold today. Absolutely bitter and we really had to wrap up warm. We have decided to try and buy more layers for our walk along the Great Wall of China (on Saturday) as even with the layers we have brought with us it just doesn't seem to be enough. However we have started to walk at an incredibly fast pace much to the amusement of the Chinese people here - but it's keeping us warm at least!!!! The stadium was amazing - absolutely huge and it felt much larger than Old Trafford when we went inside. We managed to get student rate by flashing our STA card and only paid about two pounds fifty to get in to the stadium - bargain!! The whole area was FULL of Chinese people and unfortunately for us we were the main attraction! We felt like celebrities, everyone was snapping us with their cameras and many people grabbed us and made us pose with them which made us both laugh so much - we felt like the Beckhams! A women even gave Holly her baby to hold whilst posing! Even though it's very strange to be snapped by absolute strangers, they are all just so sweet and excited to see westerners and we were kind of expecting it anyway (thank you Lonely Planet!!). After a while it did wear thin though, especially as we were feeling very cold and just wanted to get a warm drink so Matt said very loudly "no!" and we ran off!!!! They were still taking our photo as we walked away!!!! We sampled some very ropey 'coffee' and 'tea' outside the stadium - see the photo for more details. We won't be drinking that again!

Tonight we met our group - they are all really lovely and we went out for dinner and Matt had Peking duck. Holly is still veggie and intends to stay that way!!!!!! Will write again tomorrow - goind to see the Summer Palace tomorrow and Forbidden City properly. Love you all - computer is timing us out so must go. xxxxxxx