What do you get when you have a short holiday, 2000 rmb to spend that your school will reimburse you for, and 4 friends who want to have some fun? You get an unforgettable trip to *Qingdao*!
Nicole, Julie, Aaron, and I jumped on an airplane and flew off into the distant land of mountains, sea, and beer for an extended weekend in Qingdao. The city was unique, the food was amazing, and the time with friends was priceless. Here are some things we did on this fun trip to a new world.
Day 1 was a bit rainy so we ended up going to an Aquarium. Not bad, but not the greatest. They didn't actually have many fish. Some of the rooms were fake animals or old, preserved fish. But it kept us warm and dry.
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| Julie and Nicole bought us these awesome shirts! |
The rest of the time we were blessed with amazing weather. Everywhere we went it was adventure. The next day we decided to go find 石老人 (Shi lao ren) otherwise known as "Old Rock Man". We were told the bus stop and I was confident as we boarded the bus. As it so often happens, we didn't quite find it the first time. However, eventually we arrived at this "rock". Sadly, once we were there, we didn't see any such rock. I've been told that it's not there anymore. Hmm... too bad I wasn't told this before I went! Anyway, we laid on the beach and enjoyed the relaxing waves.
After the beach, we went to the red thing. It's some sort of monument. Yikes! Were we popular here. It was hard to hang out and enjoy the area. People kept approaching us to take their picture with us. Aaron and Nicole are tall, I have blond hair, and Julie is just cool- so who wouldn't want their pictures with us?! We decided to also have some fun taking our own pictures.
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| notice how I'm the only one looking? That was planned. We all have pictures like this. |
Other adventures included eating great food, exploring the German style streets of Qingdao, and walking through parks. We also drank some beer, sometimes that came from a bag. Since Qingdao is home to the famous Tsingtao beer, you can find it just about anywhere, even on a street corner. You simply say you want a beer to go, they fill up a bag, hand you a straw, and your off! Have I ever told you that China is a bit different than America?
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| waiting for the beer in a bag |
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| posing by a lake |
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| trying some starfish- not very good |
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| always a fun picture with the four of us! |
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| one of the beaches in Qingdao |
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| Beer street- a street with a lot of restaurants and a beer museum |
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| on the pier- view of part of the city |
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| having lunch at our FAVORITE BBQ restaurant! We went here almost every night. |
The saddest part of the trip was knowing that this would probably be the last time I would get to travel with my dear friend Julie. :( She will be going back to America next year. I'll miss her greatly. She can always put a smile on my face and is up for a good time all the time. :)
