Background Photo: le-avenir, Emmy.Leah
Quotation From: hellyeahjustlikethat
Choices.
RUSSIA > MONGLIA > CHINA 2011
Russia
Transit to Moscow
Day 1:
Our general perception of Russia before taking off:
-People don’t smile
-You can’t hand your passport over to anyone, including police. If they say they’re gonna take you to jail, just go with it.
-Ranked one of the most expensive and most unfriendly cities in the world.
-They have numbers!
-“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain. We’re having a little bit of an issue with engine #2. It’s vibrating more than it should. We’ve called in to the airport and declared an emergency. We’ll be landing shortly.”
- “you stink” - Walter’s neighbor = B.O. status
- Brian- zero brightness = no video watching on the plane.
-Man with the pillow balancing act on his head, secured with airplane headphones.
-Man with the major full body turn to stare out the window.
-Major stare session at Mark at Passport Control - WTF?!?
-Alex A.-Our driver from the airport to our hostel. (Major ‘american’ fan - “american cap”, “american music”, Reverse Hat = Sylvester Stallone, Sees a Mustang - “American Car.” Asks for gum, “American gum.” Hella happy to say “Bless you” after Mark sneezes. Major fan of throwing up the ‘peace sign (victory)’
-Had a bunch of collectibles that people gave him from America.
-Our gifts to him: From Walter – Chicago metro card. From Brian: “California Condom” from AIDS awareness night at GSW game.
-Not a fan of looking at the road. (reading the fine print while driving)
-Radio playlist included: “I Love You Always Forever,” “S&M,” “Last Christmas.”, “Kiss of Life”, “Groove is in the Heart”
Day 1 con’t…
-Journey to Red Square
-Major love for St. Basil’s Cathedral. Sick ass building. Have to see it up close to really appreciate its beauty.
-Arbat street - they got the McChickens here!
-Food is REALLY expensive. Went to a food court at a mall because we were starving. Had a casual $18 drumstick, small bowl of rice, and a beer. McDonald’s McChicken + Coke = $6.
-Metro maze of DOOM. Trying to match cyrillic drawings to our map. Getting on trains with no clue where we’re headed.
-Metro stations are fancy.
-Head down and walk in the other direction as soon as we see cops.
Day 2:
-Wide awake at 3am.
-Casual Ab Ripper session in the common lounge.
Day 3:
-Major pass out. Didn’t wake up unti 12:30.
-Russian “buffet” with Louise– really means a food court where you pick what you want and then pay at the counter.
-Major guessing game. No idea what we were choosing. Mystery meat session for sure.
-Walter got what he thought was a meat crepe. Then the lady shifted her hand toward the fruit toppings. Surprise dessert!
-Standard conversation at lunch: “How’s your ________?” “It’s alright.”
-Walked to sports bar down the street. Opened the door and saw a dark walkway with a big Russian dude standing at the end. Immediate u-turn and change of plans.
-Bought some beers at the liquor store and brought them to the park.
-Sitting, drinking, talking, watching kids do skateboard moves.
-Pigeons fly straight to your face.
-Major paranoia for Walter after hearing police stories from French/Romanian guy the night before. Constantly turning his head looking for RHG (Red Hat Guys).
-5 o clock meeting with the Honchos for Vodka train.
-Best surprise of the trip – our honchos are hot and cool Russian twins – Marina and Diana.
-Hour long meeting explaining process of Vodka train, plans for the rest of the night/the next day.
-Casual walking tour where we saw random sites:
-First McDonald’s In Moscow – First foreign food available when it opened and so people would line up in the streets for hours, even though it was freezing cold outside.
-Fanciest grocery store I’ve ever seen. Used to be an old house where someone important lived. Turned it into a grocery store but kept the interior design of the building.
-Along the walking tour Marina kept asking if it was ok to keep stopping so she could tell us cool facts about buildings we were passing. Guaranteed all the dudes were thinking “You can do whatever you want.”
-Authentic Russian meal:
-Meat pastries
-Dumplings (no idea it was going to come out in the form of a soup.
-Borsch – Traditional Russian beet root soup.
-Interesting conversations with Marina about America.
-In the 2.5 years that the twins (HAT) have done Vodka train, they’ve only met a total of 3 Americans. We were explaining to them that everyone in America has a negative perception of Russia. They think of Russians as mean, unfriendly, and think the country is a dangerous place to go.
-We asked her perception of America and she said “Russians think that all Americans have big houses, nice cars, everyone’s happy, and it’s the land of opportunities.” Told her that’s definitely not true. She said that’s their perception based on what they see in movies and on TV (i.e. Smallville, Gossip Girl, Lindsay Lohan movies. Geez! What are these choices??)
-Major conversation about working lifestyles. Marina was totally grilling Walter on his lifestyle. “Why would you even consider working 80 hours a week?? What do you get out of it?” No matter what answers Walter would give, she just wouldn’t accept. “You’re spending most of your entire life working!! That doesn’t make sense!!!”
-She explained to us that she works 18 hour weeks and has 52 days off in the summer. And she loves what she does. The Dream.
-Constantly asking us “When do you sleep??” So sad, but so true. We don’t sleep enough cuz we’re chasing the American Dream! (Nightmare).
-She was completely confused by the typical American lifestyle – they like feeling secure. They want to know that everything is going to be ok in the end. They’re afraid to take risks and put themselves out there. That’s why not that many Americans travel around the world. From grade school it’s about preparing yourself for a secure future. Never ending cycle. We have expensive education, and then we’re trapped into working hard to pay off the loans we take out for it. And that’s how Americans define success. This pretty much made no sense to her. Makes you wonder how trapped we are in that mentality. We made sure to tell her we’re not typical Americans. We’re proud to be American, proud of our opportunities, but don’t want to be associated with the “American Dream” lifestyle.
-After dinner, went to a bar called Gogol with a bunch of people who were gonna be on the train.
-Baseball bat/helmet drink was ridiculous. Major confusion as to what was going on.
-Got drunk with two local people from Finland. One of them ended up barfing on a barstool.
-Loose canon status on the way back by one Vodkatrain guy.
Day 4:
-Early wakeups to go and buy souvenirs by Red Square.
-Major detour to get a picture of the first Mcdonald’s and to get one last McChicken.
-Constantly rerouting to dodge RHGs.
-McChicken fail since Mcdonald’s was still selling breakfast.
-Sprint walk back to the hostel to make it back in time for breakfast with the crew.
-Breakfast included porridge, pancakes, and more good conversation with Marina and Diana. Invited them to come visit in California (0 chance).
-Hot Sloan look-a-like at breakfast.
-Turbo walk to grocery store to load up before train ride. Group of 23 basically raided the entire store and cleaned out shelves. Soups, bread, water, fruits, Vodka, snacks, etc.
-Faster turbo walk back to the hostel and then a hella quick packing session in order to make the train.
-Sick ass metro stations.
-Got to the train station and as soon as we saw the train, everyone was like “oh shit.”
-Strategy to avoid loose canon worked to perfection.
-Got settled in our cabin with Catherine. Brian: “What’s her name again? Karen?” Mark: “no.” Brian: “Catherine?” Mark: “Yup.” Brian: *exhale*
-Spent the first few hours on the train getting acclimated with our surroundings.
-Good conversation, good vodka with members of the group.
-Pregnant Russian woman sitting next to us looks like she’s about to pop. Everyone is hoping she does so Walter can be the hero that has to deliver the baby. He was hella against that idea.
-Andy had never heard of the word “faucet.”
-At the first stop, Walter bought this dried fish that everyone thought was just disgusting.
-After more vodka and more good conversation, got hella tired and slept.
-Next cabin over, a Russian offered hard-boiled eggs that had completely grey yolks. Sick.
Day 5:
-Woke up pretty early. Mark: “Today is gonna be the exact same thing as yesterday.”
-Really not much to do but eat snacks and stare at trees out the window.
-Started messing around doing chair dips, but it eventually turned into a full body workout, complete with resistance bands. Catherine was definitely wondering what the hell we were doing. Full hour workout session in a hellllla small ass area.
-At the first stop, got out and bought some food from Babushkas. Pretty sick ass scene actually. Just hella old ladies selling food from duffle bags. People also selling arts and crafts.
-Pussoy dos and magic trick session.
-Major sing along session.
-Matt – “Wait wait wait! Why hasn’t anyone done this one…”I don’t want not scrubs.” Definitely had already sung that hours before.
-Face Ache, Double Denim aka Bear.
-Beer session on the restaurant car.
-Horror stories from train:
-Andy and Rory thought they only had 1 minute to get on the train at one stop. Major sprinting session.
-Angry Russians in restaurant car giving some folks a hard time. Drunk one fell over table spilling everything, and they escaped.
-More angry Russians invading our cabin. One brought out a knife and just started slicing pig ears and bread on our table, force-feeding us.
-Andy ran into them in the smoking area and one grabbed his shirt. Luckily he got rescued by a Russian/English speaker.
-Threw away the guys’ knife and he came back looking for it in the middle of the night. Major statue session so he didn’t wake me up.
-Woke up on the last day of the train to a MAJOR snow storm.
-Bumpy ass 2 hour bus ride to Lake Baikal.
Conversation between Walter and Vodkatrain guide, Malina:
Malina: “Hi guys. Unfortunately you have to vacate your room to make space for the next group. Sorry.”
Walter: “Ok no problem. Earlier they told us we didn’t have to move anymore.” (totally non-threatening)
Malina: “SO WHAT?? That’s his (the other honcho’s) problem!! I said PLEASE!!”
Walter: “Um ok. Just trying to clarify.”
Irkutsk –> Ulaan Baatar
-Bought a bunch of alcohol for the train.
-We were told we’d have to finish the alcohol before reaching the Russia/Mongolia border.
-Major beer and vodka session while doing ab ripper on the top bunks.
-Jake “Can we please stop!”
-Rory drinking out of a miso soup bowl, filling it with vodka, and then with beer.
-Major sing along session. Highlights: “Man, I Feel Like a Woman,” “Stop!” “It’s Not Unusual,” “Unbreak my heart.”
-Total of 7 hours to get across the border. No idea wtf took so long. We were literally sitting there doing nothing.
-Walter was competing for #1 hater of the border ordeal.
-Matt – “How do they get away with this?”
Day 1 Mongolia
-Got off the train and met our honcho, Billy. Instant comment – “Nate!!!” Hella looks like him.
-Went to the bank to exchange dollars for tugriks. Instant baller status! $1 = $1250 tugriks.
-Stopped by the grocery to get some food and to buy gifts for the host nomad family we were going to visit later on in the day.
-Took a bus for about an hour to the most remote area I’d ever been in. About 78km outside Ulaan Baatar.
-Mark during the ride – “Dude, there are hellllla ger huts everywhere.” There seriously were though. Some were in groups, but you could also see random solo ones just in the middle of nowhere.
-You could see ger huts in some backyards of houses. Asked Billy why they were there and he explained when kids grew up they wanted to move out of the house. But it was hard to afford housing, so they’d buy cheap ger huts and just set them up in their parents’ backyard.
-Arrived at “Guru Travel” ger camp. Completely touristy.
-Jake – “I’m a little disappointed. This is way too touristy.” Rory – “I’m perfectly fine with this.”
-Settled in our ger hut, #23 Jordan represent!” and then went to the restaurant for some breakfast. Devoured the eggs/sausages.
-Went on a hike to the top of one of the mountains where there were some cool rock formations. Major fear climbing all the way to the top but we did it. Cool ass view of absolutely nothing. Just complete wilderness. As far away you could get from the “real world” as possible. It was freakin sick.
-Watched group one get on their horses. Good comedy lines. Lara – “My horse is acting up!” Matt from far away hella calm – “Help her.”
-Sat and just chilled with Mark, Walter, Andy, and Billy for a while just talking about life and how Americans don’t like to travel. They like security.
-Brian – “Billy, how many Americans have you met through Vodkatrain?” Billy – “You guys are the fourth.” Brian – “So you’ve met 3 individuals before or 3 groups of Americans?” Billy – “No…I’ve met one. You guys are 2, 3, and 4.” WOW.
-Had some lunch. Interesting lunch ordering steez. Menu written out on a ripped out piece of binder paper. On a 2nd piece of binder paper, you write your name and your choices. Had some pretty good dumplings.
-Casual horseback riding after lunch. For hella people, it was their first time on a horse.
-For the most part is was casual and the horses were walking slowly. But when we turned around to head back to camp, instant galloping session! Freaking painful. Major giggles though to see everyone not know what the hell to do.
-“Choo! Choo! Choo!” – apparently that’s how you make the horses go, but they didn’t really listen to us.
-Almost got shat on by neighboring horses.
-After getting back to camp, we got on a bus to visit a host nomad family.
-We sat in the ger hut and she offered us some milk tea, some weird yogurt sticks, and some fried pastry.
-It was interesting hearing how she lives life everyday.
-Her family of 6 all stays together in the ger. They rely completely on their livestock to make money.
-When weather doesn’t cooperate, they have to pack up the entire hut and transport it along with their entire livestock.
-It takes 1 hour to take down an entire hut, and 2 hours to put it back up.
-She showed us a nice jacket she made and how to make buttons.
-Another humbling experience. Someone with pretty much nothing with a smile on her face.
-“She’s definitely not running the rat race. She doesn’t have a boss.”
-Checked out Turtle Rock. Big ass rock that looks like a turtle. Hiked up for a bit, but it started to rain a little. Bought a replica ger hut.
-Headed back to camp for some dinner. Options were “sliced beef” or “lots of lamb.”
-Had a couple beers while a bunch of other people played this game called “bones.”
-Went outside and saw the most stars ever in life. Was freakin awesome.
-Wanted to get into a more remote area where there no lights around.
-Grabbed some flashlights and started walking into the dark wilderness. “Shit pile! Watch out for that shit!”
-It was 0 degrees and probably cooler with the wind chill.
-I put on 7 shirts to stay warm. Louise took Mark’s blanket (sick. Blanket in shit walks)
-Finally settled on a location where there were no lights and looked up to see even more stars. Was freakin awesome.
-Louise out of nowhere – “The sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it.”
-Just stood there for a while talking about how sick it was. Then Louise suggested standing in silence.
-“One of the best moments of my life.”
-Lean back 360s were sick. Felt like you were in another world.
-Silhouettes of mountains and rock formations on every side of us and the most stars ever above. Sometimes even saw shooting stars Seriously one of the most awesome things ever. Just felt completely far away from any kind of worries in life.
-It was freakin COLD though.
-After about an hour of freezing our asses off, we headed back to camp to catch some sleep.
-Throughout the night, at 12, 3, and 6am, a woman would come into each ger hut to light up our stove to help us stay warm.
Day 2 in Mongolia:
-Woke up to a major snow storm. Completely different climate from the day before.
-Breakfast and turbo packing session.
-Bus ride back to Ulaan Baatar with Manila style traffic. Took about 2 hours.
-Got to hotel and took first shower since Irkutsk.
-Walked in the snow storm to eat at a Mongolian BBQ place.
-Everyone other than us was amazed by the concept. Had never seen a Mongolian bbq before. Explained to them that they have them everywhere in America. Even in food courts at the mall.
-Walked to shopping center afterwards. During walk I stepped into a huge puddle. Walter’s reaction – “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??”
-Major souvenir purchases.
-Made our way to the square (don’t really know the name of the square). There’s a huge building with a Ghegis Khan statue in the front.
-Jump knee tucks with full audience of giggling kids in front of statue.
-Out of all places, went to an Irish pub and just downed beers for a good 4 hours.
-Sold the idea of going to the Philippines to a bunch of folks.
-Also tried recruiting folks for a Vegas Vodkatrain reunion.
-Jake is a beer guzzling machine.
-Went back to the hotel bar for another round of beers. Jake ordered a secret huge one before going to the table.
-C3PO imitations.
-Threw peanuts at each other.
-Went back to room and Louise came knocking saying she needed help because Jake was a barfing machine.
-Went to their room and saw him passed out on the bathroom floor. He already barfed on his sheets and had barf all over his arm. Didn’t really help. Just kept saying “SICK.”
Transit day Mongolia -> China
-Went down to the lobby at 6am to find Jake barfing in the corner. Disaster status. Even got on Billy’s backpack.
-Boarded train with new roommates Carol and Mike. They got married 3.5 years ago but it hasn’t stopped them from traveling the world. They’ve been on a different continent every year since. That’s dope.
-Didn’t really do much. Took a nap, went to the café car for some beers.
-“Noodle Time!”
-Got to the border for another few hours of boredom. Really can’t figure out why it takes so long to stamp passports.
-After another hour, came to another stop for another 4 hours.
-Had to go through a wheel changing process because the tracks are different in China. Had to take each train car one by one into a little warehouse to have this done. Major hydrolics because they had to jack up the train to replace the wheels. Definitely slept through it though.
Day 1 in China
-Arrived at train station and our honcho was weak. Told us to line up in 3 line (sideways lines) so he could pass out Mao watches to us. He was 3 watches short and he assumed that someone had taken more than one watch. After a 5 minute search, he found the watches in his bag. Dumb ass.
-Got some keesh at the bank and then looked for a noodle place that the honcho suggested. Noodle place didn’t exist. Dumb ass 2.0.
-Took a cab back to the hostel. Louise, Matt, Lara, and Jake shared a hostel and got dropped off at Tiananmen Square.
-Matt/Lara and Louise found their hostels easily. Jake said he walked around for 2 hours looking for his, never found it, and had to find a random hostel to sleep at. Human map!!
-Got settled, rested up a bit and then headed to Chinese acrobat show.
-Hella hard to give taxis instructions without English. Major pointing at pictures and just hoping for the best.
-Acrobat show was pretty sick.
-Went out for drinks with team Mao afterwards at Hooters. What a choice.
-Said our goodbyes to some of the Vodkatrain folks.
-A few stayed behind and we checked out San La Tun bar street.
-“Pizza and strippers”. Every bar had a pole dancer in it. Hella weird.
-Beer price negotiations were freakin hilarious.
-Andy – “how much for a beer?” “30.” “30?? They said 15 (randomly pointing down the street to a restaurant)!” “Ok ok!! 15!”
-When the hell can you ever negotiate drink prices? Guaranteed restaurants have menus.
-Found out about a nightclub called “Babyface” from a local.
-Got hassled by rickshaw drivers trying to take us. Major negotiations of prices again.
-Finally settled and got on. Drove across the street in very heavy traffic.
-They dropped us off at this club area and we couldn’t find anything at all called “Babyface.”
-Checked out Mix instead. Some random club where there were hella people. There was definitely a sign for 50 Yuan cover, but we just strolled in since we had hella foreigners with us.
-Crew up: 3 Americans, 2 Andys, Christian, Shantal.
-1s and 2s galore.
-Small Nate trying to pick fights with everyone and saying he’s from the Mafia.
-Hella hard to get a taxi to take us back to the hostel. 2 parts to getting a taxi. 1 – find one that will take you for a reasonable price. 2 – he has to like your address. We got turned down hella times.
-After a 30 minute search, finally got in a taxi that took us back.
Day 2 - China
-Early wake ups to see Mao Masoleum.
-Hella long ass line with some major bumping and grinding going on the entire time.
-Security guy pulled my arm hella hard to tell me to go in a certain line. The start of the bullying.
-Security guy asked Walter to pull out his wallet. Walter started reaching for his crotch wallet and the security guy basically said “fuck it. Just go.”
-More bumping and grinding in line.
-When we reached the body, couldn’t even have a solemn moment. Security kept pushing us around to make sure we stayed in 2 lines. Bully mania.
-Chilled in Tiananmen Square for a bit.
-Walked over to Forbidden City. Hella huge.
-At the entrance, and old ass lady completely shoved mark with 2 hands into the chest basically saying “get the hell out of my way.” Didn’t really acknowledge his presence though. Just shoved him out of the way like an animal. Fuckin giggles.
-Discovered “hole ass” for the first time. Babies have holes cut in the crotch area of their pants for easy access if they need to piss or shit on the street. Hella disgusting style.
-Planned on staying for at least 4 hours, but after 1.5, everything started to look the same. Couldn’t really appreciate everything since we didn’t know the history. Plus, there were HELLA people everywhere and we just wanted to get the hell out.
-Tour groups have matching colored hats. So embarrassing.
-People in general have a hella wide variety of hats.
-Walked across the street to a park with hills and an aerial view of the Forbidden City. Hella sick. Enjoyed that view more than being inside the city itself.
-Waited hella long for umbrella lady to get the hell out of the way so we could take a sick picture.
-Long ass walk back to the hostel.
-Met up with Matt, Lara, Jake, Rory, and Peter for some peking duck.
-Waiter dropped duck on the floor on the way up the stairs.
-Referred to ducks by their prices. “Is this one an 88 or a 128?”
-Nobody knew how to use chopsticks.
-Planned to get some drinks with everyone afterwards, but most people pooped out because we had to wake up early for the Great Wall the next day.
-Me and Mark went to meet up Louise and Lizze at Hou Hai. Another major adventure trying to get a cab.
-Got to Hou Hai and it was sick. Long ass line of bars/restaurants lined along the river. Live music mania.
-Found a spot and got some beers and hookah. Good conversation, good music, good drinks.
-Place shut down at 2. Stood in the freakin cold trying to figure out what to do next. After like 30 minutes, Louise says, “We’re just going back to our hostels huh?” “Hey, we’re down for anything.”
-Louise pulled out her Kindle to look for some info. Dork status, but it was hella helpful.
-After a few more minutes, somehow we were in a cab on our way back to Mix again, knowing that we had to wake up in like 4 hours.
-Got to Mix and tried to follow Louise and Lizzie in so we didn’t have to pay cover. Definitely didn’t work. Oof.
-Had some drinks and danced the night away.
-Louise was hella hype for “Who Let the Dogs out??”
-Weird woman dancing on stage for at least an hour.
-Group of dudes came in out of nowhere at like 4am and started doing a dance routine (something about a 2 step).
China – Day 3
-Plan was for Walter to wake us up at 5:45. Left Mix at 5:20 and it was broad daylight outside.
-Louise – “Should we just go to the Great Wall with them?” “yes!!” Straight ins.
-Got a cab and stopped by their hostel really quick. Tried to keep the driver entertained by showing him pictures on my camera and talking to him about our journey. 0 English. Good times.
-Bought some dumplings for the 3rd time from the same restaurant and got to the hostel around 5:45. Perfect timing for our scheduled wake up.
-Met up with Matt and Lara and headed over to the train station.
-Walter was honcho status. Definitely the only one who knew where the hell we were going.
-Major journey to find the bus station and confusion as to which bus to get on.
-Finally got on the right bus and just passed out completely.
-Apparently it was a 2 hour bus ride, but I wasn’t up for any of it.
-When we were almost there, the driver made a sharp turn, and Mark literally flew out of his seat and landed on his ass in the walkway. I was too sleepy to laugh at the time, but it’s hella funny when I think about it now.
-Arrived at the Wall and after some Subway, started making our journey up. At first some folks were considering taking the cable car, but we convinced everyone to just hike.
-It was definitely worth it when we got to the top. Felt like we earned the right to be on the Wall.
-As soon as Mark got to the top of the wall, the vendor farted. Disrespect.
-The Great Wall is so dope. We hiked up to some higher grounds so we could see the views. It was really sick. Took pictures galore.
-Great Wall squats, gymnastics moves, and karate kicks.
-Louise out of nowhere – “I wish I could do some gymnastics.” Jealous!
-Had a couple of beers atop the Great Wall with Louise.
-Toboggan ride down was so dope! Basically a personal bobsled ride back down to the bottom of the hill. Hella fun!
-Did some souvenir shopping and then just waited for the bus.
-Major hacky sack session between Matt and a gypsy taxi driver. Driver gave Matt the hacky sack afterwards.
-Sleep galore on the bus. Freakin cold and rainy though.
-Got back to the bus station and it was pouring rain. We had a long ass walk to the metro.
-Vendor was trying to sell us umbrellas. Sold one to a girl for 10 Yuan. Walter tried to buy one next and he said “15!” Walter – “you just sold her one for 10.” Man – “So what??” – 2nd “So What!” on this trip, in 2 different countries.
-Tried hella long to flag down a cab, but nobody liked us.
-Finally just sprinted our minds away and got to the metro. Rainy run 2.0 from the metro station back to our hostel. Drenched galore.
-Met up with a bunch of Vodkatrain folks to send Rory and Peter off on their last night.
-Went to some random bar to watch the Chelsea vs. Manchester United match.
-Longest day ever.
-Found a cab back to the hostel and bought even more dumplings.
-Doors were freakin chain-locked. Took forever for someone to come by and open the door for us.
-Dumplings consumed, then crashed.
China – Day 4
-Finally got some decent rest and got up for another adventure.
-Took the metro for almost 20 stops to get to Summer Palace.
-Getting up the escalator at the metro station, Brian – “I hella hope we see the Golden Arch dream as soon as we get to the top.” Boom. McDonald’s right at the exit. No words spoken. We all just started to automatically gravitate towards McDonald’s.
-Got some spicy chicken sandwich thing, which was pretty damn good.
-Bought a ticket and map to Summer Palace. “2 through tickets please.”
-Bought a map/guide and had instant regrets as soon as I opened it. Basically didn’t give any context to where you were. Just a bad map.
-A lot of walking around not knowing where the hell we were going. No signs, no sense of direction.
-Hella old ladies selling this moustache things. Hella popular item at this place.
-Rented out a paddle boat for an hour. Tiring but hella fun and got some sick ass views of the palace.
-Other “highlights” on the guide were this weird, useless stone thing, and some bronze ox that looked hella big on the map, but was tiny as hell in real life.
More hole asses everywhere. Freakin gross.
-After exiting, found another MdConald’s near the train station. Went for McDonald’s 2.0.
-They definitely have the right McChickens and crispy ass nuggets.
-Headed over to Olympic Sports Center to check out the bird’s nest (Eagle’s nest according to Peter” and the Cube.
-Met up with Louise and Lizzie. Started to rain a bit, so we just sat under a canopy for a couple hours waiting for the rain to die down and for the lights to come up.
-Jake met us up, but it ok us 45 minutes to find him once he got to the stadium, even with cell phones. Human Map!!
-Got some sick ass time lapse videos and also some sick pictures with the reflection of the bird’s nest in the water.
