First day?!

What a couple of days it has been for us!! It all started at 6.45am on Tuesday morning, when we were rudely awoken by our alarm clock after a rather naff sleep! We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get our last few bits together before we left at about 8.30. The traffic got a bit congested at times, but before we knew it Steve and I were jumping out of the car outside terminal 4 and being hugged and kissed by mum, Liz and Andie (with surprisingly few tears I must add). After that it all turned into a rather frustrating waiting game. We got checked in quickly enough, but the had to wait for over 2 hours before we knew which gate we would be boarding at and then almost another hour before we were on the plane and ready for take-off. By this point I was absolutely terrified! Steve was cool as a cucumber as usual, but things went smoothly, despite the fact I almost crushed all the bones in Steve's hand during the take-off as I was so scared! More waiting then ensued, as we had a 9 and a half hour flight ahead of us.

We watched some inflight entertainment and 'enjoyed' the food (I think I had a little bit of bacon with the fat they served me for breakfast)! But neither of us managed to sleep much, try as we might! So when we landed in Beijing, we were wishing that we were curled up in bed as to us it should have been approaching midnight - not 5.45am! But we got through customs and what not, with a quick text home to say we were safe and well we soon got stuck into life in Beijing - which started with a scrum to buy tickets for the airport shuttle bus into the inner city. Once we arrived in the main city we decided to save a few pennies (well, Yuan) and walk the rest of the way to the hostel. This was an interesting task, as the roads are just manic!!! People just walk out into the road and expect people to just avoid them or stop! We tried to be vaguely caustious and wait for the green man at traffic lights, but even when he was on green cars were driving at you! We managed to make it in one piece, just (as our bags are so heavy)! We got booked in and were able to get into our room straight away.

The hostel is quite good, we have our own bathroom and the staff are friendly and helpful. We freshened up a bit and made a bid for the big city (mainly to try and keep ourselves awake for the rest of the day)! So we got the subway to get to West Beijing Railway station, but had to walk some of the way (so much easier when you're not carrying 2 and a half stone on your back)! We managed to buy a sleeper train ticket to Xi'an, we have a luxury cabin to ourselves, as there were no other classes available, but we shall try to cope as best we can! After buying our tickets we got some lunch, this was interesting, as the staff spoke no English, so there were lots of random words and hand gestures made before we got some really nice dumplings, green tea and a bottle of beer (which must have had 2 pints in it - Steve was feeling a little wayward afterwards anyway)!

We hopped back onto the subway after lunch and went to Tian Anmen Square, it's pretty impressive, but it was a shame as the Mausoleum and National Museum are both closed until September due to refurbishments in preparation for the Beijing Olympics. But we enjoyed our wander nonetheless (despite being harrassed by 'students' and street sellers)! It is quite strange being stared at a lot though and it's quite bizarre as the city is kind of cross between London and Rome - it's historic and beautiful in places, like London, but then like Rome, it's completely manic - with tonnes of moped and bicycle riders who tend to drive at, rather than around things! Steve then almost got us lost trying to find the subway, but we managed to have a nice wander around the old city gates, which were very beautiful. I managed a masterful act - I fell asleep standing upright on the Beijing subway! Steve found this very amusing (as you can probably imagine) - but in my defence I have been up for at least a day and a half without having had any proper sleep!

We're back at the hostel now and will be going out for dinner shortly, will hopefully stay awake until later on tonight! And despite all these activities we have only spent 3 pounds 30p each (except on accommodation and the sleeper train)!!!

Tomorrow we're going to go and see the Forbidden City and surrounding attractions and on Friday we'll be going to a relatively remote stretch of the Great Wall (hopefully). Well, we'll let you get going now, as we've rambled on long enough! Hope you're all well!