Oct 19/17

Thursday was a very quiet day. We walked some of the hutongs, did some errands like going to the bank and picking up snacks for the long train ride tomorrow. We had a nap in the afternoon and an early dinner of a chicken cucumber stir fry with I think Oyster Sauce and rice and a wonderfully surly waitress. It was good but not as good as the first place we had first visited in this hutong with the amazing dumplings. We packed our bags etc. and went to bed.

Oct 20/17

Friday was our day to travel by train to Xi’an. We got up too early but I did fall back asleep while hubby worked which was a mistake because I was kind of out of it for most of the morning afterwards.

We had one last lovely breakfast and were in our taxi by 9:30 on the way to Beijing West Station. This station is even bigger than the other station but we were able to find our gate with no issues. I grabbed some instant soups for the train that were the same as one I had had on the way back from Shanhaiguan. I also got some crackers and hubby grabbed some oranges. I waited at the boarding gate while hubby took a wander around the station. There were apparently toy shops, book stores and lots of restaurants.

Once we were on the train we settled back for the five and a half hours to Xi’an. There were some other foreigners like us on the train but there is this funny phenomenon we’ve noticed in that no foreigners really want to talk to each other. I’m not sure what the explanation is but everyone including us is very standoffish.

We looked out the window, snacked on our snacks – both of the bread items we had purchased at the very high end looking Japanese bakery in Beijing were amazing. One had a very slight orange aroma and flavour with dried orange bits and the other had some custard inside. They were definitely a lucky find as we picked them purely on looks with no idea what we were buying for sure as everything was in mandarin.

I had my soup a little later. These Chinese trains are awesome with their steaming hot water dispensers on the trains and in every station. I ate it with my Kuazi (chopsticks) not the bendable plastic fork that came in the soup because it was easier as the fork was very bendable and seem undependable.

As we reached speeds over 300 km an hour we could see the temperature which shows on the same board rising and rising. Luckily at 28 degrees it started falling again and the temp in Xi’an when we arrived was a perfectly lovely 19 degrees and a beautiful night.

We took the Subway from the train station and arrived at the bell tower stop where Clarence met us to take us to the Warriors Apartment. We are staying in Pit 2 and there are Terra Cotta Warriors everywhere in the apartment – the walls, the shower, under the bed, in the kitchen – just everywhere. There’s a cute little one above the sink in the bathroom holding two q-tips like swords.

I was very hungry so talked hubby into walking to the Muslim Market which is only five minutes away. The chaos, noise and overwhelming smells and new sites and sounds cannot be overstated. We wandered and found something that looked like potatoes. It turned out to be a noodle/pasta tasting thing. It was kinda spongy and quite spicy. We next tried these little baby potatoes but they were so over spiced to our taste that neither of us could get down more than one. We wandered some more and found an amazing ice cream place where the cones were fresh made egg waffles. We got one in a cone and one in a cup with strawberries and chocolate and shared. The ice cream was a little different, gritty sort of with I think bigger sugar bits and it was wonderful. It ended up being our dinner as we were both exhausted. We made our way through the huge crowds and back to the apartment and snuggled into bed. Just as I was drifting off to sleep the disembodied voice of my hubby comes out of the dark and says “Should we be like the Walton’s and say goodnight to all the warriors?” I giggled and giggled. We ended up naming some of them so good night General Chang and Brutus. Sweet dreams.