Day 10 Cock a Noodle Do

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We left Beijing on Saturday at 7am and piled onto our little autobus. I like Beijing but I had to get out, I'd been there a week and the pollution and consistent begging was hard to deal with everyday.
I made sure to see as much as I could the day before leaving; Tainanamen Square, Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. I also managed to get a ride back to the hotel on a rickshaw.

We traveled in our little bus to the Great Wall of China, it took 3hrs to get there and I kept falling asleep and hitting my head on the window. The English lads went out the night before and only managed 1 hrs sleep, one was still drunk and the other turned up wearing his skinny jeans carrying a guitar (!)

We eventually got there and the sun was beating down on us. We bought additional water and prepared ourselves for the mission!!!
We started making our way up these incredibly steep steps, when Anthony got mobed by a swarm of hysterical Chinese girls (Anthony is a tall,white, blued eyed, blonde curly haired Irish lad = an instant hit with the Chinese girls), having said that I had my photo taken with a woman's husband the day before!

We reached the first tower and could see the wall stretching out for miles before us. It still hadn't hit me that I was gonna spend 5 hrs climbing rocks & broken steps, holding onto Mongolian women for my dear life as well as cursing the boys for speeding ahead.

5 hrs later, my shoulders were burnt, my nose was runny and my legs were shaking but nothing could beat the achievement of having walked the Great Wall of China....in 40 degrees heat. On the way back down we all took the fly fox over a great lake.

That evening we had a set meal at the restaurant next to the hostel we were staying at, some were too tired and couldn't make it. The meal was ok, I couldn't eat much but I'm wicked with the chopsticks now!

After the meal we went out for some beers, we discussed the possibility of all getting up at 3am to climb the highest point of the wall and watch the sun rise which is supposed to be spectacular. I loved the idea, but a couple of the Irish lads weren't so enthusiastic but Shane was dead certain he was gonna do it.

3am my alarm went off. 3:15am my alarm went off again. I got up this time, I had to, besides it had to be better that listening to the broken toilet next to my bed which sounded like somone drowning in it.

Anthony was up but we soon discovered that nobody else was. Slowly, one by one they all started coming out of their bedrooms, bleary eyed and yawning including Shane.

I walked up the narrow pathway leading up to the wall, the sky was dark blue and my legs were already tired and I was struggling to breath. The guys steamed ahead, I just couldn't keep up with them. I'd been left behind. If I'd fallen, nobody would of known and this unsettled me as my foot sliped off the rock again. But I was determined to do this.

Hours later and I was there, I did it! The view was spectacular, I could see the mist forming on the mountains. On one side I could see Mongolia, on the other side China. The red sun was slowly rising creating magnificent shadows along the walls. I'm proud to say that I've witnessed the sun rise on the Great Walls of China! I ate some crackers and sat on a nearby rock and watched the sky transform. It was a perfect moment.

6am we all headed back, we had to be out of the hostel by 10:30am -3hrs to get back to Beijing to collect our back-packs from the hotel lobby then to the train station to board the overnight train...14 hrs to Xi'an.

10:30 we jumped back onto our little bus and I was suprised that I was feeling really good but it made me laugh that the lads were stiff and aching.

We got to Beijing, where we were given 1 hr to buy food for the train etc.
5:11 we boarded the train. It's was so cramped but we still had a laugh in each others dorms, sharing food, telling stories and really bad jokes.
Lights were out at 10:00, Danny had a snoring Chinese guy on the bunk above him but luckily the two Chinese guys and English lad I shared with were quite sleepers. I however, didn't sleep, I had too much energy still, so I just sat on my bed watching the view of burning fields which was a great sight.

6:30am I had my picture taken!

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