The Germans are Here!

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My apologies for the delay on this, particularly to Mr and Mrs M. I was unable to upload photos to the blog for the past few days. The problem seems to be fixed now!

You may recall my German friends, Mr M and Ms M from a few years ago. I met Mr M while riding the bus and then Ms M came over to visit from Germany. This week they're back in China, but now they're Mr and Mrs M and celebrating their honeymoon! For their last day and a half, they made a special trip to GZ to see me and do some sightseeing. I've been anticipating their visit since last spring, at least. And the anticipation was well founded, as this weekend was one to remember!

Friday morning I took the bus downtown to meet them. They were taking the train up from Shenzhen. They'd vacationed on Hainan Island, which is the southern most part of China, just off the coast of Vietnam. After a quick and loud phone call from a metro station, it was decided I would meet them at the train station rather than at the hostel. I didn't anticipate any problems getting a taxi, but since they don't speak any Chinese, I figured that meeting them and then taking a taxi might be a better plan.

We met up easily. They were the only westerners waiting by the taxi stand, and their mound of luggage was a dead give-away that they weren't Chinese; most Chinese travel with a suitcase the size of your high school backpack or a big, plastic, red, white, and blue bag. We fit all of it and ourselves into the smallest taxi I've been in and were off. Luckily, I'd been able to figure out the hostel address in characters, since our confirmation email had only been in pinyin (roman letters). We got to our hostel easily, checked in quickly, and were soon relaxing in the cleanest hostel room I've ever seen. I gave them their wedding present and they gave me a gift from Germany. Knowing how much Mr M likes Chinese tea, I gave them a tea set and some of the delicious green tea I bought last weekend. Knowing how much I like good beer, they brought me two liter beer mugs from Oktoberfest. I'm not sure who was more excited about their gift, but I am amused that we both thought to give drinking vessels.

We made our way to the subway and to find lunch. Mr and Mrs M told me of their adventures on Hainan Island, which is south of here and was quite affected by the pre-typhoon weather. We stopped for a quick lunch of Muslim noodles before continuing to the jade market. Mr M really wanted to buy a jade statue. We had a vague idea where we were going and were hoping for the best.

I'm not sure if we found the actual market, but we did find a lot of shops selling jade in one place. The area was huge, with over one hundred shops, all of them selling jade figurines, statues, jewelry, and trinkets. Sometimes the pieces were similar, but in a lot of cases, they were unique. It made for a great browsing experience, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the pieces. We managed to only get lost once or twice, since every floor of every building seemed to twist and turn, putting you further and further from the way out. Mr M did finally find a perfect jade statute of a dragon. Watching his face light up every time he looked at it was a wonderful feeling.

Next we went tea shopping. We'd passed a tea shop en route to the metro from our hostel and decided to head back to it. Mr M loves Chinese tea, especially Pu'er tea from Yunnan province. We settled into the tiny shop and sat upon heavy wooden stools in front of the tea table. On the tea table our hostess measured and poured cup after cup of tea. Luckily for us, she spoke very good English, so it was much easier to talk with her, laugh with her, and explain what kinds of tea we wanted to try. There seems to be no limit how much you can try and drink as long as you seem like you'll buy a lot. Which we did. We were there for at least two and a half hours. Usually, when I buy tea, I don't get a bag, or if I do, it's a small bag. They found Mr M a box for all his Pu'er tea and a bag for the rest they purchased. A lot they will drink, some will be displayed (Pu'er tea comes in round discs), and some is for gifts back in Germany. I wonder how long the tea will last them.

We went back to our hostel to drop off the shopping purchases and get a seafood restaurant recommendation. We ended up by the river. The food was excellent, and we stuffed ourselves with spicy shrimp, deep fried whole fish in sweet and sour sauce, a vegetable dish, a meat dish (that I obviously didn't eat), and lots of tea. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day. We walked along the river, taking photos and people watching. Then we hailed a cab and went back to our hostel, exhausted.

We stayed up talking into the night before snuggling into our beds. At about this point, our seemingly quiet hostel no longer was. Bug spray didn't stop it, blankets didn't stop it, unkind words didn't deter it. A single, un-kill-able mosquito had decided to join us and buzz in our ears for the rest of the night. I think I fell asleep around 4am. Around 5am, a puppy decided that crying was in order and woke us up again. We finally slept and then our alarm woke us around 8:30. We didn't make it out of bed until at least 9am. We ate in the hostel before checking out and dragging ourselves to the subway.

I'd planned to take them to my favorite museum in GZ, but it was closed this week (and only this week!) for remodeling. No doubt, this was because the Asian Games are in less than a month and the city is cleaning everything up for all the visitors it will have. (I plan to avoid the city.) We went to the park across the street instead, one of the largest in the city. We enjoyed wandering around, looking for the sights, taking photos, attempting to hold a conversation. We finally headed out to find lunch, in hopes that food would perk us up.

We went to my ever favorite Japanese restaurant and ate well. We did perk up a bit, and were much happier, but we were still dead tired. We collected our things from the hostel and walked a few blocks to find a taxi. We managed to get everything into it, and went to a hotel to buy tickets to Hong Kong for Mr and Mrs M. Their flight out wasn't until midnight, but we wanted to be sure they made it in plenty of time. Also, my last bus back to the university was around 630 or 7pm, but I wasn't really sure. After I made sure they had their tickets and would have no problems with the last leg of their journey, I bid them good-bye, smothering them in hugs and well wishes.

I slept on the bus and nearly went to be by 9pm. Mr and Mrs M made it to the airport with no problems and their flight left on time. Even though I know they are in Germany, I still feel like a part of them is in Guangzhou.

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Photos

Tea Set and Tea
Yipee, they're married!

The tea set
Two carp are auspicious in China.

Mr M wanted jade
We stopped in every jade shop we found.

Mrs M took pictures of all of it
She takes as many photos as I do.

Tea Time
We spent a few hours sampling tea.

You want it, they got it...
Tea trays, water warmers, tea pots, and of course, tea.

Comments

[Se German]

Thanks
I am excited to be in the internet on your blog haha It was a wonderful time there even if it was only for one full day :( Hopefully next time, it will be more.