Spring break on the coast

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After a short wait of 1 1/2 hours at Beijing capital airport I flew into Qingdao late morning. Took the airport bus into town and checked into the hostel, after which I set out on a walk. Although not as cold as Hohhot, 0 degrees is still quite nippy, and with the amount of sleep I had on New Year's eve I didn't quite manage to do a marathon. Immediately noticed though how Qingdao really resembles a European city. The streets are narrow and not in square blocks, some are even cobbled and the architecture is definitely different from most Chinese cities. One of the reasons to come out here was the chance of western food. Unfortunately, my hostel that serves a nice little menu was closed for the first 2 days of the new year, so I ended up eating fast food for lunch and dinner, not knowing where else to go...

Not interested in doing the brewery tour on my own, and having drunken enough of it anyway in the last 14 months, on Tuesday I headed over to shilaoren beach for a walk, had a nice coffee and sandwhich at a cafe and basically spent the day walking a whole lot. Walked via Zongshan park to Xiaoyushan park and came accross a little area that resembled a place I was in Shanghai; It was called '1902' and sort of an inner courtyard with a lot of red wood, it had three floors and quite nice to walk around in for a bit. late afternoon the cold got to me so retreated in the hostel's interior basement / bar for a drink.

Desperate for something western and original to eat, I was told about a German restaurant with Bratwurst, Wiener Schnitzel and real German Beer! It took me 40 minutes by bus to get there, but when I finally found it.... It was closed! Aaargghh!
Opposite was another bar / cafe though with 'westernised' food so had a bite there.
Although a nice city, the whole package of Qingdao I found a little dissapointing. Maybe it was the time of year or something else, but I didn't quite found it as appealing as I had expected it. On my last day I planned to go to Lao Shan, birthplace of the mineral water that the beer is made with...

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Photos

Winter beach volley ball...
Note the the people in the background, especially the girl in the orange COAT! Temperature is around 0 in this photo.

No. 1 bathing beach
Looking down from Xiaoyushan park.