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Published: October 9th 2006
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BRIDES!!
I'm telling you, they were all over the place. You'll see. WEDNESDAY
According to her Canadian SOS doctor, Amanda was to stick to a diet of apple juice mixed with water, pear soup, and plain porridge on her first day. We found a Porridge place Taidong, a walking street not too far from our hotel. The walking street is a very popular place; it's home to Qingdao's Walmart. Yep. Walmart. Sad, isn't it. The street is cool, though. Many of the buildings are covered with murals done by famous (and non-famous) Chinese painters. The stores weren't that exciting though. But anyway, there is a porridge place on this street. Amanda ordered plain, as instructed, but the rest of us got to be a little more creative. I ordered pork porridge. It was ok. Very very salty. And it had mushrooms which I absolutely detest, so I had to pick them all out. And then there was this weird unrecognizable brown and purple gelatin........thing. That got the boot too. Other porridges included green bean, red bean, and three chicken. Three whole chickens? Three chickens each from a different place? Three separate chickens REPRESENTED? Don't know. Anyway, that was porridge.
After that we went in search of the Cultural Market (the magazine made it
Taidong walking street
Here is one of the murals painted on the buildings on Taidong 2 Lu. sound like a dirt market; random stuff, Mao trinkets, Chinese memorabilia, etc.). We found it. We found it EMPTY. Bah. There were a couple stalls selling books but that was it. I guess it only rears up on the weekends, and we're leaving Saturday morning. Whimper. So that kind of ticked me off. Then I got myself in trouble by going off by myself to try to find a music store that sold accordions. So far I've been unsuccessful in Dongying. I led myself on a long and painful journey. I looked up one store and got there fairly easily. Of course they didn't have it. They wrote down the name of another store and pointed me in its direction, but unfortunately that "direction" was towards the entire city of Qingdao. I should have given up a lot sooner than I did. But no. I spent about half an hour wandering until I reached a hotel to ask someone what the hell was written on this piece of paper in my hand. The bellman I spoke to couldn't even read it, but wrote down the name of ANOTHER store and put me in a cab. And the cab took me
clear to the other side of the city. The ride cost me 40 kuai, goddammit. And yes! This store had accordions! For 4,000 kuai a piece. SIGH. Then I had to figure out where I was and find my way back. More wandering, tired feet, I was GRUMPY. I even got into a fight with a toothless old lady over a popsicle. I don't want to talk about it. Eventually, though, I reached the sea. That was nice. I took of my shoes and wandered a bit, and I finally felt serene, which is rare for this country. I was one bathing beach 1, which is small, but does its job. I did some serious thinking and came to terms with the fact that I was starving and that was probably why I was so grumpy. So I got some crackers with lemon frosting. Don't ask. I walked down the peer, but the haze was so terrible I could only see about two of the thirty-some skyscrapers of the city. I wandered back and took a stroll along the boardwalk. I turned a corner and BAM! There were brides! Everywhere! I'm talkin' 30-40 brides here! They were all getting their
Beach #1
Here is where I dipped my feet. pictures taken, many with their beau to be. They kept blocking the boardwalk, too. Bleeping brides. I kept walking and kept seeing MORE brides. Where did they all COME from? I know the Chinese like to get married on "lucky" days. I guess this was a lucky day, maybe because it was so close to the Mid-Autumn festival. Actually there have been weddings and thus traffic jams going on all week. Double Happiness. More like 30 thousand happiness. There would be two, three, four brides coming out of a wedding at a time, so I figured they must have shared the ceremony. Saves money? Now, I know some of you would think it would be nice to see so may pretty brides in their pretty dresses looking so happy! But these dresses were seriously FUGLY. I mean, horrendous and tacky dresses. And they were all so blase, hikig them up because they were annoying/in the way, leaning on cars, hanging out on the curb to smoke a cigarette...........I wanted to scream "This is your wedding! Go be someplace you LIKE!!!!"
Ok enough about brides.
This next part I wasn't sure about putting in this blog. It's depressing. But it happened,
The shark net
These poles hold up the shark net. There is one on every swimming beach. and it happened in China and was part of my experience, so it goes on the blog. I finally escaped the boardwalk and walked up a sidestreet to find Hong Kong Lu. All of a sudden I hear this really loud buzzing noise. I look down and I see a huge dragon fly that has fallen on its back and is trying desperately to right itself. I went over to some bushes to find a stick to flip it with when I saw it: There was a dead kitten lying in the bushes. It looked like its neck had been broken. This may not seem like a big deal, but I've never seen a dead kitten before. I've seen a dead cat, but not a dead kitten. I've seen a dead PERSON (and that was an enormous ordeal in itself) but not a dead kitten. It looked like it had been murdered and carelessly tossed into the bushes. I just kept staring at it, until I realized the buzzing had stopped. I looked down. The dragon fly had stopped moving. Something big and white had crept onto its head. I didn't look to see what it was, I was OUT
more brides
each picture I took was in a different location OF THERE. The whole thing totally freaked me out. It still freaks me out. If this was too morbid to put in here, please let me know and I'll refrain from these kinds of stories in the future. In anycase, I went straight to Haagen Daaz for dinner.
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luke
non-member comment
chuck norris must have been in town, that's the only thing i think of that explains all the brides. actually no, that doesn't make sense cause if chuck norris were in town gathering brides, then of course, you too would have succumbed to the unbearably painful charm of a roundhouse kick demonstration. huh...curious.