Wednesday 22nd July 2009 Shanghai

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Wednesday 22nd July 2009 Shanghai
We got a taxi from Shanghai train station handy enough after declining the first couple of offers for 200 Yuan when it ended up costing 25 on the meter. Rush hour in the biggest city in the biggest country in the world didn’t seem too bad and our hotel allowed us to check in early so we got a few more hours sleep. Our room is once again a basement windowless dungeon, its fine though and cheap enough for a city such as shanghai. Mary’s cousin Brian lives here for the past 2 years so we gave him a call and arranged to meet him around 3 o’clock when he finished up work. He called down to our hotel and we headed off to get some food. Now we experienced what we had been missing by being scared of the local food, no doubt we would have ordered the duck eyeballs if we were left to our own devices but Brian ordered us a fantastic spread of all sorts of dishes. It is a Northern China cuisine restaurant and Brian said it’s the one the Paddys like best, lots of meat and potatoes. We picked away from plates of Potatoes and Eggplant in Gravy, lovely dumplings, fried chicken and a couple more delicious things. One of the best meals we’ve had since we’ve been away and I think it cost about 12 Euro altogether including about 6/7 beers. The beers were tasting good so we went back to Brians apartment which wasn’t too far away and had a few there before we continued on the tourist trail to The Blarney Stone Irish bar for a couple of Guinness’s. Not a bad boozer actually and the stout was actually alright. They’ve pictures of Bertie, Colin Farrell, Mary McAlesse and other famous Irish on the walls. Brian felt like another feed then so we went to some Aussie bar where we had plates of Batter sausages and chips. Sure might as well be wandering down Dame St not in the French Concession in Shanghai. Our introduction to Shanghai night life wasn’t complete yet though we hit the apparent Wednesday night institution of Ladies night in Zahara’s where all the Chinese girls get dolled up and go on the husband hunt. Free drink for ladies too which helps them along the way too, Mary was availing of the free frozen Margaritas which were actually pretty alright. Good spot, the place was jammed, we were hanging around outside and Brians mate Dave from Cork arrived with some Korean girl he had out on a date. Great to be out a normal seeming night out again. It had been quite a long day on the booze then so we headed home in taxis about 2am.

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