I'm A Westerner, Get Me Out of Here...

---

Happy New Year to you all,

It has been a long time since I last posted, but I am back in Italy now and ready to divulge to you all the details of my latest trip.

It began on the 20th December with my flight back to London, I was met at the airport by my dad and Wendy and then we drove over to my Grandad's house for a quick visit.

The next day I battled the crowds at Stratford Westfield to meet little Theo, Dionne, Maddie and Bex for a spot of shopping and lunch. I'll tell you what when you have a baby with you, (especially a very small, cute one) everyone is so nice to you, opening doors and all. Then Dionne took DJ home and we meet Miss Willson for dinner and a nice catch-up. After this I gate crashed the Energie Christmas drinks and surprised them all. By the time I got there everyone was very drunk, so was funny to watch them falling over! The next day I spent with my mum, relaxing and packing for Hong Kong.

Finally Sunday arrived which involved getting up studipidly early to trek to Heathrow airport, where we were offered lots of free alcohol. We did encounter one small problem at security though. Alissa forgot to take her handgel out of her back and declare it with her other liquids, so they had to empty the entire contents of her bag. Wendy had given us our Christmas presents before we went through and when the woman took it out and asked Alissa what it was she said "I don't know, someone gave it to me." As if this wasn't suspicious enough the woman then proceeded to pull out a load of Chemistry text books. Finally we were allowed to go and board the plan for our 12 hour flight!!

I love how when you board the plane, you have to walk through the lush first class bit before you get to 'cattle class.' It's as if you can hear the airline saying "this is what you could have had if you weren't such a tight git!" Never-the-less the staff were lovely and you even got a little menu telling you what food they were serving.

Finally on Christmas Eve we arrived in Hong Kong, we were then given some Octopus cards (the equivelent of our Oyster cards but better, as you can also use them in shops and restaurants to pay for things) and took the bus to were we were staying in Tsim Sha Tsui. So we check-in and I go for a 'quick nap,' wake up 6 hours later (oops!) just in time for dinner and a quick walk around wearing our matching Santa hats. We took the Star Ferry across and got to see how beautiful Hong Kong is at night. Then we stopped in a little cafe for some desert, which I liked except it had sweetcorn in it. We were expecting a massive count down in the streets come midnight to celebrate Christmas day, but nobody even acknowledged it to be honest, a couple of people said 'merry Christmas' and we saw a few choirs singing in the streets, but that was about it. Off we went back to the hotel which was situated next to a very noisy bar playing the same Rihanna song over and over again!! My first thoughts of Hong Kong were strange as we saw many people wearing SARs masks and I saw a shop selling dried sea horses, I felt very homesick this night as the differences to our Western bubble were very overwhelming.

So it's Christmas Day and everything (and I mean everything) is open. We had our first experince of a traditional Chinese breakfast and let's just say that all the days following this I stuck to tea and toast. After breakfast we took the very clean and efficient metro so we could take the tram up to the top of the Peak. It was quite scary at one point, because the climb is so steep you're almost vertical, but the views at the top make it worthwhile. They also have a Madame Tussards up there, the woman wasn't very impressed when I asked her if they had Boris Johnson. We decided to take the bus back down and that was an experince and a half. The driver must have been practising for the F1 championships, we could hardly stay in our seats what with all the bumps and sharp bends! After lunch we went to Hong Kong park, which was a lot smaller then I expected and we had a look in the tea museum. Then off to see the mid-level escalators, which are basically just a series of escalators in the street and a quick trip to Tiffany's (well it would be rude not to). What surprised me was how unfestive it all was, I saw one bus that had 'merry Xmas' written on the front of it, but apart from that it could have been any other day. We had TGI's for Christmas dinner, first time I've ever eaten burger and chips to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

The next day Alissa, Jessica and I set off on our own to Mong Kok to do some shopping in the 'Ladies Market' and Langham Place shopping centre, as my dad was ill so stayed in the hotel all day. We meet up with one of Jessica's friends for lunch and he showed us a market where we could buy some fruit. Alissa and I were the only white people there and it was a bit scary, people were looking at us and I was half-expecting to be kidnapped and sold into slavery. When you go to the markets there, try and take a Chinese speaking person with you as the traders try and rip you off if you're Western. For example, I asked one woman how much for some sunglasses and she told me 150 dollars, but Jessica asked her in Chinese and she said 35 dollars! One woman even grabbed me by the arm, pulling me to her stool saying 'sister come here.' For dinner we tried an Italian restaurant, which actually wasn't bad.

Thursday we tackled the 'Avenue of Stars,' which hosts the paw prints of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee. The we had a nose in the Space Museum, where Alissa and Jessica tried a machine that shows you how it feels to walk on the moon. For lunch we went to a little cafe, and didn't realise till later that the walls were covered in text from The Bible. For dinner we went to a nice Thai restaurant and then had a walk around Temple Street night market. The problem with all the markets is that they sell the same thing, so it gets a bit boring after a while.

Friday I woke up late because my alarm didn't go off, so I went for breakfast on my own with a hysterical woman sitting in the middle of the restaurant laughing to herself. The sun was out today so of course everyone had their umbrellas out! After lunch we went for a walk along the pier, it was so nice to be in sunglasses and a t-shirt in December. For dinner we meet up with all of Wendy's family, which consisted of fish belly and shark fin soup and all the dishes came complete with the animal heads! I tried lobster which actually isn't too bad. It was quite funny because everyone wanted their picture taken with us, I felt like the Queen.

The next day I overslept again (woops, I blame the jetlag) and woke up with a stinking cold. It was raining so we decided to head for cover in Crossway Bay shopping centre. Once you've seen how cheap everything is in the markets though, it's difficult to shop in normal shops again. All the shops have these weird umbrella bags that they make you use when it's raining. The rain eased up a bit after lunch so we braved the bus ride to the beach and had a look at Stanley market. Pizza Express for dinner, then I went with Jess and her friend for a drink, alcohol is not cheap over there!

Our last day in Hong Kong and I was even more ill, so stayed in bed all day. Managed to summon up some energy for a McDonald's breakfast though, even in Maccy D's they serve weird breakfast things to cater for the Chinese people. The rest of them went to see the family again for dinner, where they'd made a special 'Western' feast specially for us including carbonara and pizza.

It's New Years Eve and time to fly back to the UK. They served us Hagen Dazs on the plane, which was all good until we went through some turbulence and I had to make use of the complimentary sick bags. Whilst on the plane we celebrated New Years Hong Kong time as well. On arrival in the UK we then had to take the tube back to Basildon, which was stuffed full of lots of loud, drunken people (just what you need when you're jet lagged), but we made it back in time to see in the New Year again in another time zone.

The next few days I just slept and spent some time with my mum. Managed to catch up with the girls; Laura, Sophie, Roz and Sau and ate way too much. And then before I knew it I was back on the plane to Italy (4 flights in two weeks, my new personal record).

My friend very kindly meet me at the airport and we went for Pizza and profiteroles with her boyfriend and his family. Now the Italian family are back as well, so it feels like I never left. Today here is a public holiday, the Befana (a friendly witch) goes around on her broomstick delivering sweets to the good children and coal to the bad children, so last night I saw some people dressed up as witches.

All-in-all I had a good Christmas catching up with everyone and seeing somewhere different. Now I only have 12 weeks left in Italy, so have to get a wiggle on looking for a new job. Anyone hiring?

Hope you all had a good Christmas and ate/drank too much,

Soph

XxX

---