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Published: October 15th 2009
We made it!
And that's the beautiful thing about jet-lag. It is 3:44am on Friday morning here, and yet to my poor confused brain it feels like 3:44PM on Thursday afternoon. It's strange to not have to change my watch - I simply flip the AM and PM and I'm good to go. Or will be in a few days anyway, when I'm not sitting downstairs in a dark hostel listening to some random guy snore on the couch where he must have passed out earlier in the evening...
Anyway!! We had an uneventful and actually pleasant trip, considering it took the better part of 24 hours from the time we left our home in North Palm Beach to finally arrive at our hostel in Beijing. A quick good-bye to the parents and the beloved Denali, and we were on our way!! We savored a fabulous final American breakfast (and tall glasses of cold milk YUM!) at a diner at Newark airport before boarding our nearly 14-hour flight to Beijing. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. We had over 350 movies available to watch on our own private screens (I only made it through two before my eyes went blurry). Jeremy
had ordered special gluten-free meals that came out first and were WAY better than the food the rest of us got (I'm ordering gluten-free on planes too from now on!). A funny and ironic thing is that the back of our plane (where we were) was filled with 35 grad students (all guys) from the University of Florida heading to China for an immersion course - HA!!! So we spent the flight bonding with our fellow Floridians and laughing at the upcoming Floridian invasion about to descend upon poor defenseless Beijing...("Watch out y'all!")
The highlight, though, was definitely the route we took. Initially our flightpath had us going up and over northern Canada, Alaska, and down across the western tip of Russia, but about an hour into the flight, the path changed and we went the other way instead. We headed due north all the way to the northwestern tip of Greenland before cutting east across the polar ice cap for about 4 hours or so. It was so cool!! It got dark, but the horizon continued to glow bright red and orange the entire time. Our flight passed north of Svalsbard and all the way across the ice
cap before we made a gradual turn south towards Russia. At first, I thought I was looking down at thick clouds. Then I realized there were no clouds and I was instead looking at the frozen wonderland of Siberia in northern Russia. For HOURS we flew over a white other-worldly wilderness of frozen rivers, floating ice sheets, and brilliant white snow before the scenery gradually gave way to evergreen forests and mountains. We passed through Mongolia, brushed Ulaanbataar (not typos), and descended into China. Just before landing we flew directly over the Great Wall, which looked like a long yellow snake cutting through dense mountains.
Upon de-planing we were ushered through a health inspection (all the airport workers were wearing surgical masks - swine flu paranoia!) to ensure we did not have coughs, sniffles, or temperatures before we were allowed through immigration (a painless and quick process). The Continental terminal is GORGEOUS - brand-new for the Olympics last year and one of the nicest (but non-air-conditioned) airports I've ever been to. All signs in the airport and city are written in Chinese and English, so we easily navigated our way to the airport express train (which smelled distinctly of
skunk), headed into the city, and caught the subway to the south end of Tianamen Square. As I walked up the stairs and took my first breath of Chinese air, it finally hit me that I wasn't at Epcot (you know, the Chinese area in World Showcase?)...No sir-ee, one breath of that funky-smelling polluted air (the air quality is HORRIBLE here, kinda like LA on a super-smoggy day)...and we knew we weren't in Florida anymore, Toto. It took us about 20 minutes to find our hostel, but once we did, we very gratefully checked in to our private room and breathed a sigh of relief that the long transit was FINALLY over with!
Feeling surprisingly awake, we bounded outside again and walked down to Tianamen Square, where apparently some sort of big function had finished, because we weren't allowed in at the moment. So we meandered up and down a few streets around our hostel before deciding that, at 7pm, we needed sleep. Which explains why it is now 4:32AM and here we are! Expect our next blog in a day or two once we see some of the sights and hopefully get readjusted to the time difference...
Chopsticks 101
When you can't pick up your fruit, stab it instead!!OH!! And CURSED be my blond hair!!! We've only been here for a few hours and already I'm sick of being stared at like I'm a circus freak. The touts on the street are all over me like white on rice trying to get me to buy something or offer some sort of service...sigh...no blending in here I'm afraid!! Jeremy thinks they're staring at his curly hair too...but I'm willing to bet I stand out just a TAD more than he does...
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mike grimaldi
non-member comment
enjoy!!
Looks like you are having a great time!! So happy that you both can experience that together. There is nothing like travel. It feeds the soul!! We enjoy the blog too. Keep the pics coming! Be safe. Mike and Pam