China - part 1 (hostel, Bell Tower, DQ)

Here are my memories from our recent vacation to China!

Wednesday 01/25/2012 - I woke up really early.  I was exhausted, but I got up and did my tempo run before we started our day of travel.  We rode a bus, another bus, a plane, and another plane before arriving in Xi'an, China.  We found our hostel and settled in for the night.

{Just in case you ever find yourself in Xi'an, China.  Check out this hostel.  Best hostel I have ever stayed in, in my life!}

 A brush-up on the lay-out of China.  Map from gujiefu.wordpress.com

Thursday 01/26/2012 - I would say this was our most unproductive day of vacation.  We did a lot of walking.  It is a long story, but here is the short version: You can only buy train tickets from Xi'an to Beijing when you are in China.  So we tried to buy train tickets.  It was still Chinese New Year. (Seriously, who has a holiday for seven days.  I thought Korea was generous with three day holidays but seven whole days?  What the junk?)  We ended up buying plane tickets.  All of this took up most of our day.  Still a good day.  Still found a way to Beijing from Xi'an.  We did get to see the Bell Tower.

The Bell Tower is in the center of town.  Cars drive in a circle around it.

The Bell Tower is in the middle of the downtown area.  We climbed up a few stories and got to see a cool view of the city.

View from the Bell Tower {no, it is not foggy, it is smoggy}

Here is the actual bell of the Bell Tower and some cool designs we saw on the beams and walls.

We ate at Dairy Queen!  This may or may not have been the best part of my day.  They got my order right!  It was delicious.  They played some music from the 90s in English while we ate our ice cream.  This is what vacation is about ya'll.

Oh Dairy Queen, how delightful it was to be in your presence!

We did eat "authentic" Chinese food too...I'm not sure where Koreans ever got their idea of "Chinese" food from.  It was a yummy dinner.

And that was our first two days in China.  Hopefully I am feeling motivated and get part 2 and 3 done quickly!