We just had our lunch—an easy to make pasta with sun dried tomatoes and pitted black olives. It’s almost 1:00 in the afternoon now and I am still feeling tired. I was sleeping the whole morning mind you but those long walks yesterday afternoon and the day before that seem to have sucked my week’s energy. So we are back here in Changchun since this morning from our exhausting two days and one night stay in Beijing. A few weeks ago, we applied for a visa at the Austrian Embassy and so when they called earlier this week to say that it is ready for pick up, we immediately decided to take the overnight train to Beijing on Thursday evening, rushed to our hostel on Friday morning, freshen up, took a taxi to the Starbucks which is right across the street from the Austrian Embassy, had a quick bite there and at 10:30, we were successfully able to get my passport. After that, we went directly to the Silk market which is just a few minutes walk from the Embassy. Spent a few hours there and spent a lot of RMBs. Hehe. Then we went to have our late lunch at the Sizzlers which is located in a Mall at Wang Fu Jing Dajie. Went back to our hostel, rested there a little bit then headed to the Acrobatics show. The day didn’t end there. After the acrobatics show, we took an hour walk from Wang Fu Jing Dajie to our hostel, passing by this Chinese Barbeque Street which has by far, unimaginable barbeques compared to Philippines’ Jurassic Park.

Though tired from the previous day’s jam-packed schedule, we still managed to get up at 8:00, prepared and packed our belongings for check out. At 9:00, we headed to the breakfast buffet and at 10:00, we left the hostel. Then we went walking… again, from our hostel to a park to the Tianmen Square and to a place where we can get a taxi—to my relief! We headed to the Silk Market to continue the unfinished shopping spree (hehe) then to Sizzlers to have that super-delicious late lunch once again. Before we went to pick our luggage at the hostel, we hopped by the bookstore to buy some books—I got “The Diary of Anne Frank”. We arrived at the train station quite early so we stayed in the first class waiting lounge for an hour and a half . I was able to read my new book right away. At 10:00pm, we are in our overnight train to Changchun.

It is now the morning after our short trip to Beijing. I do still feel tired but with all the shopping, I bet you would understand if I say I am super tired but I am not complaining.