Go!...Happy Chinese New Year

So I have finally started my trip. It has been quite the whirlwind leading up to it, and I did feel like I was on auto-pilot for the first few days, but now I feel like I am starting to settle into the travelling mode.

My parents drove me down to Montreal, then I flew to Paris, where I had a 6 hour lay-over, heard beautiful French, and had to find my way through the maze that is Charles de Gaulle airport (alot of walking back and forth, asking for help, and my first solo shuttle ride). After leaving Paris, I flew to Stockholm, where I had a very, very short connection. Everything was going smoothly till I boarded the plane, and found out that the cargo door wouldn't close, so we had to sit on the runway for 2 hours. We finally took off, and flew to Beijing, where I had my temperature tested 2 times to make sure I didn't have H1N1, and met my friend Tamara at baggage claim.

Beijing is hard to describe. You don't really feel like you are in Beijing when you are in the main area of town. I found I only started to experience Beijing when we tried to participate in the Chinese New Year ceremonies or when we went and saw the chinese sights, where I was constantly stared at, and people kept pointing and taking pictures of my red hair.

Another thing that was difficult to get used to, was the fireworks during Chinese New Year...they don't just happen at midnight. They were going off from when we arrived on Saturday at noon, and were still going off when we left Monday at 3pm. Even when I woke up at 5am and 6:30am due to jet lag, they were still going off. At night, the sky was constantly lit by fireworks.

After going out to drink Tsingtao (chinese beer) on Saturday night, we woke up early Sunday, and tried to visit the Lama Temple...there was a huge festival going on, and police were dividing the thousands of people (no joke, thousands)into groups, and hurding them into the temple (we didn't get in). We then went to the Great Wall of China, Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, and later tried chinese foood for the first time in China...Chinese New Year is a very family oriented thing, so many restaurants were closed while we were there. The food was really good, but not as amazing as the Great Wall of China.

It is unbelieveable. It goes on for miles and is on such a steep and rocky terrain that you can't even imagine who hard it was to build. We found this hidden stairway on the Great Wall, so we decided to climb up, and found a platform where they shot bow and arrows. On all the stones, were written names of different countries. We found a piece of abandonned chalk, and added Canada to the group of names.

On Monday, we tried to go shopping for souvenirs, but everything was closed so we decided to head over to see the olympic Bird's Nest and Water Cube. The Bird's Nest was amazing. I could have stood there and looked at the structure for days. Before heading to the airport, we had wonton soup for lunch...the wontons were so delicate, they just melted in your mouth.

After getting to the airport to fly to Seoul, and finding out that once again, my plane was at a different terminal, I had an amusing plane ride sitting next to a 9 year old Korean girl, who really wanted to practice her English. I am told that I will run into alot of kids wanting to practice their English, as I start my adventures in Seoul..