On Saturday, Tim and I woke up early again, and Dan grudgingly dragged himself out of bed earlier than usual. We ate breakfast and then walked to a bus stop so that we could head to a nearby water town called Zhujiajiao. I was really excited to see something a little less city-like and with more traditional and historical roots. The bus ride was about 45 minutes, and when we got off, we wandered around town for a while finding our way. Dan has a pretty good sense of where things are, so if you let him walk around enough, he always ends up getting you where you want to go. It turned out that the water town was farther away from the bus stop, so after finding out that we had to walk 5 km farther to get there, we decided to get a taxi, since they are cheap. When we went to signal for a taxi, two guys on scooters pulled up and said they would take us! So Tim and I hopped onto a scooter with one guy, and Dan hopped on the other. The rides were pretty fun! When we arrived at the water town, we headed to a convenience store to get some drinks because we were parched! After that, we walked over a bridge and we were in the water town!
It was almost like a chinese version of Venice; it had a lot of traditional and older buildings, and lots of canals. The streets were lined with vendors peddling all sorts of touristy trinkets, and all sorts of food. There were stalls for buying fish, and they smelled so terrible! There were these women sitting around with these vats of goo. I couldn't figure out what they were, but I kept seeing people walking around with goo they got from the vendors, eating it. The goo was given to you on two chopsticks, and you had to keep spinning it around the chopsticks so that it wouldn't drip and fall on the ground! Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I tried some. It was almost like honey, but not quite. Very sweet, but pretty yummy. It was fun to eat.
There were also some birds hanging in a cage by a vendor that could speak chinese. We know they could say Ni Hao, but we weren't sure what else they were saying. They didn't know any english!
Around this area, there was a man who was floating across the river in a handmade boat! It was very cute.
After we wandered around and explored for a while, we eventually came to the end of the traditional water town and headed back to the bus stop. Near the bus stop was this crazy outdoor gym. There were all these contraptions and jungle gym-like things that you can use to exercise. There were things like see-saws, other machines like weight lifting machines except there were no weights, a stand that had a cylinder and a little support handle so you could hold on to the handle while running on the cylinder. I couldn't manage it without falling off. It was really weird, and a lot of fun to play on. After a while we headed to the bus station and hopped on a bus home.
When we got home, we were a little tired, so we lazed around for a while. After an hour or so, we went into the garage and got out some bikes! It was funny because the map that Tim and I had of Shanghai had a little note in the corner saying that because of the increased amount of car traffic and electric scooters, and the lack of a structured rule system for the road, only the most confident of cyclists should attempt biking in Shanghai. Dan bikes every day, and Tim and I felt fine with the idea, so we headed off to the iranian sweater store! Tim and Dan have an obsession with finding shirts that do not make sense, and China is full of them. People are walking around with tshirts that have english phrases on them that do not make sense whatsoever. My favorites that I saw over the trip were "Super Dry AntiFreeze!" and "Splendid Firing Gas!" There were a lot of weird tshirts, and Tim wanted to find some to bring home. The bike ride to the Iranian sweater store was pretty crazy - you have to watch everything and just slip through the traffic. If you get stopped at a red light, you get surrounded by a tightly packed scooter and cyclist armada, and you have about centimeters of free space around you. It is really weird to start up when the light turns green when you have so little room! It was awkward at first but we got used to it and I actually enjoyed it. I'd need to get a little more used to the roads, but the traffic actually flows a lot nicer than it does in cities here. Biking in cities here can be really frustrating because you stop at every stop sign and you get stopped by every light and you can actually get somewhere faster in Shanghai on a bike. In the cities in America, your only real advantage on a bike is that you don't have to find a parking spot and walk a long ways to your destination, and you don't really have to fight traffic.
When we got to the market, Tim and Dan didn't find any shirts, but they did find a jacket with the phrase "MONKEY PANIC!" on it. It didn't fit either of them, so of course they wanted me to have it. It was so cheap that I figured I'd make them happy and become the proud owner of a blue track jacket that states "MONKEY PANIC!" on it. It's kind of silly.
We headed home after wandering around for a few hours, and had dinner at Dan's house with his mom and Sam. I was pretty tired, so once again I passed out pretty soon after dinner.
When we got home, we were a little tired, so we lazed around for a while. After an hour or so, we went into the garage and got out some bikes! It was funny because the map that Tim and I had of Shanghai had a little note in the corner saying that because of the increased amount of car traffic and electric scooters, and the lack of a structured rule system for the road, only the most confident of cyclists should attempt biking in Shanghai. Dan bikes every day, and Tim and I felt fine with the idea, so we headed off to the iranian sweater store! Tim and Dan have an obsession with finding shirts that do not make sense, and China is full of them. People are walking around with tshirts that have english phrases on them that do not make sense whatsoever. My favorites that I saw over the trip were "Super Dry AntiFreeze!" and "Splendid Firing Gas!" There were a lot of weird tshirts, and Tim wanted to find some to bring home. The bike ride to the Iranian sweater store was pretty crazy - you have to watch everything and just slip through the traffic. If you get stopped at a red light, you get surrounded by a tightly packed scooter and cyclist armada, and you have about centimeters of free space around you. It is really weird to start up when the light turns green when you have so little room! It was awkward at first but we got used to it and I actually enjoyed it. I'd need to get a little more used to the roads, but the traffic actually flows a lot nicer than it does in cities here. Biking in cities here can be really frustrating because you stop at every stop sign and you get stopped by every light and you can actually get somewhere faster in Shanghai on a bike. In the cities in America, your only real advantage on a bike is that you don't have to find a parking spot and walk a long ways to your destination, and you don't really have to fight traffic.
When we got to the market, Tim and Dan didn't find any shirts, but they did find a jacket with the phrase "MONKEY PANIC!" on it. It didn't fit either of them, so of course they wanted me to have it. It was so cheap that I figured I'd make them happy and become the proud owner of a blue track jacket that states "MONKEY PANIC!" on it. It's kind of silly.
We headed home after wandering around for a few hours, and had dinner at Dan's house with his mom and Sam. I was pretty tired, so once again I passed out pretty soon after dinner.
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