Alex

Wuhan is supposed to be one of the hot spots of China. One of the places where it gets really, really hot. And perhaps that is true, I did after all only spend 4 days there before I left for Hangzhou, so just because it wasn't that hot, I can't say that it never is. But. Hangzhou is HOT. I have never experienced anything like it. It's like... Satans sauna.

We arrived, me and California, to Hangzhou at ten o'clock this morning. He looked at the map, pointed at it and said:

"Okay, we are here, and the hostel is here, that shouldn't be too far. We can walk."
"No. We take a cab."
"Or, we can take a bus."
"No. We take a cab."
"... yes ma'am"

(Maybe I should also tell you that he told me that he decided to walk when he first arrived to Wuhan, misjudged the distance gravely, and, on top of that, got lost on the way.)

So we arrived to our hostel, which is by far the best hostel I've ever stayed at. At least when it comes to cleanness, good taste in design and comfort. We only pay 50 yuan/night each for our beds in a four beds room. Even though the hostel isn't very expensive, the area around it certainly is. It almost doesn't feel like China. The buildings are newly renovated and more or less fancy-looking, and the food is riddiculously expensive. The hostel is right by Hangzhous West Lake, which is apparently famous, by some reason that I have yet to discover. 

The train ride here was... interesting. 16 hours go by quickly when you can spend half the time sleeping, and half the time talking to the crazy guy who happends to be your current travel-companion. Because of some minor mistake made by someone else when we ordered our tickets, we ended up with tickets for two seats , and not two beds. I feared that we would have to sit our way through the 16 hours train ride, but California just went and changed our tickets so we both got a own bed. A hard bed of course, but as long as I don't have to sit, I don't care. He deserves a medal, he's my hero.

We had been on the train for perhaps two hours when the first cockroach made it's appearance on the wall at Californias bed. That was really funny. We spend the rest of our awake hours watching out for cockroaches, to the great amusement of the Chinese woman  in the bed under mine.

"You don't have cockroaches in Sweden?"
"Yes we do, but not this big."
"Ha ha ha ha, but these are the small cockroaches!"

What can I say? I don't mind bugs, I just don't want them in my bed. It's China. Bugs will happend sooner or later, might as well get used to it at once. Just like when it comes to eating gross food.

Other highlights of this train ride was when California bought a small bottle of Baijiu, disgusting Chinese hard liqour. It cost five yuan and tasted like something I had on my nails when I was a kid. I was a nail-biter so we put this insanely bad tasting thing on them, so that I wouldn't put my fingers in my mouth. It might actully have been baijiu.

My favourit moment was when I was brushing my teeths this morning though. I was leaning against the wall as I did it, and when I moved away I realized that the sleeve of my t-shirt was stuck to the wall with bubblegum. Fresh, sticky bubblegum. And oh the glorious moment when I went back there a few minutes later, and leaned against the same bubblegum again. California was impressed. So was I.

I have now gotten the Chinese bad-air-pollution cough. I cough and I spit phlegm and my throat hurts whenever I use it (and believe it or not, I use my throat frequently). It hurts extra bad when I cough, which I do when it hurts extra much.

Besides from that, everything is a ball. In some four days I might go with Califoria to the city Ningpo, and then to the mountain Putuo Shan, and then take a ferry over to Shanghai, and return to Wuhan about the 24-25 of August. Or perhaps I will go directly to Shanghai from here, and hang out there a little bit longer before I  head back to Wuhan. We'll see. I have some economical limits, and not more than 12 days to play with. Within those limitations, I'm free to go where ever I want, and free to make the decission when to leave when I feel like it's time to leave. All I need is some hours of planning, and then grab my backpack and go. Funny then that the one place where I really want to go is the place that I feel like I really shouldn't go to, Beijing. That would just be too riddiculous. I can't go from the north down south, to go back up north a week later, stay for a couple of days, and then make the same trip down south again. And I figure that the main reason to why I want to go to Beijing is because it's my Chinese security blanket. I'm a tad frightened by this whole matter.

As a matter of fact, I'm frightened and nervous in most situations. I worry about a lot of things. Big things, small things, important things, unimportant things. I think that's okay. I won't deny it, or try to push it aside. I will just let it be where it is, look closely at it, taste it, so I know what I'm dealing with. And then I take a deep breath and go on doing whatever it is that I'm afraid of doing. I do what I want to do, even if I'm scared. I won't let fear stop me. But sometimes it can be hard to work my way through things that scare me. But as long as I won't let it stop me, I don't really have any problems. So I can't go back to Beijing right now. I'm a frightened, nevous little adventurer, and I need to learn to sleep without my security blanket. 

And, of course, like every time you do something that you're afraid of, after you've done it, you realize that it wasn't scary at all.



Alex

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