Julia Rose's Excellent Adventure!: May 2011

Thanks to Kate and William, Christian was able to get away from work for a good chunk of time. We decided to meet up in Dalian where Christian's parents live for 10 days holiday! We had an incredible time and finished up in Beijing which was fascinating. It was so great to spend time with Christian and his parents, and finally get to see where they've been living for 4 years. We had some great food, lots of wine, and a fabulous tour guide! The coast was beautiful, and it was so fun to see all the wedding photography that is very popular along the beach. We enjoyed lots of walks and a lovely relaxing Easter weekend. Linda and Arve took us to a fantastic seafood restaurant where you get to pick all your food from the many many tanks of fish and other things I've never seen before. It was delicious!! After 6 days in Dalian we headed to Beijing for a few days of exploring. Our hostel was great fun, and we made lots of fun friends. We made the most of our few days and packed it full of site seeing! First was Tiananmen Square which gave me a taste of Chinese tourism. The following day with visited The Forbidden City which was really interesting and took a few hours to walk around! Next we had a walk around a BEAUTIFUL garden behind the Forbidden City which we could have taken an equal amount of time to walk around! We had a fantastic peking duck dinner with our friends from the hostel. Christian and I went to the Great Wall of China and thought it would be worth it to take a longer journey and visit the part of the wall less touristy and get to see some that hasn't been restored yet. It sure was a work-out but absolutely breathtaking!! On the way back to Beijing we had lunch with our coach group which was fun...and different. Our last two evenings we met up with Christian's mum for dinner which was really nice and I made everyone go back for more peking duck!! Christian and I went to see a Chinese acrobatics show which was amazing, and although much lower budget, was better than Cirque du Soleil! We also visited the Summer Palace which was HUGE and lovely to walk around, but we got caught up in a wind storm which was madness and delayed our exploring. The hutongs were great to mozey around and I just really enjoyed exploring Beijing. I feel like there was so much more to see, but it was back to London for Christian, and back to Sydney for me! I managed to get tickets for a ballet at the Royal Opera House called British Liasons. It was really great to see the inside of the building, and the performances were beautiful. I enjoyed my time in Australia, but felt it was time to push on with my travels and even cut them short. Next stop, SF!!