Woke up this morning at around 6:30. I had only slept for about 4 hours, but I felt surprisingly refreshed and not jet lagged at all. Sleeping on the plane rides probably helped a bit.
To be honest, it took me a while to work up the nerve to actually go out and start exploring. I wanted to find someplace to grab breakfast, preferably xiao long bao (soup filled dumplings), so I walked to the end of the alley and to my surprise a lady was selling exactly that right on the corner. But for whatever reason, I was too nervous to go up and buy one. I returned back to the hostel and sat down for 15 minutes to gather myself, and then headed back out. This time, I headed the opposite direction towards the subway line that would take me to the center of the city, People's Square.
It was about a 10 minute walk to the station, and my hunger was paramount at this point. I passed a small bakery type place that was selling the famous Shanghai sesame bread, so I grabbed one on the go. Silly me grabbed the one right in the front, so parts were a bit crispy, but overall pretty tasty. I bought a ticket at the metro as their machines had an english option but once I did I had no idea how to use it. There were two lady security guards at the entrance and they happily helped me through, giggling the entire time.
The weather today was about 70, sunny, and just downright gorgeous. I checked out People's square, East Nanjing road pedestrian shopping street, The Bund and the Pudong Skyline (nicest skyline I've ever seen), Yuyuan gardens (best preserved in the city of traditional chinese style), the City God Temple, and some alleys of the old tradional Shanghai.
All the was before 3pm, when I got.back to my hostel to take a quick nap and rest my feet, which turned into me sleeping until 830. Whoops! I went back to the bund to see the skyline at night and found some decent street food for dinner.
All in all an excellent first day.
No comments:
Post a Comment