Shanghai adventure

I'm an Shanghai right now on holiday. A while back, a friend of mine that I hadn't seen since college (so in six ish years) hit me up on facebook saying he was coming here for a business trip and that I should come meet him. He was coming for 20 days or something, so I said right on, arranged a five day holiday and headed on over.

This friend got a little bizarre after college; he kind of fell off the face of the planet. He stopped returning calls from anyone from high school or college and we never heard much from him again. Still a great guy, but it was a little weird that he just disappeared.

Anywho, since my friend was here for work and obviously had a hotel arranged and everything, I just assumed I was going to stay with him while I was in town. I emailed telling him as much the day before I came here and he asked me to get my own room somewhere instead. Didn't really give a reason, aside from calling his boss an expletive, but she's not here so, so I'm just assuming he doesn't want to be woken up by my crazy self partying. My bad for not asking first though. I told him that it's a national holiday in China this weekend and getting my own room on such short notice could be a little difficult without paying an arm and a leg, but I'd work on it.

He also told me he basically didn't have any time to hang out with me at all. He's working 8am to god knows when at night every night. So I arrived on Thursday and was essentially alone on holiday in Shanghai with nowhere to stay, lol.

I ended up crashing with him the first two nights I was here, and the last three I've booked rooms in three different hostels. I've only stayed in hostels once before in Europe, but I had great experiences with all of them and they're so cheap.

I picked ones in slightly different areas of the city, better for exploring and such. I booked all shared accommodations, thinking I would meet people to potentially hang out with for a bit. Not so much. Right now I'm sitting in the first hostel, which is kind of a fail on multiple fronts. I have a six person shared room all to myself. The place is super cute from the outside and in what I would call authentic Chinese area, but my room is on the first floor and it feels damp. I'm a little weird about bathrooms also and this one is kind of icky. They didn't give me a towel either, sooooo I'm breaking back into my friend's hotel for a shower in the morning.

My first night here, I chatted with my friend for about a half hour and then we both crashed, I was tired and he had to work in the morning. The next day I just went wandering around the French concession area. I absolutely love it. Shanghai is definitely my favorite city in China so far. There is so much to look at!

Shanghai had me once I saw the parks and green things :)

 I met an Aussie guy while I was having lunch yesterday, and we explored for the rest of the day and went to a club at night. Today, I basically was lazy and recovering all day until late afternoon when I got my act together, came over to my hostel and then wandered around the concession area some more.

I'm going to make it an early night tonight and hopefully go check out some more cool stuff tomorrow. This hostel is pretty depressing, so I'm getting out of here asap in the morning. I've never really traveled alone before, and it can definitely get lonely, so lonely AND depressing is not something I need!