I went there to see two groups of people. My little brother's ex girlfriend, who is a really sweet girl and a good friend of the family now, was there to visit a sorority sister that's teaching English there, so I wanted to see her while she was on my side of the world. Also, two of my friends from Songyuan are on holiday for a month and were planning to be there as well, so I wanted to connect with them.
In Guilin, I stayed in a hostel in a great location in the middle of downtown, right on the river. I was there for two days and three nights. The first day I checked in and then met my friend from the States, and her friend, and we wandered around the shopping streets for a bit, grabbed some food, etc. They had to teach for like five hours that night, so after they went to go do that I ended up meeting some cool people at my hostel (Chinese and foreign) to hang out with in the evening. We went for some crazy food, had a couple beers and played cards around the hostel (it was raining crazy hard).
 |
| This looks like soup, but it's actually a kind of tea that Guilin is known for. It's a black tea with a slightly peppery flavor. You put puffed rice, peanuts and little bread things that look like chick peas and taste like crackers in it and use a spoon to drink it. |
 |
| Blood soup! I didn't ask who's blood, I just ate it. |
 |
| Somehow this was my first time eating snails. |
 |
| There's legit technique to it. Any time gloves are involved in eating, you know it's serious business. |
The second day, I got up and met my friend from the States at her friend's university. We grabbed breakfast with a couple of other foreign teachers and then they all had stuff to do, so my friend and I were left to our own devices. We went to a gorgeous park that honestly could have entertained us for a week, there was so much to see and do!
 |
| This sign has maybe a quarter of the stuff the park had to offer on it. Unfortunately, we did not have time to investigate "ONCE MALE ROCK"... |
 |
| How. Flipping. Gorgeous. |
 |
| No clue what this bird is, but he was so pretty! Also, yes, they do let you get freakishly close to the animals. All of them. |
 |
| Screw sad panda, this camel was the saddest animal there. |
 |
| lesser pandas = adorable |
 |
| Happy pandas! |
I think that white bird is a female peacock. They don't get the cool feathers like the male ones.
ReplyDeleteMaybe! I had always thought they were brown; Google images seems to think we're both right. The white one honestly might have been prettier, but maybe just because I'd never seen one like it before.
ReplyDelete