Our trip to Qingdao

Hello everyone.  OMG I missed a week.  Well I am sorry but last weekend, when I usually write my blogs, I was not very well.  But this weekend was better and it flew by.  I am working hard at school and feel tired when I get home so I can't wait for the holidays. (And we having family over which will make it more special).

The weather here has gotten really cold.  I am wearing a jacket, gloves, scarf and a beanie in the mornings walking to school. 

But I am told the cold has not even come yet, that I must wait till mid January to feel the real cold.  The only good thing is that once you get inside it is nice and warm.  The Chinese government opens up the hot water at the end of the month that runs through our radiators that are throughout our apartment.  Then I presume it will be nice and cosy.

After going to the market the weekend before, and loving the egg roll we bought on the street, I decided to make our own here at home.  And it did turn out pretty good.  Yum Yum.

                           

This weekend Helen took us to Qingdao, which is two hours away, to visit the Metro there.  For all my friends and family in South Africa, Metro is just like Makro.  Well we managed to buy our warm blankets and duvets there to keep us warm during these cold nights.  And we also managed to get a lot of heavy groceries that we usually walk past in the shopping centre because it is just too heavy to carry home.  I felt sorry for Helen's car as it was not just our shopping, but hers and Kathy's as well.

We left at 9am and it was freezing.  The temp only went up to 9/10 degrees C.  And it was drizzling on top of that and very misty.

    
   
   
The colours along the way were beautiful.  Oranges and Yellows.


This is the 'longest' bridge that we drove over when we first came to China.  You could not even see the sea.

    
Qingdao is much more busier, more built up and more cosmopolitan than Rizhao.

We got to Metro in Qingdao at around 11am and only walked out at 2pm.  Then we went through to Mac Donald's to have a burger and chips. 








Well we left there at 3pm to head back home.

Some pics driving back home through Qingdao
   
   
They paint the bottom of the trees and wrap straw around the tree for winter.

 

 
Yes, its possible, still with an ipad telling you where to go, you can get lost.  And we did.  But not for long.  I must say, Helen is very street wise and managed to re-navigate back on course back to Rizhao.

The place we landed up after missing our turn off.

 

We had to take this picture.  These are men that have just stopped on the freeway in the slow lane and were fishing in the sea.  All other cars had to go around them and they weren't the only ones doing this.

Once we got back into Rizhao I saw a man making a fire on the street corner, on the pavement.  So I remarked about this.  But Helen says we can see more and more doing this at night as it is a custom.  Apparently they buy pictures of e.g. Louis Vuitton bag etc and then burn it for their dead ancestors so that they may receive these items in the after life.

Thank you Helen for a wonderful day spend. 

On Sunday we had Helen and Kathy over for lunch.  We decided to do some pasta.  And it went down very well.  Sarah made a delicious self saucing chocolate pudding which was devoured.

   
Helen bought some Portuguese egg custard tarts.

   

   


We have a very interesting weekend ahead next week as we have been invited to dinner by Kathy on Friday night.  She is taking us to Yummy's.  YAY my favourite western restaurant.  Then Vivian has told us about a winter expo which we will go and see on Saturday during the day and Chloe has invited us to go to a different local market, to visit her home and then will be taking us out to a local Chinese restaurant in the evening on Sunday.

So stay posted and please keep reading our blog.  Till next weekend.