This weekend I took an amazing trip to Shanghai. I have been
meaning to go for a while, but I realized I am running out of time and running
out of weekends to go! It’s amazing how quickly the time has gone by.
Dion and I took the train together, because she was also
going to Shanghai for a business trip. It turns out that my really good friend
from Rossland, Mike Sullivan, has a brother, Kevin, who lives in Shanghai.
Although we had never met, he offered to show me around the city. I knew that
if he’s anything like his brother we would get along great, and I was right! And
of course even though I really like all my American friends in Nanjing, it was
definitely nice to hang out with a fellow Canadian for the weekend.
On Friday night we went out for dinner at a really nice Thai
restaurant. Then we did a little bar hopping; Kevin wanted to show me some
Shanghai nightlife so we basically had one drink at each bar before moving on
to the next. It was great! Shanghai is so metropolitan and very trendy, and I
felt like I was in New York or London.
We were in the French Concession, which is a cool part of Shanghai that
still has a lot of French influence. And I could not believe how many
foreigners there were. Kevin can speak Chinese so he was great to have as a
host. I ended up staying at a hostel right by his house that was very nice and
clean. The only bad part was getting woken up by the housekeepers yelling
outside my door at 8am!
On Saturday I did a little bit of exploring by myself. The
metro system in Shanghai is really great and easy, so I headed into town to the
famous Nanjing Road, where there are a lot of shops and hotels. I walked for
about two hours, just taking everything in, before ending up at the Bund. I
loved walking through the lobby of the Fairmont Peace Hotel – sometimes it’s
nice to pretend you have money! As I was exploring Nanjing Road a lady
approached me and asked me if I wanted some handbags. I was curious so I followed
her into a side street, then up a long, dark flight of stairs to one of the
upstairs “markets.” They then brought out endless supplies of counterfeit name
brand handbags. It’s amazing how many they have, and the quality of the
merchandise. I ended up buying a few purses (I know it’s terrible, but I
couldn’t help myself!)
Then I met Kevin at a restaurant to try some of Shanghai’s
specialty – dumplings. There were so many different kinds, and all of them
delicious. If you’ve ever been to dim sum it’s similar to that. The whole time
I was thinking how much my dad would love it! My treat to myself this weekend
was coffee; I had Starbucks three different kinds and realized just how much
I’ve been missing my soy mochas. Before dinner we decided to go for foot
massages, which was a nice treat after being on my feet all day.
That night we met up with Dion at a bar/restaurant called
Zapata’s for some Mexican food and dancing. Fun night! Sunday morning was sunny
and beautiful, and we went for brunch on a rooftop patio with a bunch of
Latvians and Tunisians. It was a very interesting group of people, and from
talking to them I definitely got the feeling that I would love to live in
Shanghai. They kept saying that there is something about Shanghai that draws
you back, and I definitely agree. I hope to visit again before I return to
Canada!
Saw the pics. Loved the chocolate feet. ;-)
ReplyDelete