Silly Food I ate in Nanjing

In case you needed more evidence for my love of food, especially for weird food that you can only find in China.

Chinese tacos

WTF?

You guessed right, this is corn ice cream and it was delicious!  the outside was made out of cone like material but kind of tasted like cardboard but the inside was super good. It had a hint of corn taste and after eating it, I had a corn taste in my mouth, interesting.

We found a mexican restaurant in my travel book.  I got a quesadilla for dinner (which was not picture worthy but all i can say is that I love cheese!) and we split this for dessert.  It was pretty much huge tortilla chips drizzled with sugar and topped with peach ice cream

This looks gross but was not bad at all.  The outside was made of white rice and the inside looks like caviar but my guess is that it was just a different kind of rice. One of the purple-ish variety

I knew this was going to be gross but I got it anyways

Pineapple is sooooo good! I probably ate a total of 3 whole pineapples while in Nanjing

Eggplant Parmesan, it wasn't that great but I haven't really eaten much cheese since coming to China so I'll take what I can get

HEAVEN! we found this sweet deli down the street from our hostel and it was divine.  I also had a cookie as an appetizer. For dessert, I had coffee gelato and chocolate covered almonds... so good!

Nanjing- Day 3

Outside the Chaotian Gong- the former Ming Palace. I would have liked to share with you pictures from the inside as well but we didn't want to pay the entrance fee so we just hung out.

Market area near the temple

I love chinese kids!

how i miss thee (not necessarily starbuckies but coffee in general)

For anyone wondering, that string across my chest is my passport holder. Yay, for wearing it everywhere and having a large bulge on my stomach or back!

Outside the presidential palace.  I bet the inside would have been nice but yet again, we weren't digging the entrance fee.  For the sake of everyone who looks at these pics, I will attempt to be less cheap in Beijing so the pictures will be better. If you would like to help in this effort, you can send your donations (cash, check, or travelers cheques) to the "Chinese Entrance Fees are depleting Chelsea's bank account" fund. Please email me if you would like more details. 

The Nanjing Metro, there was only one line in the entire city that ran north to south but I enjoyed the ride to the train station

You may be asking yourself, how are all of these Chinese people reaching the handrails when they are so short? Well my friends, the bars are lowered to the point where even my midgit self can reach them. Yes, I love this country!

Because we were early for the train, I decided to wander around the lake that was right outside the station.  It had just stopped raining and it turned out to be a lovely and relaxing stroll.

Everywhere I have gone, there is always some random christmas decorations up.  I am sure there is a lot of cultural significance behind them....

Nanjing- Day 2

No explanation needed

McDonalds for lunch

boredom...

Poor guy, but at least he has some sweet pajamas

Outside the Massacre Museum.  This museum was well done and was similar to the Holocaust museum in DC and it was interesting to learn about the massacre that occurred in Nanjing in 1937-1938.  In just six weeks, the Japanese tortured, raped and killed 300,000 people.

Outside the memorial

So after the museum we decided to go check out the yangzi river and a large bridge that was nearby.  The cab driver dropped us off at what we thought must be close to the river but was in fact at least a mile away.  We ended up walking on a freeway and not having any idea where we were suppose to go, I stopped and asked this nice security guard for directions.  He didn't seem to mind that I asked for a photo and even stood back and posed for it.  God I look like such an American, hah!

The stupid bridge.  We didn't even see it up close nor did we in fact see the river for that matter.  We didn't want to pay the entrance fee so we wandered around the street for a bit and then left. Fun!

The bell tower- again we couldn't go inside but it was pretty at least

A building outside the drum tower which as my tour book said, was just south of the McDonalds. Pretty but not all that exciting

Nanjing- Day 1

Four of us headed to Nanjing for our second vacation which was short and sweet.  Nanjing is only an hour train ride away from Hefei so the trip there was super easy.  The city is pretty big and at one point used to be the capital of China up until Beijing snagged the title.  We had a really great time and the weather was really nice for the first 2 days, I even was able to wear shorts (which made me look even more touristy.)

Our Hostel- The Jasmine

Our exciting cab ride to the purple mountains. The ride was surprisingly fun because the driver was young and played American hip-hop music that we knew

The Beamless Building

The Pagoda

Proof I was in fact at the pagoda and didn't just steal a picture off google image

Another one for good measure

Where's Waldo?

Yay, actual trees with leaves on them. I had almost forgotten that they existed because I hadn't seen them in so long

Group shot- we're sweaty....

Tourist, what?

I am pretty sure this was allowed...

Yes, this is in fact corn ice cream, sweet!

In front of Dr. Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. The background totally looks fake

At the top of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausolem. Abby counted, 299 stairs

Group shot- we're really sweaty....

One of the gates of city walls. We didn't want to pay the entrance fee so we walked around outside

Fuzi Miao area- there was lots of shopping in the area

The canal

Just in case you missed the previous picture- the canal

Outside of a park.  You will notice that there is a fence at the bottom of the picture and it is there for good reason because we could not figure out how to get in.  The security guards just kept telling us no and shooing us away, we even tried to pull the confused american tourist and just walk in but it didn't work :(