harbin was – and is – cold! 🙂
the overnight train was quite nice: the soft sleeper cabin has 4 beds. the pillow was strange, but at least it was warm! fascinating was the difference in temperature between the bottom and top bed! i will always want the top!
with me, there was a chinese woman with her little girl.. and an australian man together with his chinese girlfriend. so at least i had someone to show me where to get hot water.
yesterday morning, i arrived here at about 7, and didnt really do anything till the evening. lucy obviously didnt trust my second jacket and gave me her husbands coat to wear on top of it. i couldnt really move anymore.. but i didnt feel cold! i hadnt thought that would be possible! so i went into the city. i even found the right bus to take me to the ice&snow; festival, and instead of paying for the bus, i was sold an entrance ticket as soon as i got in. then i walked around all the ice sculptures for a while… with a little break in some inside fast food place. but even that couldnt help anymore, my feet stayed cold 🙂
we had checked the program before to see when there would be fireworks. internet said 7:30. when there was still nothing at 8, i decided to leave. the last bus should be at 8:30. while waiting for the bus, at about 8:10 the firework started. it wasnt so big. there was a funny loooong line at the bus stop – obviously everyone was waiting to enter the bus. i decided i’m a foreigner, i dont understand how that works.. and just walked to the front of the line. some chinese – even before me – did the same.. and nobody really cared. i will remember that!
today i walked around the city during the day. now we just had chinese dinner.. and soon i’ll leave to take the train back to beijing. this time “soft seat”. lets see what that will be like.
btw.. internet is terribly slow here, i havent been able to open bomfrit.com since yesterday! so it is impossible to upload photos. maybe datong will be better? at least it cannot be worse.
update:
