Brandon O'Brien

Sunday, December 14, 2014 @ 8:37 AM in 2014 Asia

Today was another day of exploring Shanghai. The first thing we did was visit the Jade Buddha temple. It was in the middle of some really rundown parts of town but the buddha itself was pretty cool. There were a lot of people worshiping which made it a little awkward to walk around taking photos though.

Next we went over to the Jing'an Temple which is smack in the middle of a big shopping area. It looked pretty neat from the outside but we couldn't figure out how to get in. Instead of dealing with the masses of people we walked some of the big shopping streets to a bar called Windows Garage where they were having buy-one get-one specials on half liter beers. We hung out there for a while before going downtown to try and have a drink at the top of the Jin Mao tower.

We got to the tower but they wanted us to spend at least 125 Yuan each which seemed really pricey. The view was nice but it was just after sunset and it was a little hazy out so the views weren't worth the price. We ended up leaving without a drink and came back to the hotel for a little bit.

Our friend on the ground here made us a reservation at a Turkish place so we walked over there for dinner. The food was good but we felt like it was a little pricey for the portions they gave out. Afterwards we walked to a different area of town that was full of little bars and ducked into one that had a good happy hour. After that we made our way to a place called Dean's Bottle Shop where they had a really impressive selection of beers for really good prices.

We met up with Nate at a place called Dr. Beer before heading over to Liquid Laundry again. We had a beer there then went to some weird indoor batting cage / bar that was full of American dudes. It was pretty late by the time we got there so we had a beer then caught a cab back to the hotel.

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Tags: china, shanghai, travels2014

Posted from: China

Saturday, December 14, 2013 @ 11:14 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 171

After breakfast I started the second walking route that's listed in one of the tourist guides I was given when I checked into the hostel. This route went over to Parque del Retiro via the Plaza de Cibeles, then down to the Reina Sofia Museum, up to the Neptune fountain and then through the Literary quarter before ending up back near the hostel.

I started walking around 10:30 and already the streets were full of people. The Plaza de Cibeles was nice and then it lead to the Puerta de Alcala which was pretty cool to see. I ended up back at the Retiro park and fortunately today the weather was a lot nicer than yesterday. I spent some time there walking around before heading back to the Paseo del Prado (via some streetside bookstalls).

Back at the Neptune fountain I doubled back into the Literary Quarter which is full of small streets lined with cafes, bookshops and restaurants. It ended up at the Spanish Theater before I cut back up to the Puerta del Sol.

I bought a few things for lunch then came back to the hostel to eat. Since the hostel doesn't have an oven or a range I'm pretty limited in my cooking. I found some microwavable lasagna that didn't turn out too bad. After lunch I decided to hit up a free museum and went down to the Museo de los Origines. It was a big museum full of artifacts for the history of Madrid going all the way back to prehistoric times.

It was nice being in the museum because it was completely empty. I went at the Spanish lunch time so everyone was out eating and drinking and I had the museum to myself. It was one of the few times today when I wouldn't be completely surrounded by people.

After the museum I went down to the Puerta de Toledo (another big archway in the middle of a roundabout), but it wasn't nearly as impressive as the Puerta de Alacala. My plan was to walk all the way over to the Reina Sofia museum and try to hit it while it was free but I wrote down the wrong free times for Saturday. I ended up being a few hours early so I came back to the hostel. I'm planning on making tomorrow a "free museum" day so I'll aim to hit it then.

I've got a full room at the hostel tonight which I wasn't really expecting. Before dinner the streets really started to fill up and I looked outside the little balcony out the hostel bedroom window and the streets were absolutely packed. I don't really like crowds and having this many people out on the streets was not something that looked like fun for me.

I read for a while and then made dinner. After some wine I decided to heck with it, I'd head out and work my way through the crowds and aimlessly wander around. The streets were extremely packed and I ended up walking around several christmas markets and christmas light filled streets before coming back to the hostel just before 11pm.

Like I said earlier, there are a bunch of museums that are free tomorrow so I'm planning on spending most of the day visiting them. Then on Monday I'm still planning on heading to Toledo to check out the old Spanish capital city and to get out of the madhouse that's Madrid for the day.

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Tags: daily journal, spain, madrid

Posted from: Spain