28th February: German Bakery "Skyways"

Nina and I went to a German Bakery named Skyways, when we were in 南京 Nanjing. You don’t really get “real” breadin China or butter or just a good sandwich and I missed it so much. I missed the smell of bread (as weird as it sounds)… 

In Skyways you can “design” your own sandwich. I had a ciabatta with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, salami and cheese and cocktail sauce and Nina had the same but instead of a ciabatta she chose a baguette. On top of that you also get a soft drink or water for 30RMB (around 4€).

They also have macaroons, banana bread, cakes and pretzels 

Here’s their website: click 

28th February: Finally in 南京 Nanjing

Nina and I made the big mistake to not book a hostel before coming to 南京 Nanjing and to this day I still wonder why wedidn’t… We were looking for about an hour and it started to rain and they either didn’t have any rooms or it was to expensiveand in the beginning we didn’t want to pay more than 100RMB (around 14€) per person but in the end we settled for a roomfor 260RMB (around 37€) the night. 

Afterwards we went to Fashion Lady, an underground mall with a food court. We just walked a lot because that underground mall is quite big. After exploring every little corner of that mall, we decided to go to a German bakery called Skyways, which I’ve been craven since we started our China-Tour. There’ll be another post about that bakery because it simply deserves it! 

In the evening, we met a friend of mine Italian Nina, who I’ve met in 2009 through my exchange year in 南京 Nanjing. The exchange student from 2009 called her Italian Nina, although she’s actually Slovenian but I don’t know… it kind of stuck with her? Anyway, we had some Korean food with her and her friends and went to her dorm and talked for a while, reminisced about our time in 南京 Nanjing talked about what we’re doing now, before Nina and I left to get back to our hostel.

27th February: Nina loses her ticket to 南京 Nanjing = We go to 高安 Gao’an

Nina and I were planning on going to 南京 Nanjing but she suddenly couldn’t find her train ticket anymore and there weren’tany other affordable tickets. The only ones were being sold for around 100€… So I tried to get a refund for my ticket while Ican but the train station was so… confusing! Seriously! I know that I’m not good with directions and that I get lost frequentlybut who would have ever thought that I had to go to the police in order to get my refund?! Why is the police responsible forthat? That’s why after a lot of running around I couldn’t get a refund anymore because you can only get a refund before the train leaves… 

And honestly, when I was knocking on their door and opened it a tad bit because I just couldn’t believe that I was sent to the police the female officer just told me to wait outside, so I went outside again. But it was raining quite a lot, so I opened the door again and asked if I she real meant outside xD” Then she suddenly asked me if I was a foreigner and after they confirmed that I indeed am a foreigner another officer asks what I need. I explained my situation and he told me that I couldn’t get a refund but that I was in luck because someone else came in before me to get a refund for their tickets to Nanjing! I asked him to wait, so I could get Nina to go to that Mini-Police station (she was waiting somewhere else with all our luggage). We got the tickets and the officer gave us his number because we had to call him, when we wanted to get into the train station. 

Short explanation about Chinese train stations: You get checked. A lot. They check your ticket (it has your name and passport number on it) and your passport and your luggage, when you want to enter the train station, then they check your ticket again when you go through a “gate” in order to get to the platform. They check again, when you board the train and they check again, when you’re in the train. When you leave the train station of your destination you should prepare your ticket because guess what? They’ll check again… All in all you’ll get checked 5 times at least (sometimes the check multiple times on the train) =_=

That’s the reason why the officer has to bring us in because the ticket he gave us had names and the passport numbers of the people who bought them before us.

Our train would leave in the evening, so we decided to call 龚雨薇 Gong Yuwei and ask her whether she has time or not.Since we had a lot of time anyway Nina and I bought bus tickets to 高安 Gao’an and 甘淼 Gan Miao picked us up. Heshowed us around and asked another friend to come. We went to the city wall and walked around the city and went to acafé. 龚雨薇 Gong Yuwei only joined us for the café because she was busy teaching someone English. We talked a lot, hadfun playing UNO and after having dinner at a fast food restaurant Nina and I had to go back to 南昌 Nanchang.

After arriving in 南昌 Nanchang we went to the police station and waited for the responsible officer to take us into the trainstation because the tickets we bought still had the names and the passport numbers of the people who bought them beforeus on them. 

While we were waiting other officers started asking the usual questions “Where are you from?”, “Are you students and are you traveling?” and after hearing that we’re from Germany one answered: “Germany… It’s a good city!” Neither Nina nor Ihad the heart to tell him that it’s not a city but a country… When the other officer arrived we were treated like VIPs! We didn’thave to line up and were brought to what we call “VIP section”. Usually they just have normal seat but that part of thestation had couches! After waiting a while we were finally on our way to 南京 Nanjing~

26th February: Meeting 龚雨薇 Gong Yuwei and 甘淼 Gan Miao in 南昌 Nanchang

After an 12 hour long train ride Nina and I arrived in 南昌 Nanchang. The original plan was to go to 高安 Gao’an afterarriving in 南昌 Nanchang in order to meet 龚雨薇 Gong Yuwei and 甘淼 Gan Miao but we missed the train. After callingthem and telling them that we couldn’t go they decided to come to 南昌 Nanchang. So we looked for a hostel and met themlater at the trains station.  

Nina brought her “wife” 龚雨薇 Gong Yuwei a souvenir from 桂林 Guilin: a sesame “cookie” with the Chinese charactersfor “wife” on it. 

南昌 Nanchang isn’t a big city, so we just went to a museum and walked around the whole day. In the first picture you can see Nina trying to kill me because I made fun of her. Probably because of her height? I don’t even remember…  

After having 火锅 Hot Pot for dinner, Nina and I went back to our hostel and 龚雨薇 Gong Yuwei and 甘淼 Gan Miao went back to 高安 Gao’an.

25th February: 桂林 Guilin

In the morning, Nina and I wanted to take a boat tour, so we took a bus to… a place which name I’ve forgotten. I woke up around 5 am and let Nina handle everything because I can’t concentrate so early in the morning… 

Anyway, we arrived and asked a man how much it would cost and they said: “280RMB” (around 40€) We immediately declined that offer because a friend of Nina told us that she only paid 100RMB (around 14€) and although Nina and I went there during the Spring Festival we don’t think that the price should triple… On top of that they would have wanted us to pay 40RMB (around 6€) for every empty seat and because there are always 4 seat we would have had to pay 46€ each, if we had accepted. 

You guys won’t believe me what happens next:

We wanted to find two other people first in order to fill those two empty seats and just talked to two girls who seemed to be around our age. Turned out that they were also from Beijing and because they were Chinese they could probably get better deals or so we thought. They also thought that 280RMB was over the top and started to “baidu” (which is equivalent to google but you can’t really use google because… it’s China) and found someone offering boat tours for half the price and they called them and arranged a time. We walked over to the river and soon realized that we were followed by the man we first talked to. Those two girls told us that he was following us because he doesn’t want us to talk to other people and ask them about the price and even if we did, those people would see him and know that we were already “taken”. That’s the reason why we decided to split up and hoped that he would just start following someone else. 

Nina and I had 桂林米粉 Guilin noodles and decided to meet those girls again after 1,5 hours. The creepy part is that whilewe were having lunch we could see that man wandering around in front of that shop and asked us several times whether wewant to accept that offer. After meeting the girls again they told us that the person they called can’t take us because thatman has been following us and it would probably end in a big fight because he’s been “marking” us as taken, so that nobodyelse can take us… They also told us that although we split up they were still being followed! So, we had no other choice butto go to that man and start bargaining with him. After struggling a lot we agreed on 180RMB (around  26€) and when hewent to buy us tickets we asked the other man, who has been following those Beijing girls how they did business. Heexplained that it was all family business and it didn’t matter who we ask because in the end they’re all related and they werekeeping in touch with each other via cell phones and everyone was told to follow certain groups. It’s just so insane! You’rebeing followed, so nobody else can “snatch” you away! It’s so creepy! 

In the end, we were able to take a wonderful boat ride and enjoyed the warm weather and the nice view. The landscapeof 桂林 Guilin is printed on the 20RMB bill, that’s why we took that picture with that bill in Nina’s hand (although you can’treally see that bill…) 

We took the bus back to 桂林 Guilin but because there were no seats left Nina and I were given plastic buckets and wereforced to sit in that space between those two seats, where people usually walk through in order to get to their seat orstand…