Xi'an on foot and by bike

I'm trying to post this note but blogspot seems to be blocked as the facebook is, so I'm still writting offline. 

I've just got to Xi'an (Han Tang Hostel in Xi'an). Hard sleeper train was not for hardsleepers in my opinion, it was really quiet and noone snored. What a luck! It was really ok. I guess that I was the only white person on the whole train and everyone passing by was staring at me.

Of course I would not be myself if I would not be running to catch this train. I knew that I need about an hour to get there but even though I took bigger buffer it was not enough (actually buffer got a little bit smaller than initially planned because of visit to Lama Temple before I've left Beijing, that took longer than planned). And when you think you are almost there is still 10 minutes walk to get to the platform. You need to climb the bridge to cross the street, pass security check (polish ability to sneak in to the queue was very usefull here), find platform, show your ticket and run to the end of the train. Isn't it obvious that you always get place in the last carrige? But luckily, I've made it!

What was surprising and useless on the train it was ticket swap. I had to give my ticket and I've received plastic card which I had to give back before we've arrived to Xi'an. OK, one thing that was usefull was that I was woken up to give it back, so I knew in advance that I have to get off soon.

My food on the way to the train station (dunno what´s that exactly, byt it´s tasty)

Sometimes it is very good to go sightseeing around 10 and not 13 as it used to be in Bejing. I've arrived to hostel at 8 so at 10 I was ready to go. And there was sun (not covered by smog) which made me to want to go even more. With Fran - Dutch guy we did quite a bit. First Big Wild Goose Temple - same as other temples, next we took a look at Drum and Bell Towers - same as Beijing and did a bike ride on the walls which go around the city. And in fact we've ridden on the top of the walls. They are 12-14 m wide at the top and 15-16 at the bottom and 14km long. Even though it was nice tit got boring after a while, as it was all the same, very uneven surface, but it made fun too, especially when on the one spot we've observed P.E. classes. They were doing some gymnastics and they were facing us, so we've started to make fun of them. Repeating what they do, waving to them or going our own excercises. After they've spoted us doing it they were laughing all the time, we could see that. I hope we've made their day good.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

View towards the city centre from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda

City Wall

Bike ridding on the City Wall

P.E. classes

Roofs, with dedication to my dad, sorry that they are not red

After a ride it was time to get some sweet snack in Muslim Quarter (somehow similar to hutongs in Beijing, except Great Mosque which you will not find in Beijing and which we've only found by chance, as it's very well hidden and due to that very peacefull and calm). So many nice things, I could not decide what I want. So many sesam, nuts, halva snacks. 

stand with sweets in Muslim Quarter - I like this foto

traffic jam in Muslim Quarter

Muslim Quarter

Chinese Singer

We've also seen something for lunch which we couldn't tell what it was, kind of jelly squares, fried on the huge pan with some spices. And that's it. Nothing else. Wedensday is day to give it a try, as tomorrow I plan to see Terrakota Warriors.

Terrakota Warriors

4 terrakota horses of 4 terrakota warriors