Athens & Santorini, Greece

If you google Greece, you’ll see a healthy mix of articles talking about the “economic crisis” and “top tourist destination” in the world. Nicholas and I didn’t really have any expectations going into Greece, which we’ve decided is the best way to travel, because then you’re never disappointed! The only stories we had heard were from Nicholas’s grandparents, Papa Reuel and Grandma Mary, when they described Mars Hill and climbing the steps to the top of Oia, Santorini.  For those that may not know, Santorini is a greek island south of Athens in the Aegean Sea. I have always dreamed of visiting Santorini; as it has always sounded so romantic!

As most of you know, we had flown home for Nicholas’ grandfather’s funeral. We spent 2 weeks in Minnesota, most of the time near Grandma Dolly to keep her company.  Returning home was challenging, especially for Nicholas, as he has had to accept the loss of both his grandfathers in a short period of time.  The funeral was beautiful and the time with family was sweet.  We wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  

We started our journey to Greece on May 1st and arrived at 2:15 am on May 3rd.  Being unfamiliar of the area and it’s safety, we felt it would be best to stay the night in the airport until day light, which would provide a safer walk to our hostel.  About 6:30 am, we jumped on the metro, which took about 45 minutes to get to our stop, then had a 10 minute walk to Pella Inn. Let’s just say we were slightly tired and ended up taking a 4 hour nap…it’s also safe to assume we did nothing that day. The next day we felt refreshed enough to venture out, and decided to go to the Acropolis and Roman Agora. One of the things that consistently amazes us is that in the middle of modern cities, there are ruins that are thousands of years old. Our hostel was an 8 minute walk from the Roman Agora, so that was our first stop. After reading online, we decided to buy a pass that covered all of the main archaeological sites. (Here is the link if you’re interested. https://archaeology-travel.com/travel-tips/buying-tickets-for-the-acropolis-and-other-ancient-sites-in-athens/) We made the most of our day and pass, visiting: The Ancient Agora, Acropolis—which includes the Parthenon, Erechtheum, and North and South Slopes— Kerameikos, and Areopagus, which is Mars Hill. There are no ruins left on Mar’s Hill, simply the rock, but it was interesting to stand where Paul had once preached! The Acropolis was very crowded, but impressive. The other sites were quieter, which we tend to enjoy more. 

The next day we decided we needed an actual breakfast and found a little place called Brezel. For 7 Euros we got (and I’m not kidding): coffee anyway we wanted it (with unlimited refills), freshly squeezed orange juice, a pretzel with jam and honey, two eggs, two slices of bacon, a tomato and a 15cm pretzel sandwich. That 7 Euros covered breakfast and lunch! Even better was the young woman we met who worked there. Maria was SO sweet. She made such an impression on us we told her we’d come back after visiting Santorini. After breakfast we visited Hadrian’s Library, the Roman Agora, Olympieion, and the Lykeion. Out of all of these the Olympieion (Zeus’s temple) was the most impressive, due to the size of the columns. Pictures don’t do them justice. By the end of the day we were ready to be done visiting ruins though. Just like the temples in Asia, looking at the same thing over and over tends to get a little boring, even if it is amazing in and of itself. We walked through the Plaka Neighborhood, which is a very pretty and wealthy part of Athens. There is a lot of touristic shopping and many restaurants. There was one stop we wanted to make though, and that was Brettos Distillery. This particular distillery has been open since 1925, and distills their own Ouzo, Brandy, Whiskey and other liquors.  You walk into a small old room, filled with many colorful bottles covering 2 of the walls on aged, imperfect wooden shelves behind the bar.  The room itself told the story of Brettos and your nose was greeted by a slightly sweet, liquor smell from the distillery.  The old holding barrels are on the right and the seating area is in the center of the room.  Nicholas tried Ouzo, which tastes like black licorice and is 42% alcohol, and I had a glass of local wine. Both were very enjoyable, as was talking with the owner. He acquired the distillery approximately ten years ago and you can tell he loves his job; he helped us choose our drinks and explained a little of the history behind Brettos. We chatted with him for a while and also learned he loved tennis and had attended the US Open 25 times. It was a fun afternoon.

We went to bed around 10 pm that night because we had a very early morning ahead of us. One thing I learned in Athens, Greece is that the airport takes an hour to get to unless you take a taxi, which is around 55 Euros and still takes 30 minutes. We utilized the 24 hour X95 public bus, which took 40-60 minutes and was only 6 Euros. However, in doing this, you quickly realize that in order to catch a 5:15 am flight, you must wake up at 2:30 am and take a 3 am bus. YIKES. Note: never book early flights out of Athens; you WILL regret it. I didn’t sleep at all that night (nerves, dorm life, weird roommate, who knows really), so was exhausted, but Nicholas slept a little, so he thankfully was able to lead the way. Our destination was one of my dream vacations; the island of Santorini! Santorini is 73 km² (28 sq mi) and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera. Many of the pictures you see of greek islands are taken in Santorini; the white dwellings built into cliffs, blue roofs and bright flowers make for a stunning scene. 

Our flight was only about 40 minutes long and the bus ride to our hotel 10 minutes, so we were in the hotel lobby by 7:30 am. There was a bakery across the road (which we later learned was the most popular in Santorini), so we popped in there for a coffee and some pastries. Honestly, we have no idea what they were, because it was all written in Greek. One of them was an apple pastry and the other a sweet cheese pastry topped with powdered sugar. Both were good! After our breakfast we decided to just wait in the hotel lobby until reception opened. I was pretty miserable from the lack of sleep, and fell asleep on the couch. This trip has been one of many firsts for me. I, generally, would never sleep in a public place. I don’t want people to see me while sleeping and I tend to just feel weird. Let me tell you, all sense of decorum flies out the window when you’re so tired you want to die. We were able to check in early thankfully, and by that time I had slept 2 hours on the couch, so we decided to do some grocery shopping and sight seeing. Our room had a mini-fridge, so we bought some waters, milk, cream cheese, fruit, turkey and gouda cheese for sandwiches. Making your own lunch, if possible, tends to be cheaper than eating every meal out. We then attempted to take the bus, but it proved to be a semi-unreliable system and we didn’t want to waste any of our time, so decided to rent an ATV for 3 days (which excited Nicholas because he got his toy fix).  We drove our 150 CC ATV to Akrotiri, a Minoan Bronze Age settlement that was destroyed in the Theran volcanic eruption in 1627 BC and buried in volcanic ash. One thing that struck us is that the island has no fresh water, and scholars still don’t know how the islanders got it. We went to the Red Beach after our visit to Akrotiri. Because the Island is the product of a volcano, the earth and rock varies from black to red to white. Red beach is located beneath a cliff of red rock on the east side of the island. We walked on the beach and then went on a hunt for some food. We found a delicious little restaurant right down the road from our hotel called Katrina’s Traditional Restaurant. Nicholas ordered a pork kabob with veggies and I had a pork fillet with feta sauce and rice. Oh. My. Tastebuds. Both dishes were amazing. The restaurant is family owned, which is always fun as well because you get to talk with people who actually enjoy conversing. It was a good introduction to the island!

I slept 12 hours that night, from 9 pm to 9 am, was up for maybe 45 minutes and then took a 4 hour “nap.” By 3 pm I felt ready for some adventuring, so we drove to the Black Beach in Perissa, walked for a little while and then rode to Fira (the capital of Santorini) for dinner. 

Our third day in Santorini was our favorite day. We took a bus to Oia and then hiked from the city to Fira. The hike is about 10km long and goes along side the cliffs on the eastern side of the island. We enjoyed seeing all the different kinds of flora and fauna and breathtaking views. This hike is a must-do for anyone who visits. For dinner we decided to splurge. Like I stated earlier, Santorini was one of my dream vacation spots and we wanted to make the most of it, hence the private room with real towels and a romantic dinner. :) We made reservations at a restaurant in Amoudi Bay, OIa were we sat right on the water, had a nice glass of wine, and fresh seafood. As we’ve traveled we slowed down quite a bit; the people around us don’t rush about and it’s rubbing off on us. Americans seem to do everything so fast, but it’s actually extremely enjoyable to take time and focus on each other while walking, talking or eating. After dinner we bought a bottle of wine and enjoyed it on our balcony back at the hotel. It was a wonderful night, and the quality time we are getting as a couple on this trip is something I will always be grateful for. 

Our final day in Santorini was spent driving around on the ATV (note: some form of eye protection is a must while driving the ATV as it is very windy on the island causing for lots of bad dust that pelts you in the face while driving…even wearing sunglasses, we got dust in our eyes…I think they need to rent science goggles with the ATV)—we were trying to use all the gas we put in the thing—walking around Fira and catching up on some blogging. Our flight back to Athens left at 9:15 pm and we were back at our hostel and in bed by half past midnight. 

Our last day in Athens was a quiet one as well; we worked on some itinerary updates, played some cribbage, shopped in Plaka and walked in the National Garden. The garden is very pretty and a nice place to escape the loudness of the city. The best part of our day was breakfast at Brezzos though! We walked in, said hello to the woman working and she said, “Ahhhh Americans?! Maria told me! I’m her mother! Please, sit, sit!”  Maria came into the shop at 1230, so we were able to see her as well. We even connected with her on Facebook in order to keep in touch when away. 

One of the reasons we had such a wonderful time in Greece was because of all the kind people we met.  The city is nice, filled from head to toe with graffiti due to the economic downturn, but is not a cause for concern.

At the end of our time here, I honestly can say Greece did not disappoint and was a WONDERFUL introduction to Europe! After struggling somewhat in Israel, Greece was refreshing. The people were kind, friendly and helpful. The country has since been added to our “return to someday” list.

Holy Week in Israel

Here we are, already a month and a half into our trip and at one of the places we have been waiting for…Israel! It was a long journey to get here from Beijing.  Our flight left at 3:40am after being delayed an hour.  We flew from Beijing to Kiev, Ukraine which was an 11 hour flight.  We had a 2 hour layover in Ukraine where we then boarded a plane that took 4 hours to touch down in Tel Aviv.  We caught a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (which we had to stand the whole 2 hours because the bus was so packed). By the time we arrived at our Airbnb, we had been awake for about 40 hours, not really counting the broken sleep on the plane as true rest. Needless to say, we were tired and our bodies had broken down from exhaustion. We had gotten sick in the beginning of our visit to China and traveling intensified our illness. After about two weeks of being sick we gave in and started a round of antibiotics. We started feeling better the next day! Thank goodness for medicine, because without it Israel wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable! 

Our first full day in Jerusalem was a relaxation day.  We only went out once to find food, which was difficult for several reasons.  First, we managed to lock ourselves in the Airbnb with no access to our host, due to Passover beginning the night we arrived.  Plus, Passover meant no grains in the house AND everything is closed, the city was basically dead.  We were finally able to find a small 24 hour grocery store, which had little we knew how to use.  After spending nearly 30 minutes in this 46 sq meter store trying to figure out what we could make without bringing anything sinful into our hosts house, we ended up buying chili beans along with some corn tortillas and cheese to try and make beans and cheese.  We also purchased some eggs, apples and orange juice for the morning.  After arriving back at the Airbnb we also didn’t know what utensils, dishes etc. we could use because each has a specific purpose during Passover and is prepared in a certain way in order to make it kosher.  As you can tell, it was a fun first night trying to figure out what we could and couldn’t do. We managed though and learned a lot in the process. ;)

Our second day, Kaitlyn and I headed off on foot to go see the City of David, Hezekiah’s tunnels and explore some of the old city. The City of David is an archeologic park filled with ruins and artifacts. It was amazing to look at the places we’ve read about in the bible. Jerusalem is built in layers; each layer is a little older than the one above it. The farther down you go, the older the history is. One of the most interesting things we did was walk through Hezekiah’s tunnels. When the city was defending itself from the approaching Assyrian army in the 8th century BC, King Hezekiah decided to protect the water by diverting its flow deep into the city with an impressive tunnel system (Chronicles II, 32:30). The Israelis dug a 533 meter tunnel into the mountain to protect the water source. We walked through the entire tunnel and ended at the Pool of Siloam, which is where Jesus healed a blind man (John 9:1–11). It was an amazing experience.

Our third day was spent at Yad Vashem, which is the holocaust museum in Israel. We spent about four and a half hours in the museum and easily could have spent six or seven. We paid for an audio guide, which made the experience even more enjoyable. The museum focuses on facts, of course, but also individual stories of the people who suffered through the holocaust. Putting faces and names with stories was incredibly moving. After being in Cambodia, however, genocide has taken on a new meaning to us. When we speak of genocide we often only think of WW2, but it happens all over the world. Knowledge and personal responsibility are some of the only ways to combat such wickedness; otherwise it often creeps up on us under the guise of progression and growth. 

Our fourth day we rented a car and spent the day hiking Masada and at the Dead Sea. Masada is an ancient fortress built in 30 BC in southern Israel’s Judean Desert on a massive plateau. The hike to the top took us approximately one hour, but that was with more than a few stops for pictures. There’s also the option of a cable car if you’re not feeling a hike, but what’s the fun in that?! There were beautiful views of the dead sea and Judean desert at the top of the plateau, accompanied by strong winds due to the height! Almost as windy as Kansas…just kidding! After our hike, we grabbed some lunch at the bottom and then drove to a spot to swim in the Dead Sea. Our AirBnB hosts suggested finding a spot to park and walking to the sea, instead of using a free beach, which they explained were often dirty. We decided to pull off where there was one other car and walked down to the “beach.” It was AMAZING. As you walk down the ground becomes layers upon layers of hardened salt; some parts are extremely sharp while others are completely smooth. Nicholas swam first and I followed; the sensation is hard to describe! You feel exactly like a fishing bobber in the water.  You can try and sink yourself, but end up popping right back up.  It’s also hard to stay in one position; if you’re trying to get into a sitting position, you will end up on your belly/back and have to try again! Strangely, the water also makes your skin feel oily. After about 30 minutes in the water our skin was starting to burn, so we got out and dried off. As the water evaporates all the salt is left behind, making you a powdery mess. We rinsed off with some water from our bottles, and headed back to Jerusalem for the night. 

Saturday we chose to walk the footsteps of Jesus. We started at the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives. This was our favorite stop. The garden is fenced off (some of the trees are said to be 800 years old and authorities don’t want them damaged), but it was easy to walk around the fence and see the garden. Next to the garden is the Church of All Nations, which enshrines a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest. We were able to sit in the church quietly and reflect on Christ’s sacrifice, which was emotional for both of us. We also visited the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and the Chapel of Ascension. Ironically, we were ripped off at the Chapel of Ascension. Three middle eastern men were standing at the front of the church not allowing anyone through without charging them five shekels for a “ticket.” All of the holy sights are free to visit, but they were aggressive and we wanted to see the chapel. Thankfully, it only amounted to $3, and Nicholas convinced me not to get too worked up about it. Afterwards we went to the Old City and walked the Via Dolorosa, which is the path that Jesus carried the cross. It ends at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is said to have been crucified and buried. While all of these pilgrimage sights were interesting, we ended our day differently than we expected. 

Ultimately, we were convicted of the fact that pilgrimage sights are just that; sights. There is no guarantee any of them actually contain the tombs or rocks they say they do. Additionally, even if they do contain those things— although they may be historically significant and special—they have no impact on our faith. They are physical objects. We witnessed many people rubbing scarves on and praying to enshrined stones/walls etc. Those stones are simply stones, those walls are just walls; they won’t save you, heal you or change your life. The grace of God will, but not the tomb in which Jesus may have been buried.  This was especially evident in the behavior of people at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. People were shoving, pushing and yelling at each other to try and get into the church. Guards were physically grabbing people, pushing them towards the exit and yelling (mainly in an effort to control the mobs of people trying to touch anything and everything that may be thought to be holy). Priests were standing at exits of holy sights yelling, “Out! Out! Out!” and pushing people (literally) in the direction of the exit. The church was quite dirty and poorly maintained, with trash on the floors throughout.  You can imagine how crazy it must have been for individuals to have to be so harsh in directing the people. We expected each holy sight to have a reverence about it, where people were reflecting or praying. Instead, we found people who seemed to have a lack of understanding as to what relationship with the Father means, in turn helping them to identify what is truly important.  The fact is many of the Israeli people are lost and in need of a savior.  This is evident by what we witnessed while attending some of the holy sites.  There is so much testament to works, but no focus on the relationship.  This is because they don’t really know who our God is and the work of His son Jesus.  Now, I say all this with caution as it is not my intention to bunch all Israeli people into one group of non-believers.  However, from some of what we did see, we were reminded that a relationship with the Lord is what we are called to; not one of works but one of faith. Kaitlyn and I too touched the “rock of calvary”; but it did not change our lives on a spiritual level. But Jesus did, and we’d love to share more on that topic with anyone interested.

Easter Sunday was the most meaningful day we spent in Jerusalem. We went to church at the Garden Tomb, which Christian circles regard as Christ’s true burial sight (the preacher made sure to note that ultimately the tomb doesn’t matter, cause whatever the correct tomb may be…we will still find it empty because Jesus has risen from the dead. Amen). There were believers from all over the world there, some who spoke english, some who didn’t, but all worshipping the Lord together. The music was beautiful and the message full of hope. It was by far the best thing we did in the Holy City! Afterwards we went to the Western Wall and explored the Old City. Monday was spent resting.

On Tuesday we went on a tour into Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank. We visited the Mara Saba Monastery, the Church of the Nativity, the Old City, saw some Banksy graffiti, the separation wall and one of the refugee camps in Bethlehem. Neither Nicholas or I consider ourselves well-educated on the relations between Israel and Palestine, but we learned a lot on the tour. Our tour guide was Palestinian, which gave us a unique perspective into the situation. The Palestinians consider themselves prisoners in their own country, and view Israel as an occupying government. Israeli’s, in turn, view Palestinians as people who have/deserve no rights. They restrict the roads they drive on, their water, land, food, education and housing, all while ignoring so-called settlement agreements. The Palestinians are an oppressed people, but are friendly, and we enjoyed interacting with our guide and many of his friends. Many want foreigners to educate themselves on the treatment the Palestine people are receiving in the West Bank, so focus on that in conversations. Of course, there are always two sides to a disagreement. For example, our Jewish AirBnB host stated that the separation wall decreased terrorist attacks by 90%. It goes to show that you should never make assumptions about people or their culture, and the most important thing we can do is educate ourselves and then advocate for basic human rights. 

Being in Jerusalem at such a unique time such as Passover was interesting as well. It is amazing to both of us the amount of rules that fall in suit with Judaism…we were able to have a great conversation with our hosts about the differences in our beliefs and share with them in return what we believe. We tried sharing our faith and how important it is to us, and the difference between faith and religion (which often is interpreted as “rules”).  One of the girls asked a lot of questions; we pray for the seeds planted and that God chooses to water them. 

Israel was definitely our favorite country from a historical perspective, but unfortunately our least favorite culturally, which surprised us both.  Let me explain, as I am sure this has aroused your curiosity.  I’m not sure how to explain well, but it seemed to us that the Israeli people were rather abrasive to us and to others; not just tourists.  We understand there is a lot going on politically in Israel, but are unaware of what calls for the abruptness in conversation.  In this portion of the blog, I am going share honestly about what we experience, but it is not my intention to paint a negative picture.  Also, I want to state not all our interactions were bad, we did meet some very nice individuals as well.  Although, here I am speaking of an overall experience with the locals and it seemed to us more unpleasant than pleasant.  One thing Kaitlyn and I saw repeatedly were people telling us an area was closed when the area was not closed at all.  We also found dishonesty as listed prices and requests for payment did not match.  We had multiple attempts from Arabs to collect a fee for entrance when entrance was free; which we fell prey to this once. We experienced what we called “Israeli customer service”…look up, recognize, look down, finish text/e-mail/conversation with employee, pause, hesitate, wait, approach and provide a “you’re inconveniencing me” look.  Asking for help seems to be a bother to the people—they’ll either lie to you, tell you to move on, or they won’t answer at all. We were trying to buy bus tickets and were told to get out of the way. Paid for parking in coins and were cursed at. Our worst experience was when we asked to buy a specific bus ticket to Tel Aviv.  The gentleman working the counter sold us a general ticket to Tel Aviv.  After discovering the bus was not going to the specific area we needed, we went to return the ticket.  The man yelled at us behind the glass, “You told me Tel Aviv, I gave you a ticket for Tel Aviv…I told you this…!”  Kaitlyn became frustrated told him “No, we wanted a specific ticket for a reason, we don’t want the random one you gave us.” and he said, “Give me your ticket, give me your ticket!!” (motioned rudely with his hand) and then said “Buy your ticket on the bus! BYE! Next person, next” and threw the change through the hole in the bottom of the glass. We went to the next window to try again. Our final bad experience was during check in for our flight home to the US.  The gentleman refused to let me carry my (Nicholas) bag onto the plane (even though it is carry-on size) and refused to measure it or get his supervisor. Like I said above, we haven’t quite figured out why these people show this adverse treatment to others, but it is quite sad.  We felt that a lot of the people didn’t care for conversation and lacked relational skills, unless it was either eating at their restaurant or showing interest in their shop.  We wonder if it is part due to the Jews being seen as God’s chosen people, thus they act superior to others (again, this is just a hypothesis).  Unfortunately, some of our negative experiences have caused us to question our future return…and after being treated so poorly, we understand (to a degree) how the Palestinians feel.  Again, we are reminded that we all need our savior’s grace, so we must attempt to show that same grace to others in order to be a witness for Christ and not against Him.

As I stated earlier, even though we seemed to have many poor interactions, we also had several great interactions.  One of these interactions was with a Muslim man, who bought Kaitlyn some candy she wanted, but did not buy because it was too expensive.  He said, “Here you go, welcome to Israel!”  When we tried to pay him he refused, and said to enjoy in broken english. Another positive was when we took our rental car to the dead sea, upon entrance of one gate, I asked one of the Israeli soldiers a question and he said, “That’s correct, have fun guys!”  Another was at a restaurant with a girl who told us we were an extremely cute couple and were kind hearted. She said she would one day love to visit the US and maybe even marry an American man.  We also had the pleasure of meeting a very kind man who owned a tiny little burger shop on the side of the road.  In addition, he made a pretty mean burger for those looking for some comfort food. ;)

Travel tends to open up your eyes; we can honestly say that Israel opened them in many different ways. 

N + K

Xi'an, China

Out of the two cities we visited in China, Xi’an was our favorite.  Xi’an is 1067 kilometers west of Beijing; we found our way there via an overnight train that took 11 hours to arrive.  It was an experience in and of itself. We went the cheap route (yay for budget travel!) and slept in a 6 bed birth, on the very top.  We were fortunate to be next to each other, have a rack for our luggage and be next to the air conditioner unit.  We were unfortunate in that the beds were hard and the air conditioner warm and recirculating the 2nd hand smoke from the smoking section of the train.   You could say we’re hoping to avoid any other budget sleeper trains, but we know that this is one of those great stories we will carry with us for years to come!

We took a bus to our hostel and were greeted by Jerry (can’t remember his Chinese name, nor could we pronounce it), a college student who works at the hostel, and Kacper, a fellow backpacker from Poland.  Our view of Poland is forever tainted…just kidding Kacper…but not really. ;) Jerry offered to run out and grab breakfast for everyone. We had “Chinese burgers,” which is seasoned, shredded pork on a pita-type bread. Not exactly what Americans would consider breakfast food, but still tasty.  As we shared breakfast with our new friends, we began to talk like we’d known each other for years.  We began planning out our next couple days, sharing our interests with the others.  Through this, we were able to convince both Kacper and Jerry to hike a mountain with us, the infamous Mt. Huashan (more on that later). Somewhere in the conversation Jeff, the owner of the hostel, wandered in, along with Jen, another college student that worked at BC. Jeff offered to take Kacper, Nicholas and I to see the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, so we hopped on a scooter and off we went. Thankfully, Nicholas had gotten some practice driving scooters in Thailand and Laos, so away we went in the Chinese traffic. For dinner, we all decided to go to the Muslim Quarter, which is full of delicious street food and fun showmanship. Jeff introduced us to some delicious Chinese BBQ. We ordered around 80 small meat kabobs and 2 noodle salads for our group of 7 people. It was SO good and we ate all of it. They had entire cows hanging from hooks and would cut the meat off in front of you and throw it on a stick. We also tried fruit leather, some kind of berry, lamb kabobs, raw water chestnuts, stinky tofu and a fried banana dessert. By the end of the night we had tried many different foods and only spent 10 yuan a person, which equates to approximately 3 dollars! The only thing we didn’t care for were the raw chestnuts and stinky tofu. The chestnuts were okay, but the stinky tofu was NOT good. The tofu is placed in a brine made from fermented milk, vegetables, and meat for several months and then cooked. It tastes the way it smells, which is not particularly pleasant. You only live once though, so we tried it!

The next day Jerry, Kacper, Nicholas and I got up at 5:45 am and headed to the train station. We took a high speed train to Huayin City, which is 120 kilometers from Xi’an. It only took 45 minutes! We made it to the park entrance and began our hike. Before I continue, lets just take a moment to recognize that I am not the most athletic person. I had to be convinced by Nicholas to go on this hike…I googled other’s blogs about their experience. I would not suggest hiking Mt. Huashan unless you are in good shape, but Nicholas would disagree as we saw people of all shapes and sizes ascending. I struggled near the end, but still hiked a solid 6 hours;  I have to say I proved myself wrong and went much further than what I expected. Nicholas and the guys went for 9 hours, summiting another 2 peaks. I can honestly say it was the most difficult physical activity I have ever done. It was beautiful and rewarding though…definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Back to the hike! We started at the base of the mountain and hiked to the North and South peak. I ended my hike at 15km but the three men continued on to do the plank walk, which added another 3km. The mountain actually used to be much more dangerous than it is today; they have added many stairs, chains, resting points and even safety harnesses along the mountain. If you google Mr. Haushan, articles will pop up with “Deadliest Mountain in the World” and “Is the Death Toll Real?” We can unequivocally state that it is NOT the deadliest mountain in the world, and the death toll is false, but instead a very enjoyable, albeit difficult, hike. The scenery was stunning and going on the hike was much more gratifying than going to a museum or another temple. (If we’ve peaked your interest, here is a link describing the area: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/mt_huashan.htm.)

The next day we slept in. We finally managed to meander out in the afternoon and rent bikes, along with Kacper, and spend an hour riding along the top of the old city walls. That was a lot of fun!  Both Nicholas and Kacper enjoy taking GoPro videos, so they spent a good amount of time filming while on our bike ride. For dinner we decided to go back to the Muslim Quarter with Jen and Fiona. Kacper was desperate for lamb kabobs and we wanted some more fruit leather! It was a good way to end our time in Xi’an!

We took the high speed train back to Beijing, relaxed a little that evening, and decided to go to the Summer Palace our last day in China before heading to Israel. The Summer Palace was truly stunning. The name is somewhat misleading if you’ve never visited before; the area is more like a large, recreational park full of lakes, walking paths, gardens, palaces and temples. It’s an extremely beautiful part of Beijing, and we highly suggest putting it at the top of your “to-see in Beijing” list. :) 

One of the reasons we really loved Xi’an was the number of local people with which we were able to build relationships. Kacper, Jerry, Jen, Jeff, a girl named Fiona who was a L&D nurse learning english and John, an older American studying Asian culture and learning Chinese, all made our 5 days there some of the most fun days we’ve had while backpacking. Spending time with people who actually lived in Xi’an gave us an “in;” they helped us buy food—definitely a positive because then we didn’t eat any questionable meats—ensured we didn’t get ripped off, translated for us, shared transportation costs like Uber, explained how the bus/subway system worked, helped us buy train tickets, ultimately helped us experience the country the way the local people do, etc. We spent every day with our new friends and loved it! We were extremely grateful to stay in such a wonderful hostel. BC was focused sharing cultural experiences and made our time in Xi’an 100 times better than anything we could have expected. We played games, stayed up late hanging out, had wonderful conversations and made the most of all of our time there. If we are ever able to return to China we definitely want to return to BC.  If you can’t already tell, we were very grateful for this wonderful place.  Interacting with locals is truly the right way to travel as you see the place in a very unique way.  Ultimately, our time in China was different than we expected, but a really rewarding experience and we hope to go back someday (especially since we paid for a 10 year visa).  Nicholas and I agree that China has taught us the most (so far) about how pre-conceived ideas and world views are shaped based on information, instead of an actual experience.  We now encourage everyone to travel and experience it for yourselves.  Hopefully this blog excites you as much as it excites us.  To end with a quote we saw in our travels thus far, “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

Love you all,

K & N