Unlucky Trip to Shanghai
We decided to spend a few days in Shanghai and Beijing over the holidays to do some more exploring!
Three hours before we were supposed to leave for the airport my apartment door handle fell off as I tried to close the door. So there was a mad panic to get a locksmith over within the hour to fix my door as I was leaving my apartment for the next 8 days, thankfully we got it sorted just before leaving for the airport.
We arrive at the airport and go through security and Gavin discovers he has lost his watch (the one that I had bought him for his birthday……which he only had for a few days before losing it). We had the security team looking all over the scanners for it but we couldn’t find it and had to give up. We got on the flight and the watch is found, in the hood of Gavin’s jacket….typical! We arrive in Shanghai late at night and get a taxi to the apartment we are renting through Airbnb. The taxi drops us off at the entrance of an alleyway and points down the street to an apartment block. We thought he dropped us off on the wrong street so I looked up the address into google maps it told me we were a 15-minute walk away. So off we go walking the streets of Shanghai at 11.30 pm with our suitcases, we were hungry, tired and it was starting to rain. The map took us to a different area and we got lost so we decided to give up and get another taxi. Of course, now we were on a road that taxis cant stop on so we had to settle for a tuc-tuc car that came past. We showed the woman the address and she took us right back to the alleyway we were originally dropped off at…..we were literally going around in circles. We went down the alleyway and looked around at all the apartments, it was so dark and we couldn’t work out which one was ours. We tried called the lady we were renting it off and she didn’t answer her phone. I sent her message after message complaining that the address isn’t clear and we can’t find the apartment and just as I am trying to book another hotel for the night she calls me back…… FINALLY! We managed to get into the apartment and we go straight to bed as we are now knackered.
Shanghai City
We explored the Jing’An Temple which was the first temple Gavin has seen in China . We had a look around the area and spent the rest of the day exploring the city, and getting our bearings. We were walking into the city and I was using my phone to see how close we were, then all of a sudden I face-planted the pavement! I was too busy trying to navigate google maps and tripped and hit the ground so hard that my shopping bag flew through the air one way and my phone flew in the opposite direction. It probably should have hurt but it wasn’t that bad, it was funny more than anything. We walked around all day and we were dead on our feet by 1opm, we went home and finished the day doing face-masks (Gavin included).
Jing’An Temple
The next day we went to get breakfast at Zoo cafe, which as you can probably guess, was decorated like a zoo with animal teddy bears that you could take to your table. We explored the city and found a foreign language bookstore so we stocked up on new books for traveling. That evening we did a night river cruise along the Bund which I highly recommend for anyone traveling to Shanghai, the skyline was so beautiful!
Zoo Cafe
The third day we spent at Yu Gardens ( which is over 400 years old ) and it was very serene.We finished the day with a trip to the Disney Store and a little bit of shopping. The following day as we were checking out of the apartment the toilet broke ( if it wasn’t for bad luck, we would have no luck! ) Luckily we managed to fix the flusher just as we were leaving. We get to the airport and one of the straps on my backpack snaps, then the other one snapped 5 minutes later. We managed to tie them together and make a handle so that I could still carry it on my back :) we board the flight and set off to Beijing to spend the next few days there and leave all the bad luck behind us in Shanghai…..just kidding! I left my passport on the plane and didn’t realize until I tried to check in to the hotel. Thankfully I was able to check-in and go back the next day to get my passport! Even with all the setbacks we still had one of the most memorable trips and wouldn’t change a thing!
Yu Gardens
The ‘Unluck of the Irish’ strikes again….
