Monday 29th October 2012 - Day 26 - Shanghai

We were extremely lazy this morning, after all this is supposed to be a holiday! We drew back the curtains around 11am to find it was quite sunny outside, well the grey sky had a slightly bluer tinge to it. I decided it must be shorts weather especially seeing that they are probably the item of clothing that are the least dirty! Jon took the first shower then did a Latte run while I took my turn. We sat in the hostel bar with our coffee slowly gathering the energy to tackle our final day of sightseeing. Anything we wanted to see had to be done in the next few hours as tomorrow morning we fly home.

There were only 4 things on the top 10 things to do in Shanghai that we had to fit in so we set off in search of the Expo 2010 metro stop. We got off and walked along the row of lilies to the moon boat and Chinese art museum. It was all a bit under construction and much of a muchness, so we did not stay long. Back on the metro we set off for the old town. There were tiny alley ways and shops on one side of the street and huge new shopping malls on the other, quite a contrast. We wandered the back streets for a while dodging all the hanging laundry.

As we reappeared on the other side of the block at a main crossroads we spotted a lovely looking restaurant, the lovely definition boils down to being clean and non smoking. We were pleasantly surprised to see parts of the menu in English and accompanied by pictures which helps. We had salmon sushi to start and chicken with rice. It was delicious although the soup that it came with was some what of a mystery. We then lucked out by finding the nicest toilets of the entire trip and they were in a shopping mall of all places. They were so nice I almost wanted to stay longer!

Back on the metro our next stop was the Yuyuan gardens which we eventually found after taking the right exit from the underground . We walked another few miles through the classic streets and found some postcards in the bazaar. There were all sorts of things cooked on skewers and lining the streets, such as tiny birds, tongue etc. Unfortunately we had just eaten so we were not hungry! We stumbled across the heart of the area by accident and we were pleasantly surprised by the old looking buildings linked by paths over waterways. In the water there were millions of koi carp and some where as long as my arm! They were awesome to watch and dotted between them were a few terrapins, how cool.

We made our way back to the metro and went to Century Park. The parks are usually a hive of activity but this one was cold, drab and practically empty hence not even worthy of a photo. There were a few people power walking and cycling and the token bride and groom having their photo shoot. It started spitting and getting dark so I made a beeline for the nice coffee shop I clocked on the way in while Jon had a spurt of energy and was determined to walk the circumference of the lake so we split up and were reunited over a pastry and latte. We read for a while and enjoyed the peace but it was now gone 6pm and dark. We leave early in the morning and have a lot to sort out in preparation so we took the metro back to the hostel.

The rest of the evening we recharged batteries, blogged, got to grips with our plan for the journey to the airport in the morning and packed. We are satisfied to have ticked off all the highlights of Shanghai and are excited to see everybody tomorrow! St. Petersburg seems like a million years ago and more specifically, a million miles away! In fact, our route has been approximately 10,093km by train and quite an adventure!