Downtown Qingdao Sunday...

This morning we told the nurses we wanted to venture out to the city and they laughed at us.  They said today is not a good day to leave the hospital.  Apparently today is very auspicious and there are many weddings on.  They explained that it would be very hard to get a taxi because they dont like to take tourists and there would be too much traffic because of all the weddings.  All the fireworks we have been hearing for the last few days were nothing compared to today and they explained the fireworks were for the weddings.  Many, many weddings!  We decided to take a cab downtown anyway and it took about an hour.  We went with Kev and Pete from the UK.  It did take awhile for us to find a driver that would take us and we negotiated the price...100 RMB (about $16).

Well, it was a wild and crazy drive there with no traffic signs, lights or obvious rules, infact our driver spent most of the time driving on the white line rather than in a lane.  There is no indicating, just honk the horn and go for it.  We nearly  drove into the side of a bus or tram a few times.  The route there was thru the shipping port and there was construction everywhere, mostly just piles of rubble to be seen.  We arrived at the outdoor markets, but every store was selling the same thing...stone statues and coffee tables.  We found our way into the indoor markets and thru a maze of shanty stalls.  My broken Chinese for "I want to buy a dvd, where are they?" was met with many laughs and "No dvd here" and my Chinese for "Where is the toilet?" was also met with giggles and "No toilet nearby".  Eventually we did find a toilet and had to pay 2 RMB each to use it (an experience!) but we were not so lucky with the elusive dvds.  We wandered the markets buying a few gifts to bring home and even haggled with the calculator.  We enjoyed a very interesting lunch and custard tarts for dessert.  We still attracted a lot of attention but mostly because of Mums blonde hair and Kevs cane.  The taxi ride home was much more scenic and a lot cheaper at 66RMB, which explains why all the other taxi drivers in the line laughed at us this morning when we agreed to pay 100.  We all thought that the trip was easier with the 4 of us, so we may venture out together regularly.

In the afternoon we went over the road to Lottemart to buy a camera but at over $200 for a 3 megapixel camera we decided to give it a miss.  We are hoping to get our hands on one soon to start posting some pics with our blogs.  We walked around the Lottemart and Mums legs held out really well even after a morning at the markets.  Things are looking good.  We were told today about a little blind girl that left a few days before we arrived...she had 6 IV injections of stem cells and left here being able to read the 5th line down on the eye chart!!  So much hope here!  We are quite tired now and glad to be starting therapy again tomorrow.