Korazy Times in Seoul: Qingdao Days 3-4

Our third day in Qingdao was a day to catch up on rest. Savannah had a case of traveler's stomach, so we took the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep and relaxation time. When we felt well rested, we wasted a trip down to the train station without any information, ignorantly assuming there would be an English train schedule available in some dusty corner of the station. So we made the trek back to our hostel, got some info and after re-hydrating made another attempt, this time successfully purchasing tickets to Beijing. There was a supermarket nearby, so we took the opportunity to peruse the aisles, checking out the local snacks and picking up a few goodies to have as snacks later on. The snacks in China are really similar to those in Korea. It's a lot of dried seafood and sweets. Most of the snacks are meant to taste like a certain food, but are generally a sweeter, chemically version of that flavor. The ramen, however, has a leg up on other ramen we've tried. There are three separate packets of flavoring agents in each bowl. There is dried seasoning, a wet paste with meat and oils, and some vegetables mixed with dried meat. The bowls of ramen are cheap, delicious, and an easy thing to whip up when eating out isn't an option.

The next day we spent the morning on the #2 beach in Qingdao. The difference between beach #1 and #2 is noticeable. There is a 2 Yuan ( $0.25-$0.30) charge to get onto the beach and that is enough to cut the size of the crowd down to about a fifth of that on beach #1. The sand is softer, but the water is a little murkier. After a tough morning weighting down our beach towels, we rewarded ourselves with a visit to the night food markets and an alley called “Beer Street.” We were first welcomed to sit at an old lady's restaurant in the middle of the street. The lady that runs this place is a character. The light was bad and she wouldn't stand still, so I couldn't get a good shot, but the picture below should give you an idea of who this lady was. She had this weird beehive-ish hair-do and a loud grating voice. Her food was awesome, and she had an English version of her menu to help us pick out what to eat. The skewers were delicious, the vegetables were greasy, but good, and the beer was fresh and sort of cold as always. We then walked through the night food market that is set up almost the same way a grocer back home would be. You start in the produce section, walk through the meats, seafood, then onto the premade stuff. We picked up some biscuits (layered just like Grand's) and some dumplings (one meat, one veggie). A quick walk up the street led us to a beer bag vendor. That's right, you can buy Tsingtao by the bag here. 1.5 Yuan ($0.20-$0.25) gets you about a pint of beer in a plastic bag with a straw. Around the corner was a park where senior citizens were practicing their dance steps. The parks are crowded with circles of men playing a Chinese version of chess, a gambling card game similar to Spades (I think), and old people dancing. These elderly people do the Salsa, Waltz, and most other well known dances. We ate our snacks and were on our way back home to call it an early night.