Well today was a travel day but I did get a good chunk of the morning and afternoon to walk around Shanghai. Went to a cool section of town called the French Concession that had the feel of Paris with neat little bars and shops and tree lined streets. Just wandered around there for awhile doing some great people watching. When I have time, usually on my last day of being at a place, I like to take time and just wander around seeing the behind the scenes things or as my travel messiah Rick Steves calls it (through the back door). Dang I wish he wrote travel books for places other than Europe! But I came across several cool things like a bunch of men playing cards in a park, couples just dancing away to music in the middle of a walkway and of course tons and tons of street vendors selling all kinds of fun foods. I of course had to sample some of the fun foods and tried a little sandwich type thing that was carved from meat similar to a gyro with some cooked vegetables in a little english muffin shaped bun and it was really really good but very very spicy!! Also found some fun bakery type setup but again not in a building but just on the corner mixing up stuff and baking it in these little ovens. There were some really good cookies and rolled dough types of things that were excellent. Of course I wish I could speak Mandarin or they knew English because I'd love to know what they call them but I didn't find anything I didn't like. Now we'll see if my stomach handles all of this gastronomical adventure over the next 48 hours! Another treat, and I've seen this all over, but have tried different variations of it is sort of like a peanut brittle type thing but think more peanuts and also sesame seeds and a lot less caramel/brittle part. They also make a black one that's pretty much all black with little sesame seeds in it that is really good but like wafer thin. Rumnor has it the great taste comes from tiny little bits of sheep thingy baked into it, but I'm choosing not to believe that rumor!!The only rule I follow with the street vendors is to only buy when I see lots of Chinese people buying it so I figure it must be good and semi-sanitary! So far so good! I made it out to the airport fine via the subway. Once again the Chinese airlines exceeded my expectations. So the flight leaves at 8:10 PM and we aren't airborne and stabilized until about 9 PM and so I figure, well probably just a beverage service but nooooo, they bring a full hot meal with two drink services! Unreal. Then this was too weird but there were only two Westerners on the flight and it ends up the other one is sitting in the seat right next to me, but then I realize he had stayed at the same hostel I did in Shanghai (I had seen him bot not talked to him) and he was staying in the same place I was in Chengdu. Is that too funny or what? So I had scheduled a taxi pick up service from the hostel so we just split the cab fare. Small world. Even though the picture is a little blury I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing my cab driver holding up the sign when I came out of the airport (and no that is not my new Chinese nickname after my name but it's the name of my hostel!) Today I'm off to explore Chengdu and tomorrow morning I'm hoping to go see the baby Pandas. Hope everyone is doing well. Jeff
The Wandering Italian 