Yey, finally civilisation, shanghai is truely amazing. Had a minor problem wen arrived as station we were in was new and not in the guidebook yet so had no idea wer we wer and had to put our faith in a taxi driver to get us to our hostel, luckily made it in one piece. Had the nicest shower i've had in a long time, last few hostels had cold water and the shower on the 3rd class boat left much to be desired-perching over a smelly toilet as ur only drain isnt my idea of a nice shower. Shanghai was looking better than the rest of china already, had a stroll around and marvelled at the skyscrapers and found shanghai times square and a starbucks-heaven!!! Love it here, really clean and nice, parks everywer. We were right on the bund (riverfront) so walked along the pier enjoying the view, at night its spectacular and strolled the french concession area enjoying croissants mmmm!!!! Feels really christmassy here, little xmas markets everywer and stalls which lit up at night, so lovely.
Celebrated my birthday early on the 30th nov by getting the ferry over to the pudong which is the other side of the river, had the best night, found a bar called the blue frog wer got some yummy food and cocktails (buy one get one free happy hour woohoo). got chatting to some texan guy and made friends with some american couples who sent us over champayne wen got to mid night, had a really good time, by the end of the night their wer about 10 of us drinking away, getting very drunk, wen asked for the bill waitress informed us that the americans had paid it (they wer claiming back on expenses so didnt feel too bad) manged to get fed and watered for free (also got a t shirt out of it) ACE!!! Next day went to shanghai zoo to see pandas yey!! had a good birthday, missed home loads and was sad not with ash and mum and nan but was a good day all the same!!!!
