Day 7- Xian

So it was time for the overnight train,something we were dreading. 12 hours on fuckin train,who wouldnt dread that. We were in 6-berth sleepers which is three tiers of Bunkbeds,me and Roisin got the middle bunks. Anyway me Nick and Jamie had decided when getting onto to the train we should maybe have a couple of beers to help us sleep, just one or two. We hadnt bought any before we got on,but when we sat on the bed we realised we were not gonna get through 12 hours of this without beer,conveniently there was a guy outside our window with a stall selling drinks,we decided to see what he had.We got back off the train,and asked him how much the beer was, the bottles were 660ml,which is a fair size bottle. The cost was 10 yuan each,which is only a euro.So he had bout 8 beers on top of his stall,we said we'd take the lot and started loading them into bags,then he opened up an area underneath the cart and he had a whole crate with 24 of these large bottles in it. The 3 of us looked at each other and decided that we would easily get threw all the beer over the 12 hours so we boguth the crate,the guy got on th etrain with us and we unloaded the crate onto one of the tables.24 bottles,great stuff,so the train set off and the beers began to go down one by one. On the night train our tour guide told us they turn off all the lights by 10 o clock so we had to drink all the beer by then,at about 9.20 there was still 5 or 6 beers left,so thinking we had to drink them all in 40 minutes we started chugging them back. Then the lights went off at ten but you still see so it was a bit of waste of beer.Jamie set off to get some more, and came back with 5 bottles from the dining area,we opened them up and they tasted like piss!and its something when after drinking bout 6 bottles already you still have taste buds so must have really been shit. We got to bed round midnight and slept all the way through till we arrived in Xian. The plan worked perfectly.

When we got to Xian at 7am we had to get a taxi to our hotel,unfortunatley the taxi drivers are maniacs and we were nearly in an accident about 3 times over a 5 minute drive.

We stayed in the YMCA, which wasnt as bad as it sounds,just like a normal 3 star hotel really. We went for a nap and woke bout 12. It was a day free from group activities so me and roisin headed off to explore ourselves. Xian is a city surrounded by walls which you can walk around,they span 14km. We started our walk and managed to do 7km of the city walls. Was amazing as it was more or less desserted and we were the only people on the walls for most of it. When we got off the wall, we headed into the city.

We much prefer this city to Beijing,we didnt have anyone annoying as we walked down the streets,the most interest in us was from a little kid who probably hadnt seen a Westerner before. We took a stroll through the stalls of the Muslim Quarter and headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Tommorrow is a big day as its my Birthday,fuckin 25,im getting old.

Team Domro