Harbin, The land of cold and ice.

We had quite an adventure getting to Harbin! Wade purchased our tickets to leave on Wednesday. One of Wade and Leah’s friends Tom offered to take us to the airport. He picked us up and we drove over to the airport and discovered that the flight was for Thursday not Wednesday! So…we went back home and waited for Thursday to come so we could leave! The good thing was….we did not have to pack on Thursday! We left with no trouble on Thursday and arrived in Beijing at about 9:30pm. We hurried over to the train station to see about getting the 11:00pm overnight train but they were sold out. So we got tickets for the next night at 9:30pm. We spent the night at a nice Hostel and hung around for a while. After a couple of hours of doing nothing I talked Wade into going out with me and at least tromping around for a bit. We ended up going to the Olympic Stadium.

It was pretty cool! We got tickets to get into it and to go skiing. It turned out that inside the Bird’s Nest was a huge Snow World. There was no skiing but we did go sledding! We took out time looking around and finally found the skiing area…outside the Bird’s Nest and it was a small slope with lots of people on it. So we opted out and just wandered around the area. We headed back in time to grab some dinner and walk across the street to the train station to head to Harbin. It was an air-conditioned train and it was very warm! I had a middle bunk and slept really well! I met a couple of girls that were from Harbin and we enjoyed talking about it and the things to see there. We arrived in Harbin at about 8:30 am and it was cold! I’m not sure how cold it was but I think it was not even 15F! We got to our Hostel and settled in, got showers and lots of layers on to head off to see the city and get some food. We went to the main street in Harbin and found a nice Russian restaurant. It was built in 1901 and it still seemed so very old inside. The food was wonderful! I had Borsch and Cabbage Rolls. We then went down to the river. Which was frozen solid…all the way across! We looked at some of the ice sculptures, went ice-skating on the river and had fun walking and talking. It was cold and so we had to keep moving to keep warm. After a while we got hungry again and because of the New Year we had trouble finding a Chinese restaurant open. So we went to Pizza Hut! I eat out at more American places when I am not in America than I do when I am in America! After a yummy and filling dinner we decided to walk along the river for a bit. We bought some fireworks and decided to go back to the Hostel instead. Leah and I played cards while Wade did some things on the computer. We were tired so we headed to bed pretty soon after that. On Sunday we went and ate at KFC and then went and got our train tickets for Monday night back to Beijing. In the afternoon we met with a couple for Services and that was so wonderful! They are from Oklahoma and it was so nice to sit and talk for a while. We had dinner with them and then headed out to the Ice Festival. The Ice Festival was a huge park with a wall around it and many buildings inside…all made out of ice! They cut the ice from the river and then put lights in them and stack them up. It was pretty cool! We were there about an hour and a half. There were fun things to do…sledding and ice ramps that you slid down…standing up if you could! We had a good time! It was 0 degrees F where we were there! After we were done there we headed back to the hostel and went to bed. Monday, we checked out of our room and then sat in the lobby and waited till time to leave at 9:30 PM. Leah and I went to Wal-Mart and got some food. We had PBJ for lunch and lots of fruit. Finally, after I finished my book and we had watched some things on Wade’s computer we headed off to the train station. We set off our fireworks along the way, boarded the train and were off to Beijing once more.