Coffee Time

On the first morning, Lori and I were greeted at the guesthouse with a wonderful Chinese breakfast accompanied by watermelon, cantalaupe and that prized liquid, coffee. As we ate heartily, we both managed to consume 3 to 4 cups of this most delicious liquid gold. The next morning, to our caffine craving bodies dismay, we discovered that coffee was not served during the week and the breakfast became more traditional Chinese. The foods are excellent, unfortunately, I don't know what any of them are called, except for our favourite 'pancake' for which I am eternally grateful to Eddie for introducing me too.

So, yesterday, me in my Olympic Canada polo shirt from the Bay and Lori decorated with Canada temporary tattoos (being hairy has its advantages), we decided to make the trek out to Guomao on the other side of the city and get some Starbucks before heading out to the Olympic park to meet David and walk around the park before we saw our Gold Medal diving event. 

Unfortunately, I led us out the wrong exit and we happened upon a place called O'Briens, so we ventured in and to our surprise we found a restaurant full of westerners. Oh well, you can't always be embedded in one culture no matter where you are in the world. We proceeded to order our coffee and when it finally came, we were more than upset to discover that for half a cup of coffee, we were given the honour to pay this lovely Irish establishment 30 ($5.00 CAD) yuan for a half cup of coffee.

After our coffee experience, we wandered into the Silk Market, which was attached to the same restaurant.

Once inside the silk market, and after walking by a policemen with a sign that read 'Foreigners, protect your personal belongings' we ventured down a few aisles stacked with stalls of people hawking 'designer' goods, calling out sir or lady or, the best yet, ooh Canada, Canada. With plenty of foreigners around and wearing some type of garb displaying either the name or the symbol of their country, it was very impressive that the only country they called out was Canada. As Lori put it, its because they know how nice we are and we are good marks for them to pull us into their shop and buy something.

After venturing up a few floors and making a purchase, we tried to leave as quickly as possible. As we made our way down escalators, through aisles being requested to stop at a keepers stall, arms grabbing at you (reminiscent of a scene from Roman Polanski's 1965 movie Repulsion), we found ourselves twisted around in directions and heading towards the staff area of the silk market. Finally, Lori to the rescue, she spotted an escape route, right into the entrance of the dreaded 'half cup of coffee for 30 yuan' O'Briens. None the less, out we went.

After our experience of having arms grab at us, we decided we needed a real coffee to calm our nerves. Nothing like caffine to sooth the nerves. Luckily, just around the corner and down the street a little bit was Starbucks, where for 21 yuan, I managed to acquire a venti iced brewed coffee and for 31 yuan, Lori managed to purchase a venti cappucino. I am so glad Starbucks is standardized around the world.

With coffee in hand, we walked down the street to sit in the shade and consume our coffee away from the scorching heat. At this point, it was only 11:15 and we did not have to meet David until 1:30. With this time allotment in mind, and not having any sense of where the Olympic Park is in any real sense of spatial awareness, we managed to stay in the shade for an hour people watching.

As we sat, it became obvious that we were not the only ones who were people watching, this became evident when a gentleman, riding a bicycle with a pull cart in the back laden with goods for delivery, was watching us and almost ran into the barrier that separates the bicycle lane from the cars and sidewalk, not to mention that people also challenge the bicycles in their own lane.

Anyway, it is now 6:20 and I must sign off as today is destined to bring more adventures as we are off to meet David and do some more touring and shopping.