A Hong Kong Saturday

Yesterday we ventured to Hong Kong for the day. We had meant to do it earlier in the week, but you would not believe how busy we have been! There is so much to do when setting up in a foreign country, and on top of that not knowing where anything is, how anything works, and without your native language. There have definitely been some challenges along the way.

As a side note, the key update to our house? Well, when day 6 came and went, the director of our school took us to a hardware shop to help us set up an appointment for our apartment to be rekeyed. So we have keys! Although, not from Tommy. We have definitely noticed some people operate on a different time schedule.

We planned on going to Hong Kong, Adam looked up the how to's, and Heather went along for the ride. I'm not actually sure we realized that Macau and Hong Kong are literally two separate countries with their own immigration and custom processes. As we bought our ferry tickets we had to clear immigration leaving Macau and upon arrival in HK, we had to clear immigration and customs; receiving 2 stamps in our passports in the process.

Once in HK, we realized our iPhone did not work, since we're out of the county, we had no guide book, and no map. Ops. Remember Adam used his laid back method of research. Go to one of the largest cities and wonder around. Needless to say Heather held up pretty well with only a few break downs as we wondered the seeder back alleys of HK. We fumbled around, got pots stickers, kimchi, and a couple bowls of noodle soup to fuel us for the day. We found a map and set out. We were going to wonder the streets a bit before heading to Victoria Peak by cable car to see a view of HK and the surrounding islands.

I've said before that the biggest, most bustling city I've ever been to was Paris. Well, that's because I hadn't been to HK. As it started raining, thousands of umbrellas lined the streets; cable cars, taxis, buses, and mopeds zipped around everywhere; shops selling everything imaginable lined every walkway, with dumpling stands and food vendors wedged in between. The strangest thing above all was all the English we heard mingling with a mosaic of other languages as well. As we were looking confused at our map, a women came up to us and asked what she could do to help. I thanked her profusely and she laughed saying everyone is friendly here. At a restaurant, the waitress was so sweet and wanted to see what we bought at Ikea's, while our taxi driver wanted to know what took us so long to come to HK. For such a big city, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we weren't completely lost in its maze.

During an intense rain we hoped on a cable car, using our Octopus cards that our friends Feather and Mike have given us. They lived in China until last year and handed them over to us as they moved on to Albania. Thanks FAM! The cable car, which was the classic old double decker skinny English version, took us through the streets and past many of the outdoor street markets. On its way back we hoped off to check out a wet market. We're pretty sure it was a small one but basically it's where you can buy live seafood, poultry, fruits and veggies. There were fish flopping around out of their containers, people haggling over prices, and lights flashing everywhere.

Next stop, Ikeas. We'll just hop on a couple subway lines, walk left, turn right, and we'll be there! Nearly 2 hours later, Heathers saying lets just go home, we can't find it, my feet hurt, and poor Adam is saying we have to be close. Oh boy, was Adam happy to find Ikeas because that meant my complaining stopped. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not actually a city girl, not in any sense of the word. So, feeling lost in a huge city, makes me feel like the world is ending and we need to get to safety quick. Fortunately, Adam knows this and just continues on, understanding I'll be fine once we're not lost anymore. Which I was.

Ikeas was successful, we picked up more things to make our house a home. It's close to being done enough to give you and after shot, but not quite yet!

The day ended with a taxi ride to the subway, 2 subways to the ferry, 2 more immigrations, 2 more stamps in the passport, 3 buses missing us before we finally caught one to take us to our apartment, and the elevator ride up to the 29th floor.

All in all, we took 2 buses, a taxi, a cable car, numerous subways, and 2 ferries yesterday alone. We never made it to Victoria peak because the rain was so heavy we figured we wouldn't be able to see anything but we figured out HK enough to know we want to go back and do some exploring, this time with a guidebook and map. Next time we'll leave the two giant Ikea bags filled with stuff at home.

Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures yesterday. We were so memorized by the streets at night, we didn't even take one. But here's a few we managed to remember.