I'm here!

Well its been an eventful first couple of days in Beijing! After a fairly uneventful flight i got to the airport and sent the 'I'm here and well' texts while waiting at the baggage carousel, after a while I noticed the people round were thinning considerably, until i was one of only two people left and there was no more bags to come. I realised the praise I had bestowed upon terminal 5 earlier that day was a little too forthcoming. My bag had been sent to Vienna! They gave me a phone number and told me it should arrive tomorrow (Monday) meanwhile i headed on a confused journey via 2 taxis to my hostel, quite a nice place just a short walk from the forbidden city. After sorting myself out with a shower i headed down to tian' anmen square for a leisurely stroll. I seemed to be attracting a bit of attention and ended up with an uninvited companion for the afternoon (Leah?) who wanted to practice her English. I also felt a little like a celebrity when people were asking if they could take a picture with me. Leah explained that my brown hair and blue eyes accompanied by my height made me somewhat of a novelty. I tried to stay up as late as i could to avoid jetlag, but only managed about 10ish (i had been awake for 36 hours at this point!).

I woke up quite early and decided to explore the Olympic village, i tackled the subways and was soon at the birds nest being swarmed by tickets touts, despite the many signs warning of the punishment. As the tickets had increased 10 fold on the face value (around £150-200 for athletics) i bought some for the Netherlands vs. Cuba baseball match. I had wanted to see a match in New York but it was too expensive there.

Again i was accosted by people wanting photos, and a couple of children asked for my autograph. I was also interviewed by a Chinese TV station! I headed back to the hostel and by bag arrived shortly after, so i grabbed a shower and a change of clothes and headed to the baseball stadium. I found out that its quite boring although the crowd atmosphere was good. Cuba won 12-3, i grabbed something to eat, and that was the end of day 2.