Pingyao Ancient City

We took the metro this morning over to the bullet train station and headed straight to Pingyao!
Turns out the Pingyao Ancient City Train Station is not near the ancient city.  So aboard a bus we hopped, hoping it would take us close to our hostel.

We soon learned that we would not be able to reach our hostel by bus.  For apparently, there are no vehicles allowed in the city walls unless you live there!  So it turned out to be a bit of a walk, but we enjoyed it!

We made it to our hostel... and I don't know if I can even say it was a hostel!  It was GORGEOUS!  It was called a guesthouse, actually, and though it was the price of a hostel, it was clean and cultural, and probably one of my favorite places I've stayed here in China (that's right - it competes with the Toy Story Hotel!)

It was a small room, so it was super hard to get pictures.  But I tried just for you!

The room was cool and traditional, but it was the courtyard that just took my breath away.

We spent the next hour or so trying to source an ATM.  Oh my gosh what a pain.  We can only use certain ATMs, but usually ICBC or the Bank of China is on every corner.  Of course not in the ancient city, though, where nothing has really changed over the past 1000 years!  We didn't think about that soon enough, so after checking into our hostel we had to walk all the way out of the city wall to an ICBC.... which didn't have an ATM.  So we walked to an ICBC a mile away... which also didn't have an ATM!  Luckily at the latter ICBC, there were workers that were able to help us out.  Turns out the machines were just different than what we were used to, but could still spit out money if used correctly.  So basically, we could have used the first ATM and actually didn't have to walk a mile.

You can guess how Bailey and I felt by that point.  Having spent most of the day so far on trains and buses, then getting to our destination only having to leave and walk in the hot humidity.  And much further than we needed to!  I wanted to lay on the sidewalk and cry because I was so frustrated!  It was already 2:30 and we hadn't seen anything!  Not to mention, we had finally been able to buy tickets to our airport city for tomorrow, and they were for a much earlier time than we wanted.  Thinking about having only half a day for this beautiful city was so upsetting!  Especially when we paid so much to get here!

Traveling is not as glamourous as it looks, my friends.  Of course it is always worth it and fun in the end, but there are so many moments of stress and anxiety that I'm assuming most travelers have.  Things don't always go right, sometimes your phone can't load anything so you're completely lost, sometimes you really can't communicate at all with the person you want to buy noodles from so you have to walk away, sometimes you waste money, sometimes you HAVE to take it easy and rest when you are exhausted in the middle of the day, and sometimes, like we learned in Changsha, you even miss trains!  Traveling just can't always go smoothly and, as a perfectionist, I'm working hard on accepting that.  I think most of us just assume that traveling goes the way we see it on Istagram or whatever.  But, realizing that I can call myself a traveler, I now see that we just don't put the hard parts on our Instagrams.  Because in the end it doesn't matter!  In the end you never regret the money you spent or the struggles you had, because the experiences and memories you have are so worth it.  Also, a picture of me about to cry outside an ICBC in the middle of a random street where all we hear around us are people saying "Waiguoren!  Waiguoren!" (foreigners, foreigners!) probably wouldn't be that cute.

So, I didn't lay on the sidewalk.  Babies pee on sidewalks through their split pants, so I figured it wasn't a good idea.  If Bailey was being grumpy, I probably would have.  But he decided to have a good attitude and that made all the difference.  Soon enough we were laughing as we walked back towards the city wall!  Also helpful were the ice cold Sprites we found and bought.  Ice cold generally isn't a thing here.

Finally we had time to explore.  We decided to forego the pass that would get us into all of the scenic areas, just because we knew we wouldn't have time to see everything that we wanted to.  Instead we just hit the backroads and thought about the history of the city.  Apparently it is as old as Rome!
The backroads were so interesting!  There was hardly anyone there except for the people that lived there.  Like I said, not much has changed in the last 1000 years.  I just couldn't believe that people still live... so anciently!

As we walked along the city wall, sometimes we would see tourists up on it.  We laughed as a local sold water to people on the wall... via clothesline!

We did the backroads for the length of the south wall, then found ourselves in the major tourist area.  Holy cow, so many people!  After being along on the backroads, it was kind of a shock to suddenly be surrounded by such a crowd.  I didn't actually expect such a crowd, but it ended up being kind of fun walking through the touristy streets.  It was your typical Chinese tourist setup: food vendors, fake antique markets, and fun little shops.  We are a sucker for those fun little shops!

Bailey bought us both little chickies so that we could be true Chinese tourists.  Along with our strawberries and cream popsicles, we really fit the part!

We wandered and wandered for a period of time.  There were some cool gates and guys on horses to be seen!

We also found some DELICIOUS noodles.  They're all handmade here so they are extra good!  I loved the thick noodles soaked in some sort of vinaigarette dressing.  With shredded cucumber on top of course!  We also got some beef noodle soup which turned out to be quite tasty.

Maybe we should have bought the pass, because by then we had seen everything you could see without the pass.  By then we didn't really care, though, and decided to take some time to relax at our cool hotel.  Yes, we took another long nap!  In fact, we didn't get up until sunset!

At sunset we went and bought some more beef noodle soup because we liked it so much and were hungry again.  We also tried a new dish on accident.  We pointed to a noodle dish that we wanted to try, and they totally brought out the wrong thing.  Not wanting to waste 14 kuai, we ate it, suspicious the whole time that it was some sort of animal's stomach lining.  That is what it looked like at least.  We decided not to ask anyone until after we finished the dish (it tasted really good!)  We asked a younger worker and she used google translate to tell us what it was.  Funny thing is, she had it set to translate to Spanish!  Close enough, though, and we were able to understand by the end that it was just a cold noodle dish.  We felt both relieved and disappointed.

We wandered a little bit more through the streets, where vendors were closing up shop.  We went to a part of the wall a bit away from people to try to get a cool picture.  Definitely didn't work, but it was still fun!

A day of vacation always has to end with ice cream, according to me!  Tonight though, I ordered "crispy chicken leg".

Back to the guesthouse it was for us!  The pathway was lined with beautiful lit lanterns!

We spent some of our evening in the courtyard.  It was quiet and so peaceful.  I felt like we were in a different time!  I loved just being there and enjoying the place with my husband.