Summer Palace and Dining Out

So after the big day what does an olympian do? Enjoy the city. Paige suggested that we go to the summer palace and what a great idea it was. The summer palace was great. A huge lake, the worlds largest covered walkway and a number of pagodas.

I orginally thought the summer palace was small but I could not have been more wrong. The palace covers more than 200 hundred acres and has all sorts of buildings. We didnt get the audio tour so I am not sure about the history of each building. The one thing that stands out though is the tranquility of the place. Despite 12000 plus people things were quiet and reserved. The food and drink was cheap and the building intricatlly painted. My favorite things besides the annoying cicadas (why must ye be so loud) was the high bridges. I am not sure why a bridge must be so steep but they are so pretty.

After the palace I at at the training center and watched half of the womens final. Vezzali from Italy is the most intense competitor I have ever seen. After a short cab ride and an infuriating 2 mile walk involving security (where I had to argue to keep the two cans of diet coke I brought) I made it back to my hotel.

My sister, paige, and ben (sisters boyfriend) and I headed out to dinner. Depsite a misunderstanding and some dangerous road crossing we found a place to eat. We had four beers wich were cold and tasy. 14 kebabs of lamb which tasted exsquisite (all of which were very small). The lamb and daikon radish soup could not have been more perfect. To top it off I had some bajou. After ordering and a small chuckle form the waiter that spoke no english a small crowd gathered to watch me drink the 56% liqour. Depsite the alcohol content and the fact that my tongue went numb the stuff is pretty good. The dinner was great and in the end the total bill was 12 dollars US. I couldnt believe it. Wanting ice cream we headed next door and bought what I thought was ice cream. Turns out I have no idea what the frozen treat we had was. It tasted like something but I cant figure out what.

Overall a great day. Pretty relaxing. I am looking forward to our tour tomorrow. We are eating with a family, visting some old houses, eating peking duck, seeing the night market (where they sell scorpion, silk worm, and bull testicles) and seeing an acrobat show. Should be fun.