The Forbidden City

So, I lied in my last post.  We didn't spend yesterday in the Forbidden City. The jet lag was just too brutal.  So we kind of had a lazy day, which we spent checking out the Pizza Hut nearby.  I know how it sounds, eating at Pizza Hut when you're vacationing in China, but Father told us that the pizza here is really gross, so of course, the Brothers wanted to try it out. Surprisingly enough, the pizza was decent and the restaurant was pretty fancy.  It was upstairs and served a lot of other things, not including pizza, like pasta, various appetizers and desserts.  Nothing too eventful happened the rest of the day, but our sleeping schedules are beginning to get on track.

Today, we went to the Forbidden City!  I got up at around five and we left the house at around eight.  It was a long and tiresome walk to the subway station, but the weather was surprisingly pleasant today. Once we got to the station, it was a long ride to the Forbidden City.

At the entrance of the Forbidden City, Mother realized that we forgot the selfie stick we bought just before the trip!  I was a little disappointed, but quickly got over it.

After walking in through the front, Father went to go buy tickets before remembering what he read online.  According to the internet (which isn't always accurate) you need an ID to purchase tickets. We were all bummed out to learn that Father forgot ID and that we wouldn't see the Forbidden City. Of course, as you can already see, we did get to go.  As it turns out, that piece of information that Father read was simply just a big rumor.  Many other people in line were asking about it as well. Afterwords, we all laughed about it before diving in to the (very big) Forbidden City.

The Imperial Garden

The Forbidden City was very pretty and neat to look at, although a bit crowded.  Once we got in, we head to the bathroom.  Mother was a bit nervous about the quality of the bathrooms.  I took one step in and immediately took another step out.  It smelled a lot and there was only one toilet in the whole thing, which I only found out later when I went for an emergency.  The stalls had what seemed like just the toilet bowl shoved into the ground.  It could still flush but you still had to put the toilet paper (which you had to bring yourself) in a wast basket and clearly, many women do not now how to squat, because there was pee all over the floor.

After leaving that mess of a bathroom, we went to the Ceramics Gallery, which was definitely very interesting to took at and we learned a few new things.  We continued throughout the Forbidden City, our feet slowly beginning to hurt.  All of us, except for Father, seemed to have underestimated the sheer size of the place, though it was still nice to look at.  After a few hours and many, many breaks, we decided to head back.  We didn't see the whole place, since some of it you had to pay to get in and we already spent $10 per person to get in, and part of it looked a little worn out to Father.  We left through the Imperial Garden through the back and walked all the way around to the front to get back.

This was some time in the afternoon, and we decided to get some dinner on the way back.  We were all pretty hungry since breakfast was really this and that and there was no official lunch.  It was  along walk to the subway and me, Brother #1, and #2 convinced Father to buy us some umbrella hats, which might make some more appearances throughout this vacation.  Shortly after that, we made it to the subway and Father proposed that we go to a fish place for dinner.

While walking there, everyone was tired, so Father decided that we could go to the fish place another time and instead stop at the new Korean BBQ restaurant that had just opened.  We were there a little early for dinner, coming there at 3:40pm, but we were all so hungry and knew that if we went back to the condo, we wouldn't want to leave.  Plus, I love Korean BBQ so I wasn't really arguing.

We ordered some beef, kimchi chigae with rice, and tteokbokki.  All of us agreed that the food tasted pretty good, though Mother said the food wasn't very authentic.  But I suppose that's to be expected in China.

Afterwords, some of us weren't quite fulfilled so we decided to stop for ice cream at the convenience store on the way back to the condo, encountering some strange old man along the way.  He was stroking Brother #1's umbrella hat, saying something that Brother #1 couldn't understand. He freaked out about the old man and ran away before telling us what happened and we had a good laugh.  After a little more walking, we finally made it back to the condo and relaxed the rest of the night.