Valentines Day

After a good nights sleep which I really didn't expect. I don't think I have ever had one on a train previously. Maybe all that running on the Great Wall finally caught up to me. I reached Shanghai in the morning. By now its really beginning to get warm. I've lost all the layers of clothing I had on previously and am now down to a t-shirt and jeans. It was a balmy 23 degrees the day I arrived in Shanghai. I imagine its only going to get hotter the further I move towards the equator.

After a brief respite at the hostel. I head out to hit the city without a map or a travel guide. Something which I've never done before. Previously I've always had a slight idea of where to go and what to do when heading out of a hostel's doors. By this time in the trip I'm pretty tired and just want to relax and really do nothing. But with nobody to hang out with in Shanghai I do the only thing I can just wander around and eat and sit. It's one of the things I love about travelling. I can honestly sit in a park and just read whatever book I have and enjoy it and not feel like I wasted a day travelling and exploring a city. We've all got to recharge our batteries somehow.

Through my wanderings, I manage to find the Shanghai Museum, the Bund, and Nanjing Rd. The last two being only a few hundred meters from my hostel.

Today I did notice a lot of people selling/peddling roses to people passing by. I didn't think too much of it at the time. There is always those people who try to sell roses in the hopes that you will buy it for someone special. A lot less so when your walking alone, but it still happens. Anyway after rejecting what seemed like the twentieth rose seller today I see a huge display on Nanjing Rd with hearts and a lot of pink. Only then did it click that it was Valentines Day today.

Side Note: I felt pretty depressed today. I don't know if its homesickness, the fact that I'm alone for the first time in a long time, the fact that my travels are winding up and I'm flying back to Sydney or its just being single on Valentines day. Most probably a combination of them all.