Day 8: Forbidden City

When entering into the Forbidden City I tried to take a picture and the guard was in the picture so they put a hand in my camera and said no picture...I was confused for a split second until I realized it was them, not the backdrop, that was to not be etched into film. We had to wait for awhile for Lucy to buy tickets for us...some people grew hot and impatient, especially when people would continue to just stare and take pictures of us. There was a very tall black man who was also getting attention from the crowds. We were finally in. Jenny and Tracy came with us.

The architecture is lovely. Gold roofs, only for royalty. (I think). There were parts where you could see the old and new brick pavement. The doors dividing each section of the city are ginormous...maybe 3x my size...
I think it's neat how the little figurines on the roof corners symbolize the importance of the building. The Lion statues are gendered, the one with the paw on the claw is female and the one clawing the world is the male (go figure). Someone snapped at me from our group. The eat, walking and lack of food increases people's grumpiness on top of being with people that aren't necessarily your established friends. But we'll make it through. I still love our group. It took quite awhile to walk through the city. It seemed to never end. And then it did. There was a large Buddhist temple on a hill outside the back of the city. There were many people selling things and food and begging for money. There was a boy who could not walk who had a wooden scooter, a blind man playing an instrument with a child between his legs, women holding children, and men selling nutty fruit bars.

We waited for the bus forever, well not really, but it was longer than some people could tolerate. I find myself dancing when I have nothing to do and so I don't mind waiting...we moved to find the bus again. He picked us up and drove us to the restaurant, which was at the entrance to the Forbidden City! It was delicious, fancy. On the way he got pulled over and was given a ticket, I still do not know why but he had to pay a fine.

I was starving. It was nice to find toilet paper in the bathroom. I get sick of drinking soda and actual just don't drink anything sometimes because it is just empty calories, it is bad for you, and makes me bloated...but the peach juice is nice, even if it's mostly just sugar. I have begun to really appreciate tap water in the US...