Qingdao 1st day

After our long bus ride we arrived Wednesday night, Oct 1st in Qingdao (pronounced ching-dow). On the bus one of our friends that we went with met a student that was able to speak english and his name was Ricky. He and his family were so kind. They helped us get our return tickets bought for our return trip and then get us to our Hotel. When we showed the address of the hotel to some taxi drivers and none of them knew were it was and we didn't have the hotel number. Ricky and his family to the rescue! They used their GPS and the taxi/van we got followed them. When we got to the hotel we went around the corner to eat. We were starving.

Our group with Ricky and his parents

Boys outside our Hotel

The Hotel that was booked for us was a ways from the city and we had to learn the bus system fast and we took a lot of busses. But Again.....RICKY to the rescue! His parents and him took their free day off to show us around town and helped us learn the ropes of the busses. And took us to some hot spots in town.

7-Eleven in Qingdao...there were several in the city

1st we went to the Five Four Square (May 4th), which is in memory of those Chinese that lost their lives on May 4th in a war that was had at some point. (sorry don't know the year). Also this was a hot spot for the 2012 Beijing Olympics. This is was the place for the Yacht or boat races. Also a bonus...a 7-Eleven!!! Eat your heart out Iowa! (who does not have a single 7-Eleven)

Park with Qingdao City skyline (HUGE city this was just pat of it)

Family photo in front of "Torch"

Pointing to the Olympic rings

Want a ride? Ahhhhhh!

 We then went to the 1902 Street. It is a street that has been there since...well 1902. It's a small street packed with food vendors and restaurants. You literally had to squeeze through a hoard of people to move.

And in this street all the boy's desires came true! For exotic food anyway! And yes the whole family tried them all. Grubs (they were still wiggling when we ordered them and guy stuck them on the stick), they tasted a little "earthy"...eww. Centipede, it was tasted a little "fishy", not horrible. Scorpion, that tasted good actually. We would do that one again. Squid, that was tasty as well. Everything was BBQ'd. Quite the food adventure!

Scorpion on a stick

Last but certainly not least we went to a fresh fish market, picked out all our food and took it to a side street restaurant to have it cooked for us with Ricky and his parents. It was good eats and times!

We also went to what they call Beach Number 6 and a Pier that was pretty cool. I will put those pictures up tomorrow.