Making sweets

Today was a lot frustrating. I couldn’t find the small office for booking train tickets, the ticket office at the station was so confusing I gave up (the queues were huge and I didn’t want to wait 45 mins just to be told I was in the wrong line), it was freezing cold (including in the hostel) and the internet connection was so bad I couldn’t do the research needed to help me figure out the next part of my trip.

The weather did help me make one decision – that I don’t have enough winter clothes to go to the mountains and I want to be somewhere warm!

I went to the Muslim quarter of the city. It’s definitely the most colourful and interesting area in modern Xi’an. There were food stalls all along the streets, selling a wide variety of things. Kebabs in all stages of preparation, from the carcass hanging up to fully cooked; pots of stews, many things I didn’t recognise - mostly deep fried. And this labour intensive process of making sweets. It involved much hammering and folding of the mixture and then some more hammering and more folding…

I booked my train ticket at the third attempt – in another small ticket office which I found with help from a friendly girl who saw me looking confused.