Day 4: Another day of walking (shocking!)

Disclaimer: We've been losing access to more and more email accounts, so apologies in advance for poorly placed photos and perhaps long delays in posts.
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Today Jen and I reversed roles, in that I actually had a semi-decent sleep and she had a super crappy one. Neither me being more refreshed, nor her being less, was going to influence our day though. Onward an upward to adventuring, as we like to say! We decided to head back over to Fuxing Park first thing to check out the scene in daylight and boy was this ever a great idea. The park was completely packed with people having the MOST FUN EVER. This included dancing, singing, music playing, tai chi, badminton, card playing, a beautiful rose garden, and children running onto the grass illegally and being yelled at by security officers. It was chaos in the best way possible. (4 park pictures should be attached somewhere!)

Despite Jen's sleep deprivation, she still managed to be more alert to cats than me, and we saw another 3-4 during our morning stroll. As "Captain Direction", my job is to make sure we (mostly) go in the right direction and Jen's job as "Captain Everything Else" continues to be to keep me alive while pointing out cats – she is incredibly successful at this, I am very thankful to have her as my travel buddy. (I've included only ONE photo of a cat chilling on a scooter, you'll have to trust me about the others)

On our way back to the AirBnB we stopped at a grocery store for some snacks, lunch and learning. The learning involved a very patient cashier having another employee bag and weigh our fruit, since we are incompetent at buying food here. It worked out in the end. Jen had a quick nap while I sat in the ball pit (see last post for reference), followed by me trying to nap, and then a solid hour of trying to post to our blog – with Jen switching machines halfway through, getting locked out of two email accounts and pictures repeatedly failing to load. If we are able to keep up a blog a day for the rest of our trip I will be truly shocked. Fingers crossed it works out 'cause we have so many adventures to share with y'all! :)

Eventually, with the blog post loaded, we ventured back out, this time to Tianzifang, a shopping and food district hot spot which proved to be even more epic than we expected. Packed with food stalls (interestingly seasoned 40 cm long fries, durian cheesecakes and unicorn ice cream cones were the most intriguing to us), kitschy and cool souvenirs, a cat café, bars with 12 tequila shots for $20 (Moms: note that we *did not* partake!), multiple stores selling Feiyue shoes, and variations on a rabbit themed tea shop. We wandered about for about two hours, trying (and likely failing) to go down every new alley. (pictures of the cute alley way lined with lanterns attached)

After a healthy dinner of mozzarella pogo sticks, I noticed some girls drinking what appeared to be a bubble tea-like beverage from super cute containers so off we went to hunt down the stall selling them. Half an hour later, with no success, we left the market area and upon returning to the main streets of Shanghai, turned the corner to face said beverage shop. SUCCESS! Jen ordered a fruity lemon drink and I went for the classic creamy tea. (pictured)

On our wander back to the apartment we had our first public-pajama viewing (which I stealthily took a photo of: picture included), so pretty sure we can call today a total and utter success. Please see future blogs for whether Jen and I manage to acquire matching pajamas. :D The apartment we are staying in is constantly filled with beautiful non-stop piano playing by a nearby neighbour, adding to the super chill environment.

Cat sightings: at least 5 – including one repeat, plus a cutie in a clear carrier at the Tianzifang market. <3