And back again...

As you may have guessed, Trish and I made it back to Canada safe and sound. We've been posting our last few entries once we returned, since we'd had to give up while in China.

Our last morning was spent packing up, tidying up, and a short venture out for one last attempt to find the matching silk pajamas that Trish had previously mentioned. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful - the silk we found was not as nice, or as affordable, as what we'd seen when in Hangzhou. Exceptionally not as affordable. So much like the Confucius Temple, and a few other locations that evaded us, we accepted defeat.

We headed back to the airport through the subway, as Trish did an impressive job lugging her suitcase up and down stairs as needed. It was a little bit more full than when we'd arrived (souvenirs), and it's not uncommon for subway entrances to have 20 steps and no escalator. She's a champ. We headed for the Maglev, to once again take the bullet train at a cruising speed of 300km/h. We navigated our way to departures, and blissfully checked in our bags. Well, blissful aside from the fact that I was once again assigned a middle seat for my 14 hour flight, but you can't win them all.

At this point, we had some time to shop the duty free and pick up plane snacks before settling in to wait. Originally Trish was slated to head out first, with my flight departing an hour after hers. Unfortunately, her flight ended up being delayed by 2.5 hours, so now I would be leaving her unattended in the airport. Of course, I had no concerns about this...

Although long and without much sleep, both our flights were uneventful, and we exchanged "I made it!" texts once back on Canadian soil, as we slowly began acclimatizing to the time difference, the dramatic spike in people speaking English, and being back on home ground in general.

For those of you who have been following Trish's cat-seeking adventures, please stay tuned for one last post from her. Since we were limited on how many pictures we could add, unfortunately this meant that her feline friends often didn't make the cut. But fear not, as she's been saving all her photos for you. And, well, mostly just for herself. I'm partially convinced that's how she remembers the days and trips we take. "Oh yeah! That was the day I met the orange tabby who rolled on his back for tummy scratches and had the tiniest mew...and then we climbed a mountain or there were stairs or something, right?"

As for my final contribution to the blog, I'll end with some photos of signs that I felt were enhanced through translation to English. Thank you for following along :)