to the train station

The view of the trains at the station. Once again, i have uploaded pictures in reverse order you need to read the bottom paragraph first then come back to the top - you cannot cut and paste in this blog which is very frustrating.

Forgive me for being so confusing. the picture below is our cabin for 4 people - kids got top bunks of course. We still had not put our luggage - 5 bags and 3 backpacks in yet. What happened is we couldn't fit them, but we had a single Mom and her daughter on one side of us and we rented some real estate from them and were able to store two bags on one of the 4 beds. You must rent an entire cabin if you don't want strangers in your cabin. If you don't pay for all 4 bunks, they will put a stranger in with you! So needless to say, all those families that had less than 4 paid for 4! There was no toilet or sink so we had on squat toilet and one western toilet and two sinks per car which at least we pretty much just shared with our group!

The waiting room at the train station.

Now, what do you think this sign was actually for??

This was on the platform trying for all of us to get on the train.

This was a horrible picture below of us ladies in one cabin chatting, after a 12 hour day, no shower and just exhausted, but it was just so funny - we all felt like we were back in a college dorm - sitting around a table -- just no drinks! Ok, I started this blog on the next paragraph below, so I know this probably makes no sense, but it is now 11:30 - everyone is asleep and I just go to bed. Hannah is getting sick - she has a sore throat and had a headache tonight - yikes, I hopes this doesn't last long and doesn't get passed along to Herb, Ben and me - double dose of Vitamin C tonight - hope to catch up more in a day or two! Keep cool my friends - I hear the entire NE of America is having a horrible heat wave also! Good night!

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Ok, I am going to post the pictures at the train station - what a zoo! and just a couple from the evening! I will tell you the train was a trip - the sleeping quarters were as tight as could be and we had to store all our bags as well. There are some funny pictures that I will post later from July 4th - when we arrived in Xian. But the train station was dirty, hot and crowded! The kids and adults were hot, sweaty, sticky and a bit cranky. So...imagine, it was about 8:00 at night, we had finished an entire day of sight seeing, had sweat and sweat all day, and because our luggage was all packed up and there were no showers to be had, we had to get on the train, sticky, dirty and go to sleep -