21st. Dalian and CouchsurfingFRIENDS.

The train arrived in Dalian at around 8am, and I got to my couchsurfing place just before 9am. My host called Meghan was hungover.. not the best first immpression x) Long story short, she was hosting three finnish guys who were still in the apartment and they had gone out last night. She was also leaving tonight to go travelling with them. A very spur of the moment kind of girl. I found that even though she was 26, the way she acted was a lot more carefree than other people her age, and I think that's what made her so easy to warm up to. Her mother must've been sick of all the random people at her house and was surprisingly tolerant,I think anyway. They live in an amazing loft apartment in Dalian. Her dad is an artists, so his pictures line the walls. I find he has a very impressionist painter, creating a lot of movement in his pictures with thick colour and emotional strokes. He wasn't at home so I have yet to meet him.

After arriving, everyone else apart from her mother was asleep. So I just napped for a bit after an appauling night's sleep on the train, showered, freshened up etc. The 5 of us then head into the town centre as the Finnish guys wanted to buy some lanterns for their sister's wedding (Who also happens to be the singer for some Finnish metal band called Iconika or something like that). The amount of shoppings areas in Dalian are numerous, especially the areas underground. It would take weeks to go through everything. I was totally taken with the pure amount of stuff up for sale. I'm really going to have to dedicate a whole day to just the city centre and shopping :D I am looking forward to it very much. Also tempted to get a tattoo and another ear piercing as the places seem to be everywhere these days..

Even after just half a day with the Finnish guys, it was already easy to tell their personalities apart because they were very different. Their english was okay, as it was their second language. The oldest one had been living in Shenyang for a year so he spoke some understandable mandarin which was pretty impressive. For dinner, we had Finnish meatballs, salad, mash, cauliflower thing which we all helped cook. They also made sangria which tasted amazing.

Recipe so I don't forget:
Bottle of red wine
Half a bottle of white
Chopped lemons and red oranges.
Ice, ice baby.
Leave to stand for a bit..
YUM..

They also had a bottle of stuff called MINTTU which was amazing. 40% mint liquor. Thinking about it now it's just probably the same as shots of listerine.. Though it tasted lovely, sharp minty flavour which then warmed you up afterwards (Not that we needed warming up). So we had shots of that before dinner :)

Note to self: Fishermans's Friend. Crushed in Vodka. Apparantly is very refreshing.

So yes, the Finnish guys were really into putting stuff in their alcoholic spirits. They told me how once they put a snake in a vodka bottle for a month, and one sip just got them so wasted afterwards. Lols.

After dinner they all had to rush off to catch their boat to somewhere. Leaving me with the mother. Who is lovely. I wish I'd gotten here a day earlier.. Nvm. I can't wait for the rest of my stay :)