A Taste of Heaven 4-11-09

Today we went out for a stroll. We probably walked a good 4 miles in all. We are becoming quite familiar with the area and are learning that the best way to not get run over is to do as the Chinese do. We follow their example and cross the streets when they cross. There are so many people walking and on bikes, scooters, and wheeled contraptions that you never would have imagined existed that the drivers are very aware of the foot traffic.

We walked through a park called "The People's Square." It was very beautiful! The park was adorned with various flowers and had lush green grass, half circle stone benches, waterfalls, and birds!!!! (I had begun to wonder if birds even lived in China because in the days that we have been here, I had not seen any birds.) There were quite a few people in the park. We saw two ladies with dogs. Of course I had to stop and pet them. It had been almost a week since I have petted a dog! How sad is that?! I admired the dogs and the ladies admired Sierra and said, "Like a doll." Yup, doesn't matter where in the world we are, literally, people say Sierra looks like a doll. Back to the park, there were so many people flying kites in the park! It was fun watching them. There must have been 15-20 kites in the air and none of them were tangled. There was also an area set up where a man was teaching little bitty kids how to rollar blade. He had cones set up and was having them go around them.

After our stroll through the park, we continued down the street to our destination which also happens to be the noteworthy occassion for which this post is titled. PAPA JOHN'S!!!!!! Who would have thought that there would be a Papa John's in China? Last night while we were visitinng with the Australian family (LOVE their accents!) they told us that the Papa John's was very good. After my disappointment at KFC, I was guarded, but oh so eager to have some good ol' American food.

We have been eating a lot of Chinese food. It is good, but due to my own pickiness, there is a limited number of things that I order. Also, I can't get over how greasy lots of the food is. The fried rice is especially greasy.

Okay, off of that rabbit trail and back to good food. We found the Papa Johns. We were a bit surprised to learn that it was upstairs. Jason grabbed one end of the stroller and I grabbed the other and we hauled Sierra up. It wouldn't have been so bad, but every 5 or steps the stairs made a 90 degree turn which made it kinda difficult to get up, but the rewards were well worth the small hassle. Papa John's in China is set up a little nicer than in the US. It is more like a restaurant than a pizza place.

The workers there did not really speak English. Luckily the menu was in both Chinese and English so we were able to point to what we wanted. We ordered a large meat pizza. We were a bit skeptical and anticipating a disappointment (I mean hey KFC taste Chinese, Pepsi does not taste like Pepsi in the US, ribs come as chopped up meat with pieces of bones mixed in, chicken is chopped up meat, bones and all and then cooked so you have little pieces of bone that you either have to spit out or choke to death on). But it was WONDERFUL!!!! HEAVENLY!!!!!! OH SO GOOD!!!!!! YUMMY!!!!!!! I could go on and on but I think you get the point. :-) I will end on that note so that I can go get ready for bed with the wonderful memory of pizza to dwell on.

Posted from Hangzhou at 9:05 PM on April 11, 2009