Mini-break over.
In the end Anna had travelled back from Hefei on Thursday night to spend some time with her boyfriend. I suspect the fact it was Chinese Valentines Day that had a bearing. So on Saturday morning - much to my surprise - I met up with the pair of them instead of just Anna. Eventually I found out the boyfriend (never did get his name and should have because he even paid for my train tickets!) was using the opportunity to visit his twin sister for the night. Good luck to him because once we got to Hefei he still had a two hour bus ride to get where he wanted to go!
We were very fortunate on the train in that by swapping seats with others we managed to all sit together and rope in a couple of fellow travellers (one left in Tongling but his replacement joined in) to play do-di-ju (landlord and farmer). It’s amazing how a five hour trip flies by when you are playing cards.
As always though, there had to be a catastrophe.
Anna and I got to a hotel by taxi but as soon as it pulled up I said it was the wrong hotel. It certainly wasn’t the one I stayed in last time so I had Anna double check the address sent to me by Ctrip in a text. Finding it was apparently the one I had booked, I thought it best to go in and see if they actually had a record. They did.
The point of this trip was twofold - to go to Bitburger for western dinner and to introduce Anna to French toast and maple syrup at breakfast. When asked if they did the latter they said no. I asked them to call the other Holiday Inn (the confusion arose because one is called Holiday Inn Hefei Downtown and the other, incredibly, Holiday Inn Downtown Hefei!) to see if we could transfer.
The disconsolate look on the face of the girl at reception dealing with us made me relent and I said sod it, we’ll stay here. It has often been my experience in life that when a cock-up has been made, very often it turns into an unexpected and pleasant surprise. This was a prime example.
The room was huge and with a grand view of the city from the 23rd floor and there was even a stocked minibar - a rarity in my experience here. A huge plus for me was that this hotel permits smoking in the bar and also there is a smoking section in the restaurant.
And so once Vivian (who paid for dinner last time) turned up we went to the bar where I claimed and drank my two complimentary beers and then it was off to Bitburger. This time Vivian had the lasagne, I plumped for a burger and Anna (on my urging because she was concerned about the price) ordered a fillet steak from Oz. All three were pronounced delicious although I only managed half my burger, which was made of 100% beef. It wasn’t wasted though, Vivian took it for her roommates. A nice evening which saw us all in the hotel room watching TV later but which was slightly marred by Vivian starting to feel under the weather and so she decamped in a cab. I am happy to say she made it back ok.
This morning after I had a shower we went down for breakfast. Very similar to the other Holiday Inn with western and Chinese offerings aplenty (although I wasn’t too keen on the sausages) but…….we were presented with a plateful of French toast together with little honey pots! They didn’t have maple syrup but what mattered was that they deemed it so important that they had the chef make them just for us! Service like that deserves to be mentioned and on TripAdvisor it most certainly will be. It was but a short break and what I thought was a disaster turned into a memorably good experience. Now when I go back to Hefei I will be torn between the two places, although the smoking bit will probably tip the balance as to which I choose.
After a last minute panic after we checked out and the maid found my mouse (recently I forgot to take it WITH me on my travels, this time I had forgotten to take it with me when I left!) and a front of house member went up to get it for me, we took a taxi to the station. I showed my passport and ticket at the gate and went through. I then realised Anna wasn’t with me. She was still outside, unable to get in because - get this - she had given her ticket to the boyfriend for safekeeping! Luckily he was already there and came out with it but I did ask what she would have done had he died overnight! I’m not sure she was too amused by that one.
We were not fortunate on the return journey, it was packed and worse, although all three of us had consecutive seat numbers, I was in an adjoining section so we faced away from each other. No chance of playing cards at all except after Tongling, the last stop before Chizhou but by then I think we were all too tired to bother. I had certainly dozed off at one point.
The good thing was that I had left the bike at the station entrance so once off the train I was home to the cats within fifteen minutes. I sit here now wishing I could go for another western dinner and wake up to a good breakfast all over again!
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