Hong Kong, Part 1

We left early Friday morning for Hong Kong. We had two layovers -- one in Portland, one in Tokyo -- and finally made it to Hong Kong late Saturday night. I was so ready to get off the plane. I've never felt really old before that flight but I'm pretty sure I now have a small idea of what arthritis is like. My legs/back/knees were so sore and stiff. The next day (Sunday) we spent exploring the area by our hotel. Dad and I got breakfast and he asked for a "traditional" Chinese breakfast. This is what they brought him.

It actually wasn't too bad. We saw a few of the markets, which were all really interesting.

 I don't know exactly what these things are. They looked like an orange in the middle but the peel was green.

These apples were literally pink. So pretty.

And these spiky things looked like a mutated pineapple crossed with a pufferfish.

Forgot to reset the aperture on this one and successfully blurred Dad out of the picture. Oops.

One of the coolest things we saw was this street. In China, goldfish are considered lucky, so there's an entire street devoted to selling them (and various other aquarium animals). 

I was dying to take home one of these tiny little turtles (they were about the size of a plum), but I couldn't figure out how to get it through security at the airport.

There was also a street devoted to flowers and plants. They had lots I'd never even seen before and they were really pretty inexpensive compared to what you'd pay in the USA.

I have to say though that some of the smells here in Hong Kong are not good. There's one in particular that belongs to an unknown food (possibly a sea sponge looking thing?) and it makes me want to gag every time we walk by. It's disgusting. 

These little dried fish are disgusting too but but they don't smell nearly as bad as whatever some of the street vendors are cooking.

There's a bird garden here where they have tons of pretty finches in cages hanging from the trees.

 And we saw lots of these little shrine things. I'm not sure what they're actually for, but I'm guessing some kind of offering or for luck.

I'm still a little jetlagged but nearly nearly as bad as I thought I'd be. It was actually much worse when I went to London.