We had a relaxing day got up late had a western breakfast in the hostel bacon & omelette with coffee & black tea for Rachel.
Dropped in to a plush looking bakery attached to a hotel called Berlin Bakery it has the most amazingly well decorated cakes, and we found some biscuits to keep us going till dinner latter.
As the sun went down it was time to be collected from our hostel at 5pm for the short bus trip over the other side of the frozen river to the Ice Festival (290yuan) in Sun Island Park. We now have snow under foot, a first for the trip although it's very cold here it's also very dry and I think it was all man made snow. The snow was to cover the solid ice which is lethal to walk on by it's self!
Set on an area im guessing to be 15acres or more its brightly lit with lights within all the ice sculptures & ice buildings every bit as stunning as the pictures and guide books describe it.
The entrance wall and the castle centre building probably rise to 7 stories with the majority of the others peak at 3or 4 high. All built from millions of clear ice blocks 250x500x250mm in size.
Many of the buildings have stairs up to the high level and an option of an ice slide to get back down.
To the rear of the park was an arena with seating to watch ice skating shows and a short slope for skiing.
We had 2hours there but after an hour taking photos in the -20 deg chill we took a break with a drink in warmth to defrost fingers & toes before seeing the last few bits.
Back at the hostel we skipped dinner staying inside to get warm & sat with a couple of Americans for the evening one girl offered to show us a few card tricks. She was amazing had grown up doing them and entertained our group for hours, it's meeting people like that which makes traveling great fun!
Wow! They are amazing!
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