That was a long haul, having spent a night in Canberra, then one in Sydney, due to flight delays, only one in Hong Kong (due to the changes) then a long flight to Roma.
But here we are , feeling almost normal now after our first night here and a good walk round our district .
Hong Kong to Rome is something of a change and while they break the trip up nicely, those Asian stopovers do add to a bit of culture shock. We were lucky to spend some time with Phoebe’s friend Julian, who teaches literature at the university and has lived there for more than a decade now. He took us on bus trip up to The Peak and on the short ferry ride across the harbour. We met at Central train station on Hong Kong Island which was absolutely overflowing with women. Julian explained that Sunday is the day off for domestic staff. They come mainly from the Phillipines. As there are few free public spaces and there were a few showers that day, they gather in places like the train station and spend the day socialising there. The atmosphere was festive. They laid out picnics on rugs in the stairways and next to the walls. The noise and movement was something to behold and the three of us towered over them, which is a pretty unusual sensation for me! I had not known that Hong Kong has a huge overseas work force who have little chance of gaining citizenship, just like in the United Arab Emirates.
While eating out I decided to try something very Chinese looking, rather than western and went for a Schezuan dish with chillies. It was covered in about a dozen whole chillies, full of sliced ones and was as hot a dish as I have ever eaten. I managed quite a bit of it , to the delight of other diners who shook their heads ruefully when they saw what I had ordered.
And now we are happily ensconced in our little apartment, with the Spanish Steps at the top end of the street. We have started to find our way around and managed to find a great coffee shop this morning where we stood at the counter for our coffee, Italian style.
We are ready now to start seeing the sights and are already getting the sense of why this city is the favourite of so many.
