chapter 3 - a food street.

Alyssa was awake at 5:00 AM the next morning. She had slept poorly that night despite being very tired from the trip. It seemed the problem with a hostel was that while it was cheap, people would come and go from the group rooms at all hours and just one snorer in a room made it difficult to sleep.

She got up and changed into her running clothes in the shared bathroom, she walked from the hostel, down the alley and found Nanjing Road. "Run towards the tall skyscrapers" she remembered. She put her earbuds in and started her run. As she started to breath hard, she immediately felt like there was a mask she was trying to breath through. She felt like she couldn't breath. She hardly made it 3 blocks before she hand to stop and walk back to the hostel.

When she got back to the hostel, she found Austin in the shared kitchen making himself some coffee. "Black coffee can be hard to find in China" he said. Heather replied "I must be too sensitive to the pollution. I hardly made it 3 blocks before I had to stop." Austin frowned "Yeah, that is often the case with people here. You don't notice it that much out walking around, but try to run, and you notice it. Would you like breakfast, I can take you around if you would like". Alyssa replied "That sounds great. let me go upstairs and shower and change. I can meet you back down here in 20 minutes."

Alyssa showered and met Austin back in the cafe area 30 minutes later. They walked a few blocks to what he said was "the food street". The street was nothing but restaurants and street food stalls as far as you could see. She followed him up to a stall where a Chinese woman was making something that looked like a really big crepe. "It's Jianbing, you got to try it." He ordered her one in Chinese and she watched the Chinese woman quickly make it. It was a huge crepe, with 2 fried eggs spreed over it, some green onions, sauces, and some crunky thing wrapped up in it. The Chinese woman handed her the finished crepe. Alyssa took a bite "Oh, that is incredible". She continued to eat it while Austin told her how it's very popular here and only about 80 cents American. When she finished it, he took her to another stall where they were frying various flat breads. "these are other bings" he said, and ordered her all three different kinds. She tried them all, they were very savory, and had an incredible texture "I love it" she said as she finished them off. They walked a bit further down the street and to a stall where steam was just rolling out into the streets. "Buns" Austin said and ordered her 3 of them. "Spicy pork, beef, and crab" he said, handing them two her. She ate them all, especially enjoying the spicy pork bun. All in all, between the three different street food stalls, she had eaten a 2500 calorie breakfast for less than 4 dollars. "I am so full" she said, feeling her jeans tight on her waist. "Well, let's do some exploring then" and Alyssa followed Austin to the subway station.