Day 3 & 4 - Hanoi

The third morning started again for us with a delicious breakfast at the hotel.

It was raining again today, even harder than the day before. Today we had sightseeing on the agenda. After taking our time to settle in, we wanted to see more of the city. Luckily, we had already noticed that the city is super busy and booked a "Free Walking Tour" for the afternoon. Our guide was very nice and knew a lot about the city, the culture, and the religion in Vietnam. It was fascinating to see how faith is in harmony with nature and how animals or symbols have special meanings - although this natural thought was not so strongly visible in the city of Hanoi (with trash and dead animals everywhere), he didn't go into that too much.

As the crowning conclusion, our guide took us to the original Café Giang. One should not miss the famous Eggs-Coffee, which Emilie ordered, and an Eggs-Beer, which Anna wanted to drink. Both drinks consisted of coffee or beer and whipped egg. Emilie found the egg coffee 'really awesome', while Anna called the egg beer 'unique, but once is enough'. However, it is important when ordering egg coffee to get the original one. In another café, it didn't taste as good to us.

After receiving some tips for our onward journey from the other participants, our hunger led us to the restaurant "with vegetarian options", where we enjoyed a delicious "pho" (Vietnamese noodle soup), tasty spring rolls, and tofu fried in tomato sauce with rice.

When it was already 10 PM, we fell into bed later, completely exhausted.

Day 4 in Hanoi.

We enjoyed the extensive breakfast at the hotel one last time, which now offered several vegetarian alternatives (probably thanks to us). After that, it was time to remove Emilie's stitches from the appendix surgery. Fortunately, Anna had watched Grey's Anatomy multiple times and considered herself a "quasi doctor", so it was the perfect job for her (Quote Anna: "Regular doctors also do it like this").

After strolling through the city in wonderful but humid weather, we treated ourselves to a little cooling off in our rooftop pool.

As our indulgent week is coming to an end, we decided to get our nails done. It was the first time for both of us, and with such affordable prices, we couldn't miss this experience. That's why we leave Hanoi with perfectly manicured feet and hands. They looked especially good in our sandals (Emilie never thought she would wear proper sandals haha, and Anna never thought she would get her nails done).

In the evening, we went to the bustling city center one last time. Every weekend, there is a night market in Hanoi. This, and another event with a big stage where apparently famous Asian superstars perform (one superstar was even rushed past us by security! Unfortunately, we have no idea who it was), were reasons why EVEN MORE people were out and about. Part of the square was blocked off and at least became a scooter-free zone. These incredible crowds, the crazy scooter traffic jam in front of the barriers, and the fact that it was very difficult to find vegetarian food drained us of strength and nerves. We had both had enough of these crowds in the big city and were looking forward to moving further north and into a more rural region, namely Sapa, tomorrow. Although Hanoi was initially a culture shock and after a few days we had definitely had enough of it, the experience was definitely worth it. You get an impression of how poor the people here live and how much tourism has also established itself in Vietnam.