Las Vegas of China

It was so nice to have a little getaway with just us girls.  We ate great food and got to see some amazing history about the city.  Since Macau was under Portuguese influence for a long time, most of the city's architecture reminds me of what Spain or Portugal looks like.  The streets were decorated with mosaic tiles and the buildings were colorful.  The language barrier was much more difficult in Macau.  All of the street signs were in Portuguese and Chinese.  Hardly anyone there spoke English.  It was hard to get directions to places we wanted to go.  The hotel staff had to write down directions in Chinese for us to show cab drivers.

When we arrived in Macau on Friday evening, we snuck onto the Wynn hotel shuttle, we are such rebels.  The Wynn is located across the street from the Hotel Presidente where we were staying.  Check-in was relatively easy except for the difficulty understanding the people at the front desk.  I ran into a lot of problems trying to ask for a roll away bed to be added to our room.  I talked to four different people before they understood what I wanted.

the very crowded Friday afternoon MTR to the ferry station

Faith and Erin

at the terminal!

our ferry

airport in Macau: the runway goes out over the ocean!

our hotel

The room was much nicer than I was expecting!  The pictures on the Internet did not do the hotel justice.  We had plenty of room to move around and lots of mirrors so we were able to get ready at the same time.  The only problems we had with the room were some handprints on the windows and a false eyelast stuck to the sides of one of the mirrors in the bathroom.  Sick!  Our hotel was located right on what I would call the "strip" of Macau.  We were next to the Wynn and MGM Grand.  We weren't sure where to eat dinner so we decided to explore.  I had done a little research and knew our hotel was near an area called Senator Square so we headed in that direction.  After some trouble getting directions from the locals we finally found the place!  It was beautiful.  This is when I felt like we weren't in China anymore.  Everything was so European.  The mosaic tiles made shapes and animals all along the walkway.  In this square there is an old Catholic church called St. Dominic from the 16th century.  The church was hard to miss with it's yellow walls and bright green windows.  We stumbled upon a perfect little Portuguese restaurant for dinner.  It was hidden down one of the many narrow side streets we walked down.  We split a bottle of champagne and had Caesar salad.  Best meal of the trip so far!  I had been craving a salad.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the evening.  Traveling made us sleepy.

these did NOT taste like Cheetos

the lobby of our hotel

Saturday we all slept in late.  It was so nice to get a good night's sleep in.  I think we all needed it.  By the time we got ready it was time for lunch.  Erin had spotted a cute little French restaurant near the Senator Square and we decided that would be the spot for lunch.  My croissant was wonderful!  Everything on the menu sounded so good so it was difficult to decide what I wanted to eat.  After lunch we took off to see more of the sights we had researched in Macau.  Sadly, I didn't get many pictures before lunch because of the humidity.  My camera lens kept fogging up and I was unable to get any good pictures.

We visited St. Dominic again and took a look around the inside.

Continuing down the path of Senator Square was the ruins of St. Paul.  The church of St. Paul was the largest Christian church in Asia when it was built in the 1500s.  All that remains now is the entrance and cypher.  This is a very popular tourist attraction in Macau and was extremely crowded with tourists.

posing like an Asian in front of the ruins of St. Paul

isn't he cute?!

inside the cypher

Next to the St. Paul ruins is a very small Buddhist temple.  People were burning incense and worshiping there.  It was very interesting to see.  Erin bought some of the incense.  Hopefully she will be able to bring it back to America!

We found a little gelato place on the way back to the hotel.  I got a raspberry cheesecake cone.  It was delicious and just what I needed in the 98 degree weather!

Asian baby creepin' again

gelato!

We had seen plenty of the history and architecture in Macau so it was then time for shopping.  The Wynn and MGM Grand both had great shopping malls inside.  We also walked through the casinos because Faith and Erin had never been to one.  I played a slot machine so they could see how it worked. I lost all $20 Hong Kong dollars almost immediately.  The hotels were beautiful and very similar to the hotels in Las Vegas.

Erin researched some good places to eat in Macau and made us reservations on Saturday night at an Italian restaurant.  Pizzeria Toscana was located right next to another Buddhist temple we wanted to visit so it sounded perfect.  Hats off to Erin, the food was awesome!  We each took a bite of each others dishes and everything tasted great.

ravioli

We walked over to the A-Ma temple after our meal only to find that it was closed.  We were bummed but decided to visit on our way to the ferry terminal in the morning.

We walked through a couple of the other casinos and hotels around the area before calling it a night.  All of the walking around and shopping really made us tired!

brunch at the Wynn

magical tree that came out of the middle of a zodiac circle as we were walking by...random

A-Ma Temple in the day time!

The weekend retreat to Macau is just what I needed.  It was nice to get away from the campus and city for a couple of days.  The European layout of Macau made it even more special.  I think we all are so glad that we took the initiative to go.  Macau is my new favorite Asian city!

P.S. I just figured out that my pictures get bigger when you click on them!  You guys may already know that, just thought I'd share.