calm & crazy day #3 in Hanoi

most of the day was pretty calm. paul and i had brunch at this little cafe called la place. then we ended up hanging out here most of the day....reading, blogging, uploading pictures, journaling, playing DS, etc. we also had many iced vietnamese coffees which are the best here, i think. we also had mango crepes with ice cream for an afternoon snack. yum!

then we went on a hunt for a power plug for the DS that can be used in the 220v outlets here and in korea. we walked and walked and finally happened upon a little store that had what we needed. paul also bargained the guy into a R4 for my DS. for those of you who don't know what that is here is the deal. it is a memory card that you can download DS games onto from the internet. lots of games, to be honest. paul has one and loves it. we also found an english-korean translator you can use on the DS if you have a R4. it was a deal and now i have one too.

we had dinner at this little mediterranean restaurant that was more italian than any thing else. we had carpaccio and i had a calzone while paul had tuna. it was good and we also got to have some wine too. we sat near some teachers that i ended up introducing myself too. one of which works here in hanoi---the other in ho chi minh and the other in doha, qatar. it was interesting to say the least.

after dinner, we went to get some coffee before we made out way to the water puppet show. supposedly this is a huge deal and the art form of puppetry has been here a long time. we had quite a few people tell us to make sure and see them while we were here. we did....it was neat, but paul and i weren't as impressed as we expected. we did it though. the puppteers wear waders and everything is done in the water. it is interesting to watch.

the real excitement started though when we left the theater. the street outside was FULL of people and many, many scooters. it was absolute nuts! the scooters and cars were all honking their horns and people were waving the vietnam flag like mad. at first, we had no idea what was going on. then we were approached by a guys selling mini flags. he shouted, "vietnam football #1!!!" then it all made sense.....the vietnamese soccer team had won the match we saw on a TV in passing earlier. we hurried up the balcony of the coffee shop and i was able to get some of the madness on video which i will post. lots and lots and lots of people waving all sizes of flags and chanting, "Vi-et-nam!!!" it was totally crazy. i waved my little flag which made people we walk by smile and say, "Go Vietnam!" it was a fun walk home no less. lots of crazy soccer fans most of the way home.

we got home and attempted to go to sleep. my stomach was churning from 1) too much coffee, 2) too much dairy, or 3) all the new food. who knows but i had a hard time sleeping. i was tired, just could not get comfy. then at about 2am i heard a pow and then we lost power. the entire guest house lost power. no one seemed to be doing anything about it. i finally got to sleep and then about the time the sun was coming up i heard some banging and a rooster. not much longer after that the power kicked back on. the music started playing in the courtyard and the normal "buzz" of the guesthouse was in full swing. crazy night.