Heissan taas! Tässäpä tulisi nyt tämä lyhyt Taiwanin reissu. Huomenna koittaa taas lähtö ja tulee pidempi tauko jälleen... Kirjotan taas suoraan enkuksi ajan säästämiseksi.
Hi again! Here's the short trip to Taiwan. From tomorrow I'm travelling again so there's gonna be a longer break once again... I'll write straight in English to save time.
Tuesday 28th:
I spent the day packing and cleaning as my flight was in the evening. It was 4h 15min flight and I coudln't fall asleep at all which sucked, had to be with my thoughts all that time lol. It was almost midnight when we finally arrived in Taipei, 30min late from the schedule... I was panicking as my stupid phone was messing up badly but luckily I got it back in action before I took a taxi to city centre (I was too tired/stressed to even go look for trains or buses there, just wanted to go to sleep asap).
Luckily the taxi trip was smooth and not even expensive (yay cheap Taiwan!) and found my air bnb. The nice host had stayed up for me and I went straight to sleep in my room.
Wednesday 29th:
Finally this day arrived; I met my long-time Internet friend from Facebook! She was so lovely and kind, I miss her already! It's funny that we used to speak in English until last year when we changed into Japanese, and during this trip we only spoke in Japanese (which I was really really happy about, I could finally see how well I have learned the language haha, and the results satisfied me)!
We had a huge lunch first before we went to
Hsinchu （新竹） by bus 1,5h. There I saw my friend's university campus and we spent time in Big City shopping mall before I headed back to Taipei.
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| I've never seen so much scooters as in Taiwan~ |
Thursday 30th:
Today we went to famous Jiufen (九份) mountain area. The day was very warm and sunny. We took a taxi with some tourists from Hong Kong there, it was faster than with bus (and once again not expensive). Before that we met a group of Japanese students from Tokyo who were also going to Jiufen, but because there was a fight between taxi drivers they decided to go by bus. In the end we met these students multiple times during the day and took a group photo together haha!
We walked around and checked many small shops before stopping for a drink in a small café with great views! From there we walked back and took a bus and then train to Shifen (十分), another beautiful area. Again we checked all the shops and planned to go see the waterfalls, but unfortunately we arrived there right when they closed the park lol.
We ate dinner in a small place, I had dried noodles with pork, it was so delicious!! We also got "the best ice cream in Taipei" apparently, haha. My flavour was caramel-pudding and it was good indeed.
In the evening we were about to go to Taipei 101, but as a couple from Hong Kong was going to Jiufen, we decided to go see it in the night illumination as well and shared a taxi with them. It indeed looked like a different place but was still beautiful! There I had my first bubble tea ever. Again sharing a taxi back to Taipei, this time with a Japanese couple. We stopped to take photos, though mine were too shaky in the end, dammit...
This time I was early back in the air bnb, had a shower and packed my things and updated blog. ;-P
Friday 31st:
Met early with my friend and I got to meet her friend who had just returned from exchange in Kyoto. Together we went to Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園). Unfortunately the weather wasn't as good today, it was foggy and then it started to rain so we didn't stay there for long and couldn't take any photos as you almost couldn't see anything! :-P
We went to Tamsui (淡水), still raining, to do some shopping and there I did a lot. We also ate, this time I had fried rice with ham and egg, delicious once again.
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| Supposed to see Taipei city... |
From there we went to Taipei 101, a tall skyscraper. It was cloudy and rainy weather but you could see outside well. The views were quite nice. There was also world's biggest wind damper inside. We spent a good while there until it was time to leave for my friend's place in Miaoli (苗栗). It took about 2,5h by train there. Her parents were waiting in the station and we drove about 20 minutes by car to their home which was in the middle of forest and hills, with only one neighbour house. It was interesting to stay in an old Taiwanese house (the air bnb was much more modern).
My friend's parents cooked lots of food for us, traditional food as well (forgot to take pictures of course...), everything was so heavenly delicious! Some vegetables were from their own farm they had next to the house. I wasn't even hungry but still I just ate loads of everything haha! From TV there came Taiwanese dramas, I don't understand the language at all, but with the subtitles I understood a little bit thanks to the kanjis! It was very late when we went to sleep.
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| The wind damper |
Saturday 1st of April:
Alarm was at 7. We ate breakfast (toast with egg and beef) and checked the farm. It was huge with different kind of vegetables and good smelling plants. They also had many dogs, chickens, geese and chicks, they were cute! Then we took some photos before it was time to go to airport. They drove me all the way back to Taipei, I was so grateful! We said goodbyes and I flew back to Sapporo. Now the flight was much shorter and I had no trouble sleeping, I even missed take-off lol.
At home I unpacked my things and got ready for the evening. We met with friends who were back in Sapporo in our dorm's lounge. The evening was very nice, full of laughter! :-3 We went to karaoke as well, stayed late there until finally got to bed exhausted.
All in all this trip was very very nice! Taiwan was very beautiful country and the food was just amazing. I want to go back some day, there are so many things to see and I wish to meet my friend many times again! As you may have noticed, there isn't very much photos from this trip (somehow I was unlucky with cameras or then I just don't know how to use them anymore..), it was more like a trip experienced, not filmed.
Till next time~!
