11 Days in Taipei
We’ll post more about our experiences in Taipei and thoughts about the city soon. We’re currently having a blast in Tokyo, so a few pictures and videos will have to do. Enjoy! -Eryn
Thursday January 19
Our first day! We caught our 14-hour flight to Taipei. 225 more days to go.
Friday January 20
Our first day exploring Taipei! The theme of the day was jetlag and wandering.
Saturday January 21
More jet lag and becoming accustomed to the Taipei way of life.
Sunday January 22
Jet lag had not defeated us! We were feeling better and wanted to get some exercise. What better way to do that than wandering through Taipei to the mountains that surround it!
Monday January 23
A day of stumbling upon grand shrines and hole-in-the-wall food joints.
Tuesday January 24
A long, damp and breezy hike to the highest peak in Yangmingshan National Park.
Wednesday January 25
A more slow paced day spent in a cafe and eating some amazing Taiwanese food.
Thursday January 26
We spent the day at the National Palace Museum (full of Chinese treasures) and the night at the Shilin Night Market (full of street food, fashion, arcade games, and people!)
Friday January 27
We moved to a new AirBnB in the same part of town after 7 nights in our other one on Chinese New Year. We soon found out that almost all of the shops (except for McDonalds and Starbucks) were going to be closed for the next four days. Apparently, people celebrate Chinese New Year similarly to how we celebrate Thanksgiving — with lots of home-cooked feasts and time spent with family. Not the celebrations we were expecting, but an experience nonetheless!
Saturday January 28
Day 2 of everything being closed for Chinese New Year. We were getting desperate and decided to try a local fast food spot. It was terrible.
Sunday January 29
Day 3 of everything being closed for Chinese New Year. We decided to go on another hike to pass the time.
Monday January 30
We unfortunately didn’t take too many pictures on our last full day in Taipei. A few nights prior, we had overheard some travelers talk about Mukilteo, WA. For anyone that knows of “the Muk”, this was thrilling stuff and we had to talk to them. We introduced ourselves and learned that the couple had been traveling for 5 months out of a year long trip, and were from Tennessee but currently lived in Seattle. What a small world! We decided to grab lunch with them and had an amazing time — the conversation was so easy and it was nice to talk with other english-speaking travelers. As it was our last day, we were only able to meet up with them once. Maybe we will see them in Seattle some time? We hope so!
After some more wandering, we ate dinner at a great burger place called KGB Burgers and spent time at a trendy cafe/bar called Cafe Libero to work on our blog.
We were excited to head to the airport the next day, as we were flying to Tokyo!