Four days in Taipei!

Taipei 101

Our first experience in Taipei was going to Taipei 101 tower!  This is what I was waiting for.  I had been to Top of the Rock in New York City and I loved it!  First we got lunch in the food court in the basement of Taipei 101.  Then we headed up to the observation deck!  The day was a little foggy, like most of the days we had in Taiwan.  We still had a pretty good view.  I took tons of pictures!  We were on the 89th floor of the building for the indoor observatory, and then went up to the 91st floor, which was outside!  It was so cool to see the city from this view.

The same night we went to a dance performance at the National Theater.  The architecture was amazing, the theaters looked like temples from the outside.  This was also the Chaing Kai Shek memorial that I wish we could have seen more of.  My camera had died so I got some pictures on my phone.  The performance was really good, different from anything I had seen before, and we got dinner afterwards.  This time in Taipei was a lot more relaxed than in Taichung.  We had more down time and freedom in what we wanted to do, but I didn't want to waste time.

Our hotel was really nice, but small.  Our room in the hostel was actually bigger, but what was nice about the hotel was that we got fresh towels and bed linens (if we wanted them) everyday.  Our water and snacks also got replenished, which was awesome because I didn't have to buy water that often.  Sunday morning around 7:30 while we were sleeping, the maid came into our room and surprised.  The first time she turned on all the lights and scared the crap out of us.  I guess she saw that we were sleeping so she left.  But, she kept coming into our room at least four more times within an hour and a half.  She turned the lights on almost every time, and then left shortly.  We didn't know what was going on and were angry.  When Dr. K told the front desk later that night, they were really shocked and said that shouldn't have happened.  They apologized and were going to check the security tapes to see what was happening.  Thankfully, it didn't happen again.

Lee- the woman who hand-makes coin purses and bags

It rained most of the days we were in Taipei and it dampened our moods a little, although we still had some fun.  We went to the Yingge ceramics museum, which was pretty neat.  We ate at the famous dumpling restaurant, Din Tao Fung in Taipei 101.  That was my second time eating there- half of our group ate there the second night in Taichung with some students.  We saw Taipei 101 at night, and went to a jade and flower market on Mother's Day at which I got a lot of cool little souvenirs.  At the jade market I got a beautiful hand-made coin purse for my grandmother, and I got a picture with the woman who made it!  I know my gram will love it.  We also went to Beitou hot springs and we rode the famous Ferris wheel in Miramar Entertainment Park while it was raining and lightning!  The Ferris wheel was another thing I really wanted to do while in Taiwan.  It was also Dr. K's first time seeing it.

We got a lot of experience on the subway, especially when we went out by ourselves the last day in Taipei.  We went out for lunch and shopping in the underground mall connected to the subway.  Most places were expensive, and on the way back to the hotel we found a little shopping district that was sort of like the night market and was really cool.  We didn't have much time there because we had to get back to the hotel and meet up with everyone else.

Flying over New York City!  You can see Central Park

Our last dinner in Taiwan was at an Italian restaurant.  We looked at a slideshow of pictures throughout our trip while eating.  It was cool to go back over everything we had done, which was a lot jam-packed into two weeks.  We got back to the hotel and packed up to leave the next morning.  We were at the airport at 6am to wait for out flight.  We left Dr. K at the airport and headed home.  It was a super long Tuesday, but I made it back to Pittsburgh.  Next up, my graduation from college!