Wow, I didn’t realize this is 5 days after we got to Taiwan. Still suffering from jet lag! Wonder how our Japan trip will be like this time because I’ve filled out days with sightseeing from the minute we land!
I really like to slow travel and am happy Fleur apparently does too. One of my favorite activity is to just hop on the subway and ride it all the way to the end station. I love people watching, and imagining the kind of lives the passengers are leading, where they’re going.
Itinerary: Chinese breakfast, nap, massage, NTU waffle, dinner
After yesterday’s marathon walk to the park, I decided to take it easy today. The sky decided to help by raining really hard when Astroboy woke up at 5am. Thumper decided to get up at 6am and after awhile they were making too much noise for all the other sleeping occupants in the house, so I took them out for Chinese breakfast again at the same place we go to every day.
On the way back, we decided to take a detour on the MRT. We just hopped on the metro and went 4 stops. The MRT was very full on both directions for a Saturday morning. I’ve actually never seen it quite this full because we usually hop up at 6am, when the metro starts. We saw a group of children who were going to a vollyball game. And others who look like they’re going to work.
Thumper and Astroboy could barely walk home so I made them take a nap. It took about an hour for Astroboy to go down. But he went down for a good 3 hours. Thumper, on the other hand did not want to nap, so she listened to the whole Wizard of Oz on audiobook as we passed the morning. I napped with Astroboy for a bit and then sat in front of the laptop. We had lunch, she went back to listening. Then I went to get a massage at 2pm for my bad back.
The massage helped, but she worked a lot on legs and shoulder, which is where I’d been hurting due to walk yesterday. So in a way, my problem area didn’t get worked at. Either way, nothing compares to the masseuse at home.
On the way home, I walked by a red bean snack shop and just could not resist buying some. I wasn’t even hungry. But I can’t resist any old fashioned food that I grew up with.
After I came back, Astroboy had woken up (apparently the minute I stepped out the door) and the kids were working on some artwork with my cousins. (thank goodness for cousins!).
My aunt then took all of us on a walk to National Taiwan University, which is apparently just 2 blocks from her house. She totally lives in the best neighborhood ever. We walked and walked and walked. We passed by a shack selling milk produced by the NTU farm program cows. And we waited 30 minutes for waffles of various flavors.
So these waffles, apparently, they get folded in half and work like a crepe. I had redbean macha, my cousin had blueberry, and the kids had chocolate plus whipped cream. Waffle seems to be very big here. And I had a long discussion with my cousin about the Chinese words for cream, half and half, butter, etc.
For example, on the menu, it had said, chocolate butter. But it was really chocolate with whipped cream
. Because butter is 奶油 but whipped cream is 鮮奶油, with 鮮 meaning fresh. I don’t get that at all. To me, how is whipped cream fresher than butter? And then there is no real word for half and half that you add to coffee either, and cream…they’re all various versions of 奶油 (butter). Very strange.
NTU is a HUGE university. Where we ate, there was a bakery with a Japanese sounding name, a small bookstore, a 7-11, and some restaurant. That bakery had such delicious looking bread. I can’t really imagine Berkeley having a bakery on campus.
Thumper wanted to buy the egg custard, but we didn’t bring any money. Thank goodness for the EasyCard that she’d stuffed in her pocket. It had just enough for an egg custard, which she declared better tasting than Sang Kee.
Oh and the bikes. I forgot to mention the city just rolled out a program called YouBike. Close to the MRT, you see these racks of yellow bikes. You can rent them with your Easy Card. And all over the new MRT route that they just opened, you see bike lanes. It’s not to say people follow the bike lane. Bikes seem to think they can go anywhere. But still, the idea of a bike friendly city…….implemented in the 2 years since I last visited, this is why I like coming back. Progress happens seemingly quickly.
All in all a great relaxing day. Other than breakfast, we’re eating my aunt’s cooking, which always reminds me of mom’s cooking before she turned vegetarian. Each meal is elaborate to me, with 4-5 dishes AND soup. I feel like we’re finally sett
ing down/in and I’m going to start looking into classes for Thumper. It’s clear that she needs to preoccupy herself, otherwise she just wants to play with the cousins.
This is a picture of the kids shoes, after we came home. Apparently you can stuff them with newspaper to soak up the water. Things I learn
