Taiwan days 13, 14, & 15

Since I finally completed what I came here for (obtaing my citizenship), the rest of my time here now involves mostly sightseeing and finding cafe’s to spend time in.

DAY 13
I was very happy to finally be using this UV-blocking umbrella that I purchased at a night market the night before. For brunch, I went to this place called Peter Better Cafe to read as well:

I then decided to go to the National History Museum, where there was again many exhibitions on plants, but also on puppetry, the geology of Taiwan, and the culture of the native Taiwanese. That museum is in a really beautiful park, so here are all the photos I took from the museum and park:

I wanted to try to go to 淡水 this day, so I did, even though the ride there was rough because for some reason, the red line is crowded up through the evening. I was feeling nauseous again for some reason, so took most of my photos there after dark. I had dinner at this cute little restaurant overlooking the water, and it felt like a really peaceful meal. Here are all the photos from that evening:

DAY 14
I had class this morning but thankfully the class only went for 45 minutes since I was so tired. I slept in a bit more, and was trying to walk to a coffee shop in the early afternoon when I heard air sirens go off ! I was terrified. I had just so happened to pass a car shop and the owner told me to wait in the temple next door. I texted the AirBnb mates as well as my aunt, and thankfully learned that it was just a drill. I had to stay in that temple for 30 minutes, as anyone caught out on the streets during the drill would be fined.

Eventually, I was able to walk out again and went to a coffee shop that had a resident dog! It felt good to be able to pet a cute dog again. I also ordered this yummy egg & cheese sandwich and a black sugar milk tea. Here are the photos from that cafe:

I also finally found a 包子 shop close by:

For this day, I wanted to check out the Taipei musem of fine arts. Here are all the phots taken around and in the museum:

I was initially planning to go back to the AirBnb to rest a bit, but there was an open mic / open jam that I wanted to check out that was only a few stops away on the same metro line, so I decided to walk around this expo park-turned food court by the museum and have some dinner. Here are the photos from that place:

I finished dinner around 6:30 and the open jam was scheduled to be at 8:00. I found out that the bar the open jam takes places in is in 士林夜市, and although I wanted to check out that night market later during my stay here, I decided to just go that night even though I was very tired. Here are the photos from that market:

When it was close to 8:00, I stopped by the bar only to learn that the open jam actually started at 9:00, which was much too late for me. So I decided to walk around the market just a little bit longer and then I headed back to the Airbnb. I found out there would be another open mic night on Monday, so I will try my best to attend that one.

DAY 15
I started my day off with brunch and milk tea as I wanted to do a lot of reading. I ended up reading until about 3:30, and then wanted to go back to my AirBnb to rest. I was planning on heading out to National Taiwan University, but ended up just going to Chiang Kai Shek again because there were things I wasn’t able to see last time, plus I wanted to try that yogurt again. Here are photos from brunch and the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and other parts of that area I was not able to visit earlier this week:

I also decided to head to 西門叮 night market in the evening. I went with Jacob last year during the day and wondered why it was so dead, only to remember that it is only lively at night. So I walked around this evening, hoping to find a certain souvenir but wasn’t able to. I found another beef noodle place to eat that was good and clean though (and I ordered this strawberry mochi ice cream, too). Here are my photos from that night: