After realizing that I had spend too little time with cultural and social activities I went to discover several movie theaters, watching ‘of Men and Gods’ (which was boring as hell) and ‘Buitiful’ (which was awesome). I also spent lots of time having dinner with friends and got to know my roomy a little better. Very nice.
One dinner was quite remarkable. I went to visit Lisan in her neighborhood. She showed me around, saying that ten years ago the sewage system was so little developed that at every downpour she would get a day off at school. We went to a hot-pot restaurant. Hot-pot is a typically Taiwanese dish that originates from the early Chinese military settlements in Taiwan (early 20th century). It used to be a way of cooking left-overs during times of scarcity. Like in a fondue you put vegetables and meat into boiling broth and let it boil until its good. While we were sitting, chatting and boiling our food, a huge cockroach suddenly crept onto Lisan’s food, scaring me to death. The waitress was a tough one and just grabbed and smashed the bug between her fingers. After that my food suddenly tasted deliciously like bug…
After dinner we retuned to her place and I was given the chance to see a Taiwanese house from the inside. Coming from a wealthy family she lives in a quite spacious house which is nothing like what I was accustomed to, though. Instead of a mansion, it is a five story-tall building and only one room wide and two rooms deep. At first it does not feel big at all but when you keep climbing those stairs you get a feeling for it. The rest of the night we watched a crappy German movie and a totally incomprehensible French-Taiwanese movie “Visage”.
Wednesday (18.5. that is) I wanted to catch up on my blog so I took my bike and went out on a desperate search for a café where I could sit outdoors and enjoy the fabulous weather. The seven days before that it rained every single day, with not only plunging temperatures but also plunging spirits. So I went around town and it took me over an hour until I found a promising site. Out of nowhere, very close to Taipei 101 there suddenly were old, transformed barracks that now hosted a museum, an art shop and an all-natural café. You could buy sustainable clothes, made in Taiwan with organic fair-trade cotton and delicious fruit shakes. Plus there was free wifi so I got all I had been asking for. Incredible. Only the fact that the place was air-conditioned as hell seemed a little hypocritical to me. I spent there all afternoon, editing pictures, remembering stories, drinking funny-smelling tea and eating yummy scones. At the end of the day I was deeply satisfied.
A typical neighborhood in Taipei City
101
The simple market and the café – awesome!
All natural clothes
I took my camera and went to Elephant Mountain that offers probably the best view of Taipei. Tired as I was I didn’t go up all the way but I got some pretty good shots of the sunset over Taipei.
101 peeking out
On the way back I had one of those moments when I realized that Taipei is a livable city after all. In the middle of a street market there was a small French bakery with baguettes and pastries so delicious that I couldn’t resist. Crazy that I am in Taiwan craving for something as European as this but what can I do, my taste-buds don’t care about the food’s nationality.
Coming up is a philosophy conference this weekend and two presentations next week.
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