Catching up on Wednesday

Today is Friday. I switch hotels today so didn't plan much in order to get out of the old hotel by noon, and kill time before check in at the new hotel at 3pm. So am sitting in the eating area of my hotel catching you all up on the events of the last couple of days. I'm trying to show a picture of my room but it's taking a while.
Okay, here it is:

Wednesday was probably my acclimation day. I was using my MRT pass with ease and getting where I needed to go (until dinner, that is.)
I finally made it to Fuhang Soy Milk, a very popular breakfast place that is on the second floor of a mall, which requires waiting on a line that snakes down the stairs and onto the sidewalk. Luckily, I got there around 7-something and the line was not yet around the corner. This is where you go for a typical Taiwanese breakfast. There is a room where they are making bread, which you can see through a window in the restaurant. I ordered at the counter, picked up my food on a tray and found a seat. I ordered a sandwich with egg and green onion with 'deep fried Chinese donut' in it. Also I got a 'caramel bun' and a soy drink.

I didn't eat most of the fried donut. But the sandwich was good. The soy drink was like sweet milk on the front end and tofu on the back end. I drank about half.
The sun was out so I figured I should take advantage and go to Taipei 101. This was the tallest building in the world until that one in Dubai. It is 101 floors and has the fastest passenger elevator.  I'm pretty afraid of heights and willed myself not to think about it too hard as I paid the $20 entrance fee and waited on line for the elevator. I was most freaked out by the idea of the elevator ride. But it was pretty amazing.

I blinked and we were on the 10th floor. As you can see, it takes 37 seconds to get from floor 5 to floor 89. There is a stair case to the 91st floor outdoor observation deck. I went up there but it's only a small section of the building and the metal guards make the view not nearly as impressive as from the 89the observation floor:

I didn't throw up or anything!
There is also a staircase going down a floor so you can see the damper, which is an enormous ball that helps the building not sway in the wind. It's the only damper exposed to the public.

They have those little damper characters all over and a video explaining the stats on how big the damper is and how it works. I should have taken pictures of the measurements. Suffice it to say: really big, really fuckin' heavy.
The rain had not come so continued to do outdoor things. I am planning things according to the weather. There are temples and villages I want to visit. The weather has said it's raining every day but that doesn't necessarily mean all day. So I'm saving the museums for days it's raining.
I headed to Dihua Street, which is filled on both sides with Chinese medicine shops. I wanted to take a picture of one, but felt self conscious. There are also newer shops. I just consulted my book (because I plan to go back) and it turns out I missed a whole section of the street that is worth checking out. I'll be sure to do that. This is the reason I am going back:

It's too pretty to write in but I did, when I got back to the hotel (actually at about 4am the next day when I woke up and got obsessive) to make sure the paper felt good. These journals have Chinese symbols on them. This was the prettiest but there were others with birds and other images. They have lines. And while more expensive than I would pay for a journal, not exorbitant enough to deter me from returning to buy three more.
I stopped at a restaurant I thought was a vegetarian restaurant. It wasn't but I got a salad and fruit.
Again, no rain, so I headed to the Botanical Gardens. I didn't stay too long because, 1- it looked like it was going to rain soon, 2- there were not a lot of flowers in bloom and 3- my feet were not happy with all the walking.

I wanted to see the butterfly area but I had accidentally walked too far and decided it was time to go back to my hotel. At that point, I'd been out from about 7am-3pm.
A foot massage, a less deep tissue foot massage, would have been nice. But that gets expensive fast. I discovered my hotel has a free 'foot spa' which is essentially a little jacuzzi for your feet. So I did that while reading poetry. I just finished a book by Shiobhan Scarry. My friend Jason gave it to me and I love it.
It was dinnertime and, in the interest of having Taiwanese food in Taiwan, I went to a restaurant called Lan Jia, recommended in my book, which serves gua bao, a pork sandwich. This was one of those times I couldn't find a restaurant in a lane. I'm always really hungry when I'm looking for lanes. Then when I got there, I was expecting a sit-down place. There was seating but also and outdoor stand. And the English sign was hard to spot.

I got one sandwich, which was tasty, but not a full meal.

I scraped the cilantro off.
I was even more hungry after eating that so went back to my area and found a random place to get pork noodle and 'boiled vegetables' which were sprouts with pork in them. Good enough. I went behind the Red House, to where all the gay bars are and had a pina colada.

I went back to the Creative Boutique and got those earrings. I don't remember if I mentioned the bronze earrings that came in black and a rose gold color. Here they are:

You can adjust the circles to make them rounder of flatter. They have interesting jewelry based on different themes- not all of which I am interested in. You can check them out on Facebook.
Okay, I've covered Wednesday. It's 10:15 and I have another day to write about.