Friday and Saturday

On Friday, I was expecting to check out of one hotel and check into another three hours later, so I made no plans. I recorded a Marco Polo video for Aida, walking around the neighborhood at around 7:30am. I had breakfast at Fong Da Coffee, where I'd gotten coffee that first day. This time I had the breakfast special which was a lot less expensive.

I went back to my hotel and blogged. Then I took the MRT from Musik Hotel to Citizen Hotel. I got there around 12:30 and they thankfully let me get in my room early. So there I was with an unexpected free afternoon.
This is what the inside of my bag looks like these days: Lonely Planet book, poetry, journal, map, MRT map, umbrella:

My book recommended the food court at the Taipei Main Station. Again, I was helped by a young woman in the MRT station. My I-Don't-Know-What-The-Fuck-I-Am-Doing face must be on point, because people keep offering me help (it happened again today although this time I was not confused, just texting.) It's a good thing she pointed me in the right direction, and then kept pointing, because I absolutely would not have figured it out. The Breeze Food Court is two floors. Here it the first floor.

I settled on some noodles with wontons which I didn't realize was going to be soup.
Since I had extra time, I went back to Dihua street to start at the top and get more journals. The part of the street I had not gone to on Wednesday has different architecture and newer shops.

I finally got the 'ice cream burrito,' a crepe with shaved peanuts and ice cream. Some have cilantro. In this case, I asked them to hold the coriander. I had mine with peanut and taro ice cream. Yummy!

And I got a bracelet I didn't need.

I have been enjoying the new room. There is natural light, and a few movie channels with mostly shitty movies. I went back to knit and catch up on my podcasts. When I looked up, it was 7:30 and I had to eat, but didn't want to take the MRT to a recommended place. I asked the front desk and they said to go down to the main street, but nothing jumped out at me. I ended up at a place almost around the corner from the hotel called Goo Bo Pasta. It was not good. It wasn't horrible. It was sufficient to get me through the evening.

On Saturday, I got to have breakfast at my hotel. It's a pretty impressive spread. Some are things I won't bother having for breakfast, like stir fried vegetables. But they have dim sum, including Chinese style pork buns. And other expected breakfast things. I have been loading up on protein because carbs and I have been getting a little too intimate.
I went to Treasure Hill, which is supposed to be an artist (and maybe anarchist?) community. I got there early. This is what I found when I got there:

Oh well. I think it might open at 11am but I was not going to go back.
I went to the  National 2-28 Memorial Museum (not to be confused with the 2-28 Memorial Museum, which I couldn't get into on Monday, because almost everything is closed on Mondays.)

I learned a little but also Wikipedia'ed stuff during the audio tour. Basically there was an uprising against the oppressive government in 1947 and a lot of people were killed.
I had an idea I would go see live music at 1:30 but knew I likely wouldn't have time. The vegetarian Restaurant, Ooh Cha Cha, that I went to on Tuesday is very close to the MRT and good, so I ran there and ate a salad. Then I went to the Weekend Jade Market. It is next to an enormous flower market. Both markets are sprawling. There was no way I was going to get to that bar by 1:30.

I returned to my room to knit and podcast.
I attempted to go to a Taiwanese restaurant nearby, but the menu didn't appeal to me. I wandered into a Chinese food place that looked popular. I had fried rice and a vegetable pancake. I walked around this area by my hotel and saw there are a bunch of cute stores and other interesting looking restaurants.
I headed to Taipei Artist Village. They have exhibitions, but also the TAV Cafe has live music. I thought the exhibitions were open until 9pm but when I got there, the very kind security guard, who used his phone to translate to English for me, told me they close at 6pm. But there was music. I almost didn't go in. There was a cover and I felt awkward. But then I reminded myself that I had gone all the way there, and no one knows I'm awkward.
The bands were pretty good- kind of bluesy. There's probably a better name for them but that's what I'm calling it.

I had a couple of drinks and they put out some bar food which was cool.
I realized that, at least during this trip, I am more comfortable being the only white person than being one of two or three. While in Thailand, white people were running rampant, but there are far fewer here, depending on where I am. And I'm afraid, because there are so few of us, that they will be compelled to talk to me. Thankfully this has not happened. Some of them have been from the US but many have not.
In this setting it was a little different. Here there were a bunch of white people who knew each other and also knew (people I assumed were) Taiwanese people. (I am not generally assuming that the people here of Asian decent are necessarily Taiwanese. There seem to be a lot of Asian tourists here as well. But also people of Asian decent from the US and other places.) So these American/French/Australian? (trying to remember all the accents I heard) people are not from here but know each other here. Are they living here? Do they travel for work? It's like being around these people situate me as an outsider that I am not when I am just a person traveling in another county. Because they are traveling here too, but I am not one of them. At least some of them seem to be artist-types; one was talking about her show in Paris and people were giving her advice for what to do when she was there (and the Louvre seemed a pretty obvious suggestion.) So I am not one of these fabulous people. Then I remind myself that the work I do would have many people either crying or shitting themselves.
It's Sunday night right now. I've been here for exactly a week. I just got back from dinner. Check my next post to see why that was a bit of a shitshow.