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.

I'm in my new home

(for the next seven days.)
It's got breakfast and laundry and a window

and one of these things.

Making travel decisions at 4am.

It's still Friday morning and I'm still writing blog posts while waiting for check-out time. Last night I think I got nine hours of sleep, which was my first full night of sleep since I got here. I had predicted I might sleep better because I was checking out/in and so didn't have to make plans and figure things out.
What happened Thursday morning is that I woke up, I think about 2am and then again at 4am. . . . or maybe I was awake the whole time. And my mind was just going. I got up to make sure the pages in the new journal were good to write on (some paper is too slippery for me and my not-so-great handwriting), and started making plans for the day. I decided to go to Jiufen, an old mining town in the mountains, which is known for its tea houses.
I have been trying to check in with myself about differentiating between anxiety and excitement. I think I was excited about my trip, and all the things I'll get to do. Unfortunately, because of how I am (at least right now) that manifests in having thoughts that go a million miles an hour, rather than a bodily experience. I don't know how to locate this type of excitement in my body because it all goes to my head. But when I received a text from a friend at about 6:45am, I wasn't tired, even though I hadn't slept well in 4-5 days. So I decided to start my day.
Although I had researched how to get to Jiufen a few times (a two-hour bus ride vs a train and a bus in about one hour) when I looked again (obsessing) I found that starting September, there was a new bus route leaving from Taipei that was faster. Yay! All I had to do was take the MRT a few stops to get it.
I went to Starbucks to get coffee and a walnut raisin roll (and didn't go there FOR that roll but I needed to eat and that's what I got.) I wasn't sure if it was ok to take the coffee on the train, but I did and saw the sign and felt stupid. I got to the right MRT stop and asked again to make sure I was going the right away. When I got to street level, I couldn't find the right place to get the bus. A woman came up to me to help, which was very sweet. I mean, I've been walking around looking clueless for the last five days, so I don't know what possessed this woman to be so kind to me. She looked up the bus on her phone and even offered to go back down into the MRT station with me to ask again. I said that wouldn't be necessary. She pointed to the other area where buses stop and when I walked there, I found that it was the right place. And the bus came a minute later. I got on with just one other guy. Turns out this bus makes a few stops throughout Taipei. It was slower than expected. Given that I got on at 9am, it was contending with traffic. We got the Jiufen about 10:30. I wanted to see Old Street and go to the famous A MeiTeahouse, which was not on the map when I got there. There are other sites- temples and museums. I didn't bother with any of that. It was hot and the roads were windy mountain roads with no sidewalk. Here's a view from a lookout:

I walked up the Old Street which is a windy covered street with merchants on both sides, selling food, tea, clothes, souvenirs, etc.

I found the A Mei teahouse quite by accident. I went down a side alley and there it was. It's huge and I don't know where I would have needed to be to get a picture of the outside. This is what it looks like:

I got a tea and snack thing for $10. The portions of food were tiny and the tea was served with a whole ritual that I didn't follow. I think the staff person was speaking English but she went super fast.

They give you a little bag to put the left over tea, and a postcard as a souvenir. I'm pretty sure I failed at tea-making. Here's the view from where I was sitting:

I was having a better time in the street so I went back. In the end I didn't buy much, just a couple of souvenirs. They have little purses in beautiful fabrics but I have been too practical to buy one.

I got a sample of fried squid and bought some for no reason. And I knew I shouldn't. I mean, it was tasty and all, but I knew it would likely upset my stomach. It was like I was responding to peer pressure when they weren't even making a hard sell.

I ate about 3/4 of it and got an upset stomach. And then was negotiating a street that now looked like this:

to find a bathroom. It all ended ok but because I knew I was about to get on a bus, I didn't eat anything else, which was a bummer, because I want to try the ice cream burrito.
I had a bit of a spazz-out trying to find a bus back, in part because you have to walk down a mountain road with no sidewalk. My bus passed me as I was getting to the bus shelter. The other bus, the one that takes longer came, but I got confused and didn't get on. That was good, because the right bus came a few minutes later. The ride back was faster. I realized they have a stop near by hotel and when I got off, I realized the stop was in front of my hotel! I'd say it was silly to have gone to another MRT station to get a bus that stopped in front of my hotel, but I don't know if I would have been able to figure out exactly where to have picked it up.
I bought some fruit to eat but was still really hungry by 4pm. At 5:30 I headed to a vegetarian restaurant, Herban Kitchen and Bar, mentioned in my book (I use Lonely Planet, by the way.) Again, I was having trouble finding a lane. At $18 this was the most expensive meal I've had since I got here.

That's a tempeh burger. It was yummy. They didn't have 1/2 the things on the dessert menu, so I headed back to my area and got that custard bun. And I ate it while blogging, which I mentioned two entries ago.
Here I am, all caught up. I'm hungry again. Figuring out what to eat when has been a challenge. It's 11:07 and I have to finish packing up my stuff to get out of here.
Thanks for reading!

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.

Some thoughts on getting around

Tomorrow I switch hotels, which means I'll have some time to kill, which means I'll have time to write about the last two days. For now, I am offering my thoughts on (explanation for?) some of the issues I've had finding stuff. I say this after, for the second night in a row, having to use GPS to find a restaurant in a particular 'lane' which may or may not have had a sign delineating said lane. (I write this while eating a custard bun that I got for dessert, but also because I knew if I didn't eat more, I'd be famished in the middle of the night.)
First the challenges: I had thought that there were street signs missing but then I realized that the streets are not labeled in a way I'm used to.
This is the street sign for the street that the sign is in the middle of:

This sign is pointing to the street running perpendicular through the street this sign is in the middle of:

There are sections of streets, and N/S, E/W sides of streets. I can barely figure it out.
And you can see the Mandarin is often significantly bigger than the English (I don't read Mandarin. I just today figured out how to say 'thank you' in Mandarin.)
So these signs look okay. But then you have a intersection like this:

In case you're wondering, the sign I was looking for is vertical, above (what looks like) the dark gray minivan/station wagon type vehicle. It's smaller in this picture than my vantage point as I was standing there, but still impossible to read. And a lot of intersections are like this. And the signs aren't always where I expect them to be. Perhaps a local knows about some other signs I haven't learned to see yet.

Now the good stuff: Here is a picture of my MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) map.

I've been getting good use out of it. The MRT is clean (probably because no one eats or drinks (or dare I say pisses) in it, except me, this morning, as I was drinking Starbucks while obliviously standing opposite the sign telling me the size of the fine I would have to pay if I was caught doing the thing I was doing while being oblivious to the sign telling me not to do it.) I don't think I have waited more than three minutes for a train. I haven't gone too far, but wherever I have gone, I've gotten there quickly.
And then, there is the thing that has enamored me to the Taiwanese people more than their starchy buns or their willingness to deal with the woman who just learned how to say 'thank you' in Mandarin. Some of you know this is a issue that is near and dear to my heart.

What we have here is a strict adherence to, what I refer to as, 'Escalator Protocol.' If you have been on an escalator with me, you have heard me spout profanities at the casual disregard for the protocol, in addition to possibly, probably, verbally fantasizing about punching people in the kidneys when they stand on the left side. But here, they a very considerate about letting people pass, even when no one is passing, even when the escalator is much more crowded than this. These are my people!
Okay, enough of all that. I'll tell you about my recent shenanigans tomorrow.

I'm not going to lie. Yesterday sucked.

I say this on Wednesday the 5th, about Tuesday the 4th. Wednesday the 5th has been a stellar improvement.
I have seen a pattern when I travel that I have one day that is a shitshow. Said shitshow usually occurs a 1/3 to 1/2 way into the trip, so I already have a precedence set for un-shitshow-ness, with which to comfort myself. Not so on Tuesday the 5th, my friends.
As of this writing, I have yet to get a normal night of sleep, although I am no longer jet-lagged and tired. Because I am on my feet so much, I have lower back pain when I lie down and cannot sleep on my stomach. This does not happen in my normal life. And the pain goes away as soon as I'm up and moving, but I imagine it has contributed to me waking up between 12 and 1am and struggling to get back to sleep.
On Tuesday, when I did get up, I saw I'd received a suspicious email and had to call Apple at 7am, my time, to see if it was phishing. Luckily that was relatively quick Apple call and I managed to not lose my shit. (Lesson learned when a sleep-deprived Delia in Prague did click the naughty link and had to change her AOL password.)
I left to get breakfast at the place my book raves about, to find out that it is not where the book says it is on the map. So I went into a bakery, bought two baked things and some coffee, as it started to rain. I went by a famous building but it was overrun with school children. I went to Tian hou temple nearby. There were people actually worshipping so I didn't want to take a ton of pictures.

I went into Starbucks to get some more coffee and figure out my day. So far this is all within blocks of my hotel. As I've said, I decided I would rely more on the subway here to get around. In a way this is a bummer since I rely on walking everywhere to become oriented to the city. But given that no map that I have shows all the streets and things are spread out, I decided to get a 3-day pass, which is well worth it.
I ATTEMPTED to go to the National Museum of History. This was my attempt at being educated. I got out of the subway. It was raining. There was construction. I am still getting used to the street signs (I took some pictures today and will show you what I mean) and GPS was literally fucking with me. I couldn't get my bearings. And I admittedly have to frustration tolerance so was getting pretty upset. When I finally found the museum, it said it was closed for three years for renovations (so much for my education.) I was getting hungry. I ate more baked goods because it's accessible. But I do wonder if my body was also reacting to a lack of nutrients.
I headed to the MOCA. By now, I'm in full mental tailspin, having a very negative attitude about this trip. There were two exhibits. One was centered on sound - there were installations in dark rooms with visuals on screens. One had really lovely music and I want to look up the guy who did it. OK I just did. It seems the song is by an artist that was then reinterpreted for the exhibit. I found the song on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCCNgmm-8rk . Let's see if that works. The artists are Ashen and Maywa Denki. I think the song is Ashen's (in the video) but for the exhibit Maywa Denki used wood instruments to play the music accompanying the same vocals. Anyway, it was great. The other exhibit was also about sound and there was a lot going on in the dark. There were sculptures and installations and headphones to listen to the accompanying sounds. You can see me as part of the art:

And some other thing:

I got lunch at a vegetarian restaurant my book suggested. It was very good and I'll probably go back. At this point things were looking up, but because I'm me, I'm still thinking "why bother" and that the trip has lost all meaning and pleasure. Go figure.
I went to the Red House, a few blocks from my hotel (which I also attempted to do earlier when I found out they had not opened yet.) It's a cultural center and market and I might return to get some tempered bronze earrings I saw there. There is also a a gay bar "district" behind it and I'll probably go get a drink there.

I think one of the things that had me all angsty, besides the rain and the shitty GPS and inaccurate guide book, was the plan to go down to Kaohsuing on Friday. I don't like moving around a lot when I travel and given I was having a hard time finding a museum, the idea of negotiating a trip to southern Taiwan was making me cranky. I thought Taipei wouldn't fill 12 days but I was already feeling rushed and discombobulated. And I'd rather have too much time than not enough. I'd purposefully reserved a hotel room I could cancel last minute because I knew I might decided against going, which is exactly what I did. I canceled that hotel and got another hotel in Taipei. My room has a window, and the hotel has free breakfast, and it's still pretty centrally located. I had wondered if getting a hotel room without a window was going to effect me. And while I don't feel claustrophobic, it sucks to not be able to look outside and see the weather. As soon as I got that new hotel, I felt relieved.
Lastly, I went to the Shilin Night Market. (Did I tell you how easy it is to get around on the subway, actually the MRT?)

This market has both food and other goods, I went down to the food court and got some noodles. The nice lady offered me a beer and when she brought it, the cap was about at eye-level (so a little bigger than I was expecting.)

I walked around, got a taro-marshmallow-pancake dessert thing. And more cut fruit.
So the day ended quite well.
Today has been full. I was out from 7am to 3pm, and here I am writing this. I'll save all that for later.

Day 1- walking, rain, walking, walking, sleeping, eating

Sort of.... not in that order.
Let me back up. My fight was mostly smooth with 1-2 hours of bumpiness towards the end. I had to ask for extra snacks and ate two Clif Bars, so not enough food for Delia. They had complimentary tooth brushes and tiny tubes of tooth paste (as well and ear plugs and eye covers) in the bathroom, which almost made up for the fact that I was not flying on a Hello Kitty plane.
Last night my flight was an hour late but my ride was still waiting for me. The ride to my hotel was probably 30 minutes. I got here and found out that I had to pay for my ride in cash and I had not gone to an ATM. So I ran across the street to the 7-11, attempted to get cash three times and finally got some (bank withdrawal limits are a pain in the ass when you don't actually know how much money you're withdrawing.) I found out that my room was so bare-bones that I had to pay for my towels- the equivalent of $6.34 for a whole set, so not bad. I was starving and the hotel staff gave me a cup of ramen she made for me with the hot water in the lobby. I read, and went to bed. (I'm reading a YA novel my friend Mary suggested. I'm kind of loving it and I'm trying not to read it too quickly. It's a good thing I brought more books with me.)
Today, I had nothing planned in terms of schedule. I figured I'd start off with a contemporary art museum. I found that many things, including that museum, are closed on Mondays (as was the highly rated, walkable breakfast place I wanted to try.)
I slept inconsistently but probably sufficiently given my body thinks it's 15 hours ago. I walked to a cafe with good coffee and a partially translated menu. With my to-go coffee (which came in a sleeve with a handle so I could carry it like a purse), it came to over $13, which is a sign that Delia has not yet mastered mental currency conversion.
I have to say I've become spoiled by GPS. When I went to Thailand in 2015, I relied on a really good map to get every where. I also have to say, all the maps I have suck. The ones in Lonely Planet don't name all the streets. I got one in the mail and found some of the street names - at least in Kaohsuing, where I plan to go at the end of the week - have changed. And this city is not exactly in a grid. And the street signs are hard to see. Oh well.
I got a pork bun.
I got brown sugar boba tea, which was incredible and probably 75% of my calories for the day.
I walked to the Peace Memorial Park. There is a museum there dedicated to the "228 Incident," but it was of course closed today.

Then I walked to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Actually there is the memorial, an arch, a concert hall, in this big open area.

 I like pretty ceilings.

I happened to be there when they change the guards. I thought I was recording it but I forgot the hit the button on my phone :/
I went to the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. It started to rain. This place is pretty cute. It was a wine factory converted into performance spaces and expensive shops. I didn't buy anything. There was a store for wood toys that had all these moving mobiles and displays, and a play area. There were stores selling jewelry and over priced journal and clothes and saki. By time I walked back to my area, it stopped raining.
The area behind the street my hotel is on is a huge shopping area with lots of street food. I already see that finding vegetables is going to be challenging. I tried stinky tofu, which Taiwan is known for.

 It was not that stinky. I also asked for it not spicy, because I'm a wuss.

There are tons of these arcades that are filled with those crane games with the stuffed animals in them.
I got a foot massage that kind of hurt and went back to my hotel. I was feeling pretty low energy. I looked at my maps and decided I was going to buy a metro pass tomorrow. I walk almost everywhere, but things seem to be pretty spread out. I took a nap which ended up being about two hours. I got up around 7:15pm and realized I needed to find food. I tried to research vegetarian placed in the area but the maps are not cooperating with me. I went down the block and got another pork bun, which is supposed to be famous. I was reminded that Taiwanese pork buns are different than Chinese- still tasty. I was needing something un-bread, un-meat, and I found a store selling big containers of cut fruit (I ate the whole thing as I'm sitting here.)
This area is a little like Time Square. See:

A lot of the streets have covered walkways built into the buildings which is nice when it's raining.

In case you are wondering, it's muggy but not sunny. I'd hoped for sun, especially given what SF weather has been like lately. But I am getting to sweat a lot. And the rain comes straight down, which is a welcomed change.
So here I am with a belly filled with mango and watermelon. I am hoping to get to that breakfast place tomorrow. And then tackle the metro!