Head in the Clouds

Monday night I returned from a 3 day weekend escape. Since time off for holidays is rare and 3 day weekends rarer still, I usually spend far too much time thinking about how to best spend the time off. Despite temptations to go to Hong Kong or desires to go somewhere outdoors and scenic, I settled on visiting a friend in Taipei I haven't seen since April.

My friend Grace just moved to a new house ten days prior to my visit and was still getting settled when I arrived. Her new abode is high on a mountain on the outskirts of Taipei, nearly an hour commute from her school in the city. Though the mountain's fog prevailed my three day visit, it was clear to me why she'd sacrifice sleep to make the commute to and from her heavenly new home.

We're not in Kansas anymore
Despite exchanging one city for another this past weekend, I felt like I had accomplished my goal of escaping Taiwan or at least the city for the weekend. Surrounded by crisp, clean, mountain air, abundant greenery, fog and light showers, the sound of frogs and crickets at night, and a star lit sky, visiting Grace's house was a vacation in itself. Inspired partially by the climate and the European style architecture of the community, we headed to the Flower Market on Sunday afternoon. Grace's goal: to transfer her yard into an English garden.

Though filled with sufficient time to relax, the weekend passed quickly. By Monday morning, the sun finally broke through making for a spectacular view as we made our descent through clouds that appeared to hang effortlessly around us. I think I was still trying to get over the fact that something so beautiful was waiting just outside the city. While I hated to go, I look forward to returning for a visit once her house is set-up and her garden is in full bloom.

There are a few places in the North I'd like to explore and I had hoped the extended weekend would provide an opportunity for such an outing. That wasn't the case but no regrets. The weekend was full of many great experiences. Aside from hanging out on the mountain, here's my
Top 10 Things from the Weekend:
1) spending time with a friend
2) seeing a huge rainbow over Taipei
3) ferry ride and visit to fisherman's wharf
4) receiving an awesome birthday gift (belated in delivery)
5) eating out at a great restaurant - BEST pumpkin soup I've ever had!
6) shopping - Ikea, flower market, jade market (which happens to be the largest in Asia), Jason's - supermarket with tons of imported goods
7) Movenpick's pear sorbet - forget Swiss chocolate, go for Swiss sorbet
8) steamed squid on the pier - so fresh they're flavored by the salt of the ocean
9) colder weather - about a 20 degree difference between Grace's place and mine
10) funky new shoes at a low price

Hitches, Glitches, and Witches
The only real glitch to the weekend was getting back to my city by the end of Monday. Knowing that many people would be heading back to their perspective cities Monday night, I hoped to beat the rush by leaving late afternoon. Grace and I parted ways around 4:00 pm and I was off to the bus station. Much to my dismay, seats were already sold out for the rest of the day with the bus company I had used for my trip north. The particular street I was on leads the the main train station (within sight of bus station) and the street is lined with additional bus companies. It was likely that the seats for the train would be sold out and a ticket would be for standing room only. Standing for a 5+ hour train ride with my bags from shopping did not rank high on my list of things to do for the day so I decided to head in the direction of the train station and stop at each bus company along the way.

Despite trying for an hour, I was not having any luck finding a bus. While I never panicked, there did come a moment when I felt like I'd have more luck finding someone heading back to Kaohsiung that I could hitch a ride with, though I wasn't actually considering it as an option. And there came another point when my bags were feeling heavy (the afore mentioned birthday gift was quite awkward to lug around) and all I wanted to do was be home, just be back in Kaohsiung already. I wanted to click the heals of my newly acquired ruby slippers and repeat "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

At last, success was found at the last bus station I came to before the train station. I had no trouble getting a seat for their next bus to my city. Just a 20 minute wait, and I was off on my long ride home.