Culture Mish-mash

In Taiwan, Thursday was a national holiday so Krista and I also got Friday off. However, the girls are on the Taiwanese system so they had school on Friday (side note: the Thursday "holiday" was not really a holiday for most folks here. The day is a remembrance day but workers have to make it up on Saturday. What a rotten deal!) For the first time, we decided to drop the girls off at school so that we could have a day together.

Kids? Where?

It was our first full day alone together in almost a year and a half. It was wonderful! The High Speed Rail whisked us up to Taipei and we quickly navigated the metro system to get to the National Palace Museum.

The hectic beginning of our visit almost resulted in a u-turn to the exit. Thinking that we would not have enough time to tour the whole museum we went directly to the third floor. Whoops, tour group central and cordoned off areas made this fairly miserable. I just don't understand why people have to walk through other people. Fortunately, the floor soon opened up and we enjoyed walking through the rest of the exhibits. (No photos allowed.)

Beautiful gardens surround the museum and we spent some time wandering through them.

Noon slipped by and our stomachs began grumbling but we couldn't just stop at any little restaurant. Nope, Krista's mind was set on the newly opened Barbie Cafe. So, it was back to the metro for a few short rides.

Mural at Shilin Metro Station (for the museum)

The previous week, Krista made numerous attempts to contact the restaurant for reservations because she heard of long waits. The phone (02-27528311) buzzed the angry busy signal each time so we hoped for the best and made our way to the Sogo Department Store area of Taipei. Her directions seemed a bit odd but as we walked the pink suddenly appeared in the distance. Like a homing device, it called Krista in its direction.

Made it!

Reception - fortunately there were no long lines

Dessert