Still in Taipei... the next morning

Finally gotten around to writing part 2. We woke up to a very windy and rainy Taipei. We even asked the reception if we can go out and the staff advised us to stay indoors. However by 1pm we were getting hungry and restless, so we decided to venture out into the wild. There are very few people on the streets. Most establishements were closed. And bringing an umbrella was futile. We even had to hide behind pillars when the wind was just too strong. Here we are waiting in front of Taipei's main station.


















This old man tried to fight the winds. See no use for the umbrella. We all dressed down just in case the subway was closed. We all crossed our fingers it was open since our stomachs were already growling.
























We were quite relieved to see this bakeshop open the second we stepped into the station. There were also other shops open, like this umbrella stand. The prices were quite similar to what we have here in Manila.



















Anyway we were all looking for a good place to eat. One thing I noticed was the Taiwanese have a lot of Japanese restaurants. The reason why will be revealed to me in the next few days. So we ended up eating Japanese food as our first real meal in Taipei. Funny isn't it? We ordered a set meal, which cost us about 200NT. It consisted of Tonkatsu rice toppings, Chawan Mushi (steamed Japanese egg custard) and a beef noodle soup with bean sprouts. Pia and I shared the meal since it was big enough for two. We added additional 20NT for the bottomless soda.



















We then decided that we were brave enough to check out if other places were open and we needed to have money changed. Since we were first time MRT riders, we first bought single journey passes to Zhongxiao Fuxing, the third station from the Taipei Main Station. Our goal was to have money changed first at the Sogo Mall. But it was closed. The underground mall was open however and this are some of the stores we found. I fell in love with the Hello Kitty hand carry bag. It was calling my name...I had to go back.

























But they pulled me away and said we shall just try going to Wu Fen Fu Market near the Houshanpi station. And when we arrived there the wind was howling still. The streets were almost deserted. But we walked around anyway.






















It looked like everything was closed but then we saw some bright lights across the street And we rejoiced. Wu Fen Fu market was alive and some stores were finally open. Then shop we did.

There were lots of clothes, bags and shoes to choose from. It was overwhelming. And all this on the first day in Taipei. We had to stop ourselves from spending too much because we haven't even been to other markets and other shopping places. What we enjoyed browsing in was this huge store filled to the brim with bags, clothes and shoes. What to choose, what to choose!

Then Eve, decided that we should try visiting another shopping area, Ximending. We had to take the blue line MRT again and got off at Ximen Station. Taipei was slowly coming back to life and there were tourists like us roaming the streets. The stores were also officially open. It was like Myeongdong in Seoul.

There were a lot of interesting store fronts like this building below. There were also Westernized restaurants there. We were all famished and decided to eat at Risotto. It's a cutesy restaurant with a golden retriever as its mascot. We thought it was unique at the store we ate in but apparently all their branches had golden retrievers in front.

I ordered bacon and cream risotto while Pia had a tomato and beef risotto. We also ordered apple soda. It was a nice meal and with the cute and light ambiance it was a good experience for me and my sister. What was hard though was communicating with their non-English speaking staff.

Our (me and Pia) major agenda in Ximending was finding this huge Japanese magazine store. Pia and I are a sucker for Japanese and Korean fashion magazines so we just had to find it! Instinct told me to turn left and we found it on one try. It was called Magazine Freak and we absolutely freaked out over a gazillion of titles.

After buying about four magazines (it weighed a ton), we met up again with the other girls and they took us to taste a Taipei specialty dessert, shaved ice. One thing weird about their shaved ice cafes/stores is that they have ampalaya decors. Pia and I decided to share one order again and we got Strawberry and Mangoes for 120NT. So we had a cold dessert on a cold day. LOL. After being barely able to walk back to the train station, we all agreed to call it a day.

Oh I forgot to mention we stopped by the Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe, since it was within the area of the Zhongxiao Fuxing station but it was closed. So guess what we did on day two? :)