johansvennung(臺灣)

Chill with swedes in Taipei

I recently went to play floor bal in Tianmu

Many swedes and suiss people were there

It was very hot outside

After that I went to Fikafika, a swedish coffee house

They had many kinds of coffee

I had some dish, not sure if i accidentally ordered double coffee, sometimes the waiters dont have the same logic as me...

This was one of the coffees I orderedsome brown sugar coffee

And these are both the coffees

And a square cinnamon bun

I also had a cheese sandwich, pretty nice but rather expensive

They also ahd drip coffee

Anders was there. he likes to take selfies

Fikafika had many coffe brewing items

Fika fika won the nordic roaster 2013, also 2007-2010?

http://nordiccoffeeculture.com/the-2013-nordic-barista-cup

We continued to longshan temple

snake alley

some police snatched some person who was said to snatch

the classical snake alley

Epic guy separating the yolk with his hand

We later had some coconut drink (or someof us)

Some tourist place in taiwa

Intern at some swedish company

Some cave

Interesting lobster

We later on headed to ximen

omg Kavalan maked water

I had some lychee drinks

And after that we headed to Sababa in Shida, its one of my sweidsh friends favorite resturants

We had some mediterranean dish (mezze?)

And a Chicken Souvaki

Like a pita wrap

Sababa...

 

Saturday with singaporeans

I went to an all u can eat last night

Some hotpot with free beer and french wine

And icecream

some cuvee wine, it didnt taste that good

Felt like pouring some liqour

First batch

and some salad

and beer

omg, mango on a stick

It was easier to take many glasses

An old favorite BBQ has closed, too bad

Many people oin ximen ding

Random street performance

And a toilet display telling which ones are free in the MRT

And a visit to longshan temple

And snake alley

crocodile, snake etc

Omg, some interesting street art in ximen

This place was full

So we went to G paradise

Many foreigners

Some had lychee drink

I had peach, 2016 continues

A 3.6 km walk

I recently went for a wal

The people who invited gave misinformation, saying "every 10% walked will get a bike", but it turned out to be a promotion trick

I brought some beer

My friend has a appe watch, another strange thing is that we were told to be there 7:30, but it turned out that it wasnt until 8:30 that we needed to be there, not sure of this logic

At 8.45 we started to walk

People blocking the path to take pictures

Another group photo on the path...also funny logic

It reminded me ot hte nijmegen walk

Some bridge with walkers

A narrow pavement

And some intersection

Locals using umbrella, cus its sunny

We then walked alon a river bank

Omg, I met many aboriginals

They came from Pingdong

After half walk, we got stamps, super long queue, and many staff not active, cus there was a long queue created at the first two people stamping, and no other staff reacting to it

I asked why they dont walk back and stamp peoples cards while they queue, but no answer

Last minutes of the walk

Paiwan people

Some friends in the dark

Some old people dancing on a stage

And some group photo

Kids dancing on the stage

And bikes to be given away

Many people were waiting for the bike lottery

Probably some thousand participants in the lotery

Nope, no wins, the second the last number was released eveyone went home....

A trip to YIland beer bar in Yonghe

I went to Yilan beer bar in yonghe some days ago

It is a nice place, its not hte first time I went there

Some chicken and dumplings

I had a green beer, as a change

Underwater photography session with Mr Kokkola

I joined a swedchamb event recently

A guy who had photos that has been selected by National Geographics (top 10, on their website)

I also met Robin, who was a business developer within IoT

Tommi, the diver had his "dive team" polo on

Anders shared some IoT links with Robin

Tommi told us thta its ok to use photoshop as long as you dont add or remove items (these are interntioanl riules in competitions)

Some diving equipment

And my favorite fish, 6 meters in width

Some green/blue eyed fish

And some yellow fish

Tommi will talk at some exhibition leter this year

We also had local food, the swedchamb said "free flow of drinks and food", but when we came there they didnt have it

Banqiao Marathon

I ran a marathon some day ago

MAny people participating

It was 35 degrees, its often trouble, cus high risk of hehydration of to drink too much

Luckily im used to hot weather and long distance from my annual trip to nijmegen in holland

Later I went to some cinema

I also passedby a resturang with "expensive taste"

I also had macaronis gratain, the tais often call Pasta/macaroni etc noodles, so confusing,

"10% cleaning charge", i wonder if i get withoug it i have a dirty plate, they also had a buffet with 4 dished, (water melon, noodles and some other stuff) called "infinie buffet"

Later I passed by a Wally store pretty intersting, I use to paint this character some years ago

Water fight promo film production

Omg, fjällräve  bag

They are soo comon nowadays

I met my buddies at Taipei Trends Play some days ago

for some water fight

this guy was interesting

he was a green pig

Some super heroes

And chris with the camera

And some movie shots

The crew ahd TT Play t-shirts

Chris checking weather

And some heroes waiting for next scene

A canadian and a german guy

And a pic of ber made in taiwan

That can be found at this place (a guy in the team recommended me)

Later on they made a motercycle scene

At the end people were pretty wet

And some were heading to some other water fights, like the canadian guy, he said hw was a software freelance, moving around

Taiwanese quote of the day

A violing concert in Neihu

I went to Neihu recently

Seeing "dont drink and drive" posters at the MRT

I met with Mr Anders and Co

At this place

We observed swedish coloured balloons

And went to see this guy, the son of a teacher of Anders wife

Some kind of greatudation concert, we signed our names on the poster of him

HE played with some girl who played a piano

People wernt applauding when he was done the first songs, but in the end they did

Some local snack

Some local traffic signs

Vegetable stick

The kids were playing ball, whileme and Anders were  checking out the camera functions

Another kid

Close up pic

Pic with local girl getting volleyballs on her stomach

"dont take a pic of my face right now" pic

I also took some group photos of some of Anders friends, the guy in middle has a similar nams as "jesus"

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic with the son of Jesus

V-pic with the son

Other people also taking pics

I bought myself a pyramid

I bought myself a pyramid

i bought it from an old friend, not sure what I will do with it

I also visited a local night market, for some kiwi juice

A visit to Uncle Bens burger

I went to a burger bar recently in Yonghe

Near a place that is called merry christmas

The name was Uncle Ben

"american hamburg"

Some super hero dolls

And the burger, a match for Mr 220nt

After that a visit to this snow ice place was made

Omg, a wheel chair on taiwanese pavements, good luck!

The snow ice had peanut flavour

PIzza Rock Yonghe

I went to Pizza Rock today

They have a Yonghe branch, but originates from Taizhong

Omg, they offer local beer

from 23-brewingcompanycom

They have many kinds of pizza, with 2 sizes

I had the 2 local beer they offered

Both were very bitter

And a hawaii with extra cheese, but it didnt taste any special, a little bit like the other restaurant in taiwan

I manage to fit the price almost equaly divided by 220nt, the staff commented that it was special

Mr 220NT

I went to a restaurant today called Joe Johns BBQ

It was in Yonghe

They had some chiense menu and poster

And wooden tables

I am Mr 220nt, the rare low value money in taiwan

Old school bench table

The entreance floor was nicer than the basement

I had some noodles, I wasnt super hungry, but ate for fun

And some Skewers, the food was equaly divided by 220nt, so convenient,,,

My new favorite coin

I got taiwanese 20nt coins

It is an aboriginal on the coin, and aboriginal boats on the back, so cool, its a mystery that the tais never use this coin

 

Ikea show room

I passed by tianmu recently to check some floor ball, and also participate

It was hot, some guy even fell and got injured, the weather here is very up and down

I also saw an old poster from the EU day that was some weekend ago

Next stop was the ikea show room

They had mostly food and fike stuff

Omg "ecological" is covered

And some other dining room interior design

the bath room

and more food

 

 

and a kitchen

They even had a normal oven

They also had alot of food

The waitress name was kiwi

The menu in chinese

I had some lingon berry juice and chocolate cake (almond)

The logo of this place

I also went to try some local beer after that

And later I also met an old friend and had another beer, but european

Omg, they even had Reese here, epic

An evening Zhongxiao dunhua

I was suppose to meet some swedes some nights ago

but only got an address, and google showed some things, bing another and the streets showed nothing, so I had to ask many random people, these even treated me some skwwer

Omg, some hard character, for the locals (thus their bpml system on the side to teach people how its pronunced)

I soon got swedish connection, and we went to a place where they ahd wallpaper

I had some chocolate drink

The swedes, had floorball on my schedule in the morning, so I left not too late

Aboriginial fashion show

My friend designed some clothes inspired by Bunun clothes

He was exhibiting recently in taipei

It was at some graduation event

and many people for FuDa university was there, they have an exchange program with Högskolan i Boras

Some 80 year old lady from germany who lived in taiwan for 60 years, opened some art school, she is christian, probably a missionary

Some young host

And the theme for this year

The jniors at the univ had their clothes showed first

This was my favorite

This was Bunun style

And this (blur enought?)

The topic was "Gentry in the Mountain" since bunun have many mountain trails

I want clothes like this, like a swedish folklore dress

After this, the students got gifts from friends

And got to take pics with their deans

This guy had a hairdo with a part in the middle, it deserves a picture

Omg, an H&M bag,,,2016 continues

Some japanese judge

I liked her collection

And this was the winning one

My friend Liou, he won prices form his clothes

And some celebrating kids

VIp chairs

An ikea bag with a zipper

 

A visit to Sanxia tea place

I went to sanxia recently

Some mountian road, probably road 110 (100+ roads in taiwan are often mountain roads)

beetle nut trees

And mountains

and reconstrution

and some not good quality roa

Sometimes it was narrow, when cars met up

Up at 700meters above sea level pinetrees became more frequently seen

Thats where the deistnation was

road 109 was continuing from here

and some "forrest recreation area"

omg, they even sold italian pasta

and organic tea

I wanted to try th elocal tea

but I also bought some australian wine

Normal view from the mountain area

Some taipei suburb down there

and my red tea

Dark clouds approaching

Omg, my "milk" was solid

Since I bought wine I got free tickets to the "tea area"

Some gate was guarded, and people needed tickets

it was some stairs in there

And tea bushes

It looked nice

And nice view

The logo of this place

and the forest recreation area gate

Tai people walking around

A japanese style house was also passed by

Omg, some trash area was also passed by

And houses looking like in ShiTing

Some interesting tree

And many people not wearing helmet, just like at the east coast of taiwan

Back in Taipei, 91 seconds of red light,

1000 of scooters idling

After some minute, they drive to the next traffic light, "people who complain can go home to their country", since global warming is not global, I was told here ;)

rAndom all you can eat in Zhonghe

I went to an all you can eat recently

It was rather a steak house, where on can pick side dishes, as much as you wanted

Normal tai road

Desserts

some soy meat

and vegetables

typical taiwan "colour" ice cream (each type has a colour, byt the flavour is hard to distinguish)

nutella, peanutbutter (sweat) and sweet butter

they also had some "sushi"

,,,and fruits

I started with friut, nutella and peanut butter

and has some suop later

and some pepper sauce soup

The corn soup to the right, and the the left they have pepper sauce, its hard to know, which is "sauce" and which is "soup"

finally my stake arrived

I ended with some ice cream with chocolate, "what did johan eat today? see above,,,

3 happenings on a friday

I find that taiwanese people seldom care about redusing the fumes, not sure if it is an education matter

But by far most traffic lights that i know about has a count-down, still the tais doesnt turn of the scooter, even if it is some minutes until it turns green, so each traffic light often has a 20-60 scooters lingering, with locals wearing masks to protect themselves from the fumes they self spit out, very intersting

I also found that taiwan has a 20NT coin, I will get some next week, its still a myster why tai ppl seldom use 20nt and 200nt, they are much more useful than some of the other bills, in my opinion

I also made a qiuck visit to Le ble dor, trying theyr seasonal Chaomai, it was ok, tasted a little like all the other "non dark beers"

Fich, cheese and wine

I had alot of cheese, fish recently, and occasionally trying some wine or beer

European food culture at its peak

A lame pizzeria in Gongguan

I went to a pizzeria in gongguan recently

They had many pizzas on the menu, but few in stock

The name was amore pizzeria

Hmm, and they didnt let me add extra cheese on the only pizza i wanted, strange logic

I ended up having some tomato and basil leave pizza

A trip to the library

I recently went to the library 

Had to ask some people before they acctually gave me the correct direction (not sure why people here consistently pretent they know a direct instead of saying "i dont know",

EU day in Taipei

There was an EU day in taipei recently

some 20-30 vendors promoting alcohol

exceot the swedish tent, that promoted innivation

I also passed by some local art place

and after a while it started to rain

cloudy day - heavy rain

Once in a while people visited the swedish tent

some wine glass, but i prefer riedel

some good sales offered a sip for free of Konjac with grapes from champange

Some approval from Taiwan Sommelier Association

this was a cocktail, with the Konjac

Soem old fashined dancers started to dance after some half hour

and invited random bistander, or many not so random, this guy seemed to know how to dance

and then it started to rain heavily again

I went for a mojito, it wasnt that good, dalidas mojito is better

and more rain

My friend wanted to go for bread, i bought the most famous bread they had

"is it delicious?", "i odnt know, but it is famous" (taiwan style judgement)

more rain

I went to another tent to try something new

Omg, the bartender shaked the drink so professionally

Some earl grey vodka

And more rain

Omg, my earl grey vodka, or what was left of it, had some toxic taipei rian in it, after cycling around with my drink passing the town

A trip to yilan in may

I went to yilan recently

Checked the discriminative parking lots in banqiao, since taiwanese parking quards are the ones who have the world authority to decide your gender, not you!

typical yilan sight

and some random road

suddenly this house appeard, near the kavalan distillery

They are open until 1800

and they need staff

and they hace some store in the house

pretty commercial

5 standard kind and 3 seasonal

At the bar they had a black board with the beers only ale and porter

2 sized, large and small, if u buy small u get discount, if you buy large, you dont, strange logic

And some non algoholic alternative

"Beer its whats for dinner"

first one, some white ale, it was the best one

then some other ales

some fuzzball game at the corner

and families comming here to try

some decoration and the brewery in the room nearby

and they also have their own glasses etc

just like at barhi in beitou they show the brewing process

and some barrels

they also offer some pork

It was saturday afternoon, and the place was half full

Third round I tried the rest, mostly porter

In general their beer was very bitter

Some ppl enjoying outdoor activites

going strong, the white ale was the best so far

the staff were nice, and were suprised that I paid with 200 notes

Some random indoor cleaning of the outer part of a BBQ machine

the last porters on the tray

some random foreigners, some staff were introducing the beers to them, not sure about their discrimination algorithm

The foreingers left some dark beer

And then got some guiding in the brewery, not sure how to sign up for that tour

They had some souveir shop as well

All of their kind of beer, including non alcoholic

Yilan evning view

Sun setting at the south west

and some brewing chart

Not sure what this meaing "beware of beer stealing ninjas"

this road looks like taidong, both are on the east coast

typical tai building

more sunset viet from yilan

cloudy sky, yilan is called "the rainy city"

I Thin the second highest nountain of taiwan is in yilan county

 

More urban pic

and a fake 7-11

this place is "famous"

some chicken BBQ

golden rooster, just like me

"no smoking area, just near the smelly and smoling BBQ, strange

another tai house

its not ok with tobacco fumes, but coal fumes are ok

love BBQ

 

Each customer had 1 chicken

and an empty souvenir shop, i had to buy some cheap things, like pineapple

yilan has many bridges due to the rainy and wet area

many people waiting to get a seat at this "famous place"

my pineapple

and some philippino mango

my "haomapai" (number card"

And some local food

The yilan trip ended at this restaurant

many people here

and more hens, like a european easter image

they had ipads to manage their table bookings

some lotus dish, rather slimy

and rice

and some other "seasonal" vegetable

and the main dish, the chicken

including feet and head, taiwan style

with gloves to tear it apart

some guy at each tables seems to be asigned the tearing job

A ripped chicken

night in yilan, east coast alert, no helmets, atleast not on kids

and some other "famous store"

some bakery

it was crowded in here

probablybecasue it was so good,,,,ehh i mean "famous"

peach butter bread

and some girl who might have been to club atom in tokyo

scooter and scooters, but not as many as in taipei

omg they "yue tai" had traditional characters, thats rare

And the toilet had plants, welcome to yilan

The day was ended at ximen, with some mango drink

A revisit to AK12 burger

I hanged out with Anders recently

He just wanted to mingle around

so we went for a sandwich

they said I could have it for free if i finised it withint 30 mintues, eventhough I had a late lunsh with pizza and sauer kraut, I still thought it could be interesting

anders had a smoothie

And some phubbing

and pics

Here is a blur pic of my sandwich

Omg, its almost tipping

 

 

Anders wanted to film

hmm, johan preparing the mental situation to fit it into him, however they added new rules, i also had to finish a sallad and a 1 litre coke to get it for free

Ok, started

I picked the meat first

21 minutes left when i was done with the meat

just alot of bread

the i went for the sallad, it was rather salty, so i had to ask for a refill of the 1 liter coke

omg, still french fries left at 1 minute

and some bread, I tried to blame my late lunch pizza

I finihed all the french fries before I left, but didnt eat all the bread withint 30 mins, I might do it another time, even thought it doesnt fit into my "burger" definition, since its clrealy a sandwich---2016 continues

A recent costco visit

They were selling le ble dor at costco recently

But yilan beer is cheaper i think

they also gave away baileys samples, and some whisky tastings

and red wine

The honey beer at leble dor seems more expensive

I ended the visit with some sandwich

Random airport events

I went to the airport in taoyuan recently

And was told that I should try subway if i never tried it before

People had to check their luggage pass some x-ray machine, so the "convienience" of online checkin disapeared, since the people who checked in at the airport had to wait less time for their x-raying

I bought some fish, reminded me of my sister who liked dried fish, and some asian dried mango

We also saw some english art before that

And I had some japanese beer

Almost like a "last supper"

An ireland potato pic

A birthday bash in Taipei

Its the 3rd of may

Erik preparing his birthday bash

Some beer try out at Q square

The staff wanted to cher erik up

Or Mario

sang some chinese songs

Big hat, erik liked it

The rest of us used party hats

He even got a cake

He also got some solist whisky from kavalan

And some other candies to give ppl back in the UK

Omg, heavy luggage

Next stop is Jollys

Some french taste of the beer

OMg, they were a part of the world brewing academy

Some random thai food

Random streets with alot of scooters

We also passed by ximen quickly, with a place where the staff took orders on an ipad, some technical progress since last time

Pinacolada

Erik had some apple drink

Next stop was dalida, where a mojito was served, Eriks birthday bash is going to an end, atleast for this year

Cruising in taipei city

I went for some taiwanese food recently...

"it is famous" i was told, thats enough for being popular...

Some random tai dishes

They also had a red star for the vegetarian food

Negotiating with the chief about if it is "meat" or if it is "pork" or what definition of vegetarian is...

We got tea and sesamy drinks

Some random side dishes...

And blood pudding with stinky tofu...

And some other tofu...

And Erik...

...and erik...

We passed by a Fjallraven store...they siad that they were the "cheapest in the world"...

plenty of items

strange...just opposite on the street they had another fjallraven store...with the same prices...apparently not the "only cheapest" since the prices were the same...

Not sure about the logic in opening the same store just nearby...since the items are pretty unique...

We also passed by a mango store

also "famous"...

And has some slized ice, imango ice cream and mango peices...

Some lady tried to squeeze in this small gap, but didnt succeed, but it was woth a try for the shortcut...

Next stop was a local beer bar...

omg, they reduced some of the offers they had last week, I wonder why...

I had some beers that I never tried before...

Some were sweeter some were more bitter...

Interesting sign in the toilet...

...and this...

Omg, at the MRT entrance they promoted the mango bar...

Erik is inspecting the mango dish he had...

Visit from a Cousin

A cousin recently honoured me with his presence

He passed by Dubai quickly

And gave me some swedish stuff that are hard to find in asia

He lived near the second highest building in taipei

We went for a quick visit to longshan temple

checking what the tais donated to their gods

and also visited a night market,,,claiming  that most of them are the same, this one is more special

after that we went to a hotpot

had some fruit and local stuff

more hot pot

and running around int the sunday traffic

checking the street performance at ximen

Omg, green label

I ended the day by checking the goodie bag I got, so nice,,,