Thursdays trips and trekking...
Taking the first MRT at 6, I had to wake up even earlier...
In a dark Taipei...i walked to JingAn MRT Station...
I lated joined the car taking us eat...
I got some nice coffee...
Nice mountains at the east coast...
And the "ghost village" near Juifen, itwas built during the gold rush...
More narrow woars in the djungle...
And some garden work...
My friend had nice plans...he already had some plants there...
We also got sandishes...so professional...
Even if we were far up inthe djungle innorthern Taiwan...there were many houese here...
Omg, Keelung island...the one I wanted to go to some weeks ago...
I later visited a recently opened café...
And made a new batch of beer...
Before I went for a hike near Taipei 101...near where I did a trail run some years ago...
The first place was called the "elephant mountain"...
Impressig stone plate...withinformation...
Anders joined up, and showed some hip mobile apps...
This is a famous spot where people take pics of taipei 101...
We also found some strange machinery...
Some cable car...
More people enjoying the view...
Sexy...
Photo shooting...
It was easy to get lost up here...there were many pathes...
What does this sign say....no pics?
Near this sign...pics?
As usualy, they were doing some constructions of the trailll
Among the people enjoying the view...
ämy friend Anders likes this cap...its common that tais wear strange words on caps...
We found many maps...but not many that showed our location...
More construction...
And some holy buddha...
I think this is the character my teacher gave me some month ago...
We were getting further and further away from Taipei 101...
Sometimes it looks strange..with the gray colours of the building...
We had some cookies during aquic break...
Andmore app sharing...
Anders has been here some years ago...he could recall...
Somered plants of a temple in the mountain...
And some old folks...drinking tea...just likethe mountains at the south part of taipei...
Some christian room...
The sun was setting...so we started to return...
Many times her in taiwan, the sun sets over the horizon.-..due
to fog or something...
We checked how far we went as welll...
Except some minor GPS errors...we could conclude our distance and speed...
Later that night I also met an aboriginal from the Bunun tribe...they are famous for archery and hunting...so cool...
I also made a quick visit to my negihbours neighbourhood...
I passed by many times but i never entered...
We had some Weissbeer from taiwan here...
And some meet...it was pretty slow kitchen...
And some salty shrimps...
The waitress was also half aboriginal...her father was Amis...
Wednesdays event...
Omg...they serve evenmore kinds of shots at 7-11 nowadays that before...
Not sure hwo buys it thought...
I went with a friend for some business...in his car...
To this place...
I ended the day by visiting my old chinese class....where they still have chrsitmas decoration...
Things were as before...
But not many students remained from last year...
In the late night I headed to this taiwanese store in Yonghe...
They had ovens shpaed as beer cans...
And had korean food...
It seemed tohave the interior design as a train...
They also had Kavalan whisky...thats good...
Andfor 30nt, they had freerefill ofrice...so generous...
At one corner they had old products...from 40 years ago...i have never seen this in taiwan before...
Some guy preparing meat in the beer can oven...
They also had sushi...
This was good...some were a little salty...
Taiwanese/korean food...
This dish was famous...but i dont remember its name...something with chicken leg...
2 hikes in 1 day...
I went up at 6 last morning...jsut to hit the road...
...road 3...heading south...
Its always tricky to follow roads in taiwan, since they can suddenly change name in an intersection...rutn without notice...
My friend cory was meeting me up in the mountain...after some 2 hours drive...
Up here they have no 7-11, but some private convenient stores...
This is the place we will try to go to...cory was here some month ago...and its on my bucket list...
Its famous for its steepness...
Cory showing the way...
Omg, they had fake money on the ground...
After 20 minutes walk, we concluded that we went wrong, and went up again...after another 20 minutes we came to the river...and cory concluded that we went wrong agaon...since it was suppose to be a waterfall where the path meets the river...
Up again...
The stones here looked a little like in a hotspring...
It was alot of trash in the bushes...
But "no"...cory didnt recognize the place...
Maybe it was up stream, or down stream...
But not here...
I saw an arrow on a tree...but there were plenty of pathes...in each direction...I had to leave for an other hike after 2-3 hours...bt Cory concluded that it must have been the path to the right...I will check it out later on this week...
The next hike was in Sanxia...
My friend Anders met me up...
We saved some time, by driving scooter up hill...on a small road...
Anders is as usual very hightech...having cool applications on his phone, and recent technical devices...
We walked a "famous" trail...
Some locals says the trail takes 8 hours...as usual we divide the time by 4...to get the real time...
They even carved out stairs in the stone...
And as usual some mountain climbing club prepared the path with stripes..
"the old tree" in the centred of this "8 shaped" trail"...
Some steep part...
It was very entertaining...
And steep...partwise...
Some times the trail went to the middle of nowhere...
And many times they had maps...
The top...I think...they had many peaks...
Some visitors carved their names into the stone...
Anders using a panorama app...
It was pretty cool...
I sneaked in 2 times...(and it had a small gap...but its pretty usefull...
Ano other map...without telling you where we are...and showing "KG"?!?!? i wonder what that means...how heavy the trail is?
Some steep cliffs had some iron bars pointing up...
We toook the ladder...
Safe!
Later we had a quick snak...some biscuits fomr Göteborgskex...
And we continued to head back...
Just a quick check if there are any geocache in the area...
Yes..not so far from road number 7, where we parked the scooters...
We saw some really steep cliffs on the way back...
And some wierd branches...
And another map, in english..
The lead us to a steep trail...
Wich nice view...
Anders was heading to the top...
Dont fall down!
It was a little bit foggy, but else, it was a perfect afternoon...
But in our mind we only thought about: "dont fall down, dont fall down"...
Time to head back...
After inspecting the cliffs on the ridge...very interesting formation...
Same path...
It was dark by the time we were back at the scooters...
We went back to taipei...Anders using his scooter, where he needs to take out the scooter keys when driving...since he might loos the keys...then he cant turn the scooter off...
We passed by some stores...
...with interesting furnitures...
And my favorite baking store...
To make some impulse purchase...
Before picking apizzeria...
I bought a Hawaii pizza...
They had the dwarfs from the disney movie...everywhere...
More app-discussions...
Later the night I also went to a korean resturant...
With classical "taiwanese icecream"...just many colours...representing some "hard to identify"-flavour...2014 continues...
A visit to "the chips"...
I paid a visit to a new resturant called "the Chips" in central taipei...
Wearing my superman and batmen shirts...
And superman and batman shoes...
I entered the chips...
Alot of the menyu was only in chinese...
They had some spicy sauce from Belize...thats cool...
Many kinds of burgers...
Wjhat did Johan eat today...a salad...
Bread and soup...
And some texmex burger...
And dessert...some brownie...
They had service charge...so amateur...a big minus....
A quick geocaching session in Taipei
I went for a short geocache hunt today...
My cellphone is not equiped with constant internet...so I took a picture on google map...its some meters error...
First I thought it was this one...but it was to obvious...
Later on I found it...it was pretty cool...I think it was recently put here...
They even had a "geocache pencil"...so professional...
Sweet and sour sauce
I went to one of thise Kaochao-places...also knows as a Taiwanese beer house...
I went all in on their sweet and sour sauce...it was good...I have to do it again...
An attempt to do Zhongyangjianshan
I joined my friend Cory to go to Zhongyangjianshan, one of my favorite mountains in taiwan. Since he works until 21-30-22.00 on friday nights, and starts at 08.00 on mondays we were in a rush ...the plan was that I will go on his motorcycle from Hsinchu, the 150km, to the trail entrance after his job...after lack of sleep we took off...
On the way form hsinchu I saw some expensive pistage nuts...I use to eat alot of these at my favorite "all you can eat" in banqiao...its intereting that they afford to offer these nuts at those restaurants...
I also bought some boots...since I was told that "i will need them":..they were originally made for scooter driving, not hikes...
Waiting at the HSR station in Taipei...Cory asked mt to meet him up in jhubei or at his place...
Here he is...
And our stuff...i was not sure what to bring...
But he bought 1 small bag and 1 big...I brought my stuff in a relatively small bag...
I had the big bag on my back the whole ride...
After half time...we stoped at an aboriginal toilet...in the moutain...
We arrived near the trail entrance around 4am...and planned to sleep some hours...we got delayed...and I saw the morgning bus, connectiong form taipei when we woke up...
Some locals were harvesting some cabbage...they started at the same time we arrived...
Its a long ride...taking us up to 2000 meters above sea level or something...
And there goes the bus...
After 2 hours sleep, we stopped at Nanshan, for some breakfast...
More City people, who will go hiking (in taiwanese way, meaning, travel to the mountain area, and walk around in a tourist park)...
Cory knew a secret shortcut, so save 2km to thetrail entrance...fromdoat 7...
We also stopped at a near by police station...but we dont need to "check in", as we needed before...nowadays, thats doable online...
Then re-arranging our stuff again...
And catching up on paople who started before us...we were pretty late...
Locals like snow...many people drive far to see this...
We wer told, 90% risk of rain...but we didnt see any for the whole weekend...
This is the entrance of the national park...we need to leave our paper in here...
Some view...
As usual...they ahve kilometer marks and 100-meter marks...at this mark ,someone left some gasoline...for some cabin further up...
And some marks, shows that it has mobile coverage...
Cory, this is his fifth time, he is on this "Nanhu trail"...
He enjoys some breaks...
Enjoying the view...
He has good equipment for the snow hikes...last year I did a mountain in the winter...but did barely see any snow...
Here we have to leave our "main trail"...since we are heading to a more rare mountain...Zhongyangjianshan...
It was tricky...
We had to walk down a long river...we even found river tracing boots...
But no distance meters....
It was confusing...however...once in a while...we saw some marks...similar to those I saw in nantou last year...
Omg...this looks like a traip...
I also cut my hand...cory had first aid...
...so the trip contined...
We arrived to the next hut...and it said "10.5"km to the one we plalned to stay at...
This hut was seldom visited...
We contined...since we were already late...
But it was confusing...since we didnt know how far we had left...and the sun will soon set...
And after some hour, we just has "5km" left...which was confusing...
Cory found a dead goat...is that a sign to not continue?
But we tried to follow the trail...
We decided, if we wont find any distance to the hut until 17.15...then we will stay at the other hut...
Once in a while it was hard to find the path...
I guess it was not far...but walking in the dark...when its snow. and water...felt wierd...
After another 30 minutes, we decided to return...to the other hut...apperently, we started to late, to make it until sunset...
We decided to try to trail in summer instead...and go to a nearby hotspring instead....
Heading back...
Besides...cory have to work in monday at 8 in the morning...it will be in a rush...maybe not that safe...
The hut had electricity...connected to some solar panels....
But they seemed to be broken...
Some also left food...
Its pretty sofisticated...
The cabin had many wholes...we installed the tent inside...cory heard mice inside and tried to put mosrt of the things in the tent...
The second day was a sunny day...
I wonder how they park administraion thinks..when they first say "10.5" and after some 2km says "5km"...its confusing...
This trail is famous for many river crossings...however, I could do thisone barefoot...
But I bought my boots "just in case"...
Else it was alot of ropes...
We could see the peak, it seemed nice...
And some village..maybe Nanshan...where we ate breakfast...
Nanhushan...als a very high mountain...
I liked this trail...it was not that exposed to the sun...these mountains belongs to Taroko national park...its pretty much on the east coast of taiwan...
Cory walking on the sun...
And some mountains...with snow...
The clouds were appraoching...maybe they will bring rain...
Not far to go now...
An emergency hut, not far from the Trail entrance...
This is where we had lunch yesterday...we can see xueshan, the second highest mountain in taiwan...
And back to the trail entrance...
Cory was a little tired...its always exhausting to climg mountains...since one needs to carry everything up and down...except water...which we drankf rom the river...
We drove directly to Nanshan, to see if I could take some bus to Yilan...else I have to go back on Corys motorcycle...
Many chartered buses from Taipei passed by...
With tourists buying cabbage...
And after some 30 minutes...my bus arrived...
Cory took of to Hsinchu...
In Loudong (Yilan), i couldnt find the train station...so I took a bus back to Taipei...no hotspring today...(it was probably too late)...we might do it next week...
Small shoe society...
I tried to buy boots today...
But as usual theres a very limited supply for shoes in big sizes...to bad...I usually buy shoes in Europe...and bring to Asia...
A quick visit to Barhi...
I joined my friend to Barihi yesterday...but first we went to Hooters...
They were close for a while, but today they were open,...
Not that many people here right now...
Beer and chips...
My friend said that its eaiser to get a taxi if i hie...
So i stood behind a pole...
We had some of his Craft beer later on...in the taxi...it was nice...
But had to stop after a while...
My friend needed to pee...
At Barhi we had some pizza...(a hawaii with sausage)...
We mostly drank Pilsner...
And Vincent was happy as usual...
Later on we headed back to the southern part of Taipei...While doing magic tricks for the locals...
People are very friendly to strangers in the Taipei MRT...(most of the time)...
Early meeting in Banqiao
I trie this place this morning...
Its one of all the brunch places in Taipei...
It tasted as one of those traditional breakfast place in taiwan, where they call a sandwishwith meat, a hamburger...
They had nice interior design...
I later on saw bumblebee drinving around in Zhonghe...that was interesting...
Wednesdays event...
I started the wednesday by going to one of my favorite All you can eat, in Banqiao...
It seems to be a successful chain store...
They have nice ice cream...
Else I went all in on sushi, nuts, mango and cheese...
...and pizza...
I had my 30 second camera with me...
...what did Johan eat today?...
I ate all their nuts...
...and some brownie...
Later on I took the bus to Hsinchu..w wet bus...
...not sure why..but the rood was leaking...
As usual the AC was on...even if the outside temperature was 12 degrees...(it seems to be a sign of luxury)...some even plugged the AC hole...
I tried some swedish Somersby...
And I also donated a red lamp to the DJ club...which I visited...
And gave a good friend of mine, a birthday gift...
He was playing music at the DJ club for a while...
Many people were there...but they have a new ruel..so the shut off the electricity at 10pm...
So then no one can stay...
I was also wearing my 30 second camera...
Martin, my swedish friend was also there...
At 10, everyone gathered outside...and had nowhere to go...
The swedes wanted to go downtown...so I joined up for a while...
I had a pinacoloda...it was "soso"...
At Barfly...a relatively new place...(some years old)...as far as I know...
I late rin the night tried Popcorn Chicken...not sure why it was called that...since i never felt any popcorn flavour...
A visit to the steak house...
I paid a quick visit to a steak house in YOnghe today...
It was pretty good...
With real fire...and thick steaks...
Probably bought at Costco...
I had my 30 sec camera with me...
It was a strane system...if you wanted a table, everyone sitting down to eat, had to attend, when the waitress came...no one could come 1 monute late...then you have to wait until the next tble (up to half an hour)...
The french fries were also very good...
No Sauce :(
Not sure what part of the cow it was...but it was pretty red...
A visit to north eastern parts of Taipei...
I paid a visit to the north eastern parts of taipei today...
I took the MRT...and saw a girl with a Fjällräven bag...
People were also dancing salsa or soemthing at Dahu MRT station...
They seemed to have many hiking trails here...
And nice bridges...
I met up with Anders and Nils...
And later went up hil...
Anders were filming...some short clips...
It was a nice view...
Many locals were here to exersice...
Not sure why...I guess its the fresh air that is nice...
It was warm...I like...after some weeks of raining...
They seemed to have many hikes in the area...
Omg, somce cool wall...Anders is an expereinces photographer...he saw this was...and had the sense that it will be a cool pic...
He is using both a normal camera and his smartphone...depending on...
Nils fell asleep later on...
German cars...so many in taiwan...
Omg...a fishing store...never seen that before...here in Taiwan...
We later on headed to a dumpling place...
With hot drinks...it was hard to carry the cups...
Nice food...
We later on went for geocaching...its a fun website, if you have nothing to do...to go for a world wide treasure hunt...
One of the Geocach treassures were near this lake...
A guy who doesnt want to get wet on his head...using a plastic bag...thats good...reuse!
We had some problems with finding the coordinates...and to match them with google maps...
Here is the place...
Later we found the place...
We also found a mobile pizzeria...
And some nice park...
Maybe this could be the tressure...
Omg, many bords at this place...
Even Anders were taking pics of the birds...
Omg, Anders are sitting on the priority seats...thats the beneits with having a kid...
Welcome to taiwan...They hae "Anti-spy camera detactors"...not sure how they work...but the Tais surely figured this one out...
Next stop is the ferris wheel in Neihu...
We went to Le ble d´or...
For some honey beer...I can tell that it tastes better with some side dish...but it was still ok...
Another interesting sign...it reminds me of the "area for girls at night"-zone and the pink whistle in the bus...it makes taiwan a more interesting place...
Random events in Banqiao
I started the day with some bank visits...
Like HSBC...
I continued to a Cafe called Baozi Café...
Where I had a burger...
They still celebrate Christmas...
It was interesting...
NExt stop...Citibank...
Omg..."Citigold"...where service is faster...
I got some interesting notes there...they told me that the 200NTD bill is more rare than the 2000NTD...
Later onI tried some local dumpling...
And cheese with wine...
Before I went to Costco...and saw swedish Tetra Pak...
And a good card deck for doing magic tricks...
I had the previledge to try some new drink...
And ended it by meeting some old GMBA friend and Craig...
An attempt to visit Keelung island
There are 2 island in the north of taiwan thats on my bucket list...
A sunnt day (finally), heading to those islands...
Keelung harbor...
Many traffic lights...
I love the windmill/solar panel things they have here...
All info to find the islands were not in english...but some where...so once ina while its easy to get lost...
Omg...
Once again...omg...
This is some mark from a giant rock that fell down last summer, after that I went on the caoling trail...
Look at this video:
Some trace from where the stone slided down can also be seen...
Shit, the ferry to Keelung island doesnt go today :(
Many boats are out...but they seemto be fishing or diving boats...
This is as close I get to see the island...
I saw some other people glancing at the board...maybe more people wanted to go there...to bad...
They also had a fish market nearby...
I thoguht about having deep fried fish with mayonaisse...but they didnt have it...
Omg, a boat with the name "lanyu", it means orchid island in chinese...
More trip boats...
It looks a little bit like turutle island from here...
Heading back to the Heping island...
Many people park where there is a red line...I think its forbidden...
But who cares...
Omg, so much trash...thats what the ocean have to offer...it reminded me of indonesia...where the ocean was a place to dump trash...
Heping island was connected to land...
It was a park with some regulations...
And some smaller islands nearby...
It seemed to be like a big tourist attraction...
They heven had some duck- traces...
And some cool path, but due to some stones falling down, they blocked that road for visitors...
The cliffs here were pretty cool...
Omg, people seeing to warning signs and road blocking as a recommendation...that seems to be common here...
More cool cliffs...
ANd some military houses...
This cave was build by dutch people some hundred years ago...they still have some dutch paintings and text in the cave...
It was made as a cover when trying to conquerer the island...
More cool rocks...
And Keelung island....
It feels like a failure eeytime I see the island...I have to come back!
Other people so saw "recomendations" or "decoriations" when seeingthe signs...
Wow, they have a big spa here too...
...with showers...
400 years ago...this is what the spanish, portugese and dutch people saw in the horizon...I guess...
Omg, bepemefe (taiwanese pinyin) in the toilets)...
With some beach...
And more energy stations...I like...
Omg, Keelung signs as in Hollywood...
I remember when I cycled around taiwan, it was hard to find road 2 in keelung...it was all a mess...
Can you find the sign dor "road 2"?
Omg, family mart have strawbery flavoured ice cream now, everyone wants to try...
"its famous"...but limited...
This machines was working hard...
And many people waiting...
It was ok...
The trip continues...and I can still see keelung island...
Except the pier...im still thinking about how taiwan looked 300-400 years ago...
And keelung island :(
This is a new house near the northest point of taiwan...
Many people are enjoying the warm weather...forst day without rain...
Next stop was a harbour...where boats had lamps...
I think its to attract squids or something by night...
I can recall that I saw them when I cycled taiwan as well...
"Tsunami evacuation route"...I feel safe...
Twin Candlesticks...next stop...
like Swedish Raukar...
There are alot of hotsprings here...not tat far from Yangming shan in taipei...
Some happy buddha was also resting here...
"This volcanic group contains the est preserved traces of volcanic activity remaining in Taiwan..." better than turle island (thats classified as an active volcano I was told)...? strange...
The Rauk in a circle...
Interesting...
Omg "JS", my initials...
Many people were also taking pics on the island and ocean...
And some monument of the Rauks...
Passing by the mountian, on the way to Taipei (8km from there)...
Next stop was at JB´s Diner, a recently opened place...in Tianmu...
"Satisfying your burger"...what do they mean?
The prices were ok...
6 people were working in the kitchen...
I had a bacon burger...
They also had some lantern festival event near the old flora expo...
NExt stop...some japanese restaurant at Q-square...
Japanese salad...
...soup...
And sushi...
Next stop was Ireland´s Potato...
They didnt have mashed potatoes, witch cheese...not sure why...
But I ate them while watching the Lego movie...
An attempt to visit Keelung island
There are 2 island in the north of taiwan thats on my bucket list...
A sunnt day (finally), heading to those islands...
Keelung harbor...
Many traffic lights...
I love the windmill/solar panel things they have here...
All info to find the islands were not in english...but some where...so once ina while its easy to get lost...
Omg...
Once again...omg...
This is some mark from a giant rock that fell down last summer, after that I went on the caoling trail...
Night adventures in Taipei
Yesterday I went to buy some beer...
After buying swedish beer...I tried to find norweigan beer....
Well, it was hard...and harder when my tire broke...(but it was just a matter of time, efter everyday use)...I tried to find a giant store...(a bike store) but people kept givig me worng directions :(
Finally I found one...
Time to renew the tire...
Strange, at this store a light trie was cheaper than a heavy one...
Anyway..."no why" as the locals use to say...
Wow...pretty broken...
I later drank some chocolate milk with my neighbour...
At hilife...
After that I went to a hongkong restaurant near Luxy in Taipei downtown...
It was really nice...
Not sure about the name...
But the menu was very fresh...
Like a book...
And the waitress used a phone to type in our orders...thats reare here in taiwan...
Nice food...it is almost like a swedish chinese restaurant...
And sweet and sour sauce ofcourse...
Some "swedish pirog" things...with white steamed bread...
And something thats similar to tapioka soup...
And some brown soup, but it was not red bean..I cant recall that i tated something similar before...
A visit to the Chocolate Republic
I went to a Choclate museum today...in Taoyuan, south of Taipei...
It was not raining today...hallelujah...
This is taiwan...endless of traffic lights, with millions of pollutiing scooters...using them as recommendations, decoration or legislation, depending on where on the island you are...
Duuck mania...everyone loves it...I wonder what the next hype will be...
Finally there...
My old classmate went here last year...it seemed nice...
200nt in entrance...
Recommendations again?
They had a tour starting soon...
Not much in english here...
...nor here...
I bought some chocolate...to bad it wasnt in english...then I wouldhave gotten it for free...
Omg, Carl von Linné...the swedish guy who named and classified things in latin...
Maybe I am related to him...somehow...
Seems like most chcololate production units are in western countries...
By some reason...the Swedish "marabou Daim" was a big seller...or maybe it was just a symbol of "swedish chocolate"...
Taiwan har some other reprepsentative...
IT also said that caffein in chocolate is very low...however, its enough to trigger me...
Forrest gumps quote was used many times...in this muesum...
Omg, Belize seems to be a historical important place for chocolate...thats cool...
Some Swedish chamber of commerce event...
I went for a short visit a chamber of commerce event today...
But first I enjoyed a bottle of Steves beer...
Later on i went to little london...
They had problems with showing the Swedish hockey game...
Instead they had some other games on the screen, such as rugby...
Eventually they succeeded on getting the game...
I also met the Chalmers swedes again...
More hockey game problems...
I ordered a weissbeer...they had 2 kinds...this one I never tried before...i think...
I didnt follow the hockey game...
I did though meet up with Anders Frick, an old friend of mine...he was impressed by the speed of the free wifi here...
He also had a cool camera that takes pics every 30 second...
I got to try it on for a while...
It felt funny...
Joel didnt like to face people with cameras taking pics every 30 second...
Some break in the hockey game again...
Seems like sweden scored...
They had strange decoration here, at "little london"...near SYS memorial hall...
My friend Jacques bought some south african cake...
My friends favorite beer is Fullers...I have to try this one soon...
More mingeling...
We later paid a quick visit to ximen...where they had kopparbergs...
We also got some nice shots...
And we had a burger...
Joel...an epic guy...
Time to head home...Saturday is approaching...
Colombian coffee in taipei....
Nowadays I start the day with a Power walk with my neighbour..
Still enjoying the shorts weather...
Also enjoying traffic chaos...scooters and cars...
And pollution...
And more traffic...actually, it feels like people here dont give a damn about global warming...we can as well just stop care...
I later headed north, to meet a friend...and I got reminded about all the traffic lights in taipei...going 500meters...its a 5 minute ride, waiting 60-90 seconds at each traffic light (every 100 meters)...
It were some nice blocks...near nanjing east road...
It looked a little like in ximen...
And they had some cool ways to brew coffee...
Many cups in the background...
And alot of decoration...
My firend Susanne use to have coffee, egg and a peanutbutter sandwish...I chose to have the same...
It was nice...
She is so funny and cool, she use to work at Alingsås tidning (a news paper, same as my suster use to work at for a while)...at my hometown in sweden...
A 24cm high burger...and some beer bar visit...
I started the day by some breakfast at Hilife...
I got some extre tea with sugar...
Omg, Mariaos pizza...seemes to be pretty popular...I wonder why...?
I also had some wine...
...before heading to a burger bar...
It was another american style burger bar...
With inspiration fromthe 50´s i guess...
They had this 24 centimeter burger...that I wanted to try...
...ye, it was pretty high...but felt a little fake...just like the burgerbar in Hsinchu...since they have it on a stick, and alot of lettuce...that eats alot of space...
And it was not possible to eat it like a burger...since the stick was stuck inthe plate...
So I had to eat it from the top...
First part...
They played christmas music in the background...welcome to taiwan...(in february...)...
I passed by some nice roads south after the meal...
Headingto this place..."Beer & Cheese"...
A very famous beer bsar for some reason...
My beer was very expensive...440NT...(since they also ahd service charge)...strange...
And their lager was sold out...
It was ok...the bartender siad that it was his favorite...but the service charge was 10% of the price...I guess he picked an expensive one....
In the toilet they had some interesting thing...
They seemed to mix danish andswedish...or something...
Random dys in Taipei
I plan to do some trip soon...but right now, I just hang in the area...
Riverside park was nice, even though it was a littlebit rainy...I went here with a friend...sharing ideas...
Many roads in every direction...
They have alot of street dogs in taiwan...and thus many puppies...
In taiwan they get money the more they rebuild...so they build new things over and over...to use the system...luckily taiwanese people are not raised to ask questions...especially not to ask "why"...so no one seems to reflect over this...(my swedish friend was a littlebit sad that the park they just finished down there, was demolished)...
We later on went to hilife for some breakfast...
Coffee etc...
I also tried some cider...
And looked in land to invest in at the east coast of taiwan...
Then I got to try a nice beer from UK...
And some other ale...
Later in the night I headed to wulai...
Nice wine from aboriginals...
It was dark at the river...I wanted to swim here...
They have many of these small hotspring houses...
After a quick visit there...and some enjoyment of aboriginal patterna...
...it was time for Ximen...where it was concluded that the "cheap hotpot" is not cheap anymore...to bad...
What did Johan eat and do today?
There are some really rainy and relative cold days in Taiwan nowadays...
I had a meeting yesterday with a guy who hosts some internet site in Taiwan....we met up at Starbucks...
They have soem weird blackboard where thye promote "windows"...
We passed by some bakery...
...and ended up at a thai resturant...
IT was nice with some thai food...
Later in the evening, I continued to FE21 in banqiao...
Not that cusomer oriented staff...I gave them a name...but I got a "no" in reply...
But later I managed to enter...and could then enjoy some nice food...
Fish and seafood...
Nuts...
More cheese, nuts and mango...
More pizza...
And Icecream...it was really good...
More dessert....
And more nuts...it was "no time limit" (read: we could sit until they closed, which was 3 hours)...
A visit to a local beer bar...
I paid a quick visit to a local ber bar witha friend last night...
He was still working...when we met...
The beer is made in Kaohsiung....but they seem to keep the beer in this cupper barrel...
And they also offered some japanese sake...
And they will show sport events soon...maybe I have the chance to go here then...
This is the beer I had...some darker kind...
And fried rice...
And raw clams...
My friend was sceptic...but I tried it...
And some snails...french food...
Some other guests wanted to be friends and shared their numbers...
Sunday hangout...
I went to fridays last sunday...
It was in global mall in banqiao...it was the first tim ei was here...but i passed by this mall many times...
I had a cheesy cheese burger...
Fridays are common in Taiwan, I Think its very american...but they love USA here...
My friend wants to buy drums...so we passed by a store where they sell instruments...
And we also passed by Coldstone...
Even if it is cold...we bought some icecream...as usual I bought peanut butter cup icecream...
Joel was looking for bags...omg...
They also have a store for pets that gets hair cuts...interesting...
It was raining the whole evning...
We later on went north of banqiao...and I saw an intersting garage...10 floors, of carpark...with elevators...
We tried this recently opened restaurant...
Weith ice cream and beer...
And BBQ...
The first weekend in february is comming to an end...
Some Taipei hang outs...
Some days ago I went to a steak house in banqiao...
Beef from USA they said...
Turus was the name...not sure if I have been here before...
A knife for a steak...
Free refill of bread...I like it already...
What did johan eat today? a small peice of salmon roll...
...and corn soup...
More bread...the butter was sweet...interesting...the green stuff was pesto...
The steak was "ok"...but I like swedish flina steak more...which I got at a canadian steak house in Hsinchu some years ago...
Dessert..some mango pudding...
Later on I went to yiland beer bar...it was nice...
I asked for a recommendation...and they said that green beer...not sure why, maybe they want to get rid of it...I also had "chinese medice beer"...but just like last year...it didnt taste that much...
Late night activities in taipei...
Last night I made a short visit to Woobar...
It was rainy...
Still some people, but not thatmany foreingers...
Woobar...
...and some japanese bar...(however they told us that it was only the name that was japanese, th ebar was tawanese)...
Robin is back in taiwan for a trip...
I had som banana milk shake...but it tasted like it was almond or peanut milk shake...
And some baked potatoes...
Bai bai buys...
Later I went to a hongkong resturant...it was suppose to be open 24 hours...
But it was not...this week...so we tried another ones...while concluding that the fire brigade passed by luxy...omg, some fire?
There were many people at this place...
The food was "all you can eat" quality...but it was harged by peice...
Yummy! my favorite...like a swedish pirog...
And sweet and sour sauce!...
When ariving back, I still saw the local beer bar open...thats cool...maybe maffia...
Later on (the next morning)...I had swedish coffee and lösgodis...thtas nice...
I also passed by costco...to buy some cheap wine...since my friend Joel got me a screw cork...I can buy any kind of bottle now...
Many locals queuing up for free food...
Not sure why, but they often check what you bougt (or pretend to check), when you leave the building...
A friday in northern Taiwan...
I started the day by visiting a new steak house...
Wnag steak house was the name...
They had goose liver...
And 2 different kinds of bread...
And some other dishes...
French soup...
And steak...
It ended with some brownie dessert...the place reminded me of Tasty...some kind of franchise that is common in Taiwan...
Next stop: Keelung...
They have many interesting stores here...
But most famous is the huge duck...
Its a huge tourist thing...
They even have a christmas tree with the duck on...
Many people come here...
I think the duck broke twice...they also have it in 2-3 other taiwanese cities...and its made in holland...
On youtube one can see when it broke last time...
Many selfies here...
Omg, far away they have another duck...
I ended the stay by buying some candies...
A thursday in Taipei
I paid a quick visit to ikea today...
It is a nice place...
They have alot of kopparbergs cider...
Norrlands guld...
STockholm festival beer...
More Norrlands guld...(all swedish brands)...
They spell Sausage: "sausage"...
But Rösti: "grönsakskaka"...I wonder what algorithm they are using when picking the names...
I had a 15 meatball set...
And coke...omg, not good for the body...
Its always tricky to get out from ikea at xinchuang...
Later I went to a local beer bar in Zhonghe...
I tried bothkinds of beer...
And some side dishes...
It was nice...but I prefered the light beer...
We were also treated some 75% shot...
They were kind enough to burn it a littlebit first...
Or alot...
And some coffee bean inside...
I also saw Robocop...
It is casted by a swedish actor...
It was an "ok" movie...
They also have some swedish films on the cinema right now...
What did johan eat today...?
Its 18...something...I havnt eaten enything yet...
I just concluded that they have no magos at carrefour...thats strange...
On a trip...
I went for a trip some day ago...
Chinese people have hard time to form a line...
no wonder its pretty chaotic in asia...
It reminds me of some illustration:
It seems to be a common opinion about this culture...
Source:
After some hour, I managed to reach the counter...since people were running back and frorth, their english wasnt that good, so they went to the luggage drop counter, and to som other information desk, poor german airport staff, trying to deal with these neveu riche asians...
I was wearing my tie, to get better service...I think it worked...but not as much in germany, as in china...
Also in the airplane it was chaotic, since people want to enter fast, while at the gate, incase the plane leaves without them...
Since asians usualy have a different perception about time...I heard...(the gate opened super early, maybe due to that it would be chaotic)
And they often bring as much han luggage as possible, and stay in ths isle, blocking the path, while preparing their bags...no wonder the gate opened 1 hour before take off, for the plane heading to china...
Noooo! no screen on the flight...to bad...
They had some screen on the seiling, showing some chinese movie, that barely anyone watched...
Another neveu riche lady, complaining about the food...poor staff...
Just like in sweden, they had wifi...
But I couldnt enter with my phone...maybe they think that people would use a non-airplane mode phone...
Just like when I was in turkey and a guy tried to open the emergency exit, since he wanted to smoke...so funny...
After some hours, it was time for yoga...
Many chinese people seem to have this as a daily routine...
They had some Bremen beer, that was nice...
They even distribute it to sweden...
As usual, people standing up, when the "fasten seatbelt" sign is on...welcome to asia...
I made a trip to chengdu...
...it was interesting....it reminded me of when I was here 2 years ago...its a nice city...
My luggage, with a carrier from Beijing...
It is surely not as customer oriented as in the west...I remember when I was in aukland, and the counteer was open for anyone the whole day for any flight...here it was impossible to check inbefore a certain time...
This lady was rejecting me...she had a "mayor" look, with that ribbon...
Here are the check-in time...strictly...
A smoking room with open doors...so useful...
And there is my bag...on the way in to the plane...
Yet another flight is a plane that jsut landed, stil making speed..."seat belt on"...but where am i?
In taiwan ofcourse...the country where signs are recommendations, or decorations...so funny...
Its ok...its all very entertaining...
Thousands of chinese visitors at the immigration queue...
And someone took most bags of the conveyor belt...it was hard to find mine...
19.35, my bus to taipei...but it was some 15 minutes late...
Its easy to complian...when u have a carrier...in a country without sidewalks for wheel chairs...in the end i walked on the street...
Later on I made a visit to Cosbys...
And G2 Paradise...
In shorts...as usual...20 degrees...
Burger and pinacolada...super good...
Its so funny, last half year, they started to decorate the ximen red building street with gay flags...I wonder why so suddenly all these came up...some guy said that too many non-gay people hang there...so it losts its soul...I claim that its the only street that reminds me of europe...no pollution scooters and outside service...maybe they should have more streets like this...
Later I also passed by a recently opened beer bar...
The beer is from Kaohsiung...
It taste a little like Yilan beer...
But the bottle is like a bar I went to in taoyuan some year ago...
Prost is the name...
Last days in Frankfurt...
I lended some cash to a friend who toldme he will pay back a long time ago...
Some days ago, he told me that he would meet me up here...at this place...
But the name i got did not exist...
I asked some people there...and they told me there we no one like him in the building...
He also deativated his facebook account, and most probably left the country, it was not much money, but still, I can conclude that im to nice to people...I should avoid some cultures...for my own sake in the future...
LAter on I met up 2 very good friends in the club Exzess...they even had a library...
With books from all over the world...
I often hand here...its very bohemic...
Alot of people are smoking...seconday smoke for the rest of us, the vendilation is not that good here...
They have good food offers...
Its popular among students...
My friends Juan and Adrian were also there...
'They also announced some demonstrations that will be held next week...
I ended the day by donationg my bike to adrian, he has been very unlucky, by getting his bikes stolen many times...I hope this bike wont meet the same destiny...2014 continues...
Critical mass in Frankfurt, (February)...
Anoter onth, a new Critical Mass...
Me met at the opera house as usual...
Many bikes...I was told that inthe summer there are moer than 350 people attending...
Uli, my friend made a symbol for the critical mass...
Same thing as usual...blocking streets...
And some promosion of the decunstruction earlier this morning...
It was a nice day...
Messe...one of my favorite areas in Frankfurt...or atleast buildings...
Here is the building that was demolished...
It was alot of dust everywhere...
It looked like it had been snowing...due to the dust...
And the buildings were also white...
Nice bike...I will ahve one of these when I get big...
Omg, the father wears a helmet...but not the kid...
They played bike polo, at the place where we took a break...
Long queue to the beer kiosk...
And some airplane...I wonder where it is heading...
Omg, this guy was dancing to his own music...reminded me of some youtube clip i saw some years ago...
I had some old wine to drink...
But I also wanted to get some local stuff...
...so i bought Club-Mate...a crbonated Mate tea drink from south america...
retty thick bottle, since it was heavily carbonated...
I was introduced to this church by Uli...it had an interesting history...
Omg, even the chain on this bike was painted orange...
Cool gas refiller...
Wow, a giant bike...made in taiwan I guess...
Some sign of liberalism...
The bikers are taking a rest...
Interaction with the tram...
The TV-tower...its a pity that you cannot enter it...
Some nice cruising at the east parts of the city...
A guy from the polo team also joined up...
We went on until the evening...
And ended at the opera...where a guy recognized me from the youtube clip i sent...
I was also treated some peanuts...it was nice...
I remember this steak house...first time i passed by was in september...i havnt entered yet...maybe some day in teh future...
Bockenheim tower...
I had a Binding later on...
I also inspected an espresso machine at a friends house...
Nice label, by the way...brankfurts skyline...
We had some mushroom stew...
And I also tried to finish my white wine from hungary for 1.7euro...
I ended they day by visiting a book club...at a local bar...
Not sure if this was henninger...but it felt frankfurt made...
It was at the same place as 2 weeks ago...Metropol...near the old city...
...2014 continues...
Largest demolition in Europe...
I was at my friends place this morning...
To watch a demolition of a building...
It is th ebuilding behind the chimney...
They have been preparing to demolish this house for a long time...
It was a foggy evening...
I brought peanut butter...
My goal was to empty the jar...
Juan had eggs on his sandwish...
Many foreingers were at the table...
Juan wanted to toast his sandwish...
But it didnt go well...
Cleaning the toaster might work...
Hmm...he reminds me of "Stig Helmer Olsson",, a famous character in swedish movies...
Juan also bought a lemon press, with the face as the kansler in germany...
They had the skyline on a picture...
Now they have to change it, since on ot the buildings are demolished...
But it is a house behind it anywaw...
When i went downtown, alot of police men werr guarding the zone where the house was...
It was hard to go anywhere...luckily I was on a bike, so I can walk my way through most places...
A visit to Gute Stute...
Last night i paid a visit to a very interesting bar in Frankfurt...near Galluswarte...
The name was Gute Stute...
it reminded me a little bit about Lupan a´gile in Paris..
With wooden interior design...
It has been here for 20 years atleast...
And has a horse theme...
Even outside it has a horse carriage...
I met up with some spanish people here...
And had apfelwein...
Alot of decoration on the wall...hard to see on the dark pic...
Rapp´s is a famous apfelwein brand here...
Even the seiling was full of things...
Juan was also there...
Playing with the candle...
They also served free snacks...
Some people prefer beer...
Group photo...
They also served free liqour before we left...
It had many layers of taste...
I had juans...
And at the end I think i drank most of the ones on the table...5 or something...
The bartender was very funny...
Another...i think I peaked when we left...not that strategic...
Just like Frida 116 bar they had some swings at the bar...thats nice...
Later...in Bockenheim, I found this public book shelf...
So interesting, you can borrow here...return the book, or bring your own book...
Most books were in german though...
Some rules...but no control...the city government arranged this I heard...maybe there are some of these in sweden too...I must check...
Chinese show and rugby evening...
I joined some fiends for some chinese activites today...
We met outside the Galeria Kaufhof...
Due to chinese new year, and that more than 3000 chinese people ive in frankfurt... they have alot of nice activites in these days...
Many asian sponsors...
The event was in the middle of a shoe store...
It is the yaer of th horse...
And they had some performance...
Many people came to watch...
We also got some red bag...
And some instrumental performance...
And umbrella performance...
They had some issues with the music equipment...
More dancing...
And the whole dancing crew...
And now calligraphy...
The woman siad that he man is the master...
Preparing...
And then writing...
The visitors coult chose colour and then they wrote their name on a paper...and the chinee staff translated their name into chinese...
I picked a red paper...
Omg, they transated my "han" into simplyfied character...
But it was ok...
This is the grandson of the "master"...
Omg, not its dojne...so professional...
We also paid a short visit to the top...
My spanish friend Mago...and his italian couchsurfer...
Wow, they even have chinese on the menu in this mall...
We later on headed to Waxy, where we were watching Rugby...
I fels like in Brass Monkey in Taipei...it was nice...
Later on i was heading towards the messe...
And paid a short visit to Juan...
He was buying pizza...or was it burger?...
Most stores are closed on sundays here...so some supermarkets are open pretty late on saturdays...
I also had a kebab...
At XXL...its famous for beeing big...
This is the one I always eat here...
I also bought peanut butter...
Omg, so cheap wine...
And Milka...a chocolate I always liked as a kid...
I also had some beer made in frankfurt...
Nice peice...white and milk chocolate...
I ended with the cheap 1.7euro wine...
Last friday in january...
I continued to try beers from frankfurt...
And some wine...it was nice,...
I also ate lunch at a korean restaurant...
With interesting decorations...
And many side dishes...just like in korea...
However, they had chinese paitnings..i guess people are not that picky...
They also had some singing...after they closed...korean style...
It was a nice day in Steinbach...
I headed downtown later that day...
Many airplanes as usual in the air...
And I bought my self some german/alop chocolate...
Just like in sweden, they have separate lane for bikes...thats nice...
I later on headed to Waxy, an irish bar...
They had some soccer game going on...
I had a beer...for 4.4 euro...
They had karakoe nigh...
MY friends were signing...
Both english songs...
...and german songs...
And people were dancing in the dark...
And doing magic...
Omg, I catched my friend John, while singing...
Tomorrow they will ahve a rugby evening here...
And some swedish made songs...
This is a blur pic pf people pon the stage...
Waxy´s, it was a nice bar, but the music ended up a littlebit loud...
So we headed north....
To this tower...
They had alot of beer from frankfurt here...
And nice lamps...
Schöfferhof...its nice...
My riend oredere a pinacolada...just my kind of drink...
They also showed alot of city skylines on a TV-screen...that was really cool...
Later on I headed back to Waxy´s to check some things...
But no people that I knew were there...
Happy chinese new year!
