Jetlag and Taipei Street Art

Hi there,

I'm Pia and I will be taking over the blog for some time to write about our experiences in Taiwan.

What better way to start writing then by sitting in a Hotel room in Taipei, having a sheet mask on, sipping on some cold Oolong tea and occasionally snacking some Pocky.

I love Taiwan, that's why I'm back a second time. This time I brought Juan with me to show him why I always rave about Taiwan. The country is definitely underrated.

We arrived in Taipei yesterday after about 24 hours of travel. As you can imagine we were quite tired.
However we could not yet go to sleep, since it was only 3 pm and we had to get accustomed to the time zone.

Since we were pretty tired but we could not yet check into our Hotel, we just went for a walk through the neighborhood and drank some coffee.
Our Hotel is located right next to Longshan Temple and near Ximen district (which I love). The location is okay, it's near the city center and has the metro right around the corner and Longshan Temple is definitely worth a visit. However the neighborhood is a little shady... Let's just say there are some lightly clothed women around night time...
But that's okay. We will only be staying for five nights.

After checking in and taking a much needed shower we headed out towards Ximen, the young, hip, Shibuya-like district of Taipei full of shops, restaurants and young people.

We drank our first bubble tea (which in Taiwan is a must, since bubble tea originated here and it tastes amazing unlike some you get in Europe) and took in the atmosphere.
To those who don't know bubble tea: it's a tea based drink with tapioca balls (pearls) inside (there are sometimes other toppings, but tapioca pearls are most common and in my opinion the best topping). Tapioca is made out of the starch of the cassava plant, has no nutritional value except carbohydrates and not really any distinguishable taste itself. It's all about the consistency. If you like chewy stuff (like japanese mochi) you probably also will like tapioca pearls.
In Taiwan you find many Bubble tea shops with lots of different variations of bubble tea. With milk, without milk, black tea, green tea, tea with flavors, etc. Very often you can decide whether or not you want sugar in it or not.

After walking around for a bit we decided to eat Korean food for dinner. We had Korean barbecue (meat and vegetables you grill in frond of you) and Bibimbap (a rice dish topped with vegetables, meat and an egg) that comes in a steaming hot dish. You should mix your Bibimbap before you it, as I was kindly reminded by the women sitting next to us ;).