National Palace Museum

Hello again,

we were craving some western food, so for breakfast/brunch we decided to go to the ACME breakfast club. We had some Avocado Bread with poached eggs on top and some grilled cheese Sandwiches with a fried egg along with a salted caramel latte and a black sesame latte. Everything was super delicious, especially the black sesame latte tasted really good.
You might have noticed that I really like food and showing it on my blog ;). But I have to clarify that when I take pictures of my food I quickly take one or two, look if they are blurry or anything and then proceed to eat. When we arrived at the breakfast restaurant there was a couple that already had their food on the table and were taking pictures of it. They were still taking pictures (not having eaten anything of it) when we were finished with our food. So they were taking pictures of the food for a minimum of 40 minutes. I don't understand people who do that... I want to eat my food when its freshly made.

Afterwards we took the bus to the National Palace Museum.
The museum costs 350 NTD (150 if you have an international student ID) which is quite expensive, but it is totally worth it. We also rented the Audio Guides (150 NTD) which were informative at times, but I think you can do without them.
The museum has many interesting expositions spread over three floors and you can also visit the adjacent Zhishan Garden, which unfortunately is closed on Mondays, so we could not enter.
Also, the two most famous pieces of the museum, the jadeite cabbage and the meat shaped stone were not there since they are displayed elsewhere for a short period of time. They will return to the museum in late April I think...
Nonetheless we liked it really much.

Our favorite exhibitions were "A Garland of Treasures: Masterpieces of Precious Crafts in the Museum Collection" and "Art in Quest of Heaven and Truth: Masterpieces of Jades in the Museum Collection". Some of the crafts are so intricate and detailed it is just astonishing.
The museum is quite popular and there are many tourist groups so be prepared to having to wait a bit to see some of the pieces.
It is not allowed to bring any food or drinks into the museum (there are lockers on site) but there are water fountains all around the museum and there is a cafe just before the entrance, where we also made a quick stop to have something small for lunch (sorry, no photos taken). JJ just had a sandwich and I had a flan (an originally Spanish/European dessert pretty popular and often sold here).

After spending about four hours in the museum we headed back to the city, which takes about an hour, since the museum is pretty far away from the city center, to meet a friend for dinner at the food mall in Taipei 101.
We ate at a Michelin star food court restaurant (the first Michelin star awarded to food sold in a food court and the cheapest Michelin star meal (about 200 NTD per meal)), "Hawker Chan" and had some chicken and pork rips with rice.

at Shilin Station

For dessert we ate some Matcha soft serve ice cream with azuki beans and mochi and with matcha cake on top.

All very good!
After taking some pictures in the area around Taipei 101 again and checking out the super cute Ghibli Store (called Donguri Republic) we just went home to write a bit and relax.