New apartment, Melissa arrives and Mexican food

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Ok so a lot has happened since I last wrote anything on this site. Melissa has finally arrived and we've moved to a bigger apartment. We've also eaten some fantastic food and explored some really cool parts of the city. First, the apartment. Basically I had initially agreed to rent the studio from Martin for a month. A couple of days before I arrived however he emailed me to let me know that his sister-in-law had in fact just let it out so I could only have it for ten days. Not wanting to leave me in the lurch he has let us take a 3 bedroom apartment for the remainder of the month contract for the same price. So after two more nights in the studio we drag our ridiculously heavy bags around the corner to the new place. After ten days of the studio I'm overwhelmed by the space we have. If we want to take the place on a long term basis Martin has said it'll be $30000 NT/month which is too much so we're going to have to move again.

Melissa arrived on the 27th and has fallen in love with the city already. She has come armed with a blog written by a Californian girl who has lived in the city for a few years. It lists some of the best places to eat around the city and isn't restricted to just Chinese food. One of her recommendations is a Mexican place called Eddie's Cantina. It's in Danshui which is the northernmost stop on the red MRT line so we head up there for lunch on a scorching hot sunny afternoon. We're both hungry before we left and Eddie's takes us a good hour to locate so we're pretty ratty and weak by the time we eventually find it. Melissa is a Mexican food snob and refuses to let me have the fajitas because they aren't officially Mexican. I'm a little disappointed but plump for a burrito and she has the carnitas and carne asada. Both are excellent and the burrito weighs about a pound. The tortillas are also homemade which is a surprising but very nice touch. After we grab a drink at The Waterside Cafe and soak up the sun. Danshui is a beautiful area, on the riverside with a lovely boardwalk along the water. At the weekend it has an almost carnival atmosphere with little funfair and streetfood stalls in abundance. It's probably a little too far out to consider living in permanently but is a really nice place to spend a day.

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