Back to the beginning

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This morning we caught the 10:47 train from Hualien to Yilan and then the bus to Taipei. We had to go out the rear exit and then walk a little bit down the street to get to the bus terminal, but once there we found two companies: one that went to Taipei City Hall for 120 and another that went to Taipei Bus Staion for 129. We took the cheaper and immediately left.

It took an hour and then we took the metro to our host's office, dropped off our bags, and ate lunch. Then we went to the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. It's basically just a big free area where people practice their sweet dance moves, fly kites, walk around, take pictures of their kids, etc. We hung out there for an hour before meeting our host and heading to her place.

We ate dinner at a nearby noodle place and got dumplings there too...they were really good. After that, we went to a monthly open-mic night that she usually goes to. It's called the Red Room and you bring a bottle of wine and just hang out for a few hours listening to whoever wants to get up. Holly sang a nice song and we were there until a little after midnight...don't know what we'll do tomorrow!

Technical details
- train from Hualien to Yilan (a little less than 2 hours): 143 per person
- all along the way on the side of the road there are extremely long ladders along the mountains as if there were farmers who have to climb to get to their crops. From the bus you can't see anything growing, at least at this time of year, but these ladders are humongous and stick out along the green landscape

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Photos

wine and wooden cups
open mic night - Red Room