Taipei 101

This morning was off to a very nice start when a parcel arrived from Australia, filled with some exciting Christmassy items, yay!

After class, my friend Rachel and I were planning on going to the Museum of Contemporary Art, but it was closed (but we didn't really mind since the exhibit at the moment was something strange about rocks... hmm). So we walked to Ximending, passing some kind of traditional temple on the way...

We stopped at the 'Red House' which is one of Taipei's oldest buildings (built in 1908). At night time it is apparently very lively with some outdoor markets and live music inside, but during the day it was quite peaceful.

I'm not sure what this creature is. The sign below it had some interesting Chinglish which did not do very much to clarify the confusion...

We went to some department stores to have a look around for a little while, and then when it got dark we made our way over to Taipei 101 (the second(?) tallest building in the world)! Rather than paying the extortionate price to go up to the observation deck, we just asked for a pass to visit Starbucks on the 35th floor, which was high enough to get an impressive view of Taipei.

We feasted on an interesting meal (pig's ears, mushrooms, intestines, pig's blood mixed with rice, noodles, vegetables, and soy bean kind of things) which was surprisingly very delicious!

What a lovely day :)