I could not have been more excited for the New Years, because it is the first time we have had time off from school. I got to leave Wednesday at noon and did not have school again until Monday. First break in six months! Lakyn and I decided to go to Taipei on Wednesday after school to see the famous fireworks go off of Taipei 101. Then, on Thursday, we would take the bullet train to Taichung. So, Wednesday came around and I ran away from school, bought bubble tea, packed my bag, and was ready to go! We got on a train going to Keelung. We got a hotel a little bit outside of Taipei, since staying in Taipei on New Years is both crazy and crazy expensive. We arrived in Keelung, settled in, and took a bus to Taipei.
We were told Taipei would be *just* like New York and if we didn’t get there by 3pm, we wouldn’t be able to see anything at all the whole night. Well, in true Taiwanese fashion….HUGE exaggeration. We got to Taipei around 4 and it was virtually empty. Maybe more people than a normal day but not noticeably. So we took the next seven hours to wander around the Taipei 101 area. There are huge malls and good food, so we took advantage. We ate lots and explored the area (which is really cool by the way). There was also a huge concert (much like New York actually) but they were all Taiwanese performers so I didn’t know any of the songs. We watched for a few minutes though before staking out our spot at 11pm. We got the perfect spot. We were close enough to see everything perfectly, but far enough away that we could get 101 in its entirety in pictures (important). Taiwan is funny because in America everyone would be pushing and shoving to get the best spot…but not here. Everyone found a spot, sat down, never touching anyone else, and waited until 11:55pm to stand up. It was great! The weather was nice too so I wasn’t even cold! (: Check out the videos and pictures of the fireworks below: SUPER COOL.
The less super cool part was trying to get out of the city once the fireworks ended. Lakyn and I wandered for a while until we found a cab (after about 50 full cabs already passed us without a glance), and asked him to take us back to Keelung. In hindsight….we probably should have just kept waiting…this driver was gross (he smoked three cigarettes on a 20 minute ride…AND he was a beetle nut chewer!!! We could tell from his red stained mouth…EW!) But, he got the job done. Soon enough, we were back in Keelung ready to sleep for the first time in 2015!
Check out my next blog about our continued weekend in Taichung!!!