Taipei

Hmm. It has been quite long time since I last wrote something. Lots of things have happened since then.

I went to Taipei this weekend and explored the city. Even though it does not seem that tricky city on the map, it proved to be it in real life. So, this is what happened. On Friday evening, after 4,5 hours train trip from Kaohsiung to Taipei, I first went to my hostel (called Taiwanmex, with extremely good location just couple of mins walk from Taipei Main Railway Station). Then, I decided to go and explore the city.

I went to the underground mall that is located nearby the railway station. It actually covers quite an huge area and navigating it is bit tricky. Well, I eventually found a nice place to get up from there, and decided to go around for a while. After walking around 20 minutes, I found a nice place with small streets full of shops and restaurants. Kept walking for a while and then I decided to locate my self from the map. Well. Easier said thatn done. The small streets and the long time spent underground totally confused me and I really had no idea where I was. Well, easiest solution was just to keep walking and to find a place big enough to be visible on the map. After about 30 miutes I found a subway station where there was a map with which I could then see where I was. After that navigation was much easier.

During the weekend I also had the chance to see local ice hockey games and to referee them as well. The games were good, and they have got some really talented players. I was told that most of the players have their background in in-line hockey.

From Taipei I travelled back with HSR, the High Speed Rail. The train goes pretty damn fast,and it only took 1.5 hours to get back to Kaohsiung. Normal train took 4.5 hours. However, it was bit funny that after 1.5. hours in train, it took me 1 hour to get back to the uni with bus.