Wine, Waves, Waggly Dogs, Warlocks, and A Rather Large Bridge

Ok, so I lied about the warlocks, but there is this.

:O

Bamboo Crackers

The beer

It was a beer

Tasted like a beer.

Also rice cake from 7-11

It was pretty decent.

On Sunday I met up with a few friends for a wine festival

So, there's the wine that I mentioned.

It was in Taipei City hall, which is located by the massive Taipei 101 building.

The event was actually fairly cheap, but a couple of friends and I met up with some people who said they could get us in for free and secured us some official looking baller as fuck badges. 

Unfortunately they weren't good enough and we weren't able to get in with them (guess we didn't look the part of being employees what with my yeti beard)

Fortunately though we were able to get in trough....other means.

Such as paying the door fee.

Even came with a free wine glass for tasting (CF DRINKING) wine.  

The place was fairly packed

(and I totally only just now noticed the free coffee stands :C )

Now for some interesting pictures.

The cheese was excellent,

Or as the french would say

Excellent

I should know, after all I am a Chinese major. 


We then proceeded to eat some steaks, but not lift any weights sadly :C

And then I finally became the little girl as we waited for our steaks to cook.

Apparently a Swedish one or some shit. 


Then we got said steaks. 

That single broccoli was very crucial to the entire experience. 

 After wandering around for a bit more and trying various wines and rums we ran across some truffles.

It was pretty rad because they let us try a sample.

Didn't really taste like much, but it sure does look like poop doesn't it?

Or maybe a scab.....

And then there's these guys.

Great guys, them.

After that we rode in a car up to the northern-most stop on the MRT which is the city's subway line.

Up to danshui

 Now for that dog I promised

Super Swag.

 There was also some golden dude.

And roasted chicken filled with rice

I was tasty....

It was also tasty.

Now for some water. 

That last one is not water, but a very chill Buddha statue.

He knows what's up. 

Now for dem waves I promised.

I know, water is very exciting. 

Oh yea, here's a bridge too.

 A color changing bridge

 Now with ice cream!

 We walked around for a bit, saw some sights, talked about stuff and things as one tends to do.

 Happened across this hotel which I thought resembled a cruise ship in a sense.

Plus it had a mermaid out front

(SHE'S MINE, BACK OFF)

 After returning we gorged on various foods at a famous local resturant.

My meal comprised of beef noodles (shocking, right?), some sort of fish that looked like white bread rolls, and some sort of fish inside of some sort of jelly coating....I'm being very specific here.

They were probably some of the best noodles I've had yet surprisingly. 

Aaaaaaand finally on our way to go see batman that night there was a fire pit on the sidewalk. Happens here quite often actually.  

And that's it. All in all pretty chill weekend......

except for Saturday night.

ALL I WILL SAY ABOUT THAT IS MY BROTHER WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE GAO LIANG 

STAY AWAY FROM IT

Or else you may end up confused as hell on the street at 3 am bumbling about all by yourself in a vain attempt to catch a taxi home.

Bad times.

Obviously I made it home or else I couldn't have made this post.

Consuming Concerts, Crowds, and Random Crap

Ok so I didn't ingest any crowds of people, but crowds of dumplings and alcohol did make their way into my system last weekend.

There were also delicious beef noodles as well as store bought instant noodles that weren't too shabby.

Although I feel the Bar Beer was a bit of false advertising due to the distinct lack of other people over sharing awkward stories and numerous amounts of folks desperate for a shag that typically accompanies beer at a bar. Perhaps Kirin were hoping for a representation of taste more so than setting with this one.

Still though, saw plenty of the latter at a local bar we went to later that night called Brass Monkey. A bar that was currently celebrating Bastille day and was filled with expats and Taiwanese people in "French" berets.

There was an American army guy there who explained to me about a city in Thailand that was known as the sex capital of the world before then taking a (rather large) drink of his Kronenbourg and silently staring off into the distance.

All in all it was a decent night.

After I went home I ate some crackers and drank a little bit with this guy, who I picked up in a small vending machine.

Not bad for 60 NT

Earlier that day I also had the pleasure of finally trying some fairly famous Din Tai Fung dumplings.

I got my order to-go as the wait for a seat in the restaurant itself was an hour. They gave me a dimebag of ginger along with my food (I MADE AN ILLEGAL DRUG REFERENCE HERE (MARIJUANA) I AM NOW EDGY AND COOL).

They we kinda overpriced in my opinion. Didn't blow me away or anything, but perhaps I was not trying the right item.

To be honest I was more interested in the hello kitty cakes that were nearby.

They looked cute and tasty, and that goes a long way in my book.

The next day about 10 of us went to a famous rock festival outside of the city at fulong beach.

There were quite a lot of people.

Those last two pictures were just from the trip going there.

The whole weekend's attendance totaled at about 800,000 people I believe.

We started off by eating at a local restaurant. I ate some delicious sheep and noodle soup as well as some sort of melted rice dish which is pictured below.  

Looked like boogers, tasted like God.

Oh and there was an entire cooked pig just chillen on the side of the street. 

Looks delicious.

NOW FOR PICTURES OF THE BEACH

Some incredibly packed waters.

Had a lot of fun playing in them.

A lot more fun after buying and consuming 5 beers for 100 NT (A little over 3 dollars American).

After swimming for several hours they closed the beach for clean up before dark....They sure had their work cut out for them. 

Still kind of a pretty view


After a little while massive amounts of people started queuing up attempting to leave, or to find their way to the only bathroom within miles......(I ended up peeing behind some trashcans)

And there was this badass shirt.

 GO AHEAD, TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS

please?

Now for some more beach

 Pictured below is one of the stages that the bands played at.

 After successfully peeing some of us decided to head back for the music.

It was like goddamn Shang-Ri-La


But with (what I'm assuming is) more deep-fried pot stickers. 

Now for a close up

No but really that's as close as we could get. There was an amazing band playing that sounded a lot like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CntKZf4i_S8

Also this band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjtAeLA9-xo

They were kinda meh.

After that I went home.

That's it.

That's all.

No cool ending, it is disappointing,

Just like real life,

unless you live in Taipei,

Which is an amazing place. 



:D