day 13

So this is the day we were supposed to go see Longshan Temple and the National Palace Museum....BUT. We overslept.

SO...after a late start, we decded to skip the temple and just go to the museum. We didn't have anybody to take us there, however, but we figured we could find it on our own. 2 and a half hours, two rides on the MRT, a taxi ride, a bus ride, and much confusion later we got there.

and only because we followed some college guys going to the same place. pathetic.

so we finally got there and marveled at the size.. entered, bought tickets, and went to see some exhibits. sadly for me, almost all the ones i thought looked interesting were not even open yet, like the ancient treasures of the forbidden city and the furniture from the something dynasty.

We did still see some cool stuff. Like Ju wares, ceramic pots that are very rare and known as very beautiful because of the light blue, somewhat transparent glaze used on them. We also saw an exhibit on calligraphy and wall paintings, a Tibetan exhibit, and also the evolution of pottery etc. There were some amazing jade carvings too, so intricate that you had to look through a magnifying glass to see all the details.

seeing everything took a lot longer than we expected, so we scurried down to the gift shops. (the museum closes at five) a lot of the scrolls for sale were really pretty, but also really expensive, but we did end up with a few cool things. which you guys will have to wait to find out about.

ah yes. then it was very cold, and the traffic was very bad (rush hour). we had to catch bus 255 to get back to shilin mrt station, so we could get back to the main taipei station, so we could get back to fuzhong station in banciao. there were many problems.

first, the buses were mucho full and we couldn't get on the first one that came by.
then, we had to wait in the cold.
next, we finally got on bus 255 which was also tres full and loud
even more, the bus was very jerky and we were crashing into people. (on the bus, not road)
once, the bus stopped very abruptly, and all the standing passengers (us) almost fell over.
after that, we finally got off but didn't know how to get to shilin, so we followed a bunch of schoolkids.

finally, we made it. (after getting to taipei main station, we're good to go)

The museum was worth all the trouble...I guess...but we were incredibly tired once we got back to Banciao. I fell asleep right away to be prodded awake by Steph an hour later so that we could go walk around. I fell back asleep. She then took my blankets. Bleh.

So we very sleepily (in my case) walked around Banciao, went into a couple of shops, and then walked back.

i was afraid people would think i was kidnapping kari and then mugging her or something because she was stumbling around. yikes.

So anyway, it was kind of a low-key evening after such a hectic day.