I woke up to the sound of rain falling hard. The sound of the rain here differs from the Bay, apparently because we are closer to the mountains here. Speaking of mountains, I climbed one yesterday. Tiring, but fun.

There were about 2000 steps going up. I thought I was going to explode. These steps continued up for another 30 minutes or so.

The map said we would end up at a Guan Yin Temple, but we ended up at this infamous...rock. (No joke, it's the prized rock of the city).

But we did enjoy this little view, as my heart and breath tried to catch up.

To be honest, we had the option of continuing upwards, but the stairs ended, and all that was left was a steep climb and a rope for you to prop yourself up as you continued to ascend. Did I mention? I was wearing soft boots, so I had to bow out of this adventure. Naturally, it was time to take the 2000 foot journey back down the mountain.

And ended up at a different temple. A temple is Sun Bin 孫臏 allegedly, the same person as Sun Zi 孫子... Yes, of the Art of War. Here I caught my first traditional puppet show ever. Luckily for me, it was 福祿壽 oh and 財神 made an appearance along the way. Are all these types of puppet shows this slow? I couldn't tell if it was over, or if they were still in the middle of their act. But, for what it's worth, the props and stage was really appealing! See?

Our day continued into Taipei.

Oh wait. Rewind. How could I forget? Last time I visited, I found these Longan Walnut buns from the bakery at the train station. I've been thinking about it since. So of course, The first thing I did when I arrived was go get it, but they've been out!! Until yesterday. Early in the morning, I went to get my fresh, warm, Longan Walnut bread. How happy I was.

Ok. As I was saying. Then we went towards Taipei for lunch.

Then meandered. And found more food. This is a chinese bun饅頭 with cheese (and yes, that is a Christmas tree).

Wow, I'm eating a lot. Luckily I climbed that mountain in the morning! :)

Along my walk... This is a walking path in the street. In SF we have bike paths, but since bikes, scooters and cars have the right of way here, walkways are hard to come by.