A writhing carpet of weevils blanketed the car bonnet to boot the last time we took her coast-ward, so we unceremoniously dumped the offending oats, waited for said critters to die a starving death, then resolved to thoroughly clean the car. Into our shed for a fastidious vacuuming and scrubbing, a throw-out of rubbish and accumulated junk, a shiny exterior spruce-up down at the local automatic car wash, and we were ready to hit the road for the north coast.
Incredibly, we'd never ventured to the northern side of Jinshan harbour, so after checking an insipid and uninspiring surf, we cruised through the narrow harbour-side alleys all the way round to the far break-wall, all chunky and imposing with giant tetrapods holding back the might of the open ocean. Glass lantern spheres tinkled in the breeze as they hung from the awnings of prawning boats, while optimistic fishermen dangled a line from rocky outcrops and little jetties. We scrambled up ladders to stroll along the top of the concrete break-wall, at once roasting in the sun in the lee of the giant slabs before being blasted with salt sea laden gusts as the wall fell away to rocks and pods. It was a delightful little outing and set the scene for a decadently relaxing week to come.
For countless days in succession our slightly devious plans were foiled by the most splendid display of fine weather: surely it could be rainy and miserable just once so we could have a guilt free day huddled indoors, adorned by plump cats and edified by bingeworthy TV series? (!) It was not to be, however, so we were forced most brutally onto the whims of this big city of ours!
Cassy's cousin, Ashley, occasionally makes a flying visit to Taipei for business, but his busy schedule usually doesn't allow him much, if any, leisure time. This time, however, he could sneak away for a meal and a catchup and it neatly coincided with our time off. Cass had been recommended Morton's Steakhouse by a colleague so we booked a table for lunch down in XinYi then arranged to meet the big fella at his hotel. It was great to see him! He's an easy guy to talk to and always has an interesting perspective on life; especially for us I suppose as he's at the same age and stage. The meal was quite superb and we washed it down with a smooth Australian shiraz while gazing out upon Taipei 101 and surrounds from the 47th floor of the new Breeze Centre.
Early in the following week, we set out downtown to the Da'an Park area in the south east of the new district. It's an old neighbourhood which used to sit on the outskirts of the established city, yet now finds itself being gentrified and hipsterfied by encroaching hordes of monied young professionals. Along with the crowd comes the associated craft beer bars, trendy cafes and restaurants and uber-cool wandering humans: I suppose not dissimilar to other regenerating spots in cities all over the world.
Anyway, the MRT deigned to insert our creaking bones into this slick pot of liquid cool as we continued on our vague and laconic search for some quality pieces of unusual furniture. We'd picked up some 1950s Danish dining chairs here in Taipei a while back, so we're always keen to check out some more. I'd stumbled across a blog, the post from just two years ago, which indicated some pretty interesting furniture stores around this area. Surely, they'd still be there (!)
Da'an Park is an enormous oasis in the middle of this urban zone. Shorebirds of every description roost by the wetlands lake in the middle, while tracks and paths interconnect through sculptures, plants and huge expanses of lawn, such a rarity in Taipei. Families picnic under groves of trees, lovers drape on one another as they stroll and eccentrics of every description variously pluck, dance, sing and even rollerblade as they enjoy this inner-city verdant jewel. We wandered through the edges on the way to our first destination.
Despite ample pre-planning and on-the-spot GPS checking, the address for our first furniture spot turned out to be a pretty cool little coffee shop! The waitresses couldn't shed any light on a possible new location, so onward in alley wandering for our intrepid duo. Just a few blocks away we discovered our next spot, an alley of flea market shops, but only one was open! Obviously more of a weekend draw-card and possibly not our "cup of tea" as it turned out anyway, we explored further along the famous eat street of Yong Kang. We found a delightful cafe called "Together" and we enjoyed a tasty lunch after sniffing various specialty teas. Re-fuelled, we ventured toward the MRT to head west for a date with another furniture store.
In the shadows of the massive SOGO complex in the Chungshan district lies a cute pedestrian mall that perches atop the trains of the MRT racing underground. As you walk away from the station heading north, the lanes and alleys start peeling off either side, each offering a tantalizing glimpse of clusters of cafes, shops or boutiques hawking their wares via colored neon or quirky signage. Down one of these alleys, round a corner, past a glass cube of a hairdresser's and opposite a monstrous wall mural we found the trendy barn that used to house Ruskasa: used to house being the operative words. A few wood shavings and a saw horse were all that was left.....these Taipei businesses last no longer than the blink of an eye!
We breakfasted at the brand new Il Mercato on Chung Chen Road on yet another buttery morning during the week. The food was exquisite and the coffee impeccably brewed: we later found out that their own blend is hand selected in Spain, roasted in Italy then sent to Taipei to be processed into individual cups of black gold! We devoured delicately crafted croissants and cakes, the almond and marzipan croissant the best Cassy has had since Krakow! We tried to book for her birthday dinner this Wednesday, but when I emailed that there was something amiss with their online booking system I was informed that there was no problem at all: for them, quite the opposite, as it is fully booked for lunch and dinner for the next two months! Looks like we'll need to wait till the hype dies down....
Later that day, we did a mammoth scooter trawl across to MingQuan East Road via the backblocks of Neihu as we were searching for yet another furniture spot, this one a well established market of all sorts of items. We found it and mercifully, given our recent run of false starts, it was still fully operational. It was fun to wander around and check out all the "junk", but if we thought we might luck onto a bargain here, we were sadly mistaken: if anything, the prices seemed to be pretty steep and there was not a whole lot of quality. Cassy, as is her wont, was dreamily hypnotised by shelves of crystal and porcelain, and it took me a while to prise her loose!
Apart from luxuriating in the warm caress of a Goldilocksian spring sun not too hot and not too cold, we watched brilliant live streams of surfing from Margaret River and the start of the AFL season. The NRL featured at the start and the end of each week and the Knights continued to impress with skill and determination and spirit without finding a way to win. Back at work, we're firmly into the 4th quarter of the year and eyeing our summer break.
Photos: cousin Ashley, Jinshan, fading cherry blossom, Taipei city sights along with a 7/11 selfie (I forgot to mention: we bought a half bottle of Moet in a local 7/11 the other day.....now we really could live out of this store!)
