A Country Getaway

I was fortunate enough to go on a trip this past Sunday! A couple of kids in another program planned the event, and we were all going to go to an old mining town called 九份 (Jiufen) on the northeastern side of Taiwan. They decided that we would begin the trip at 10:30am and stay until night so we could see the view of the harbor when it was lit up.

So on the day of, the 12 of us took the MRT to Taipei Main Station, and from there, we bought tickets for a 40 minute long train ride to 瑞芳 (Ruifang). While most of us thought the train would have empty seats, we were surprised to find that the train was designed more like a subway. And extremely packed! We squeezed our way onto the train and remained standing the entire time. When we arrived, we got onto a bus that took us up the mountain to the town. From there, we walked down the alleys and streets to find good snacks and desserts. Several of us bought souvenirs and trinkets, but didn't see anything big that was worth buying. The area was relatively crowded because it was a weekend, but also because several Japanese tour buses were touring the town as well. We were all very drained by the end of the day, and since this particular train had front-facing and comfortable seats, the majority of us fell asleep on the train ride home.

Looking at a map of how far we had traveled 

The view was terrible when we first arrived, and even though it was still fascinating to see, we were hoping to see more as the fog lifted

The alleys were very narrow, and because there were so many people, it was even more difficult navigating through the streets. We were still able to see all of the delicious snacks. One of the most popular ones was their 肉圓 (gelatinous meat balls) 

We ate lunch at a stand that was big enough to fit all 12 of us. They served beef noodle soup and various rice dishes. Mine was an herbal pork chop with 4 sides (pickled cucumbers, tofu, fish cake, and seaweed ties). Even though the pork chop was not my favorite, it was all for under $2!

Taiwan has recently become popular for this odd dessert. They take a tortilla-like wrapping and place peanut&molasses shavings on it, followed by peanut ice cream and cilantro. The cilantro is often the ingredient that makes people second guess the so-called "dessert." For 35NT, it was worth the try.

Conclusion: Not good. I enjoyed the actual wrapping, which was sweeter than I had originally thought. The peanut ice cream was good, and the peanut&molasses shavings were delicious! But the cilantro made me gag. Cilantro belongs in my tacos.

Another view of the alleys

Later on, we got a better view of the harbor, but the fog was not cooperating

I would still consider the place to be beautiful. I'll have to consider purchasing some property in the near future ;)

I later learned that Jiufen is also known for its tea and tea sessions. We wanted to have a session in one of the houses, but apparently the setting is more intimate and not suitable for groups of 12. In addition, it was probably a little bit too sophisticated for our taste, because the cost of tea leaves started at $20 and went upwards from there.

One of the only indicators that this town was once housing for gold miners.

A wood carving of men mining for gold

We had seen this temple from far away on the bus ride up to Jiufen. A lot of the members of our group wanted to visit it and take pictures from inside. 

My delicious dinner! I love Taiwanese sausage because it's sweet, and I love rice sausage because it's simple yet delightful. However, when you put the sweet sausage inside the rice sausage, add a little oyster sauce, and make a hot dog...perfection. 

I have an odd tendency of saying "I love you" to my food. It's not intentional and I don't know if I mean it, but it might indicate that I can't get enough of the food here. It will be very hard to go back to American food...

In the CLD program, there are a lot of international students. We had four students from Germany, one student from Austria, one students from Georgia, and one student from England with us. When we were trying to explain to them what the peanut wrap consisted of, they had no idea what cilantro was. We told them that it was green and frequently seen in Mexican food, but they insisted that we were describing coriander. Fact: The U.S. is one of the only countries to call the leaves of the coriander plant, cilantro.