sundays+the city

sunday is fast becoming my favourite day of the week. it's the one day where i don't have to be anywhere, do anything, or see anyone if i choose not to. best part of all, this past sunday also happened to be one of those days when you wish you could bottle it up, slap a label on it and stick it on a shelf. the sun was out, the sky was blue while the temp stayed at a favourable 31 C complete with a cool breeze. likely the nicest day weather-wise that i've got to experience in a long while.

so, we set off for some sightseeing and shopping for some items to finish off our halloween costumes. i'm swaying a little from past years by going without a sword as part of costume, but i am sick of bulky props. instead, i'm going as harvey birdman, attorney at law. easy enough costume and it is still a super-hero so i figure i don't really need the sword.

we decided to get out there by revisiting where we had left off. walked back to our old neighbourhood of gu ting and it hadn't changed all that much. still much of the old buildings, cool alleyways and flotsam and jetsam of the old neighbourhood feel that it has. from there, we got some lunch and went to xia men gong yuan, or xiamen park. just a small refuge carved out of an indescript block, but a nice respite from the busy area.
after lunch, we headed south towards gong guan an area close to national taiwan university (taida) there are lots of shops which are mostly active during the night when the market atmosphere happens. we were there during the day and couldn't find too much that we needed for our costumes. still, it was such a nice day it was hard to feel disappointed. with much of the day left, we turned left, then right in an homeward direction.

soon after we arrived home, we took a nice, luxurious nap for about an hour and a half before deciding on revisiting taipei's largest night market, shilin yehshi (shilin night market) now, it had been a while since i had set foot in the monstrous maze of a place, but i felt i was a seasoned veteran and knew i could handle the sheer amount of people on a weekend night. the crowds were bustling as the vendors displayed their wares in the centre of the alley making it even more crammed. good thing leesh and i were practiced in the shilin shuffle, as that's as fast as things move there.

while we were there, we managed to get a few things for leesh's costume and also scored some delicious street meat. ali baba's. man, for only 60NT ($2) you can have an indian kebab with masala wrapped in a roti. chicken? beef? chocolate? they have it. always the highlight of any trip to shilin.

and that was my sunday. a great day spent doing some great things that make this a great place to live.