Picnic Cafe, Taipei. This place is a little corner of cafe happiness. I’ve often remarked on how wonderful the cafe culture is here in Taipei, and this is definitely one of my favourites of the ones that I have come across. Attention to small details, the cute swirly writing, the scones arriving warm and delicious on a wooden tray and mugs available at the side to fill with lime-infused water at your wish.
The lights are bright enough for studying and low enough for wonderful, dreamy like atmosphere that you have somehow found a corner of the world that no-one else has discovered, that you can sit in and watch the world pass by through the window or listen to the summer rain as you sip on a coffee, reading a book or, as is often in my case, studying chinese.
Location: here
Taiwan is wonderful! It’s one of those places that no-one ever really thinks to visit but is filled with surprises :)
One of the things I love most about Taipei is its vibrancy. There are colours everywhere. Maybe it’s the seemingly endless rainy season watering everything nearby that makes the colours burst out so much, or perhaps it’s just the fact that I look up more often when I’m in a different country but the colours here are wonderful.
Elaborately decorated temples painted in reds and blues and greens, leafy sidewalks holding a sprouting, purple flower within its trunks, a sudden procession appearing round the corner: loud cymbals, jazz trumpets and drums. It’s wonderful. This city feels so alive.
My parents have come and gone for their second mini visit and we did some more sightseeing. I think I’ve seen pretty much all the typical tourist things to see in Taipei (barring Maokong Gondola), now I need to set my sights on the environs. I continue to love my life here, despite occasional pangs of nostalgia for Europe (though I hear Europe isn’t really haven’t that great of a summer right now), and it’s shocking to think that just in two and a bit weeks I’ll be finished with my first semester at ICLP. Time really flies.
An Ode to Mocha - our foster dog. Luckily for him (and extremely sad for us) Mocha is finding a permanent home this weekend with a lovely canadian couple, and he’ll be gaining a sister so he won’t ever have to be home alone again! We’re really going to miss him though.
He was found in Da’An park one afternoon about 3 weeks ago, abandoned by his owner and looking very thin & ill. He was taken in by SPCA, then looked over and treated and since then has been living with my friend Graci, where I’ve been helping be a foster mummy.
He’s been so lovely and sweet and well-behaved. It’s going to be so sad coming home and not hearing the pitter patter of his feet as he comes to greet us!
Thanks for all the fun, Mocha. xxx
More food consumed in Taipei including some of the best sushi I’ve ever had and a chocolate dumpling.
