Taipei, Day 1 - Some Thoughts on Vacationing

After losing an entire day to travel, we were all eager to get up and get out early Saturday morning. I didn't know it then but our first day out was one of our biggest days ever in Taipei!  We rode out to Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in the city center.  Songshan was once a tobacco factory that recently was turned into an arts center.  There are cafes, art exhibits, the Taiwan Design Museum, gardens, etc. for the public to enjoy.  The weather that day and the next were the best of our entire trip so we didn't tire from walking all over despite our jetlagged state.

From Songshan, we stumbled right into Eslite Spectrum.  For those of you who have never been to Taipei, Eslite  is the premiere bookstore there.  It's always been a terrific book shop but since the time I last visited Taipei, it has morphed into a lifestyle brand.  It's shops now also contain cafes, restaurants, and numerous individual boutiques where you can buy everything from furniture to Taiwan snacks and teas to leather working workshops.  To me it is the best place to shop for one of a kind souvenirs and handmade items.  Eslite recently opened a hotel too and it is gorgeous.

I won't layout in painful detail the rest of the day but to say that it involved a VERY large spray fountain that eventually enveloped both our children.  Can you even see DD in that last photo?  Everyone was watching our boys as they marched through and got soaking wet.  I had to leave to cobble together full outfits for each from Gap Kids and Zara Kids.  That's just Day 1, folks.

I'm in that most painful of time periods now, the post-vacation depression.  We are jetlagged and happy to be home, but really longing for the sights and sounds of Taipei.  Traveling is a big pain in the ass, especially a plane ride that involves an entire day, but man is it worth it.  Every time we travel, near or far, I miss it immediately and start planning out where we can go next and when. We are already making a short list for next Spring, and we haven't even finalized our Summer plans yet.