russia: valday

 

Sometime during my second year in Moscow, Claire and I saw an eye catching photo on social media of a monastery on an island in a lake. We figured out where it was on a map, and wanted to visit. Unfortunately, when we looked at the train schedule, it looked almost impossible. Plus we had already done a really good job of filling in our travel calendar, so we had very little time to add in another trip. 

Since I'm traveling by myself now, and have seen a lot of the cities around Moscow, I decided to make this trip work, even though I knew I'd be super tired. 

The reason for the tiredness was the train schedule. I hopped on the train at 2030 on a Friday evening, in a regular seat. I arrived in Valday at 0213, which is basically the middle of the night, when most normal people are sound asleep. I spent 23 hours in Valday, as my departing train left at 0105 Sunday morning, which again is basically the middle of the night. (I also had a seat on this train, as opposed to a bunk.

Valday is a small town in the middle of a national park. It sits on the banks of Lake Valdayskoye, just over 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Moscow, and has a population around 16,000 people.

Valday was first mentioned in historical documents in 1495, but I think the majority of town formation and growth happened during the mid 17^th century because of the foundation of Valday Iversky Monastery on an island in the lake.

At one point Valday was a 'major' center of trade, but that is no longer the case. Part of the reason for this importance was the production of bells, of which Valday was the center in Russia. Wikipedia tells me that Valday was close to the eastern front during WW2, but was never under German control. Since 1944, Valday has been a part of Novgorod Oblast.

I got off the train at 0213, I was the only person to walk into the train station. I was thankful there was a station, as I have no idea where else I would've gone at that hour. 

The ticket office in the station was open until 0230, then that lady went home. For the next three hours I dozed on and off, convinced I was the only person in the entire station. Despite the pandemic, I'm pretty sure the main room of the train station had not been mopped or swept in quite a while. There was plenty of accumulated dirt on the floor and in the corners, as well as plenty of dead bugs near the walls.

Around 0530 someone came out of a back office to use the toilet, it was the only way I knew someone else was in the station with me. 

She was surprised to see me on the chairs, (and after thinking I was by myself for three hours, I was surprised to see her,) I reckon there are very few times she sees someone at that hour. I stayed in the station, dozing on and off, until just before 0700.

By that time, the sun was officially up, though I could still see the last colours of sunrise in the sky. I walked out of the station and was pleasantly surprised to find that fall had already come to Valday. The trees close to the station were already bright and dark yellow, I loved it.

After taking photos of a water tower just off one side of the station, I followed the road into the center of town. The walk wasn't long, as Valday isn't big. Along the way I found Hotel Valday with a giant mural on one side, featuring some bells and a big guy dressed as if he was ready to fight. Even though I was barely into town, I could already tell that bells are a big thing in Valday.

The road led me to a platz of sorts, with a church on one side, as well as a WW2 memorial, a grassy area, and some buildings that didn't look very well cared for. I think I got lucky in what time I got there, as the church was just opening when I walked by.

Trinity Cathedral is pink on the outside, and looks very boxy. I always want to see the inside of any church, but if that wasn't my thing, I wouldn't have been very interested in this one based on the outside. The inside wasn't painted, except for the iconostasis in the front. That was mainly painted dark yellow, with colours in the icons of course.

After walking out of the church I headed straight to the lakefront, which was visible from the church. The sky was bright blue, and the direct sun was already warming things up, and everything felt rather glorious. I walked out onto one of the docks, which was already being used by one guy as a fishing spot. I could see a few red leafed trees, which made me happy. Those are my favourite part of fall.

After sitting on the dock for a few minutes, I walked back toward the road that heads out of the town, parallel to the lake. It took me by a small chapel, as well as the bell museum. The architecture of the bell museum reminded me of an observatory, not a museum. Since it was an eye catching museum building, I took a photo with the building, knowing that when I came back later I wouldn't be likely to be able to get a photo without anyone else in the frame.

Further along the road was a small park, in the middle of which was the single statue of Lenin found in Valday. Obviously, I took photos. 

I passed a bus stop that used bells in its decoration scheme, another clue about how important bells are to Valday.

From there the walk to the monastery was long, even by my standards. I enjoyed the walk, as the weather was amazing, and I liked the scenes along the way. I saw another WW2 memorial, and cute, older wooden houses. Some were in great shape, painted a variety of colours with colourful gardens, others not so much.

Part of the walk took me over a bridge, which quite a few men were using to go fishing. 

As I followed the road, I got to a national park sign, which was surprisingly plain. Just the name of the park in dark yellow letters.

As I turned onto the road that led to the monastery I was almost stunned by the view of the fall coloured trees along the road. Absolutely gorgeous. (And I was really annoyed that I only had a phone with which to take photos, not a real camera.)

As I walked several cars slowed down to offer me a ride to the monastery, but I turned them all down.

I was enjoying the walk, and the idea of getting into a car with strangers without any sort of documentation (like a taxi or yandex or uber,) scares me a bit. I would assume people going to a monastery are 'safe' buuuuuuttttt....

When I finally got to the monastery I was surprised at how busy it seemed. There was a parkplatz that was full, which surprised me. I could see at least three tour buses, also a surprise. I wonder where they came from, and how often a tour to this monastery happens from different cities.

In front of the monastery there was a small, photogenic dock, I (not so) patiently waited my turn to take a photo. Other folks waited for me, which was a really nice surprise. I took a group photo for them, as a thank you.

The main entry into the monastery is through a tower painted red. The walls on that side of the fortress are painted yellow on the outside. Other sides have white paint on the outside. Once I went through the entry, I found a small courtyard like area, with another 'gate' to walk through, leading to what I would call the main courtyard.

Iver Cathedral sits in the middle of this area, you can't miss it. Painted white with light red accents, and gold and black domes on top, it's very pretty. The inside of this church is definitely worth seeing, with the entire interior painted. I saw streams of light coming through some of the windows, I always love to see that. I found a small bench at the back of the 'sanctuary' and sat for a few minutes to absorb the atmosphere.

I walked around the entire exterior of the cathedral, there was a small graveyard of sorts off the back side. The walls of the monastery stretched a bit more in this area, but most of the land seemed to be plain grass.

After wandering all over, I walked back to Valday. Another long walk, but I was still having a good time. As I got close to the bell museum, I made the mistake of looking at my watch and realizing how many steps I'd already walked that day. A lot. All of a sudden I could 'feel' all those steps, and my feet weren't thrilled.

I went to the bell museum, which was a bit of a disappointment. The entry fee was 200 rubles, which included a tour in Russian, which was of no use to me. It wasn't the tour that bothered me, it was the fact that the museum was just one room. Even with a tour, if a museum is just one room it is not worth that price. (Not in this country anywho.)

The museum had photos and information, mostly behind glass. There were also smaller bells in display cases, as well as the remains of various older bells. There were two large carillons on the walls, with bells hung at regular intervals. The tour started when the docent rang them all at the same time, which was jarring to my ears.

I'd originally wanted to visit the local history museum in addition to the bell museum, but as I walked out of the bell museum my feet and legs were telling me that just wasn't going to happen. Instead I walked back to the train station, stepping into a grocery store along the way.

By the time I got back to the train station, my watch was telling me I'd walked nearly 43,000 steps, just short of 30km, in just under 10 hours. My train didn't leave for another nearly 8 hours, which went by very very slowly. I dozed a little bit, but my feet and legs weren't happy.

The train back to Moscow went as expected, and I got back to Moscow just after six in the morning. I was really tired, so instead of doing anything useful, I went home and to bed. I don't think I missed anything important in Valday, so I doubt I'll be back. That being said, it was a very pretty place to visit for a day.

russia: moscow: fun with friends and being sick

This post will cover a full week or so in Moscow.

I had a birthday coming up, and I'd read about several 'high tea' options in Moscow, so this seemed like a good way to celebrate. Saturday at noon I met up with four of my friends at the Ritz-Carlton, definitely one of the nicer hotels in the city.

We ordered two sets of high tea, each of which is supposed to serve two people. Between the tea and snacks, there was definitely enough for all five of us. We felt fancy, and I loved hanging out with friends.

After tea we all went in different directions. Claire and I walked over to Zaryadne Park, one of the newer parks in Moscow. We got lucky with weather and timing, and got to see a beautiful sunset. (Standing with everyone else in the city, all of whom were trying to take the perfect photo for social media.)

Not that I was at all hungry, but Claire and I went out to dinner after the park.

I convinced Claire and Angela to meet me pretty early Sunday morning, to take some photos in a couple metro stations, when there wouldn't be too many people up and about. We had fun, even though we were all rather sleepy.

After metro photos the three of us rode to Sokolniki park, to take more photos. Fall is a gorgeous time in most of Russia, though it is usually too short. The leaves change colour, and everything looks amazing for a couple weeks.

I was looking for a specific photo in particular, one with tram tracks in the middle, with yellow and orange trees on the side. After following the tracks for a while we finally found what I wanted to see. We also found a couple small lakes/ponds with beautiful reflections in the water.

Sunday was basically a day of photos, as each place we went was because I wanted to take photos. After Sokolniki Park we went out to Izmailovo Park, I wanted yet another fall reflection photo. Unfortunately, that one didn't work out. When we got there I realized the trees there had lost their leaves at least a few days ago. Argh, oh well.

Starting sometime on Saturday and getting worse through the weekend I lost my voice. Monday morning I couldn't talk. I felt fine, but I couldn't talk. I ended up calling in sick to work four out of the five days of the week, because you can't teach little kids without talking.

Since I didn't actually feel bad, I still left my flat for a little bit each day. On Monday I walked to a park about 20 minutes away. I'd found it on a map, and wanted to see what it was like. My walk was totally worth it, as I found a viewpoint with a beautiful reflection of a bridge and fall trees.

Tuesday was Claire's normal day off, so I met up with her to go check out a well known cemetery. (There are several cemeteries worth visiting in Moscow.) Novodevichy convent is currently being renovated (I have no idea how long it'll be before all the scaffolding is finally gone,) but the attached cemetery still looks normal.

I've been told that sometimes there is an entrance fee for foreigners to see this cemetery, but we didn't see a ticket office, nor did anyone ask. Maybe this was because we were there in the middle of a workday?

There are several well known people buried in this cemetery, and many of the graves are big/unique/full of themselves. One of the better known people (that is, known outside of Russia,) is film director Sergei Eisenstein. Another is Sergei Prokofiev, a composer. The person most famously buried in this cemetery, whose name still brings a reaction among many Russians, is Mikhail Gorbachev.

Another day of staying home convinced me to go out again. I found street grafitti, which I always love. I got close to hotel Kosmos, which is brutalist architecture. Boring, but photogenic in that way, if that makes sense.

I also visited the cosmonautics museum. Russians love to remind people that Russia (technically the USSR at the time,) won the space race. When you think about it, what the first cosmonaut (in English we say astronaut,) did was absolutely incredible. Yuri Gagarin blasted into the unknown (scientists had done the math, but no one really knew for sure what would happen to a human in space,) on 12 April, 1961. 

Not surprisinly, Gagarin was praised and rewarded when he came back to Earth, and sadly, didn't do much else of note for the rest of his career, as he was too much of a national treasure at that point. 

The museum had space suits, and space food, and model rockets, and model everything. It was nice to wander around for an hour or so. 

This museum deals with the human part of space, there is another space museum that deals more with the science aspect of space.

It was a good week of being out and about in Moscow, though I wish I'd been able to talk :)

russia: istra again

One of my most favourite church ceilings I've ever seen was in Istra, a small town not far from Moscow. Claire and I loved our half day trip to the city last year, and we kept talking about the church, so I figured Angela should see it too.

Angela and I figured out that for at least one week, we both had Wednesday afternoon off. I left work right at noon, and booked it to one of the train stations in Moscow. Angela raced out of school as well, it was more of an issue as to whether she would get there on time. (Angela works at the branch of school that is on the edge of Moscow.)

Fortunately Angela made it, and buying tickets was easy. We hopped on the next elektrichka going to Istra, and arrived about 90 minutes later.

I was excited to go back to Istra in better weather. Though Claire and I had enjoyed our visit, we had no enjoyed wading through snow and slush, without a clear path on a sidewalk. When Angela and I arrived we found clear streets and sidewalks, and lots of fall colour in the trees.

Since I'd already been there it was faster to get to where we were going. We walked up the main street, stopping twice: once for a team photo with the same giant pinecone, and once for the huge WW2 memorial of a plane taking off. Even though I'd taken the same photos before, they looked completely different this time because of weather and seasonal differences.

It didn't take us long to get to the New Jerusalem Monastery. Since we were visiting on a Tuesday afternoon, it wasn't at all crowded. In fact there were very few people around, which always makes me happy. I already knew the spots for the best views, hahahaha.

Angela liked the monastery as much as Claire and I had, though she isn't as obsessed with ceilings as much as I am. Even though I'd seen this ceiling before, I was thrilled to see it again, and still walked around with my head bent backward. Soooo beautiful, at least I thought so.

We walked around the walls, and I told Angela the story of dropping my mitten last time, thank goodness nothing like that happened during this visit.

After walking all over the property we headed back in the direction of the train station. Just like in my last visit, we stopped at another war memorial, it was actually visible this time. (Last time it was covered in snow.) We also stopped at the statue of Lenin, which is one of the smaller statues I've seen around the country.

By the time we got back to the train station we figured out our timing had been perfect: we only had to wait around 15 minutes for the next train. This ended up being a good thing in more ways than one, as the next train was a good couple hours later!

Yay for a half day trip in the middle of the week :)

czech republic: a day trip to castle jablonna and around

 A week before my trip to Prague, my mom sent me a link to a castle in the Czech countryside and asked if I'd be interested in a tour. I said sure, why not? I knew the tour would be in Czech, which I don't understand, but I knew mom could translate important stuff for me.
Mom's friend from primary school and her son picked us up in Prague, taking us out of Prague. It was a really cloudy/foggy morning, which was a shame, as the trees had a rainbow of fall leaves. I wasn't able to see the trees very well, argh. The son of mom's friend is a tour guide, he was full of information about the area, I loved hearing all of it.

At one point we drive along a road many locals drive each weekend as they head out of the city to their weekend homes in the countryside. A two lane road, Carl said there are traffic problems each weekend. We didn't have much traffic, and the trees I could see along the way were beautiful. The road follows the river for a while, I saw a few people already out on kayaks :) If it hadn't been so foggy there were several places along this road that I think would've made for gorgeous photos. Next time.

Soon enough we came to our first stop. A dam, which is also a bridge. Nifty looking. Too bad the fog made photos rather difficult. The name of the dam is Slapy (pronounced sloppy.)
Our next stop should've been a viewpoint over a lake, but with the fog we couldn't see anything, so there was no stop. Argh.
At one point the road (I have no idea what roads we were on, I was just along for the ride:) went up a little, and we came out of the fog. Stunning to see the rolling countryside with the rainbow trees all around. Awesome.

Our next actual stop was when we came to the town of Jablonna. A small town. Carl parked the car, and we made our way to the castle gates. The gates were open, so we walked onto the property. Very pretty, very peaceful.
Instead of walking in the front door straightaway, (I think we were a bit early for our tour,) we walked around the castle. There was a small pond off to one side, I got really excited when I saw two black swans. I tried to get a little closer, which worked well until one of the swans didn't want me there. At all. It was funny, but scary at the same time.

The swan attacked me! It waddled toward me very quickly with the wings open a bit, and its beak trying to get me. I wasn't able to move back quickly enough, it got ahold of my pants at one point. Eeek! A bit scary, I'm glad the beak wasn't sharp.
As we continued walking around the castle, this swan followed us for a few meters. I got mom to take a selfie with me and the swan in the background, hee hee.
Behind the castle we found a statue with an inscription in German. Not super easy to read, due to the lighting, but mom, her friend, and Carl were able to translate once they figured out what was there.

We came around to the front of the castle and went through the front door. The lady who worked there greeted us, we paid the entry fee, and the tour started.
The guide explained some of the history of the castle as we walked. The original castle is several hundred years old, but has not always been in private hands.
According to the castle web site, the first mention of the castle is in 1318. There were several private owners, counts and the like. The castle was redone as a Baroque palace after count john kinsky became owner.

The history section that interested me most was during the communist years, when the Czech government used the castle as a retirement home for seniors. For around 60 years, old folks got to live in a beautiful setting. I'm not sure how many people lived in the castle when it was a retirement home, it could've been a dorm like setting, for all I know.
The current owners have done a good job of redoing the decoration in each room. They've chosen to be as authentic as possible. Each room of the castle was decorated differently. Some of the rooms are bedrooms, it is possible to stay the night in the castle as if it was a hotel. (I have no idea about prices.)
After the tour we walked down the street and found a local hole in the wall diner for lunch. I'm pretty sure everything on the menu was fried, or made of potatoes, or both. I liked my fried mushrooms :)

Back in the car, Carl driving again. Our next stop was a monastery. Not an old monastery, you could see it is new-ish just by looking at the architecture. Carl looked it up on his phone, I think it was only about ten years old. We stepped into the church and watched a couple minutes of the afternoon worship service. Lovely voices.
The views over the surrounding land from the monastery were pretty, especially with the rainbow trees. It must be awesome to go for a walk, regardless of the time of year.
From the monastery we sort of started to go back to Prague. I say sort of because we had an adventure on the way back.

Mom's friend was helping to organize a class reunion, and was trying to find members of the class to let them know about the reunion. She had a general idea of an address in a specific town and that was it. We got to that town, found the correct street, and drove slowly to look for the number. The fun part of this was that there were two systems of numbers used for addresses. One was a rural set, the other was using city incorporation. It's really confusing to drive down a street, see the numbers 4, 6, 8, and think great, the next one should be 10, and that's what we want. On this street the next number was something like 323, then 345, etc... By the time we got back to the lower numbers, it was at 14 or so; in other words, past where we wanted to be.
At one point we stopped the car and mom's friend asked people on the street where to find the number. Then she asked about the name of the lady she was looking for. The people on the street knew another family with the name, they lived on another street. The last name was very unique (an Arabic name in small town Czech Republic,) so the decision was made to drive to the other street and knock on the door of the other family, and find out if there was a connection. There was. This other family was a son and his wife, who were able to direct mom's friend back to the first street, with the correct address.
It turned out mom's friend had transposed the numbers. Ooops. Mom's friend knocked on the right door, and said hello to a lady she hadn't seen in 50 years. I can only imagine the shock I would feel if someone knocked on my door so many years later. Nevertheless, the afternoon ended with success, and the information about the reunion passed on.
Then we went back to Prague :)

hualien, hiking, rain and falling

from taipei main station ben and i took a train to a town called hualien..the trip was three hours, and both of us planned to sleep heavily..ben slept a lot better than i did..considering i'd been awake all night i thought it would be no problem to pass out..but i couldn't stay asleep for more than 20 minutes at a time..ugh..
anywho, we arrived in hualien, and made our way to a hostel ben knew, he'd visited hualien once before for a party..there was no one to be seen anywhere in the lounge, but ben knew where the beds were..so we walked into the dorms, found a couple empty beds, and went to sleep..again, i thought i would sleep a whole lot more than i did..i only slept a couple hours, but ben managed to get a good five hours of sleep..after a while the owner of the hostel found us, and asked if we were the couple who had come in earlier..of course we were..she said we could move beds (she indicated to beds that had been pushed together, and each bed had a heart pillow on it) as soon as they put new linens on all the beds in the dorms..i told her we weren't a couple in that sense, but i'm not sure she believed me..anywho, we went down and hung out in the lounge for an hour or so while the beds were all being made, then went back up and slept again..well, ben slept again..i just read and wrote part of a letter..
later in the afternoon, i convinced ben to go for a walk..being the guidebook geek that i am, and feeling sluggish since we hadn't done anything all day, i thought we could go find a temple or shrine or something..so we did..we also walked along the river a bit, enjoying the scenery, and continuing to compare teaching stories..we also found a yummy place for dinner..
after dinner we went back to the hostel, where we met a lady who was in taiwan visiting her daughter..since her daughter hadn't been able to take much time off, the mom had opted to travel a bit by herself..the lady had lived in korea in 1985, a time VERY different from now..she had lived in korea when the government was still a dictatorship, and the people didn't have nearly the freedom they do now..it sounds crazy, but at that point south korea wasn't much better off than north korea..it was fun for me to hear what she had to say..not surprisingly, ben and i went to bed early that night..and slept the whole night through..
the next morning we got up and had breakfast nearby..then walked back to the train station, and found a place that would let us rent a scooter..neither one of us had an international drivers license, and most of the rental places in town want one, but we got lucky..the place we found asked if we had scooter experience in taiwan, and ben told her he lives and drives in hsinchu..so we were good to go..
unfortunately, it was raining..ugh..but every 7-11 in taiwan sells cheap plastic ponchos, so that took care of that problem..at times the rain was gusting rather strongly, but ben seemed to have no problems in handling the scooter..the drive from hualien to taroko national park took about 40 minutes..a pretty drive..we arrived at the park easily enough, found the information center, and figured out what to do..there were a couple hikes that sounded interesting, and we intended to drive the scooter all the way through taroko gorge..taroko gorge is supposed to be one of taiwan's crown jewels..and it is really pretty..neither ben nor i was particularly stunned by it's beauty, but we figured both of us are jaded travelers..(him more so than me)..we both found the place beautiful, just not stunning..not like the way the guidebook described the beauty..part of that was also due to the overcast weather..when the rain did let up it was still a white sky..the hikes that most interested us were both closed due to rock falls:(..halfway through the gorge is a little town that pretty much exists only to serve the tourists who come to the gorge..there was a post office, three restaurants, a carpark, and i've forgotten what else..we picked three things off the menu and shared them..the only noteworthy item was stinky tofu..i eat a lot of tofu in korea, and i like it, so i was keen to try to the stinky tofu..it did indeed stink, but the taste wasn't near as bad as the smell..since that's one of the foods for which taiwan is most known, i was excited to have it..
after lunch we climbed up to a temple and took more photos..(that was one thing we had been doing all the way through the gorge, stopping the scooter and taking photos)..after lunch we looked for the beginning to the hike we wanted to try, but didn't see it, and ended up driving much farther than we had intended..that didn't bother us, as we ended up driving quite a bit up, and therefore had some nifty views..then it was time to go back down and back through the gorge to go back to hualien..just before exiting the park we checked out the shrine of the eternal spring, and another smaller shrine in a cave..(don't remember the name)..right around this time it started to rain again, yippee..the ponchos went back on, and we were good to go..along the way back we stopped at 7-11 for coffee and a snack..(i had a smoothie, ben had some starbucksy sort of drink, though a taiwanese brand)..
as we arrived back in hualien we stopped by the train station and checked out times for the next day, we had decided to move on to go hiking..from the train station, we figured out how to get to the "beach"..it was labeled as a beach in my guidebook, but let me tell you, it wasn't a normal beach..it was a shoreline, with a small park, and a small nightmarket, and an area with carnival type games..as we walked along the beach, ben pointed out the wave breakers to me..they are large, cement, x-shaped objects that are put in the water to break the massive waves that come during typhoon season..apparently, if those aren't in the water, the waves do even more damage..taiwan (especially the east coast) gets hit with several massive typhoons each year, they've all figured out how to deal with the destruction..there was a giant statue of matsu, the goddess of the sea in a grassy area, and a stadium of some kind..the stadium looked like it hadn't been used in quite a while..it was during this part of walking around that i was the cause of a bike crash..guys on two different bikes were checking me out and crashed into each other!! hee hee..i wasn't paying attention, but ben saw it happen..awesome..farther along, we found some of those breakers on the beach..me being me, i wanted to climb them and take a photo..so i did..then ben did the same..i decided i liked his photo better, and wanted one for myself, so i began to climb up again..but i fell..i should mention that these wave breakers were rather slippery, from mold and such..ben was picking up the camera as i felt myself start to fall, and he watched the end of the fall..i ended up landing flat on my back on one of the breakers, and scraping one of my legs pretty badly..it could've been a whole lot worse than it was, though with the blood pouring out of my fingers, it certainly looked rather icky..ben isn't the type to lose his cool unless that's needed, so he remained calm..while my fall wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, i ended up in a rather awkward position, and ben had to lift me out of it..hee hee..from there we walked to a bathroom, where i was able to clean off my leg..at that point i figured nothing was all the bad, but it would sting a heck of a lot for a little while, and i wouldn't be sleeping on my tummy anytime soon..oh well..we wandered around the night market/game area, and opted to have dinner there..steak, spaghetti, and a sunnyside up egg on a hot plate..YUM!!! i couldn't eat the whole thing, but at that point, it was exactly what i wanted..and cheap!! less than $4USD!!
from there we went back to the hostel, and again, i went to bed early..the next morning we got up and used the scooter one last time..(it was a 24 hour rental)..ben had heard about a breakfast place called country mother that supposedly had great breakfast burritos..we both ended up getting quesadillas, and those were good too..pretty much everything on the menu looked good to me..and the portion sizes were big too..
then it was back to the hostel, check out, drive to the train station and return the scooter, buy train tickets, and hop on..we took a main train most of the way, then transferred to a little local train..we got off the second train in a town called daxi, which is known to surfers..(or so i'm told)..daxi was where we planned to start hiking the caoling trail..it's a trail that was originally built in the 1800s, as an easier way for locals to get from one town to another in that area of taiwan..within the past decade, the taiwanese government has built another trail as an add-on, making the full trail a total of 16km..the guidebook described it as strenuous in areas, with lots of beautiful views along grassy bluffs..we found the start of the trail, and started climbing..and climbed, and climbed..the first 2.7km of the trail was straight up stairs..it was during this climb that i began to think the guidebook author hadn't actually done the hike himself..i know i'm WAY out of shape, but geesh..ben had to wait for me a lot, i felt bad..since taiwan is semi tropical, and july is one of the wettest months of the year, it felt like we were hiking through a rain forest..so humid..while taking photos i realized i looked as though i had just gotten out of a shower with all my clothes on..whoops..anywho..we finally reached the grassy bluffs, from which the views were indeed awesome..i don't know that i had had any expectations for the hike, but ben was far more impressed than he had expected to be..we both loved it..at one point, we saw some water buffalo, and started taking photos..the water buffalo behaved the same way most cows do..they watched us..they didn't blink, or turn away..at one point, one came over to us, and we got the idea that he/she wanted us to leave..so we did..we didn't go nearly as fast on this hike as expected, and were constantly confused as to where we were on the trail..there were plenty of signs at the beginning, but at that point we hadn't seen one in a while, and we were wondering how much longer we had to go, since sundown was going to happen pretty soon..we stopped and had dinner, and watched clouds pour over the lower bluffs, and start to obstruct every view..at that point, the trail started going down, so we ended up in the clouds, not able to see much more than a few steps in front of us..finally, we came to a spot where we had to choose where to go..either go down, and get to the town of dali, and catch a train..or, continue for 7km longer, and end up in the town of fulong..it was nearly dark by that point, so we headed down..on the way down (down more stupid stairs) both of us slipped and slid regularly..finally, ben and i made a bet..the first one to fall had to buy the other a drink..both of us continued to slip and slide, but after a while, naturally, i was the first to fall..it was a slow fall, one of those when it seems like it takes foreva, but you can't stop it..we kept the bet going, of course..after a little while longer we started talking about what the exact definition of a fall was..go figure, while in the middle of this discussion, i fell..wiped out, landed on the edge of a stair, on my butt, and knew i'd have a massive bruise on my arse..that was a fast fall, i was down before i knew what was happening..both of us burst out laughing, i stood up, and we continued going down..fortunately, i didn't fall anymore..unfortunately, ben didn't fall either, so i ended up owing him two drinks..argh..at the very bottom we found a temple that was all lit up by running christmas lights..really pretty i thought, and i wish i was able to hold my camera still while taking night photos..many photos later, we made our way to the train station, where we caught the next train to taipei..and from taipei we took the hsr back to hsinchu..we could've taken a bus, as it would've been cheaper, but it also would've taken an hour longer, and we just wanted to be back..my clothes were still soaked with sweat, and i was cold..
we finally got back to hsinchu, and got to where ben's scooter was parked..also parked there was james' scooter..it turned out that because we had james' bag, (it had been stored with the rest of our stuff while we were at the rave, and we'd been carrying it with us ever since) we also had the key to his scooter..so i drove that back..i was nervous, of course, but we made it w/out trouble..after getting home, we found out that james had made deviled eggs..james has gone to culinary school, and worked as a chef for several years, so the eggs were GOOD..
the next day we took it easy..ben was taking off for three weeks in china the day after that, and someone was going to rent his room while he was gone, so he had some cleaning to do..he had a whole list of stuff to do, so i read, wrote part of a letter, and napped until early afternoon..both of us did laundry..
mid afternoon, we collected james, and ben led the way (on scooters, of course) to a nearby lake with a suspension bridge..it's a reservoir, so we weren't able to go swimming..there were a few locals hanging out, taking photos with each other..we didn't stay long, but it was nifty to see..while we were on the bridge, it got really windy, which was interesting to experience on a suspension bridge..from the lake we drove to a temple..it was actually one temple on top of another..from the lower temple we walked up to the upper temple by going up stairs through a dragon..neither temple was super different from any other temple i'd seen already in taiwan, but every temple in taiwan is much more colourful than any temple in korea, so i love them all..a few photos later, ben and i headed to rt mart (james went home) as he needed to find a murse (man purse) to take with him to china..i found toothpaste and double stuff oreos..rt mart is basically taiwan's walmart..from there we went back home..as it was ben's last night in hsinchu for a month, he got a few people to go out for a couple drinks..he met up with a chinese friend a little earlier, and left me at home..james then drove me a little later when everyone else showed up..i paid my dues, and bought ben his drinks:)..the first bar catered mostly to foreigners, and then we went to another bar which was more typically taiwanese..we had our own private room..the girls (morgi and mari) had lychee beer while the boys went for taiwan beer and beer chiang..i had water:)..ben called it a night around 2300, and everyone went home..
the next morning we woke up slowly, and packed up..then we were driven to the hsr station..ben got off at the airport, i rode all the way to taipei main station..