After a very long 17-hour flight, we landed in Taipei, Taiwan! Our flight arrived at 6:30am so the airport was fairly quiet as we made our way to the express train that runs to the center of the new city. Fortunately, we planned ahead and had a hotel booked that was about 1 block away from the main train station, and we reserved it for the previous night so we could check in at 7am when we got here. We found a quick street-food breakfast right outside our hotel.
Jessie and Sadie had not managed to get any sleep on the flight, so they were not eager to explore…so while they took a nap, Ashton and I walked around the area. We found a Presbyterian church, a rather unique safety sign, an open market with all sorts of foods we didn’t recognize, and eventually a park to play in. We also wandered around a mall and saw a chicken restaurant that was apparently “Texas Style Chicken” with words like “NASA” and “cowboy” plastered all over it. We thought it was hilarious but did not try the food. By around 3pm we were getting a bit tired (it would be 2am back home) so we went to the hotel to nap as well.
At 7pm we woke up to force dinner, hoping this would get us at least partially adjusted to the timezone change. We found a beef noodle soup place (this is a staple in Taiwan) across the street and down an alley before collapsing for the night.