The first day of our trip have been a whirlwind. One minute we were in New Jersey saying bye to family and the next (actually, more like 24 hours, but who’s counting?) we were halfway across the world. The only goal of the evening was to find our accommodations for the night, an Air B&B in the Da-an District. Our research, done on a layover in the San Francisco airport, told us there was a bus we could take from the airport to this area. Our research (or lack thereof) did not tell us which bus to take, where to buy tickets, or how any of this works. If we would have been on the Amazing Race, we would not have won. We are thankful that the Taipei airport has free Wi-Fi and that the internet exists. We did eventually figure out which bus to take and made it to our little corner of Taipei for the next 4 days. Upon arrival to our place, we knew we needed to find a beer after this crazy travel day. We found a bar steps from our apartment that looked perfect. The only problem was that they technically are not in business for another 2 weeks….lucky for us they invited us in to have a Paulaner beer and made us their official first customers! Thank you to the two British guys who are opening the bar who welcomed us in. 

Being across the world and outside of familiarity takes some getting used to. It is sensory overload and we are trying to figure out everything one step at a time. These things include how to not get hit by a scooter when crossing the street, to figure out what is safe to eat, how to communicate when everyone speaks a language we don’t…the list goes on. We are working on getting used to the constant state of unfamiliarity.

Our general plan for seeing the country was to start in Taipei for 4 nights, take the train all the way around the island starting down the east coast, back up the west coast, and then ending our stay in Taiwan back in Taipei. We have around 2.5 weeks total in Taiwan before we fly to Shanghai to meet up with my dad who will be there on a business trip. So far we have only have chosen our next destination, Hualien, and have booked accommodations there. Beyond that, it is up to us to figure out as we go!