From Hualien to Kaohsiung

On Wednesday morning, I headed out early for a run. And I saw the first homeless people (just two) I've seen in Taiwan. They had clearly spent the night in a corner of a walkway bridge, and as I ran down the bridge, they hand signaled to me where I should turn. I thanked them.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed our second breakfast buffet. This time, the breakfast room was packed! A tour bus had unloaded all of its passengers the night before.

This place is packed!

We had the most delicious sesame spread on a roll as part of breakfast. We gotta find some of that back in the States!

Soon enough, we were in a taxi on the way to the Hualien train station. We opted not to walk this time. We purchased some snacks at 7-Eleven (where else?) and jumped on the 10:24am train to Kaohsiung, our next stop.

Also, we bought mochi at the train station. And it was good.

Just a couple of girls. On a train. With our snacks.

The train ride took about four hours. We are loving these trains -- it's such a relaxing ride, it's so quiet, it's so efficient. And it's cheap! Really, everything here is cheap (on second thought, we'll buy the sesame spread here...and take it back home with us). 

Once we arrived in Kaohsiung, we jumped on the MRT (the metro!) and navigated to the stop closest to our hotel. From there, we walked. And dang, it was hot. We had arrived in the heat. We checked in to the hotel, dropped our bags, and headed outside again to explore.

Kaohsiung is Taiwan's third largest city, and honestly, minus the Chinese lettering on buildings and signs, you'd think you were in a big American city. Kaohsiung is the economic center of southern Taiwan, with industries like manufacturing, steel-making, oil refining, and shipbuilding. The city also sports a big arts and culture scene, and we could feel it as we walked around.

Obligatory family selfie by the Love River (Ai River).

And because the Taiwanese people are so friendly, a guy saw us taking a selfie and offered to take our photo.

OHMYWORD...we found a trash can!! Will you look at this! 

The Soaring Dragon Fish sculpture along the Love River.

When we were starting to feel hungry, we returned to our hotel to change for dinner. Tim looked up Italian restaurants for us...we were all ready for a break from Chinese food. He found a good one, and off we went walking again to get some dinner.

Only we arrived at the restaurant and learned that they were booked for the night. No matter. Tim found us another restaurant, this time in the other direction, but closer to our hotel. We walked over there. Only to learn that they, too, were booked for the night. We were sweaty, hungry, and definitely tired at this point. We opted to return to the hotel and check out the two restaurants there. We landed at a Cantonese restaurant, where we ate dim sum and noodles and enjoyed the air conditioning.

Dinner, at last. 

By 9pm, we were in bed and asleep. (For the record, the mattresses were firm. 😉)