#also!! london. classic. beautiful. bus with a top part. love that. beautiful stations. what’s not to adore.

[quicktimeeventfull]

you know what would be a fun fandom event if it wouldn’t instantly doxx everyone. would be everyone writes about their blorbos taking using their local transit system. it could be like ‘take your fandom to work day’ except like 500x more autistic.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume Five – December 2004

  INDEX:

Morning Market, Carrefour, Lukang 11/12 Taipei 12/12 Taichung – party 18/12 Xmas 25/12

And so the weeks flew by!! My initial plan to go to  Green Island with Teri and Kim has been put on hold as funds are low as usual and we started planning a Xmas at home dinner etc. Much better! Besides I can then send all my Xmas cards and presents home! Definitely a better plan.

  The swimming has been going great and the steam rooms, Jacuzzi’s etc. are doing me wonders!! So our Taipei weekend was nearing and we were getting very excited about it. Xmas in Taiwan is weird. It’s like to explain to the people in Europe that we also have Christmas even though there’s no snow! Taiwan it’s even weirder because here nobody really knows what Christmas is all about and they go through the motions like they do for Halloween. Although the kids sing the Christmas carols and Silent Night without really knowing what they’re singing…I suppose that’s one way of doing it, at least they’re singing it!

  We are busy setting up the Christmas show and practicing our parts for the play. The kindergarten play is about the problem of Santa fitting down the chimney…quite sweet. And I play……guesss…come on…….nope….not Santa……just a ditsy character…isn’t it cool!!! I can be silly and fit right in without even trying!!! I had the girls and Chinese teachers in stitches with my stage acting!!! I’m a natural…I’ve been telling everybody this for years!!!

  They are playing a lot of Xmas songs on the radio…our one station amoung 100’s we listen to. ICRT. You can listen to it on streaming audio as well if you would like to listen to what I am subject to…after 5 FM it was a great disappointment, but after a few days or weeks with the local stations it’s the best station ever!!!!! Very much the Highveld stereo type channel with some worse and older oldies!! But it’s what we were given and it’s how we listen to it that makes the difference!!!! Right?? Anyway, the places are being decorated.

I had my little package prepared to send home, just needed a few more prezzies. I mentioned this and the next minute we were off to the Morning Market on Saturday at about 12:30. Myself on the scooter with Jane and Melissa on the scooter with Celine! We were off!! I drew my first money out of my new E.Sun bank account! Ooooooohhhhh. At least at some of the ATMs you have the English options on others I used my years of experience and guessed the top left hand corner is the withdrawal and the least amount of money!!! You can only draw a NT$1000 and nothing less! The next denomination is NT$ 3 000, what happened to 2 000, that’s the best one…but I think there’s more to it than that! If you draw 1000 you have to do it twice, charges for the bank, but if you draw 3 000 you are stuck with the cash and have to use it!!! Seee, I knew it, it’s a conspiracy!!! A classic lose lose situation!

  Anyway, we arrived at the market, very busy for a morning market! We walked around and I nearly died at a Chinese stall. The baby clothes, and little suits and outfits and for big people too!!! I’ll have to go back, anybody want to order something before I come home in Aug – Nov. Place your orders – I’ll take pictures and tell you how much! The next minute we were whisked off to Carrefour to do our monthly shopping! On two scooters with two people on it with monthly shopping!! Very interesting but not yet the limit! The huge bag on my right knee and me leaning in on the left knee balanced everything out beautifully!!!

  We dropped all our stuff of at home and our two taxi driver’s took us back up to the bus station where we all bought our tickets for NT$27 to Lukang. Here we come…our favorite ancient city!! We landed, got walking and shopping…naaahh, just looking! Got the last few gifts to wrap and send, visited our sexy Chinese antique dealer (some thought so) and were back on the bus on our way home!

  What a day, our Saturday afternoon felt like a full day! Well, we were getting really excited about tomorrow’s excursion and got to bed fairly early. We had to get up at about 6:00 to catch our 7:20 bus to Taipei.

  We made it with no effort whatsoever. Got the bus station after Eddie our usual Taxi driver took us and bought our NT280 one way ticket to Taipei. The trip was good and took around 2 hours. We chatted most of the way and napped 5min in between. Taipei loomed through the morning fog and we arrived at the bus station. What a city!! Reminded me of London or what New York must feel like!

Huge buildings, wide clean streets, electronic billboards to rival Piccadilly circus and department stores on every corner. All adourned in their Christmas decorations and scenes. We asked a police officer which way was the Taipei 101 building and he looked at us weirdly and pointed in a direction. We sheshe’d which is thank you and went on our way. I’m sure he mentioned we take a bus or taxi to get there but we were in the exploring mode and hit the pavements…..did you hear me say pavements??? And you would be right. Something they were very short of when building the rest of Taiwan. We now had the novelty of walking on broad open pavements….woooooww! The roads were very clean, buildings well looked after and huge department stores floors high looked down on the two country mice from Changhua. Coooolll!!!!! We walked past the most beautifully decorated shops and passed a huge SOGO department store with a huge Xmas scene in the front of the building.

Impressive, nearly Harrods material….I said nearly! We walked on…….stopped for a bite to eat and something to drink at Starbucks, next to a big Christmas tree and saw the tower loom on the horizon. Slowly but surely it was moving towards us, first just a shadow in the smog then the outlines sharpen, then it disappears behind buildings only to reemerge around another. We were looking at our small little map I still got at the airport when I arrived in Taipei and it helped a bit but no details.

Their metro rail or underground is an impressive network. With their snorkels above ground well marked and beckoning to come down and take a ride! Next time! We crossed a street and walked down a tree lined street, like all the others, beautiful. We were walking past a school that definitely doesn’t look like our schools back home and the next minute a huge park opened up before us and the Taipei 101 tower loomed high and mighty. What a stunningly designed building. The sections on it look like trapezoids stacked on top of one another. Giving it an awkward appearance, not the usual broad bottom to thin top, but more a broad top to thinner bottom. The park we crossed over had kids trying to rollerskate and guys teaching them in little groups.  To cute! There was a lady in a corner singing with a guy on his clavinova….at least not the usual karaoke we’re used to. We crossed over and arrived at a very interesting cross over in the road. Diagonally opposite us, was the Taiwan World Trade Centre where the computer show was, to our left was a huge bank and to our right the Hyatt!

The cross over had two parallel lines from each corner of the street as well as diagonally across meeting in the middle. Interesting! Then the lights changed and the masses moved……they crossed over diagonally instead of going from on side of the street to the other and then across again. Very clever! Only problem came when they met in the middle a bit. Definitely not a Lord of the dance routine, that I can promise you!! I want my money back!

Anyway, we did it a few times and finally landed at the TWTC. We walked in after getting a handful of brochures and pamphlets stuffed into our hands….a few feet further was the dumping site of those said brochures. Anyway, we politely hung on to them until we got a gigantic paper bag to put it in! I think I knocked around quite a few people with that bag, definitely ensures about a meter of space either way. This show was to die for doll! I am a bit of a gadgets pig and this was my mud puddle. So many things and people and interesting developments in the computer world. Don’t let me start, I’ll write a computer show review as a novel on it’s own!!! But needless to say, I thought my brother would love everything I saw! From new mobile MP4 players (that’s with video clips/music video’s etc) to online games galore at ridiculous prices…needless to say my palms were itching and it needed a product to scratch it! And I found it! A stunning little Samsung brand new camera release! Small, light weight but with all the added features you don’t expect! And that’s not all, it has many hidden features you can only find by killing the battery pressing buttons, as you don’t get an English manual with it…so it’s a little experience and adventure all rolled into one!!! Myself and Melissa succumbed to the temptation and both got one! Needless to say the little Chinese sales man, who could speak English very well, and they got him to talk to us because of this built in feature, loaded with a Yves Saint Laurent necklace and looking like he does quite well for himself, was very pleased. A cool guy to speak to as well as we waited for Melissa’s Credit Card transaction to go through, with all the noise they poor sales guys couldn’t hear the bank on the phone and they were hiding behind cupboards and in cupboards to be able to hear the phone. Eventually, after them giving us some pens and manicure sets to apologize for the inconvenience, we were off to our next adventure, Taipei 101.

Taiwan Times Vol 5 Volume Five – December 2004   INDEX:

[jenniferskaggs]

A budget guide to Glasgow, Scotland

While Edinburgh may woo visitors with its genteel charm, and there’s no escaping the sheer beauty of the Scottish countryside, visitors to Scotland too often overlook Glasgow as a destination.

Scotland’s largest city has plenty to offer the budget traveler, whether it’s tremendous free museums or the city’s renowned social life. It’s a working city full of contrasts, by turns gritty, glamorous and generous – and one well worth getting to know a little better.

Here’s how to enjoy this great city while saving along the way.

Budget Guide to Glasgow

How to get to Glasgow

Air Glasgow’s International Airport handles most of the flights and is well served by the budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair (with a £10.50 shuttle bus into the center of town). If you’re traveling within Europe, check out Ryanair flights from Prestwick Airport too. Slightly farther out, but it’s an easy and inexpensive journey into the city by bus.

Train Traveling within the UK? Getting to Glasgow by train is probably the most convenient option: Make sure to book your journey well in advance for the best fares, or consider buying a BritRail pass before you go if you’re planning to do a lot of travel. Edinburgh is also just over an hour away by train. There are regular departures and tickets cost around £10-13.

Bus Getting the bus is by far the cheapest option — although going by bus from London, for example, will take at least double the time than the train. Check out the MegaBus and National Express for prices starting at around £15 going all the way from London to Glasgow (book well in advance) and just £3.50 from Edinburgh.

What to see and do

There are plenty of tours that will help you get your head around the city’s rich history, although many, unfortunately, will leave your budget a little poorer. However, there are some great free downloadable options to be explored here, with self-guided walks covering everything from an “obscure history guide” to a tour celebrating Glasgow’s musical heritage.

Your reward for climbing the stairs of the Lighthouse? A grand view over Glasgow. Photo: Alastair Bennett

Mackintosh, with a great view

The works of architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh are among Glasgow’s main attractions (you can read more about it in our Glasgow Art Nouveau guide), but many of the Mackintosh attractions do charge admission.

A happy exception is the Lighthouse building, which was Mackintosh’s first architectural commission. It now hosts displays and exhibitions, including one about Mackintosh himself. For an added free bonus, climb its spiral staircase to the top of the tower for a fantastic view over the city.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery is one of the most visited museums in the country. Photo: Gordon Chirgwin

Free galleries and museums

There’s an amazing array of free museums and galleries in Glasgow, which often comes in handy in a city not blessed with the sunniest of weather! This is just a taster of what’s on offer:

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of most visited museums in the country, with a collection that caters to all tastes, and encompasses everything from Salvador Dali to Spitfire planes, stuffed animals and armor.

The Hunterian, part of the University of Glasgow, is the oldest museum in Scotland. Head here for its archaeological and ethnographical displays.

The People’s Palace offers an excellent overview of the social history of the city, while the Gallery of Modern Art does exactly what it says it does. Take note of the statue of the Duke of Wellington outside and his alternative headwear: It’s actually a proud Glasgow tradition that he wears a traffic cone! 

The modern architecture of the Burrell Collection in Pollock Country Park. Photo: Mark Ferbert

Parks

Glasgow is blessed with lots of parks, perfect for relaxing. Pollok Country Park in the south of Glasgow is the city’s largest green space. It’s also the site of another excellent free museum, the Burrell Collection. Housed in a distinctive 1970’s-era building, this gallery includes medieval and Gothic art, Chinese ceramics and masterpieces by the likes of Degas, Manet and Rembrandt.

You’ll find the Botanical Gardens in the west end of the city. Established in 1817, it’s home to many rare and valuable plants, as well as being a lovely place to escape the bustle of the city. Don’t miss the magnificent Kibble Palace glasshouse.

Glasgow Cathedral

The building of this impressive cathedral was begun in the late 12th century, making it intrinsically linked to the history of the city. It’s still in use for Christian services today and is open for free visits.

Adjacent is the imposing Victorian Necropolis. More than 50,000 people are buried here, and although you may not have heard of its most famous “residents”, it’s still well worth a look. Take one of the free guided walks to find out more about its fascinating stories.

The Horse Shoe is a classic with a gigantic bar and plenty of Scottish ale. Photo: Adam B.

Affordable restaurants and bars

You are spoiled for choice for both eating and drinking in the city. Often you don’t have to decide between the two activities, as many bars and pubs also serve tasty and reasonably priced food. It’s also definitely worth seeking out a traditional fish and chip shop (although whether you want to test out the Scottish habit of deep-frying everything is up to you) — let your nose guide you to the best!

Bread Meats Bread

One for the carnivores. This no-bookings restaurant attracts rave reviews for its burgers. Prices start at £6.50 for a classic Scottish beef burger, but there are many variations on offer. See how Scotland tackles North American classics such as Poutine, hot dogs and pulled pork. Tempting extras include caramelized sweet fries.

Stereo

To atone for all that meat, pay a visit to this vegan restaurant, which — in true Glasgow style — also doubles as a late-night bar, gig and club venue. The food is reasonably priced but especially worth checking out on a Monday when you can indulge in five tapas dishes for £12. Like this? The 13th Note is another vegetarian (and arty!) option to consider.

Saramago

Another late night license bar/veggie restaurant in yet another great free gallery. It’s housed in the Centre for Contemporary Arts, a venue specializing in film, music, literature, and spoken word. A particular bargain is the theater menu, served between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., where a three-course meal is priced at £12.95. At other times, expect to pay around £10 for a generous main.

The Horse Shoe Bar

More of a traditional pub, this is named for the shape of its bar – all 104 feet and three inches of it! Its dark wood and antique-tiled interior (topped with an ornate ceiling!) gives a taste of what drinking in Glasgow was like in the past. It’s far from being a museum piece however: you’ll be drinking from its great range of Scottish drinks alongside sports on the TV and the pub’s legendary karaoke sessions!

The quaint lobby of the affordable and family-owned Argyll Hotel. Photo: Booking.com

Where to Stay

Like most of the UK, it can be hard to find super cheap accommodations, but Glasgow does offer a few budget gems in good locations.

If you want to be in the heart of the city center on the main shopping streets, the Alexander Thomson Hotel is just a few feet from the Central Rail Station and offers rooms for under $100.

Sandyford provides a full Scottish breakfast (eggs, meat, mushrooms, beans, the whole deal) and is within easy reach of good shops, museums and galleries.

The family-run Argyll Hotel is close to Kelvingrove Museum and rooms are equipped with private bathrooms and free Wi-Fi.

For more options, search over 145 Glasgow hotels.

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