Travel

Today is the second day of the Hualien trip. I got up after 8 a.m., because my mom said we’d go cycling in the morning. The route to Ji-li was the same one we rode in 2004, but it’s very different now. There’s construction everywhere along the roads. I strongly recommend that anyone who wants to visit Hualien wait until the end of the year. I saw signs saying the construction won’t finish until December. If you ride here now, you may have to ride along the roadside and share the road with gravel trucks, which is dangerous. Also, since the hotel offers free bicycles, I simply got them from the hotel. I regretted it afterward. The hotel’s bikes are terrible. I only rode 3 kilometers before my hands got sore (my hands, not my legs = =), and they’re still sore now………. ...

First, a quick update on where I am right now! I’m in the hotel, writing this on my laptop (the keyboard feels so unfamiliar = =). This is my third time visiting Hualien. The first time was the summer between fourth and fifth grade, when my mom took my younger brother and me on a trip around Taiwan. We spent two months covering the whole island. The second time was for my elementary school graduation trip, which was also to Hualien. That trip was a lot of fun. Normally, school graduation trips go to Nantou, to the 921 Earthquake Museum, Jiuzu Culture Village, and places like that. Going to the same places for elementary school and junior high was really boring. My younger brother’s class went to Nantou for their graduation trip, and then they’ll revisit the same place again in junior high……… ...

Early this morning my mom woke me up and said we were going to play at Taipingshan in Yilan. Originally we’d agreed to go on Saturday so we could stay overnight, but Saturday’s weather still wasn’t good enough = = it was drizzling a bit and the sun never came out, so we had no choice but to go for just one day on Sunday. Otherwise, besides staying a night, we could have seen the sea of clouds. My mom also said that if we were lucky, it would snow on Taipingshan. As it turned out, Taipingshan didn’t get any snow this year — it was Nanhu Mountain next door that had snow, but it’s too far away with mountains in between, so we couldn’t go @@ and I heard the traffic jam over there was really bad. But today’s weather was really nice too — the weather bureau finally got the forecast right XD. First time I’ve seen the sun since Chinese New Year. ...