A Little Keelung and a Whole Lot of Mushroom Rocks!

Date Disclaimer! (I'm a weekend behind still!) This was from LAST weekend October 24 & 25 {oops}

All week I was looking forward to the weekend and staying home and working on things sleeping (let's be honest I'm a little sleep deprived at the moment!) BUT, when Tina called me Thursday night with the prospect of exploring a new  town....all sense of drowsiness went out the window! (Lucky for me she's not crazy and wanted to wait until late morning to meet up  on Saturday...sleep && travel makes for one happy Tracy!)

I hopped on the train in Xinfeng, picked up Tina  in Taipei and we headed off to Keelung for a weekend of exploring!

Once we arrived in Keelung we grabbed a quick lunch of rice and braised pork (benefits of traveling with someone who knows the language much better than you...they tell you what you are eating!!!) We quickly then found the bus we were looking for and settled in for a 45 minute ride north to Yehliu Geological Park. Since I hadn't been the one to plan (or really do anything for this last minute trip lol) I had NO idea what to expect!

It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

This geopark, as it's called, is near the ocean and over than last 100's and 1,000's of years have endured the effects of erosion forming sci-fi-looking mushroom rocks, ginger rocks,  and pothole along the coast line.



Some of the views were beyond incredible, and we spent a good portion of the gorgeous day we were given simply walking around, talking, and taking in the views!

Definitely worth a second visit!

After a day filled with more walking than we would liked to have admit what better way to end the night than with a traditional Taiwanese night market?!?! The Miaokou Night market in Keelung is one of the top (and some instances rated as the top) night markets to visit in Taiwan. This temple is situated at the entrance of a large temple in Keelung and welcomes many visitors each weekend. One of my favorite aspects of this market (besides the food!) was that the main street of the market has signs stating what the stalls sells in both Chinese and ENGLISH!!! {I can't lie here though, some of the stalls I would have rather NOT known what they were selling once I saw the translations!}

{various market fish & treats, Tina & I amid the crowds, & Taiwan's famous corn that I tried for the first time}

After the market we headed back to Taipei for a long winter's night {ok so maybe not quite like Santa, and it wasn't winter....nor a very long sleep...ok I went back to Taipei to a hostel...that just doesn't sound quite as poetic!} Anyways! The next morning Tina and I prepared ourselves to act like little kids and ventured off to the Taipei zoo to see what it had to offer!

First stop...pandas!!! And of course, being one of the few zoos in the world to have pandas, and the fact that everything in Taiwan needs to  be cutesy...pandas also came with an entire store dedicated to everything panda (I'm serious they even had panda panties!)

 We were also able to learn a lot about Wild Asses {I swear their wording not mine!} as well as stop for some quick pictures with some of the amazing bronze statues they had around the zoo!

I was tired and ready to head home after the zoo, but for an impromptu weekend out, it was fun and oddly relaxing!