Hey Hive/Steemit!
So if you didn't catch the last couple of posts, we're currently on a brand new journey to Taiwan! This was back at the end of 2016 and was the second new year we spent overseas together! It was also my first time visiting Taiwan and I was really excited so here we go!
Last week, we had a double special! First we celebrated New Years' Day just chillin' at our local night market in the evening and enjoyed a lot of snacks, some yummier than others. The next day, we took off on the high speed rail once again to our last stop of the trip - Kaohsiung! We checked into our new (and final) apartment and had a delicious hotpot meal at a restaurant just downstairs!
3 January 2017. Tuesday.
We didn't really have a plan for today other than just checking out our surroundings so we decided to just take it easy and go for a walk. It was around late afternoon by the time we left and the weather was perfect for a nice leisurely walk; not too hot but sunny enough for nice pictures.
Kaohsiung definitely had a more serene vibe than Taipei imo.
Maybe it was just the area we were staying in, but it definitely felt like a more peaceful area despite it being a big city as well.
I mean they did have huge fancy looking buildings like this so..
But other than a few exceptions, the buildings here felt shorter and less packed together than Taipei.
But anyway, we saw that there was an IKEA nearby our place and we decided to go check it out. I know it probably seems unusual to go see IKEA but we didn't really have any plans and wanted to see if the food they had here was different.
And we were kinda hungry but the hotpot restaurant wasn't open yet.
And on top of all that it was also just after New Years' and we figured that a lot of places would still be pretty packed. So why not just chill in IKEA for a while right. After all, IKEA is always so welcoming and homely (hehe see what I did there).
Turns out the food here was indeed different compared to Singapore's IKEA. Of course at this point I think I've only ever been to the Singapore IKEA once or twice and I don't think I even ate there but I have heard of what they serve there. Other than the meatballs I think everything else was different.
[Sidenote: looking at it now I'm actually pretty sick of IKEA just because of how often we've been there in the past year. But more on that in another new upcoming series! 😉]
Anyway, after getting some food, we went to get some seats and thankfully there were plenty of empty seats around.
The seating area is pretty much what you'd expect in IKEA with all their own furniture of course.
We decided to get the spicy roasted half chicken and since we didn't want 2 plates of chicken, we also got some meatballs to share.
I think the chicken was actually pretty good, although it wasn't spicy at all. But it was still nicely roasted and slightly juicy. The fried were also crispy and had a tad of that curly fries taste. I was kinda hankering for some western food too so it was just right.
The meatballs tasted pretty good too but I wasn't a big fan of the lingonberry sauce. Still nice with the mash tho.
Anyway, after that we just took a walk around. Obviously we weren't gonna buy anything but it was nice to take a look at all the displays.
And also take some nice shots along the way.
I know it probably seems silly that we spend our travel days in IKEA but you know, that's just how chill we are.
I don't remember if we bought anything from the marketplace, but I was definitely sorely tempted.
But I think in the end we left empty handed, which in itself is pretty difficult after going through IKEA amirite.
There was mall with a ferris wheel not too far from the IKEA so we decided to head there next. On the way we passed by a lot of brands we recognised.
And the first and only Costco I've ever seen to this day!
If I recall correctly, we wanted to go in and take a look but there might have been some rule where you had to buy in bulk or we might've just turned around and left since we had no intention to buy anything.
So we went on our way and eventually found the mall we were looking for!
It was actually quite a wide mall, even if it wasn't very tall. And it was called Dream Mall! The name reminded me the song Dream On by Aerosmith so I was singing it a lot on the way. 😆
They had some pretty light installations so we went to check it out.
They were mostly Christmas themed of course, but they had these cute bunnies which I guess were the mascots of the mall or something.
But it was nice and cute and pretty insta-worthy I suppose.
They even had a life size snow globe you could enter!
But the illuminated garden area was definitely prettier than the installations imo.
It reminded me of some old teenager movies where the girl and the guy would sneak off and have some (very unrealistic but) romantic scene.
But it was really pretty all the same. Probably not as pretty as what I would imagine the illumine in Japan looks like but since we've never been I can only guess.
But all the lights did make me feel quite warm after a while. Or it might've just been the weather.
I have to say they did a good job at making a nice romantic looking scene tho.
Thankfully it wasn't crowded so we could enjoy each others' company as we took a nice stroll through the garden. While taking a crap ton of photos.
Everything looked so pretty! Oh man I'm a sucker for fairy lights I gotta admit.
It's probably why Christmas is my favourite time of the year tbh.
And of course, there was a lighted Christmas tree in front of the mall that was in sync with the Christmas songs they were blasting out.
So after going slightly deaf from the loud music, we finally went inside the mall to walk around.
But there's actually still quite a lot of pictures left since the mall itself was huge so I think we'll leave that for the next post!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #83 (Taiwan): Unbearably Scrumptious Snacks! 🍮
