Day 34 (Saturday, July 30th)
We woke up and met Tiffany and Grass at the bus stop at 7:15. We right away hopped on a city bus, and at the bus station we transferred to a Ubus and drove for two hours to Taipei. From there we got onto another bus and went to Luodong. Grass’s friend Betty and her dad picked us up. We went to Betty’s house where we would be staying the night. We got some lunch at an Italian-style restaurant and then we took a nap. After the nap, we went to Dongshan River Festival. There were exhibits from different places around the world. There also were water activities for children. After the Festival, we went to the Luodong Night Market. This was by far the most congested night market that we have been to yet! As we were walking in the night market, we suddenly heard a very loud BOOM and Heather and I both instanly hunker down and think someoone has been shot! But in reality, it was just fireworks! Haha! Later, Heather and I each had gourmet caramel apples! I also bought a cute shirt for 100NT (about $3 US). After the night market, we went back to Betty’s house for the night.
Day 35 (Sunday, July 31st)
We woke up at Betty’s house and Betty’s parents took us to an “American Style” breakfast restaurant, which wasn’t really very American at all. After breakfast, we got onto a train to Hualien. Immediately after getting off the train, we got onto a tour bus. This tour took us all around the Toroko National Park. First we went to a part of the park that they called “the Swallow.” We all had to wear safety helmets as we walked along the cliffs! It was so much fun! After this, we went to get lunch. After lunch, we went to see the Eternal Spring Shrine. Finally, we went to the Chising Beach and got to play in the water.
After leaving the beach, we traveled to our hostel. We were really nervous when we found out that we were going to be staying in a hostel, but when we go there it was very nice! It was a fancy hotel room with four beds, one for each of us. For dinner we went to the “Night Market” which really wasn’t a night market at all. It was just food vendors. I had a baked potato and a waffle to take back to the hotel. We watched Taxi Driver and A-Team on TV and then went to bed!
Day 36 (Monday, August 1st)
We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. After that, we started our second bus tour. This time we went to LiYu Lake where we got to ride paddle boats! Next we went to the Lintianshan Historical Museum and the Hualien Sugar Factory. After lunch, we went to the Rueisuei Pasture where we got to feed cows and ostriches. We got off of the bus and Grass yelled, "LOOK! COWS!" and Heather and I both were like, "Ummm...yeah, those are ostriches..." But there were actually both in the same pen for us to feed! Finally, we went to the Butterfly Valley Resort where we got to see lots of butterflies and we also fed the fish.
When we got back to the train station from the bus tour, we had missed our train, so we had to catch the next train, except it was sold out so we had to stand for the first hour and a half. I was really upset at this. After we got off of the train at Taipei, we still had a two hour bus ride back to Taichung. By the time we got home, it was midnight. This was an exhausting last week in Taiwan, and I cannot wait to be home.