We got cabin fever! (Picture heavy!)

A few weekends ago hubby and I got a bit of cabin fever and so we went out for an afternoon stroll through town ^.^

It was about 2PM, and having only snacked a bit for brunch we wanted to find a place to sit down for another snack. We got off at MRT Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Station and walked around. Unfortunately, the place we wanted to try was closed (Kiki's, many restaurants are closed between 2-5:30PM to rest) and so we went across the street to this Fifteen Pizzeria Napoletana. 

Fifteen Pizzeria Napoletana

Hubby was thrilled for a slice of pizza as he was starting to get homesick and, well, sick of Chinese food LOL!

To start I ordered a white peach smoothie and it was unfortunately blah, tasting a bit floury even, making the both of us a tad nervous that we had set ourselves up for some major disappointment. However, as soon as our caprese salad came out, our ho-hum first impression was instantly flipped. The salad was delicious, and with buffalo mozzarella to beat! The tomatoes were still a tad green, but the savory balsamic vinegar brought out the sweetness in them nonetheless. What really won us over was the magherita pizza. The crust was light and fluffy, soft at top but still had a satisfying crisp at the bottom. It has been a long time since we both enjoyed a slice of pizza this much and it was quickly decided that we would come back here for dinner the next time hubby gets bored of Chinese food ^.^

After the pizza snack we walked around the area. Having already been around the Zhongxiao East Road area a few times, we went in the opposite direction, towards Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. Since Taipei 101 is nearby in the area, it was perfectly visible from the parking lot of the park.

It was a weekend, so there were tons of people at the park just hanging out, letting their children run around and fly kites. It was a cooler and cloudy day too, perfect weather for a stroll! See for yourself how lively the park was!

Of course there were hordes after hordes of tourists too, ourselves included :P

The fountain has scheduled water shows, which happened to come on while we were there, how lucky was that?

A caught a ray of sunlight coming through the thick blanket of gray clouds ^.^

The tone of memorial hall was really solemn though, and the statue of Sun Yat-Sen is continually guarded by 2 uniformed guards, with a formal guard-changing ceremony taking place once every hour.

And then there is yet another manager in black suit, armed with a walkie-talkie, he occasionally adjusts the guards' uniforms but mostly just keeps a peeled eye out for the pesky tourists who constantly threaten to overstep the red velvet rope. Be warned - he will yell at you for leaning in too closely. Here's a video of the hall's interior.

It was too stuffy inside so we went outside, where there were plenty of flowers to put hubby in a goofy mood.

Look at all the gorgeous purple flowers!

We left the memorial park out this gate and walked to the Taipei City Hall nearby, coming even closer to Taipei 101.

Not sure if this is an every weekend thing, but there was a mini festival right in front of the city hall when we were there.

Of course we stopped by, this time for an Indian wrap snack, and a cup of my favorite sugar cane juice!

There was an interesting political statement too ^.^'

Down the street from the Taipei City Hall is Taipei 101.

Making our way to Taipei 101, we were pleasantly surprised by a mini park surrounded by a shallow fountain with kois in them!

There were stray marmies in the back of the mini park! This is the view of Taipei 101 from the side of the mini park, nice huh?

By the time we got to Taipei 101, it had started sprinkling a little bit.

But I was able to take a snap of this prior to running inside.

And subsequently got my eyes blinded by all the blings.

Anyway, we opted to go up the tower. Might as well, right?

The famous steel pendulum that stabilizes the building.

View from the indoor observatory on the 89th floor as the outdoor one on the 91st floor was closed that night, which was too bad.

We had dinner at around 8PM, again at a randomly picked restaurant, Ari Tofu House, serving Korean sundubu jjigae.  Luckily for us, Ari was a decent pick and we got tons of food and side dishes for the 2 main entrees we picked. Hubby got a bibimbap in a stone bowl, and I got the seafood sundubu jjigae. It was good, though nowhere nearly as yummy as Tokyo Sundubu, which I miss so much T.T

Side dishes that came with any entree and my sea food dundubu, which was huge. Neither of us could finish our food so we wrapped it up for lunch the next day. Two meals in one go, couldn't beat that! ^.^