escapades of the elusive kat

One day in February, my friend came across a really decent promotion with Air Macau, so we got flight tickets to Taipei. The tickets were like, less than USD $100. And the timing was a bit crazy-but-useful.

I had to depart around 5.30am, and since everyone else was sleeping, wrote down instructions on which Lai See (hongbao) to give to who and how to feed the cats (I've got new wild cats - there are two cats in my car park, I've started feeding them, and they wait for me to get home now LOL)

Got to the airport before 6am, got checked in, got pleasantly surprised that Starbucks was open this early, got some breakfast. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:30am, but we were all boarded and taxi-ing off the park area at 7:10am, and actually took off earlier than scheduled. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Landed, dropped bags in the the hotel, then off we went for our first meal in Taipei: Brunch. I promised my friends I would be taking it easy on this trip, so I wasn't pushing for any itinerary or where to go, and squeezing. Brunch was at a place called Nook. Interesting, but nothing to write home about.

After brunch, we walked all the way to Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Xinyi because my friend's target was to get new glasses. I wasn't really looking to replace my glasses, but they had something interesting. J!NS has a crossover with Dragonball (the anime) and they've got some really cool colors. I immediately fell for the Piccolo green-and-purple combination which I decided to get. But instead of blue-light lens, I got those that turn dark in the sun. My other two friends? Both got 2 pairs of some frames they chose each.

One of my friends was dejected that she was going to miss out on a lunch at a certain restaurant, because it had "break hours" between lunch and dinner. I got distracted by a Pokemon sign on a lower floor (I saw through the escalator gap) and went down there to look. Friends followed me then the dejected one screamed OMG. Apparently, the restaurant she wanted to go to had a branch restaurant in the mall's food court. So she was happy again. Thank ME for chasing shinies LOL.

Then we went to another building (Shinkong Mitsukoshi Xinyi has a couple buildings next to each other) and we saw another glasses shop, OWNDAYS. They also had their own line of Dragon Ball crossover, and that I found weird for Dragon Ball... would a brand crossover with two same industry at the same time? IT was weird. But this set of crossover did not catch my eyes.

So while one of my friends went about getting another 2 pair of glasses, my other friend accompanied me to go upstairs to the POKEMON CENTER TAIPEI!

You bet I got something LOL. I got something functional though. I knew my Sis was looking to replace her thermos bottle, so I sent her a photo and she wanted a black bottle with a Pikachu silhouette on it. I got an outright Pikachu yellow bottle one LOL. I have to sort out my bottles... i have too many, and some are actually too old and should be replaced.

We next went to a place called Ronjing Gorgeous Time. It's just a street and some buildings are being converted/adapted for new businesses. The area was actually a Japanese prison.
Dinner was at Uncle Shawn, it's BBQ and the staff cook it for you. The food was good, and some really, really, really good items. But overall it felt a bit pricey for the little food we ordered.

One of the actually good items that wasn't BBQ-ed. A scallop burger (scallop for "buns" and Uni and Crab... gunk? for the insides)
That dinner wasn't filling enough, so we went to Shida Night Market...

More crap to see but i didn't buy any!
And we had "Lo-mei" (soy sauce braised food?), this was sooooooooo satisfying, yum yum!
The hotel wasn't anything to write home about either. Breakfast was abyssmal! We first went to the Taiwan National Science Education Center because there was an AI Art exhibit thing going on. But geez, it was a total rookie move to go on a Sunday, because, KIDS. To be fair, when I did the research, it did say the last day was on 9 March Sunday, and so we went there on the last day, but then found out it's actually extended up to April.

The science center itself was pretty cool though.
Where there's a dangerous-looking bridge but obviously it's safe to walk on, I'd go LOL.
There was also an AI Sports exhibit but we didn't go. Hippos showing you how to exercise LOL.

AI Art Exhibition.
First we've got some trick-eye trickery.
Here you become the conductor and wave the baton around. Apparently, the imagery does follow your lead.
Here you pull the ship and the line also follows your pull, I think.
Moses dividing the sea at a wave of a stick also.
We were famished after that, so went to have lunch. We were in Dongmen area and walked along that hip shopping street.
Green bean milk ice fleecy thingamajig.
Next we went to Huashan Cultural... something 1914. It's a whole park area and they put artsy exhibits year round. We went first because of the Ghibli exhibit (but it felt more like an Animage magazine exhibit)
Nostalgia galore LOL
I always thought the mask in Naussica made them look like they were pretending to be dogs.
Apparently one of my friends is deathly afraid of the... giant bug thing in Naussica.
Oh boy, I haven't really watched the whole Graveyard of Fireflies but I know the gist of it and know what happens in the end.
Hey, the Ghibli museum thing in Tokyo has a Cat Bus that you can't go in (age limit, over 6years old not allowed) but this one here I GOT IN!
Almost the end of it.
Yeah I heard about the new park, so I should check it out for my next trip in May!
There was also a Peanuts exhibit hall.
So cute and sweet!
Still, some plushie crossover(ish) designs are still... questionable... such as this Snake Snoopy LOL. I didn't buy anything but did pay to play 2 gachapons. I got a reusable bag (by the size it looks like a bento bag, which I may give my Sis) and last year's Bunny Snoopy crossover LOL.
A friend really wanted a certain Omakase, but I guess the good ones are hard to book. This one was... totally underwhelming... or have I turned into a snob?
I'm not going to post everything.
And another friend wanted to try cocktails (I think it's sort of part of her job?)
Interesting menu, but the boy (waiter) failed at first meet.
We were 4 people. Only 2 of us ordered on the first round. Guy doesn't have a pen and paper, and just "remembers" the order. We wait a really long time (too long for a cocktail, but I didn't time it either) and he brought us 2 totally wrong drinks. He knew he made a mistake because as he brought the two drinks (one of them was wrong), he asked, "You did order something else, right?" And I really don't know what to comment on.
oh, and they relied on photo trickery... these two below are the same drink...
Anyway, next day, we go to Ximending for some final shopping (and breakfast, because hotel breakfast sucks)
Roamed Eslite bookstore as well. Found a hilarious book where they replaced main imagery of famous paintings with... Chihuahuas haha!
We had a quick final lunch at another BBQ place, this time grill it yourself, and stopped by a couple more stores for souvenirs.
oh, I forgot to say, those new glasses felt so good that on the second day, late at night, I decided to get another pair, this time the Supreme Kai color (it's a turqoise and pink I think) but this time with blue-light glasses, so now I have a proper pair of glasses for weekend and driving, and a pair for the office.

And then, we made our way back home.

Has the travel bug bitten me? Just two weeks ago I was lamenting with my friend that I've seemed to have lost my drive for traveling this year... so far. Well, I suddenly decided I wanted to go to Tokyo to participate in a Kinsugi workshop and also to see the Wisteria garden. So I got the tickets.

Then just now, in just 4 hours, another friend looped me to get tickets for Taipei in March... tickets were like... just $900 MOP (USD $120).

So I am now all set for Taipei in March, Tokyo in May. We are still thinking about our annual long-haul trip (I'm thinking of Turkey group tour then extend our stay in Istanbul) but that's still in the thinking. (I really wanted Greece, but it seems my friend will be going to Greece with her family).

Oh wow sorry, I messed up with Flickr's embed settings now the photos are huge. I'll have to fix them post-copy-posting.

Day 12

Still in Graz, we went to the other side first, to see Schloss Eggenberg (I've never been here). We found a random place for breakfast.
Apparently there was going to be something going on in 2025 so half the Schloss was under renovation.

We were first given a tour of a special state room and whatnot, no photos throughout the tour. After that we were allowed to roam anywhere (except for the toured rooms, which are card-access only)

There was a long corridor with a lot of artowrks.

We meandered back to those off-limits area, and still decided to snag a photo through the windows. They say it's some special design, the first in the time to refer to the Calendar, Time, Astrology, and stuff. (52 windows, 12 rooms, 24 somethings, zodiacs, etc.)

I was very well behaved and did not buy crap LOL.

Peacocks were hanging around!

I find Austria in general to be a very gung-ho or laissez-faire place. If this were Macau, there would be a kazillion signs and a barrier to say off limits to the bird.

Roamed the gardens.

Apparently this garden outside was also special as it was divided into 4 seasons and whatnot.

There were fighting ducks.

There was this.. i forget... geology museum or something. I quite liked this exhibit where there were a few fixed images of certain time periods, then there were other loose magnet pieces that you could move around and say where they were on the map. Again I forget exactly what, but there was one thing about Macau there. Forgot what it was though.

More roaming.

Eventually, it was time to go.

Another place I had researched before. So we all know about the Wiener Schnitzel which is the Viennese Schnitzel, here in Graz, Styria, of course we need the Steirisches Schnitzel! Basically the same thing but the bread crust has pumpkin seeds on it. This was the second best Schnitzel we had in all of Austria (first being in Salmzat, the place no one can read the menu in Vienna).

Sort of got lost when we were looking for a hipster-ish area. Oh I don't have the photos here, but we also went to that restaurant "island" in the middle of the river (Murinsel?).

Eventually found it.

We had a similar issue with not knowing what to do for dinner and decided to take a break from Western food again and went to a Vietnamese place. Had to go a bit far off, and after dinner we were lucky to have found the tram to get back to the hotel.

Day 13

Wanting to make sure I will be meeting with family later at night, I decided to brave it and call my Onkel Richard. Cousin Michael picked up. So I asked if they were going to meet me as per my message a few days ago, and he said they didn't receive any messages. So I told them my plans for the night and they said they'll be there.

So the next thing, MARKET DAY!

We had wanted to eat something right from the market, but nothing really caught our eyes and we didn't want to eat standing up, so we found a bakery with sitting, and went there.

We went up the mountain on this morning!

A tad boring for me since I've been here before already.

Don't know what the lions are fighting about.

Now the museum here I didn't see before, so it was a rather informative visit. I read about how the city came to be (something to do with a deal with the devil).

This TV thing is some interesting technology. You can pan the view to one area, then there are options on-screen and you can "zoom in" to see that area now (I guess it's just a recording) or see that spot in some previous time period (say 1920s, or 1880s, etc).

Because some guy was there busking with that... wok-like instrument, nobody dared to walk through the pavilion.

Just before I took this photo, there was a loud siren, I guess the type before an air attack or some kind of disaster? We don't know why, we don't know for what, but we were freaked for a moment. But since nobody reacted, we... forgot about it.

This was a funny selfie, so I'm leaving it in this large size.

Accidentally cosplayed the clock tower.

This is again something new! Slide down the mountain!

So we slid down this thing! (My original plan was to walk down, but hey!)

Interesting but did not buy.

Got lured into this restaurant by this sign, but service was horrendous. Food was not bad though. I know you must be busy, but don't treat customers like a nuisance, then be so thick skinned and say "tip is not included." I come from tipping-is-not-really-a-thing-land, so I'll tip when I think you deserve it.

We then made our way back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and left for the train to Vienna, where we went to have dinner with my family. So from left to middle to right, Cousin Michael, Onkel Richard, Cousin Barbara, Barbara's husban Marco, Tante Rosemary, Me, and... the waiter that night, because my friend wanted to first take a family photo of us, and the waiter told her to sit with us, but she insisted, so he joined us, LOL. Apparently, on my Onkel's phone, it did show a message came in from me, but the message body was empty. Then I asked Michael if he has whatsapp, and he just answered me yes, which I think... in normal people thinking, if I'm asked "do you have whatsapp?" my automatic reaction would be to take out my phone and say "yes, let's scan each other's contacts!" but no, cousin Michael is a special kind of awkward LOL. Tante Rosemary didn't drink a drop of liquid despite my asking her to get something to drink.

I was feeling a bit weird when Marco was getting refill for drinks, but since he refilled, I asked for refill too, and got my friend refill, heck, I refilled the table. Then, again, when I went to the washroom, I paid the bill, and Marco seemed annoyed. It seemed like he wanted to pay. He gave off "Big man, macho man" vibes (this is my first time meeting him). Like everything must be his way or the highway.

Sorry, I'm a passively-contradicting person. I paid the bill. pffffffffftttttttt.

Day 14

Bratislava! We originally had 11am tickets, but this time, the train changes were to our favor because our 11am-only ticket became valid whole day tickets because of the changes, so we hopped on the 10am bus (replacement service), and rode to some mid-way point then got on the train to Bratislava.

I was a little worried at first, because it was a Sunday, but in a way, thank whoever that Slovakia is not a very advanced country. So, shops and stuff are open on Sundays!

This was an interesting cafe, we said we'd come back to this but never did.

Town square and a manhole shoes shot again.

This was the... I forgot. Town Council museum or something. We got to climb up up up.

Several kids hanging around doing these instant photos.

A real manhole artpiece!

This lunch place also got on my nerves. So we ordered that... i forgot the name, but it's something like a wet spatzle pasta with bacon. We didn't know what it was, because language. It was recommended by the server. When he served, there was no bacon and he said, "So this is the *name of dish*, without bacon!" Because I faintly remember seeing something like bacon bits on the menu explanation, I queried, "without bacon?" and he was, I don't know, being cocky or what, said "Do you see bacon?" and that immediatelly made me mad. "Does it come with bacon? I didn't say no bacon?" and only then he was like, "oh, so you want bacon" as if I had originally asked for it without bacon, wtf?

We then went up another hill to see the palace museum. This is where I dropped my camera and bye-bye lens!

Braved the tram network and went to the other side of town to see the Blue Church. By the time we got there it was closed and was going to start a mass. So just some outside photos and we left.

We took the ferry back to Vienna, along the Danube! Weird the ferry didn't play Blue Danube along the way.

From there we actually went to my Onkel Wolfgang's place. Barbara came over to mediate/translate for us. Again conversation was a bit weird. Onkel Wolfgang was very focused on me being considered "a foreigner" here in Macau. I'm like. wut? I'm more local than a local local would be. But anyway. Language barriers. It was also here that I found out Barbara actually has a son (I knew she has a daughter, didn't know about the son though). It was an awkward exchange LOL. By midnight we decided we should go as we were worried about transport.

Day 15

Final morning! We left early to get our last souvenirs (Sacher cakes; which weren't even that good so next time don't rush for it) and had a quick breakfast. Our spiffy "day card" had expired by the return trip to the hotel... we thought for a bit and decided to brave it. So yeah. We schwarz-fahren-ed one trip LOL. Then back to the hotel to pack up and left for the airport.
No drama there. But I thought I should post this final photo of what I usually tell people (be it in English or Chinese) when they seem to be thinking of Australia.

Flight to Taipei was uneventful. It was a full flight.

This time around the plane change in Taipei we had more time. And there was a Sanrio Pop up going on! We had a quick breakfast in the food court, had bubble tea, and bought some Taiwan snacks for souvenirs.

Isn't it true! Planning a trip is indeed the best part! It's always so exciting to plan a trip and "counting down" to the trip day! But, by the time I'm actually on the trip, I'm just "counting down" to coming back.

Day 7

So we got the Salzburge 2-day card thingamajig and we just had to find expensive enough locations to recoup the cost of that LOL (the Asian in me shines brightly). So... the Salzburg Zoo. The weather itself was a bit dreadful though.
Nothing much to say. There was a smal petting area but basically the animals aren't in full enclosures. There was also a fully enclosed space with a prop-cabinet and the animals inside were.... field rats! That was a cute exhibit.
Anyway, more random photos until we left around mid-day.
There was an exhibit of that (forgot which country) prayer wheel.
Needed an ice cream upon our departure!
The next expensive thing was another bus ride away to the Cable Car Untersberg. Well, due to the poor weather, we didn't get to see much.
But we got to see snow! So we went up the cable car with some other people. When we were up, there was a Chinese couple, man and woman. So the man was walking far enough "meh, it's just snow!" and the woman was like, "it's so steep! it's snow! I can't walk up!" Now. That hill was just half covered in snow, as you can see me there. The lady was walking in the snow complaining that it's slippery. I walked in the rubble practically next to her and it was an easy way up. I also muttered in a low voice that "you can just walk to the side."

It got pretty foggy the further we went up, so my friend and I decided to walk back and get a hot chocolate. The Chinese couple continued on, and an Indian couple also continued on. When we finished with our hot chocolate, we saw the Indian couple coming back. We went back down the cable car, Chinese couple not in sight. It wasn't the last ride downhill, but we were a bit concerned for them.
We took the long bus ride back into town and it was like some 20 minutes before 5pm... we decided we could squeeze in the Toy Museum (make use of that card).
He had a quick snack at one of the cafes (Tomaselli I think)
Well, this photo reminds me, it was THIS night we went to the Asian restaurant. So the other night we went Indian! The funning thing here was, Sriracha has a Chinese name that's basically an assimilated sounding "Si-Lai-Cha". But my friend read the characters the other way (as in books, right to left), she read it "Cha-Lai"Si" and asked me what sauce it was. I was like... er......... Si Lai Cha ya?
Day 8

Another super early day because it was a 3-hour train ride and we just went to Klagenfurt and dropped off our bags in the Hotel. Which. Made me so confused. I said I wanted to leave our bags. The lady said ok. I took out my passport, she says I can't check in now. I said I don't need to check in, but in order to leave my bags, she would have to confirm that I have a booking there, right? But she refused to take my passport. ???????????????

I don't get it. Am I living in another... dimension?
We rushed rushed rushed to a castle, HochOsterwitz. My Dad kept sendning me videos and articles about this place, so I decided I would go. There's only 3 scheduled busses a day from the train station to the castle, and none of the times seem to fit. So we walked.
It was a nice walk. 20 minutes or so.
Hochosterwitz!
It actually got to be a bit boring LOL
There was a roadsign saying "pedestrian this way" and it was like... forest road. I really wanted to walk out to the car-road (asphalt road?)
So we got a ticket to go up the cable car, but I later find out something.
I thought the castle itself was a bit bland. There was an exhibition room, and then a restaurant, and just views...
Food wasn't bad either.
Only as we left did we realize, the visit was supposed to be a walk up the hill because there's like 14 gates along the way going up, and THESE were the sights.

But ah, I think we were good, going up by the lift then walking down.

I thought that no dog poopy sign was funny.

More random photos.

After a final rush to the correct train platform, we returned to Klagenfurt. I found out I had another issue with the train ticket going to Leoben, and this time, FINALLY the lady at Oebb here in Klagenfurt acted like a normal human being. She was very helpful. Information came readily (not like pulling teeth).
I sort of suspect Klagenfurt has some Asian (Japanese maybe) people in their marketing team. There's a lot of IP/dragon(wyvern?)-related merchandize and marketing.

The restaurant had the dragon (or... wyvern?).

And of course the town square.

Oh yeah, some time in the afternoon when we arrived back and before dinner, we did ask about bicycle rentals and bicycle routes and were recommended a route, which basically was what I researched about. So... the next day would be our bike day!

Day 3: Linz

We had some issue with our train tickets because of the heavy rains the previous week. The service agent I had to talk to in Vienna just... had me at my wits' ends. I don't recall exactly what it was though (good thing I forget about the bad things LOL), but it was like, because I bought the sparscheine ticket, it was only valid for that one particular train. But due to the cancellations, my ticket got turned into a "super"-ticket and was good for any train on that day. So I went to ask what I had to do, and the service agent just said, "it's valid for the day." "But WHAT do I have to do?" "You don't have to do anything! It's valid!" "But what does it mean? Do I need a paper that says my ticket is valid? So I can hop on any other train today? WHAT does it mean?" ugh. That was a conversation.

Once we reached Linz, we first headed to our hotel to drop off our bags. This was a weird hotel LOL. It's under renovation, I guess renovating to make it all cute. It's fine. But. The areas being renovated are not closed off, so we had to walk through a renovating corridor, wtf? And our room too, the... Trunking? Cladding? was still all open (where they drill a recess into the wall for the cabling/pipes/whatever).

My friend was the one and only Asian I saw on that day in Linz, haha!

After asking at the tourist info point, we got up the Postlingberg and had a quick bite with excellent views!

And very soon a bee came flying about our seat and we had to wave it off.

I wasn't exactly sure what the Grottenbahn was, I only knew it was some sort of train ride?

So we go look.

So it's a fairy tale train thingamajig.

The train made 3 round around that tunnel. First round the lights on the left wall was on, second round the lights on the right wall was on, and the last round all the lights went on.

After the train ride, we had to go down into a huge room, with small rooms that had displays of fairy tales.

Some fairy tales I sort of knew about, some I outright knew that Disney has "prettified" them... but there were also some weird fairy tales that just made me go WTF.

I know German fairy tales are usually dark but HEY! WHAT IS THE PRINCE DOING MARRYING THE TWO SISTERS???????????????????????? (I have never heard of this Snow-white and Rose-red)

We then just walked around a bit the Postlingberg. Going up, the train track was still under maintenance, so we were lucky by the time we left that the train track to fixed. The other weird thing is, there's no staff there, so who nobody really knew when the train would have come.

Back down in the Hauptplatz, we walked around and visited a few places I had marked.

We first saw this pedestrian green light but didn't notice, but apparently, there's quite a few LGBT(whatever else) pedestrian lights around.

Dinner location. Food wasn't bad.

We started to actually look at the traffic lights LOL

Day 4: Linz > Salzburg

I forgot to shoot a photo, but while the hotel itself was in a weird state due to the renovations, the hotel served EXCELLENT breakfast. I loved it. Thinking about it and I'm hungry again. After breakfast, we decided to explore a little more of the city, since our 24-hour card was still valid. But then we took a wrong turn and sort of got lost, then we had to rush back to the hotel to get our bags and onwards to our train towards Salzburg!

Once again, I booked a hotel right next to the train station, so it was just dropping them off, then off we went to hunt for lunch.

Found this place "Baerenwirt" where the internets say they serve great fried chicken, and wowzers they served GREAT FRIED CHICKEN. It was delivious!

OMG I want to eat that chicken again.

Christmas shops!

We got to Salzburg old town and since I've been here already and know more or less, I decided to skip this, while my friend went in to see.

So I just meandered around. I bought a St Christopher keychain, I remembered I did not have any St Christopher thing in my new car, so figured I might as well get that. (There's a follow up story to this key chain later back in Macau)

Had to hide in churches and shops as it was still drizzly.

Made our way back to the hotel as we had to get changed.

We virtually bought every brand of Mozartkugel that we saw (except for Mirabel)

We had an Opera Dinner at St Peter Stiftskulinarium. Food was okay. It's really more of a gimmick anyway.

Weird decor in this part of the restaurant.

What did I say, we were looking!

Note: this was written on my return flight (Monday), but I only had time to post this today. Sorry!

Oooof! In a blink of an eye, my Austria trip has ended. I’m typing (I’ve started to type) this in my flight. This is a tricky return flight as it’s a noon flight. I’ll arrive Taipei midnight Austria time but morning Taipei time. I won’t be able to fall asleep when I just woke up in Austria side. I did take a Power Nap just now for around 2 hours, but I forgot to take off my Heat Tech undershirt before boarding the plane and now I’m boiling. I’m also seated in the middle seat so it’s a bit tricky to get off my seat to go to the washroom.

I did not expect for the Vienna-Taipei flight to be full. Huh. Well I guess it’s good as it helps to keep the flight connection alive.

Anyway, trip highlights:

Dad is child number 3 of 5 brothers. Eldest brother Onkel F has since passed (2016, I got to see him in 2013).
I got to see family. Met with Onkel P, Tante S, and cousin L (family of Dad’s youngest brother) while in dad’s hometown. A bit of a communication challenge though, when I visited in 2013, I was actually taking German classes so I was able to chat and communicate a bit more. Now I haven’t been taking classes and practicing, so obviously I’m loosing touch.

Then in Vienna, I got to see family of child number 4, Onkel R, his wife Tante R, and their older son cousin M. Don’t know where cousin A is. And when I asked, they shrugged. I wonder if there’s some family disagreement going on. But weirdly, cousin A liked my group photo with the family. Tante R said they would come meet me wherever I was. In the same sitting, I met with the cousin B (daughter of child number 2) and her husband. I have never seen someone so tall in person.

I also then went to visit the home of Onkel W and Tante B (child number 2), and cousin B kindly came with to help with some translation.

But honestly, when you don’t speak each other’s language and haven’t seen each other for 30+ years (last time I saw the entire family was in 1992 or so) there really isn’t much conversation topic. And I don’t know how to make small talk too. There were a few times when things were dragging out and I wanted to say bye (I don’t want to take too much of your time, it’s getting late, you must be getting tired, we need to get back to the hotel as we have an early day tomorrow, etc.) they just say it’s ok and we continue to just… look at each other.

Tante S’ conversation topics were those of conspiracy theories (climate change, etc) and a touch of politics.
Cousin M’s topics were of travel. Husband of cousin B’s were economics and labor-related legislation. I was mildly surprised that Onkel R almost did not say a word. I remember he used to speak with me in English when I was a kid. This time he was just sitting there and not talking.

Onkel W is sick, he got the same thing as my Dad did years back (prostrate cancer) but he was looking well enough.

One teeny tiny small complaint I have about the family is… and maybe this is a cultural difference, they are rather… I can’t place the word on it. So child #4 goes a lot on holiday. They visit a lot of places. One time, they went to Australia and was passing by Hong Kong. My Dad was delighted and invited them to come over for a visit. They said no. They don’t like cities. They like to see nature. My Dad makes annual trips (sometimes twice a year) to visit them all and they can’t come over to visit when it’s along the way?

And also, cousin M (kid from child #4). It was hilarious. I sent Onkel R an SMS message. Apparently he did not get it. So to make sure, I gave him a call on the day I had planned to meet them. Cousin M picked up the phone and we chatted a bit, I passed the arrangements, and ok done.

I asked if they received the message, and cousin M asked me if I sent him or Onkel R the message. We find out Onkel R’s phone did receive a notification from me, but the SMS was blank. So I also asked if cousin M has WhatsApp. One would think this is not just a question of “do you have it?” As it would naturally include “let’s exchange numbers”. But he was ever so straight faced and just said “yes I have WhatsApp on my company phone.”

And then he explained why he had WhatsApp because he had a roommate in a trip to Cape Verde or somewhere (I have never heard of a “half room”, booking a shared room in a hotel) and because that guy was Swiss (not EU, so telephone calls are expensive) and that’s why he has WhatsApp. (They hate the newfangled smartphones).

My Mom had given me some money to invite them all for the get-together, so it was a mission for me to get the bill. I succeeded in both accounts LOL. Lunch with Onkel P, I picked up the tab when I came out of the washroom and saw the lady printing the bill. Onkel P was a bit annoyed LOL. “Du bist gaste!” I also picked up the tab for the bigger dinner (with Onkel R and cousin B etc). Apparently cousin B’s husband wanted to pick up the bill but once again I managed to get it on my way to the washroom.
Enough about family visits and weird dynamics.

Highlights?

I did not like Vienna. I thought Europe was not a tipping place? Or tip-as-you-like place? Everywhere in Vienna they always said “tip is not included”, as if they expect you to leave a tip. Linz and Salzburg did not ask me for tips. Hallstatt did. One place in Klagenfurt did, the other place did not. Leoben did not ask for tips, and Graz asked for tips. Geez. Am I to avoid Europe as well? And I really can’t survive in this everything is closed after 6pm and nothing is opened on Sunday place LOL (not that I ever go anywhere much on Sundays back at home anyway haha)

The weather had been terrible to us as we only got a proper blue-skies-white-clouds on our last day. In Hallstatt we wanted to do the Obertraum hike up to the Five Fingers, but the weather was too bad so it didn’t happen. On the other hand, the cloudy day was good for us in Klagenfurt as we went on a bike tour around the Wörthersee and we were destroyed LOL. The lady at the info center said it would be nice to glide down somewhere before Velden. Well. She was right. It was a nice glide down. What she did not mention, and I was too dumb to have figured that in order to be able to glide DOWN you first need to GO UP LOL it was hilarious. And my friend had a wonky e-bike on the way up. We did the classic “remove battery and put it in again” and seemed to have fix the issue.

In my Dad’s hometown, I had planned to take the train with my friend and get there, walk from the train station to the church (to see Opa, Oma, and Onkel W’s grave) and then walk to Onkel P’s garden, and then have a cake at the Café Konditorei that my Dad I MUST go because I have to meet the lady there, saying that she will be so happy to see me because this lady was his nanny back then. It was a nice gesture that Onkel P and Tante S came over to pick me up and took us everywhere in their car. Couldn’t very well do the classic touristy photo here photo there photo everywhere thing. I’m actually a bit sad because I really wanted to take a photo of the train station. I’ll settle for using the photo from my previous trip.

And Bratislava was nice. We went on a Sunday. BLUE SKIES. SHOPS OPENED! However, the lady at the wardrobe was rushing me to get my things, I wanted to put my scarf in my bag and she was taking my bag away already, so I tried to take my scarf off faster and then, it happened. Dropped my effing camera and effed up the camera lens. It has happened before (with my other camera) so I know I need to replace the lens, damnit. The lens probably isn’t under warranty but I checked it and it just passed the one-year warranty, what luck.

My friend is surprised I’m not upset about it. Honestly, me too. I need to put aside a bit of money to replace that lens, yes, but I’m not too hung up about it.

Oh, and I just watched this movie on the plane. It’s German, “Chantal I’m Märchenland” (Chantal and the Magic Kingdom). My friend was watching it first and I saw some snippets and decided this would be a good movie to end the trip because, in Linz, we went on a Grottenbahn thingamajig. It’s a train ride and it goes around a tunnel with a lot of small figurines of different German fairy tales. After the ride, you visit a museum of and there were the usual fairy tales, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White. And yes, I know Disney has idealized the fairy tales, I know how grim the Grimm and the Anderson tales can be, but I did not expect for the not-so-polished versions to be displayed so prominently in this day and age. There was one, the sisters “Snow White and Rose Red” (not the Snow White from Snow White, Seven Dwarfs, and Magic Mirror). So whatever happens, blah blah, and prince comes to save the sisters, and my issue is with the ending, “he marries both sisters and they lived happily ever after” and I was all WTF is this LOL. Back to this movie, it’s got most of the major fairy tales as well but all so messed up LOL. It was hilarious and I can’t keep this smile off my face even now, just thinking about it. The message of the story is gender-equality/neutral gender acceptance and blah blah and princess don’t need knights and princes to save them, princess can help themselves. Nice message. I approve. The funniest was where she was pushing for the prince from Sleeping Beauty to be himself and just be gay LOL. I haven’t had so much fun with a movie in so long haha.
Ark, should be another 2 hours before I land Taipei, finally. Let’s see if I can get a toilet trip and steal some snacks.

I will need some time to sort out the photos as I already have some work lined up (the dog shelter financial reports, sort out my camera, get a conversion china driver’s license, etc.) but I WILL be sorting through the photos!

Woke up early to get the hotel breakfast (just in a bakery on the ground floor of the building)

Then took a long long bus ride. I originally thought I could walk there, but then it was really quite far away. I arrived early, so I walked out to the lakeside to see Lake Biwa. Those who learnt Japanese with the books Minnano Nihongo and also Kihon (forgot the actual full name of that book) would have read of "Lake Biwa" (Biwako) many times.

Eventually made my way back to the Sagawa Art Museum where... Pokémon and Pottery!

I'm just going to leave the photos here and only pipe up when I have something to say.

The one on the left is of a mushroom type Pokémon (forgot the name) but I couldn't see it. The one on the right is Haunter and Ghost. I only see Haunter though.

This one was meh, it's just putting Pikachu's face everywhere.

Merch! Happy Shopping. I persevered and did not get any plushies!

Made my way back to the hotel, got my luggage, and train to Osaka. When I arrived, there was a Pokémon Center on the same building, so I decided to go up and have a Quick Look, since I've bought all that I needed to buy already. And It's not just Pokémon! I also like Slime from Dragon Quest.

One of the internet popular places I saw was this Onigiri Gorichan and supposedly it's huge onigiris, but I thought them... pretty normal.

Then it was to the Pokémon Cafe where I made the wrong booking. No worries. I'll just skip it. But this... do you see this? Is this cannibalism? That dish that Pikachu is holding... there are Pikachu ears in it. Did Pikachu cook another Pikachu??

Night time walkaround Namba/Shinsai bashi.

Donki.

I sort of remember this crab being a larger one. Hm. Maybe my memory's wonky.

Quick dinner of Ichiran (used to be a lot better).

Oh I also visited one crane catcher place just to have a walk around. Cute. But, it's like a casino, the house always win. I only changed some 10 coins and played them all, then it was time back to hotel.

Hah! So I couldn't make that reservation for today, no problem, I went to look for another type of breakfast. Eggs'n Things is a very weird Hawaii-themed diner or cafe type of thing. But. The pancake wasn't even that good. I guess they wanted to make it savory. I think even if it's savory, a pancake should have a teeny tiny bit of sugar.

Caught a bus to go somewhere far-far away.

The NyanNyan-Ji! The Link Be Here! According to their website, this is just a website showing cat-themed exhibits. Everything inside is cats. It was hilarious. There's no real cats (maybe there are but they're hiding, I guess)

So just to show you some photos without my chatting.

I don't know why this series of "history book" just amused me so much. The pyramid... with cat ears LOL. I had to get the postcard. I got... a lot of postcards. Well. Fodder for my postcard IG. And the Omikuji. I got a super-luck omikuji, which this "level of luckiness" usually doesn't exist (at least, I don't think so). But I also suspect for this Cat Museum Omikuji, all the Omikuji would be some level of "Good Luck."

Next off to Arashiyama. I was hoping to find the same shop I went to some 10 years ago that sold a handbag, the design was sort of a Birkin-type bag with those flaps, but the material was with the Japanese kimono cloth. But nah, shop doesn't exist anymore.

So after walking along the street, snacking on street food, and having some miscommunication where I wanted to buy a cup-sized warabimochi, and the staff gave me a family sized one and I only have till Monday to eat it up, I decided to go back into the city. Book Off Plus. Second hand stuff. Long time no see 8cm CDs! I got 3 CDs (not these 8cm ones)

Then decided to get an early dinner.

Decided to go all out and went for the "Prestige" set and also ordered this "Jabara" Cucumber, which on the menu said, "You'll be surprised!"

Guess what, I was indeed super surprised. He just placed that cucumber on the bar table without a plate or any lining! I AM SHOOKEH. IS IT EVEN HYGIENIC?
But I ate it all up because it was good.

I've said once I wouldn't visit those cat cafes or puppy cafes, but from the photos at the storefront and checking some reviews online it seemed the piggies were well-looked after, I decided to give it a try. Small controlled groups, tables each session. You can't pick up the piglets. You can't touch their face. Okay. Piggies came to me. Piggies slept on my lap. One piggie was trying to eat my parka so I tried to pull it out and bloody piggie tried to snap-bite me, LOL. Okay, feisty! I didn't know pigs can get feisty!

Hello from Singapore

Hello all, I am writing this on the plane (but probably posting this late in the night).
I’m enroute to Singapore again!

After the last trip, we’ve locked down on an office space and after some back and forth with the landlord and the agent, we managed to make payment on time for an April handover, getting a 1 month rent free renovation and set up period, and the actual rental term commencing in May. My assignment this time is to go pick up the keys to the office.

Why is a person in Macau flying all the way to Singapore to pick up the keys to a place that she won’t be working at? Argh.

There’s a few more things I must settle. I’ll be looking for an insurance agent there for the liability insurance and a property insurance. Also have to start talks with the local telecom to set up the telephone lines and such.

So other than these random bag of tasks, I am in Singapore… seemingly on holiday. A colleague was already gushing… “oh wow! I haven’t been to Singapore for so long already! I really want to go to Singapore!” Well, you are free to go on my behalf to get work done. Do you know how busy I am? I do not have the time to be playing around traveling for minor tasks like receiving the keys to the office when there are already employed staff there!

But, well. Due to reasons, this time I’m flying via Hong Kong, on Cathay Pacific. Just the bare minimum standards of an economy class trip, and Cathay is of course so much better than Air Macau. (I flew to Singapore on Air Macau the last time).

Next trip to plan: Seoul at the end of the month! This is a little more scary as unlike Singapore where everything is English based, in Seoul it’s not. I need to think about where to stay, local transport, and such. I really so hope there will be someone on board that speaks Korean or IS Korean that we can be going there with.

You know, I feel like such a creep LOL. I am sitting on my flight seat, aisle seat on the window side of the plane. My next two seats are empty, yay. I have my own in-flight entertainment TV screen. YET, I’m looking over 2 rows ahead on the opposite aisle seat’s screen. The guy in front of this one is watching Barbie. This one I’m looking at is some… maybe American high school story of some glam girl’s fall from grace or something. I don’t know. I’m only watching the screen and trying to read the subtitles. I have my own screen. Heck. I brought my own entertainment. I have my Switch this time. Awful idea, my computer bag is heavy as hell, but there’s a nostalgic game I used to play that had a Switch remake so I’m playing it there.

Two more hours to Singapore. I’ll stop here, toilet break, and start playing on my game 

An add-on after I checked into my hotel. I’m in Little India, and the hotel wants to look trendy and new and modern but sorry the state of the walls and other small things (the electric outlet, the seams between the glass wall of the toilet and room) just screams run down. But I’m not complaining, it’s a roof over my head, I’ve got a queen sized bed, the air con is lovely in this heat. My only lament is the lack of slippers. I was banking on their providing cheap paper thin slippers so didn’t bring my travel slipper but I banked wrong. I did think about buying new slippers but they are so expensive! I need a dollar store or Daiso type of place.

Dinner was at the food market places Tekka Center, then I went hunting for dessert and found a so-far the best sweet dessert soup place. Had a walnut and black sesame paste soup and it was DELICIOUS! Too bad this is in Singapore… I could be coming here every other day!

A few more tasks to handle tomorrow and then Friday I have to meet with a big management boss and the local staff, then I have the rest of Friday and Saturday morning free. Now. What should I do this time around?

Random photos of my walk around Little India. Need to get my guts together and try some actual Indian food. Already went for that... naan or prata thing in the market. Need to try more!

Tekka Place is NOT the market (Tekka Center) but now I found out I did not shoot a photo of the signage.

mi Hotel? Everything digital? And also walked past the University of arts or something.

I was researching flights for Taiwan for the Boss and certainly I noticed that 8-December, which is a public holiday here, is on a Friday. So, searching for flights for him turned into just looking into flights for me LOL. I got my flight tickets for 7-December flying out and the 10-December back, which, upon further reflection, I should have chosen to go on 8-December early flight in order to save a night of hotel. But. Anyway. What's done is done.

But.

I don't feel the drive. The FIRE. The excitement. There were a couple moments I wanted to ask my friends if they wanted to come, but I sort of felt like if I do so, they'll hijack my itinerary and do everything else. But they are the ones with the knowledge of what is good and especially the food. So I'm still torn with what to do about it.

Although I booked a hostel but I didn't feel like staying in a dorm with strangers, so I booked a private room. But thinking about that, then maybe I should have booked an actual hotel, but the hostel I booked looks a lot nicer and newer than hotels in the area. I won't be able willing to afford the hotels that my Boss stays at. So there. Still stingy I guess? Or just down to earth, I guess.

The plan? There is no plan LOL. Well, take part in that lucky draw to see if I get the NT$5000 card LOL. I'll probably go to a different night market 2 nights (Raohe and Shida). Would like to spend some time in Eslite. But geez, it's been so long, I don't remember where is where. There's this specific street I'd like to go to, but I don't remember the name, nor the MRT station name. Beitou looks interesting, I'd probably go take a look at that fancy library. I'm kind of thinking of going to Jiufen but once I start imagining the hoards of people then I just lose interest.

I've done the Pingxi route previously as well (that was a gutsy trip LOL). Tamsui is supposed to be another touristic spot but I've been there twice and.................... no comment. A friend brought me to Wulai (sp?) once and I don't think I have the guts to go alone, and besides, I don't normally go to places I've been to before.

Ximendeng, 101, and those usual trendy spots, I'll probably skip. So coming to think of it, there doesn't seem to be much. Anyway.

Maybe my interests will take hold later again. We'll see.