Happy New Year! Yes we spent the new year here with Elina. Of course we went to the 101 building with about half million Taiwanees. There was a big show with popular artist from here. a lot of people and a 188 second fireworks from the tower. It was a lot of waiting because we were there allready about 2h prior to get a good spot. So was a lot of other people two. But it was quite nice just to see the whole spectacle and we had a nice Japanese dinner before. Then we had a countdown to the next year and after the fireworks (I put a video and photos here later) we of course had some sparkling wine. Then we had to hurry to the long metro queue, and the sparkling wine made it's work after about 30 minutes of queuing we had to find a toilet...it was just to much suffering...

But after the relif we got back to the queue and the organized Taiwanece police and metro voluntares let us finally in to the subway station. Have to say I was pretty impressed by how they worked the masses. After some night snac at a super crowded MAc Donalds we finnaly got to the hostel around 3 am... and no hangover!

More about Taipei 2009 New Year : http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/01/01/2003432609

So we could continue the year 2009 with some sight seeing today. We went to some hot springs to bade our soure feet from yesterdays standing and walking and later we went to the Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall a pompous cluster of buildings. There was also a Andy Warhol exhibition that was really good.

Tomorrow we leave Taipei for a couple of days. Our destination is Hualien and the Taroko Gorge Nationall Park. I let you know more about that soon!