Memorabilia and Bopiliao Street (剝皮寮)

Lots of old things to see in and around Taipei! We started off at Bopiliao Old Street - an avenue whose arcades have been structurally preserved from the early 1900’s. Some of the old storefronts have been converted into museum-style information booths. We wandered into one that was targeted at kids, complete with obligatory stamping booklets. And boy, do the kids ever get competitive when there are stamps to be had! They immediately began to race around and look for the stamping stations. Fortunately we managed to stop them for a few moments to check out the old school rotary dial telephone and bicycle rickshaw.

Next we visited Nai-nai’s old university on our way to the zoo. Luckily there was a blonde lady waiting just outside the gates, just where we wanted to take a photo! She agreed to give us a hand (unfortunately she is clearly not a photography student as she cut our feet off) and as we were chatting afterwards, we found out that she is in fact a Swiss from Zug, in China on holidays and in Taipei visiting her sister, who is an exchange student at the very same National Chengchi University that Nai-nai attended years ago. What are the odds!

Last but not least, there was this oldy worldy divan chair that the kids saw in the apartment foyer and really took a liking to. They practically ordered Insta-Mommy to go back downstairs and take a picture for the blog at 11pm because we couldn’t be sure to remember the next morning with all our bags and stuff.Read more