Pingxi (平溪) Crags

I don't even know where to start. Today was awesome. So I guess I better just start getting into some photos.

After we all met up we took the metro and had awhile to hang out before the bus. So...naturally we went into the nearest convenience store with an A/C to hang out. We spent as much time there as we could, but it was pretty small so eventually we felt like we should leave. 

Secret club house!

Our bus driver was awesome! The road to the trails isn't actually even a bus stop and he totally stopped for us there! 

The bus ride was quite the windy adventure itself. 

Pingxi is famous for people going there to light off lanterns! We found them all over the place. Apparently you're supposed to write your wishes on them. This one is my favorite: 

Find a girlfriend in 2014! haha. 

Start of the hike! At the foot of the mountain. (We're all clean and full of energy!)

I can't even begin to describe how LEGIT this place was! This photo is before we even got to the really cool stuff!

Now is where it starts getting good. We knew there were three options to hike/climb the crags, so we decided to do rock, paper, scissors to decide which one to hike first!

Round 1 - Tony Loses

Round 2 - Yuan Yuan Loses

Ray is the champion!

So this is the path we would take. 

Up one of those "this trail is no longer in use" or whatever it is-type trails. haha. 

Lunch at the top. 

One of our next two stops. If you look close there are a ton of stairs. haha. 

Our next stop. 

To the top of another crag. 

The view from the third crag. 

For the hike down we could either choose to go with the normal route, or...an alternate route. Thankfully, Yuan Yuan said that we should of course take the other route! It turns out that...we ended up going on a trail that after a certain point wasn't a trail at all - which made it awesome!

Yay for forging your own trail!

It got kinda cray.. 

but don't worry, we all made it out alive! Tony felt especially grateful to have survived. As he pointed it, "這裡好滑" "It's really slippery here" 

His shoes looked really good but they were actually really bad. 

When we were nearing the bottom (or maybe halfway) we reconnected with the original trail and made it down!

After the hike we rewarded ourselves by cooling off in the river. It was sooooo nice. : )

Garlic and sausages? Yes please!

Pingxi! A very successful and fun day. 

The last three weeks (England, Wales, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, Monaco)

I haven't been doing much as far as blogging for the last three weeks because I was far too busy enjoying myself and didn't have a computer to blog with either. 

Now I'm in Taipei, it's 5:00AM and I'm awake with some really weird jet lag (stopped by the states for two days on the way over from Europe). 

Anyway, to sum up the trips: AMAZING

Highlights: 

This was taken at Seven Sisters (white cliffs near Eastbourne) That was probably the most amazing thing I saw in England and it was basically like paradise. On top of the cliffs are rolling green hills and there are rivers nearby that lead to the sea. Totally amazing. 

Mom and I took a day trip to Wales. That was probably a pretty crazy thing to do but we got a killer deal on the bus because we used the national express with their "fun fares". They're really fun because they're really cheap!

Czech Republic was nice. I didn't find Prague as fairytale like as everyone says, but I definitely enjoyed it. I had very low expectations for the food and I actually loved it! It was also fun being in a country with a pretty strong language barrier for us. We traveled to the Bohemian Paradise which was really beautiful and we hiked up a very green trail that was great. 

I have four favorite foods in the world in no particular order:

Pizza margherita from Napoli

Double Double Animal Style from IN-N-OUT

Clam chowder in a Boudin bread bowl

Kebab from Sydney, Australia 

It's always a wonderful occasion when I'm eating one of those foods. 

Back in Barcelona. Such a cool city, but I don't feel like it's the best to go and visit. I think it's more of a city to go and hang out at or maybe to live in. 

Monaco/Southern France, always as nice as ever. 

The cruise was amazing. Highlights include winning 2nd place in the speed climbing competition, and being a Top 8 Finalist for the world's sexiest man. Hahaha. We also dominated the trivia games and won enough keychains to give them away to all of our friends. 

The food was great (read: unlimited), and we definitely are into cruises when they're free. Hahaha. We're probably also into them when they are close to free and we're going to be looking in the future for discount cruise deals. 

After the cruise my family left and I went to the YSA conference. 

Allora, dopo la crociera sono andato alla conferenza dei GANS a Pescara.. MAMMA MIA!! E' stata bellissima! 

All'inizio mi aspettavo di andare a divertirmi un sacco con i miei vecchi amici,,,poi quando ci ho pensato un po' di piu' volevo anche riprendermi un po' spiritualmente e riguardare le mie mete spirituali. 

La conferenza e' stata veramente piu' bella di quanto avessi mai immaginato. C'erano piu' cari amici li', mi sono divertito di piu', ho imparato piu' cose spirituali, e ho trovato anche nuovi amici! Una cosa che non mi aspettavo. 

Sono grato per la mia appartenenza alla chiesa di Gesu' Cristo e per tutte le cose che so di essere vere. E' fantastico che possiamo comunicare direttamente con il nostro Padre Celeste, e questo mi porta sempre molta felicita'. :D

Le ultime tre settimane sono state bellissime e sono sicuro che i prossimi mesi saranno anche bellissimi. 

I'll try to keep up my blog as much as I can while in Taiwan!