Hsinchu Day 2

 For breakfast I had one of the egg pudding tarts (raisin flavour?) for breakfast. Cause I woke up later around 8am, and I didn't want to fill up too much as we'll be eating all day again, I only had the 1. And skipped hotel breakfast. 

I just chilled in the room and checked out the TV (it had Chunghwa MOD). No Pili channel but they have Animax, just like last year. Haikyuu season 4 in Mando dub was on.

I decided to head out first and have a look at a fabric shop that comes up on Google, and let Dark H and Knuckles know to meet me there. So I made my way there and realised it was in the 城隍廟夜市 area. Turns out it was a whole row of stores!! Oh no I got overwhelmed, cause it was with the 菜市場 and I ended up just walking up and down the street and looking into the stores from outside... they had a lot of floral printed fabrics and other polyester looking plain fabrics. There was also a lot of clothing stores, a kitchenware store on the outside, a handmade bags store, a knit store, and others. At the end of the street I found out it was the entrance with the 雞蛋糕. Oh cool! I went back inside the market street and had another look, and then came out and bought myself a serving of cake. Ohhh this one is crisp exterior but the inside has a mochi type texture and bite to it. Delicious. 

I ended up going around the corner and then into the Living Arts museum again while I waited for Dark H and Knuckles, while eating my cake. I just looked around outside some more. After I finished my cake I decided to go into the mini musuem area (with the stamp) to ask if they sold postcards. It was a different volunteer lady today. They said they didn't but they could put it through as a suggestion. She asked if I was not a local, cause my Mando had an accent lol. Yeah, told her I'm from NZ. There was another couple there at the same time, and the man asked me if I was from Kinmen. Sorry bro! I'm from Aotearoa. Said bye and checked my phone and Dark H and Knuckles has arrived 3 mins ago.  I quickly went out to meet them. Hello~~~

Off we go to the flower market!!! 

We went around the market and just ate whatever caught our fancy.

Kumara balls, a lemon drink, hot dog, seven bean chicken, yam mochi cake... Dark H had an oil-friend green onion pancake with egg. While they ate that, we moved to the side and sat down to eat, and stared at the fishing game that a toddler was having a go at. At the plants and flower section, we saw these little bonsai that were twisted in a cute way. Also a mini chilli tree. And many edibles and flowers. So cool. 

My lemon drink

Really tiny chillies

Stall where I got my drink from

Kumara balls

Hot dogs... don't taste the same though....

This was really yummy

Yam mochi cake

Afterwards, we headed to the Glass Museum and Workshop. So cool! We could see the staff blowing, shaping, and working on the glass to make heaps of the same size cymbal looking base of glass. They put the glass into a temperature controlled kiln, to slowly cool it down so it doesn't crack.

Entrance with glass sand (do not touch!)

One person presses the wooden paddle against the molten glass whilst the other rolls the blowpipe with the molten glass on it to shape it

Transferring it from this blowpipe to the other end so it can be shaped in the direction desired

Transfer complete

Tapping to remove the glass product from the blowpipe

Smoothing out the broken join with blowtorch. Then it gets placed into the temperature controlled kiln

There's another workshop area where they use a blowtorch to shape the glass. The lady working on it was wearing sunglasses. Great PPE. After the glass was shaped it was put on a pad? with dancing flames. Maybe to allow it to cool down slowly. So cool. There was an Arceus glass in the window. xD

Upstairs there is a cafe at 3F, and then at 2F there is a small shop.

Then we went to the Kongzhi Miao nearby. It was a smaller one and there was like, no body. I had a look around, and then we sat down for a bit and then headed back. And then we realised there is a Glass Art Musuem which we missed. Entry was $50 for me, free for locals. They had an exhibit for a glass artisan where their works were very beautiful. Then upstairs was the permanent exhibit about glasswork and its history in Hsinchu. I enjoyed it but like didn't want to take up too much time and keep Dark H and Knux waiting. It took us about 1.5 hr to go through the musuem I reckon. I really enjoyed this bit. They had a gift shop with heaps more items than the workshop store. I took a photo of some flattened bottles before realising it said no photos. Oops. Sorry! Everything was so pretty. I wanted to buy something but couldn't see an instant match as a gift for anyone. Sad.

Off to scones at FOX Cone now. The new store is at an old residential area. The buildings are really old and worn, and it kinda reminds me of Shuinan neighbourhood. The store was SO BUSY you had to line up. All seats were full, so we opted for takeway (phew). They had some outdoor seats but they were mainly for waiting, not eating. The concrete tiles and walls were recently done. Lol the wall had a sandy texture that's blasted on and they were so lazy they didn't cover the plumbing pipes before blasting. I got a pearl sugar scone and a nutella choc scone with Blue Mountain tea (cold). We took away and went to the nearby riverside to eat it. Scones were really good, crispy and short and no baking soda taste. I should've asked for no sugar in my tea instead of low sugar... opps. We sat on the benches a bit and finished eating. Dark H and Knux eats so fast. 

Stopped on the Youth Library on the way to dinner. Old historical building for sure! Cool space.

Knux kept asking me at diff intervals of the day when we were due to head over to the next thing, if I wanted to go to 18 Peaks.... LOL xD I'm still running on jetlag, maybe next time!!!

After this we headed to 豬腳麵 on the old street. We got noodles and some of the trotters. Dayum it's good! But the noodles were pretty rich with the shallots sauce and grease. It's good though but heavy. The trotters were yummy, moist and not dry, tender, and soft for the skin parts. Good, pure flavour. Managed to secure and outdoor table which is great!! Knux asked if I wanted to go home, or get dropped off at the fabric store, or come watch them eat ice. I'll come watch you eat ice. xD

Didn't realise until ages later that the photo I took looks like boobs... LOL

We went to AhZhong ice near the Dong Men market. Knux got a bowl of shaved ice and let me taste it. The pineapply syrup and pieces inside gives it a nice flavour. We sat inside because there was a smoker nearby... there was only 1 other person inside and it was pretty long and narrow, so it wasn't bad. I wasn't eating anyway, and put my mask back on when other people started arriving. They had some kids amusement ride machines inside. xD Like the one where you sit and it goes around in a circle/wheel, or the one where the seat moves like a horse. 

Knux said he'll teach me how to print postcards at ibon in a 7-11. You go on the ibon website and put in what you want, upload your file, and then your email and it'll send you a QR code. You go to the ibon machine in store, scan your code, go through the prompts, print your thing, take the receipt with the QR code and go to the counter to pay. He took a photo of me in the Glass Musuem with the displays. xD

Afterwards we went to get our bikes and Knux dropped me off at the fabric shop. I said thank you and good bye :') oh but I'll see you again at the Bahamut games con in Taipei I guess! :')

I had a browse in this fabric store and see if they still had that bunny with masks fabric. Took me a while, I browsed the whole store before finding it, lol. They have a lot of textured and variety fabrics, less for dressmaking and more cotton and Japanese style based. Pretty pricy, it's about $15 a metre NZD, and they sell it in 尺 which is 30cms for 一尺. This fabric was $99 per 尺. It's twill based and soft though. I noticed the sign in the illustration was simplified Chinese and it was a testing station.... so it's probably from China. Illustrating their zero covid response. 

After that I walked back to the hotel, and sat for a bit rehydrating myself. Took a shower and half-full bath, and then felt so exhausted. Blogging, and then realised my tummy is upset :') probably from allium intolerance. I guess I'm intolerant now...

Will tidy up my Google Timeline and then go to sleep. I still have to pack everything up tomorrow to check out!