Linsanely Great VaLINtine's Day

So for most of the day on our first Valentine's day in Taiwan John was on an airplane flying in from Frankfurt to Taiwan. Therefore, I spent the day walking around and trying to get a sense of the layout of Taipei as I get lost pretty easily. The last time I lived in Taipei was over 10 years ago
from 2000-2001 so most of the streets/restaurants/and places only seem vaguely familiar. Being a wanderlust and marrying a wanderlust means that I've often flown into a city to meet John and due to flight patterns that I cannot begin to explain I sometimes have an entire day to myself while I wait for him to arrive. Case in point, Dublin, London and Shanghai. I've pretty much learned to find a map, start walking and get totally lost for about 3 to 4 hours and then open the map and route my way back home. It helps me learn the layout of the city and it's like my very own Amazing Race.
This Valentine's day I did just that and during my walk I came across a few amazing things. First was this street filled with these ENORMOUS palm trees. It was really a gorgeous sight to behold. I found a sign that explained that these were King Palms imported from Cuba.

After that I also stopped by the gym that John and I go to. It's actually this huge arena that holds sports games, and has a huge track and field and for 50NT an hour ($2.05) you can use there gym which is pretty nice and
very cheap. After the gym as I was walking out and looking for maybe a juice bar, or vending machine that might sell me water I find this instead...McDonald's. I almost choked. Only in Asia would they allow a McDonald's in the same building as a sports arena. It's as if they are saying, "hey good job working out...now grab a Big Mac as a reward."

John was coming home that night around 10 so I wanted to make sure I had dinner ready since before he left we had not moved into the new apartment. This would not only be our first Valentines in Taiwan but we would be celebrating it in our new home. I already new that I wanted to grab some bread, cheese and salami (an old dinner favorite of ours) I was going to get John a nice 6 pack and also some chocolates.

I headed to the grocery store and decided to try out a new store near our new apartment just to see if I liked it better.
Well low and behold I liked it a lot better and for one reason only. I found not only all the
ingredients I needed for our dinner and olive oil to boot, but I also found wine that was decent in taste and in price. it was like hitting the jackpot in Vegas, except I was handing over money. Once I got home I got to "cooking" and by cooking I mean slicing the cheese, bread and meat and pouring myself a glass of wine.

The biggest fine of the night definitely the
40 oz can of Miller High Life...John's Fave


















I had originally thought I would go in and get him a 6 pack of Taiwan Beer and upgrade to Gold, but upon seeing the MHL I knew this was it...I had to purchase this tall, cold Gold can of deliciousness for him for his Valentine's Day present. John arrived shortly before 10 pm and we enjoyed our first Valentine's Day filled with wine, cheese, bread and Miller High Life