Taipei: Cars 2 and Mucha Paintings

Last Thursday, August 25, my mom and I went up to Taipei. All my cousins were going to be there, and the summer vacation was ending, so we figured we should go up to see them because we won't be able to see them for a while, with the school starting next week. On Thursday, my cousins and I went to see Cars 2 at the Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園), and we rode on a Ferris wheel. On Friday, we went to see an art gallery, paintings by a Alphonse Muccha. (The picture on the left is one of the paintings by Muccha we took from a book.)

It was a beautiful day. How wrong I was.

Sitting in the train.

Me! (Yes, that's my new hairstyle which I wrote about in my last post.)

My mom.

That afternoon my cousins and I went to see Cars 2.

We sat in the subway train.

We arrived at Jiannan Road Station.

Miramir Entertainment Park.

The long line of people.

Inside the Miramar Entertainment Park department store.

The IMAX theater.

This Ferris wheel is the second tallest one in Taiwan.

The game room.

Our movie was supposed to start at 2:40, but it was 1:30, so we were walking all over the place to pass the time.

Ice cream.... yummy....

We went back to the theater at 2:25. We saw Cars 2 in 3D. There were two other trailers, Real Steel and Johnny English Reborn. Like the other Pixar films, there was a short film before Cars 2 started. I never saw the trailer for Cars 2, so I didn't expect the movie to have a James Bond-style fight and explosions. The animation was very nice, and there were many beautiful scenes. The movie was so enjoyable.

After the movie, two of my cousins wanted to ride the Ferris wheel, and they asked me again. I refused the first time is because I have a bit of fear of heights. However, they wanted to ride it, so I had to go with them, because they weren't willing to ride without me. So I plucked up some courage and walked towards that horrifying wheeled machine. I started to shake when I got in line.

The view was spectacular.

She wasn't afraid at all.

Aargh, just looking at these photos makes me think of how terrifying it was.

The view from the passenger seat.

My cousin was extremely terrified. She sat on the other side to balance the weight of the passenger car. She and I told the other two not to move around so much.

We finally got off. I was so relieved. My knees were shaking. I can't believe I sat on the second tallest Ferris wheel in Taiwan. (The first one is in Kaoshiung.)

We left the park.

But we needed to find a place to eat, so we decided to go back to the department store.

My dinner. My cousin and I had the same thing.

My other two cousins' dinner.

In the metro station.

I was very surprised at how crowded it was. It was a Thursday!!

Friday: We went out to have breakfast. Afterward, my cousins and I went straight to the Muccha art gallery near the National Palace Museum. We took the bus, which was an hour's ride.

We just got up, so she was pretty tired.

My cousin's lunch, but she ate it on the bus.

In the bus.

On the way to the Museum.

We finally arrived.

The National Palace Museum, and some green thing standing across from it.

The ticket booth.

Unfortunately, but not surprising, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the gallery. There were many paintings by the French artist, Alphonse Mucha. There was also a 1800s New York Times paper, and I saw an article about Mucha. They called him "the genius of the man....".

Some pictures of the paintings by the gift shop wall.

The entrance to the Mucha gallery.

We walked over to the National Palace Museum to find a place to have lunch.

We sat over there by the entrance.

Inside the National Palace Museum.

We took the escalator down to find a spot to get more pictures...

But we gave up and decided to go home.

We waited for the bus, but I'm glad we didn't wait for long!

At night, my Mom, my cousin, and I went to the night market. My mom's.

Mine.

My cousin's.

On Saturday, my mom and I went back home because there was typhoon coming.

Us at the HSR station.

The colorful train.

Love my mom and dad!