Hualien 🇹🇼

I continued south by train to Hualien. Since the beginning of April, it has been a little more famous in world history due to the rather strong earthquake. In the city itself, you can hardly see anything of it anymore, but unfortunately the famous and breathtaking Taroko National Park has been closed since then. But let's start at the beginning. When I arrived, I checked into the hostel as usual. My room was "so big" that there wasn't even room for my backpack, but at least it was a private room just for me. Next to the bed there was a sign saying what was not allowed, but thank God I was still allowed to move around. Very amused by this accommodation, I walked into the city and fell in love with it straight away. While I was on the phone home, I walked to the beach and had a look at it. Then I went to one of the largest night markets in Taiwan for dinner. After I had a delicious meal with live music, I went back to the hostel. The next day, however, I still wanted to see what the national park looked like, so I drove to the beginning of the national park. Unfortunately, I discovered that everything was cordoned off and there was no way in. But all you could see of the earthquake itself were one or two murmurs that went off into the river next to the road. I thought the view of the mountains, the sea and the river from there was pretty nice and I unpacked my breakfast. Since there isn't much else to do in the area, I went back to town and got a bike and cycled around town. I hiked from just outside the town to a waterfall that I had all to myself, like most places here in Taiwan. Here too, unfortunately, the further path up was closed and so I could only do a short loop. Since I wanted to take advantage of the first really nice sunny day in Taiwan, I then cycled further to another river in the mountains. In the evening, I went back to the night market for dinner. My last night here in Hualien was a bit mixed, firstly because I was woken up in the middle of the night by an earthquake. I already knew the feeling from Japan, but this time it was a lot stronger and my bed had been shaking for a long time, which made me feel a little strange, but it was still worth the experience. Secondly, I actually wanted to see the sunrise on the beach and had set the alarm for 3:30, but when I got up I saw that it was raining outside, so I went back to bed. And thirdly, after I finally got up a few hours later, I got a nasty surprise - bed bug bites all over my body! Nice itchy shit, I thought. I quickly packed up all my things, rubbed my feet with a thick layer of tiger balm and hopped on my bike to enjoy breakfast on the beach. Later in the morning I dropped off my bike, picked up my things from the hostel and headed to the train station. After a few hours of planning for the rest of my trip, I got on the train and drove 3 hours further south. 🫶🏼