Saturday the 28th of January, 2012 will always standout as one of the Harrington's most memorable travel moments. Soon the date will be forgotten. Soon the taste of morning donuts and milk tea will fade. Soon the peace amongst chaos which was found on the grounds of the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and 2-28 Peace Park will be replaced by the peace of a new solitary moment. Soon the day of January 28th will fade into conversations of piecing things together in an unorganized fashion, whereas the evening of January 28th will hold together tightly and remain real and vivid.
Following a rather peaceful day, as mentioned above, wandering and lounging about the grounds of two significant Memorial Parks in Taipei the Harrington's began a trek to nearby land which would prove magical and majestic, if not slightly overpopulated.
Walking to the Taipei Main Station and then looking for signage to point them in the direction of the slow/local train the duo were soon boarding a train toward Ruifang where they would then change trains and head to Pingxi where they anticipated seeing an extravagant display of sky lanterns. What the Harrington's couldn't have anticipated fully however, was the sheer amount of people whom they would join in this adventure. Shoulder to shoulder the Harrington's kept their footing on the platform and pondered the possibility that all those desiring to board the train would in fact be able to do so.
After waiting longer than should have been allowable, the couple miraculous made their way into an over occupied train car, which was no small feat! Being some of the last on the train, Melissa found herself being grabbed by a small Taiwanese woman and pulled onto the car while Mike found himself being pushed and commanded to push to ensure the doors could close behind him. With an hour or so of daylight left the Harrington's made their way to Pingxi attempting to look out the windows between the hundreds of faces, bodies, bags, arms, etc that were likely to block their view.
Finally, the train arrived at it's destination however, rather than feeling as if the crowd were able to fully disperse into the small city streets the Harrington's simply found themselves hemmed in on all sides. No matter, within minutes the Harrington's and other festival goers were greeted by the magical rising and floating of orange lit sky lanterns, each carrying it's own set of hopes, dreams and wishes. The evening was spent weaving in and out of crowds, making way to main staging ground and eventually backtracking so that the Harrington's could wait 2-3 hours before boarding a train (luckily they had a chance to snack on some ox tongue) and another 1-2 hours before arriving in Taipei and in their warm beds.
But...it was worth it!
Following a rather peaceful day, as mentioned above, wandering and lounging about the grounds of two significant Memorial Parks in Taipei the Harrington's began a trek to nearby land which would prove magical and majestic, if not slightly overpopulated.
Walking to the Taipei Main Station and then looking for signage to point them in the direction of the slow/local train the duo were soon boarding a train toward Ruifang where they would then change trains and head to Pingxi where they anticipated seeing an extravagant display of sky lanterns. What the Harrington's couldn't have anticipated fully however, was the sheer amount of people whom they would join in this adventure. Shoulder to shoulder the Harrington's kept their footing on the platform and pondered the possibility that all those desiring to board the train would in fact be able to do so.
After waiting longer than should have been allowable, the couple miraculous made their way into an over occupied train car, which was no small feat! Being some of the last on the train, Melissa found herself being grabbed by a small Taiwanese woman and pulled onto the car while Mike found himself being pushed and commanded to push to ensure the doors could close behind him. With an hour or so of daylight left the Harrington's made their way to Pingxi attempting to look out the windows between the hundreds of faces, bodies, bags, arms, etc that were likely to block their view.
Finally, the train arrived at it's destination however, rather than feeling as if the crowd were able to fully disperse into the small city streets the Harrington's simply found themselves hemmed in on all sides. No matter, within minutes the Harrington's and other festival goers were greeted by the magical rising and floating of orange lit sky lanterns, each carrying it's own set of hopes, dreams and wishes. The evening was spent weaving in and out of crowds, making way to main staging ground and eventually backtracking so that the Harrington's could wait 2-3 hours before boarding a train (luckily they had a chance to snack on some ox tongue) and another 1-2 hours before arriving in Taipei and in their warm beds.
But...it was worth it!
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