One of the things I miss most from Taiwan is my frequent visits to the many cafes. I used to do a #todayscoffeestop series on my Facebook page and posted some of the cafes on Hive as well as they all have their own unique character. Whilst I'm not an avid coffee drinker, I love seeking out different cafes to enjoy the ambience, and generally just sitting around relaxing not doing much. Each of the cafe holds special memories for me, in particular the ones I visited in 2020.
My first cafe of the year. I live in Taichung, Taiwan's second largest city, and spent New Year's eve in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan in 2019. It was a brilliant new year's eve, rounded off with a fantastic round of fireworks display to welcome 2020, the start of a new year. Everything was supposed to be good in the new year. How wrong can one be?
New year's day was all about relaxing. It's a public holiday in Taiwan but a lot of places were still open, including Elsewhere Cafe. In fact, it was quite busy, and I remember waiting about 15 minutes for a table. It wasn't too bad as part of the cafe was a book shop and I was browsing around. They sold a lot of English books which isn't that common in Taiwan. The 15 minute was worth it once I got to sample the matcha mille crêpes, the fad at the time.
The next day I went to my second #todayscoffeestop of the year. It was recommended by my friend whom I was staying with in Taipei. Refill the Love is located inside an old house, these type of buildings are quite common and date back to the fifty years when Japan occupied the island from 1895 to the second world war. The original exterior wall remains intact adding authenticity to the cafe. The inside had been renovated and is modern and simple. The white decor, with a massive white cloud lampshade made the whole place very relaxing. Do you notice the little snow man ornament on the table next to the coffee. Although Taiwan doesn't officially celebrate Christmas (Christmas isn't a public holiday) most people still like to join in the festive mood.
Some of you may be aware that Hong Kong is another of my homes and I have blogged about how China has suppressed democracy and freedom in Hong Kong in recent years. Musicat's owner is from Hong Kong, and the name reflects his love for music, specifically guitars, and cats. He's also a staunch supporter to protect Hong Kong's freedom.
The piggy at the front of the cafe is the LIHKG pig and is made of post it notes. LIHKG is a local reddit forum and during the democracy movements in 2019/20 (and ongoing) it was used intensively instead of the mainstream social media. The banner above the LIHJG pig says Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now, the slogan for the democracy movement. One could be arrested under the Hong Kong national security law for subversion for chanting the slogan, in effect, it is banned in Hong Kong.
The post notes to the left of the front entrance is a mini Lennon Wall that has sprang up in many places for people to leave their messages and share their grievances about the situation.
For me, Musicat is not only a place for a good coffee - they do a really cute cat foam cappuccino, it also represents a belief, and a determination.
Like Refill the Love, Egg Host is also located in Taipei, and in an old house from the Japanese colonial days. My trip to Taipei on this occasion was to meet with my two sister in laws who flew in from Hong Kong for a siblings gathering. Taiwan is only an hour flight away from Hong Kong, hence a popular destination for a short break. Covid had started to blow up in Hong Kong and Taiwan by mid January, way before most countries in the rest of the world were even aware of it.
Both my sister in laws were very worried about the situation as we had all gone through SARS in 2003. That time, 286 people died over three months, and then SARs just disappeared and never returned. We didn't want to go through the pain and worry again.
This is my last coffee stop in Taiwan, a week before I left the country, supposedly for a month's holiday back to UK. This turned out to 18 months stay and still counting. By this time, Covid had already hit Taiwan for over a month. My friend and I were chatting about the situation. Things were getting tense day by day, and Taiwan had started to ration the sale of face masks. When a country starts to ration something so crucial, you know things are getting really bad. We just had no idea how bad it could get.
At that time, I didn't know this would be my last coffee stop in Taiwan for a long long time, and that my, and everyone's life around the world would change forever. Had I known, I would have ordered another piece of the chocolate mille crêpes, it was devine!
My life no longer revolves around cafes nowadays. Those days are long gone. My old life is long gone and I don't know when it will come back again.
Stay safe everyone.
