Strawberries and Bus Rides

I was invited by a friend to go on a strawberry picking trip yesterday. I was a bit confused at first, because in Canada, or at least on the east coast, strawberry season is in late summer or early fall early summer (I guess I have been away from Canada too long! lol). Here in Taiwan it is apparently in early spring just as the weather starts to warm up (Starting late February).

Our day trip started at 7:30 AM at Taipei Main Station where we met to join what I later found out was a bus tour to several different destinations, one being the strawberry farm. Roughly fifteen of my friend's friends also joined the tour to make it a fairly large group.  

The first stop on our tour was to a nature park. Beautiful flowers, sweet smells, and being surrounded by nature. I don't think there 's a much better way to pass your time! I am not sure what type of flower it is in this picture, but I though it was worth a snap of the camera. 

After spending a couple hours surrounded by nature, we headed on to our next destination which was a small town to buy some food for lunch. We didn't have much time, so everyone ended up buying street food from the hawker stalls. I had a tofu sandwich and also a sausage on a stick. 

Along the way I came across this interesting sight. 

Upon enquiring, I was informed that these are pigs livers that are being dried and are normally used in certain types of Taiwanese food. I can't say that that would be my first choice of food for a meal, but I am told that it is very tasty. 

We left the town on a stomach half full and headed for the strawberry patch to spend about an hour picking and snacking on ripe, sweet and succulent strawberries. Two kilograms of berries cost a mere 200 NTD (6 CAD) so I made the most of it and picked to my hearts content!

After a filling and fulfilling strawberry picking experience we were back on the bus to head to our last stop which was a touristic area mainly meant to coax people into spending their money on the local produce, products and of course strawberries. Outside the shops there was what else but a HUGE strawberry. 

All in all, the day was a lot of fun and I suppose one of the best parts has to be that I was able to return home with a box full of strawberries that I think I will be able to eat for the next week!