Strolling Through Tamshui (淡水)

My mom and I took the subway (MRT) through Taipei to Tamshui, a little coastal village north of Taipei, to check out the old streets and festival food there.  It was so crowded that my mom and I wondered if we should have just stayed home…

We walked first through the streets, unbelievably tantalizing with all of its snack foods.

"Sweet not hot" - a favorite street snack of assorted fish balls, root vegetables

Stinky tofu!  It smells like garbage.  But… it's really good?! Yum!

Tomatoes and plums coated in sugar

A noodle stall

Noodles in sesame paste with sesame oil drizzled on top… lots of sesame

Tamshui is a really charming little town, with a lot of historical buildings from its days as an important shipping port.  We stepped into this beautifully refurbished gallery which explained the history of Tamshui and the control that the various British shipping companies and merchants exerted during the mid 1800s.  They mostly shipped oolong tea and opium.

 It was a pretty hazy day, unfortunately - overcast and gray.

But I thought there was something cute and romantic about the whole sea village fishing town scene.

We then walked up to Fort Santo Domingo, or 紅毛城 which literally means "red hair town".

At first I thought it was because the fort was red.  But it is much more likely a reference to the Spaniards that built and settled the fort in 1629 and onwards.  It is a fort with a long history, changing hands from the Spaniards to the British (it served as their consulate for a while), to the Australians, to the Americans, and finally today serving as a national monument / preserved historical site.

Because we always need a flower pic:

And finally, a selfie of my mom and me!