My Travel Adventures

V sobotu jsem se probudil ve čtyři hodiny ráno a dál už jsem nemohl spát. Částečně to byl neočekávaný následek mé páteční večeře (hranolků a palačinek), která ve mně k ránu probudila kromě silného sebe-odporu i neúprosnou touhu po poslední broskvi v lednici. Nicméně ještě tíže mi na srdci ležely myšlenky o domově. Nedávno jsem ve zprávách četl, že se u nás koronavirus šíří dvakrát rychleji než u všech našich sousedů. Bohužel mě to vůbec nepřekvapilo. Od totální celostátní karantény jsme během několika týdnů znovu otevřeli skoro úplně všechny podniky, ve valné většině případů bez jakéhokoli náznaku ani těch nejjednodušších opatření, vykašlali jsme se na roušky a v Praze jsme si dokonce usmysleli, že budeme na Karlově mostě provozovat hostiny. Už před několika týdny muselo být všem rozumným lidem jasné, že to nedopadne dobře.

ICLP organised a day trip for the Saturday of this week. With a record-setting attendance of no fewer than eight students, everyone had more than enough space in the minibus, which we rode for a little longer than an hour into the depths of Pingxi. Pingxi is a rural district of Taipei around thirty kilometres east of the city centre and, as we learned, a popular weekend destination for families. We did not hike for too long, but we took our time on the way back and waded through the river while our guide tried to persuade us to catch fish in little nets she had brought along. Since I was among the several students who neglected to bring waterproof shoes (or rather, in my case, to buy waterproof shoes specifically for the occasion), I tied my shoelaces to my camera bag and went barefoot.

My flatmate Nic, with whom I watched the Dragon Boat Festival a few weeks ago, took me on a bike ride this Wednesday morning. At least I think it was a Wednesday morning – I’m backdating this post from the future and I can’t quite remember. Nic, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong (and also, shoutout to you for being one of this cursed blog’s / public diary’s most loyal readers; yes, the bar is very low). We departed (I believe) at around 5:40, which is necessary in the summer so as to avoid the unbearable heat that descends upon the city by seven o’clock. With the expertise of a seasoned cyclist, Nic led us West and then North along the riverside parks, he on his slick bike with clip-in pedals and me strenuously maintaining my composure on a borrowed YouBike. To my flatmate’s credit, he showed absolutely no annoyance at being held back by my bike’s pathetic three gears.

Not too many noteworthy things happened this week. I couldn’t find a book I was looking for at the NTU library, but by sheer luck happened to come across another book that I had not been able to find many months ago. It was in the BV section instead of the BX section where it belonged, which made me realise how fundamentally fragile library systems are. It only takes one mistake for a book to become completely lost until someone serendipitously comes across it. The library could, I suppose, search the most likely places a book might be misplaced upon its being reported as missing, but I have reported many missing books in the past and not a single one of them has been found, which makes me think that such requests are simply ignored. That said, I am happy that I brought some order to the universe by returning the book I found to its proper place.