thanks to "kai-tak" today was a constant mix of sunshine and rain, but permanently hot and humid. so we decided to go shopping. in the shops they usually have A/C so we could cool down a bit. unfortunately almost all shop owners are not happy with people taking pictures inside, often with a sign explicitly telling you not to take pictures. so, unfortunately, i cannot show you all the fancy cool sh** they had in the shops - too bad. then in the early afternoon nina said she'd have a surprise for me, and, after searching for the address and exact location, brought me to the "hello kitty sweets shop"[10-13] - yippieh! unfortunately the cafe was fully booked, but we got a reservation for the next day, 15:00 o'clock. pretty close to the "hello kitty sweets shop" was "din tai fung" dumplings[21-24,26-30]. a restaurant recommended to us by our native taiwan friend jeff (hey, jeff! glad you enjoy my bLog, and thanks so much for all the awesome recommendations!). so after having eaten awesome dumplings with all kind of great fillings, and noodles with peanut sauce[29] (super-nomnom!) we went to the next-door souvenir shop. yop, that's right. the "din tai fung" chain seems to be so popular, it even has its own souvenir shop[23], and of course its own mascot[22], and restaurants all over asia and even in the US of A. oh, and we got a present because we showed our "friend's of taiwan" membership card - a little dumpling, as a cell phone accessory. after another tour through various fancy and cool shops we went back to the hotel, deposited our stuff, took a shower and made another visit to one of the thousand massage shops. while i was going for the foot massage again, nina this time tried the back massage, as she did not dare to risk another painful foot massage. i was totally happy with my choice, and this time also nina was super relaxed and happy after the treatment. aaaaaah, i wish we had such things in austria too - i will miss them. back at the hotel we decided to stay at the "hotel flowers", and thus booked our last night in taiwan. *sniff* track: day 20