雙溪山明水舍民宿

上禮拜我和朋友們花了三天遊玩了新北市，住在雙溪一間叫山明水舍的民宿，民宿的主人相當親切，我們在抵達之後享受一頓豐盛的午餐，品嘗了當地菜園所種的水果。民宿位於半山腰，讓人感覺相當清靜，周圍可以看到許多小動物，包括溫馴的孔雀。那一天我們和幾位當地朋友聊天，聽他們訴說自己的故事，還拜訪了超過兩百年、在台灣少有的老房子。

If the first the first day was an introduction to Shuangxi and its surroundings (mostly on a bike, but we also went swimming in the afternoon), 2nd day was an opportunity to discover other fantastic locations all around New Taipei. After seeing a performance of the local samba dancers in the morning and taking groups photos with few locals, we took an old Pingxi railroad line and seen a village full of cats, as well as the towns Shifen and Pingxi where we wrote some of our wishes on a sky lantern that we created by our own hands and send it flying into the sky. Each side had a different color that represented various values - relationships, health, money, wellbeing, etc. We carefully glued all the parts together and then took turns writing down our hopes and wishes. When our lantern was ready to go, the owner of the shop helped us to light in and off it went. We kept watching in until it disappeared behind the horizon. When it got a bit darker, the sky was full of shining lanterns flying away, it looks so magical. We returned back to the guesthouse tired but very happy.

如果第一天是對雙溪的基本介紹(大部分時間都騎著單車，下午則是去游泳)，第二天就是對新北市其他驚人美景的探索。早上在看了森巴舞表演和幾位朋友們拍照留念之後，我們搭乘台鐵平溪線，去了一個有許多貓咪的村子，也去平溪和十分製作自己的天燈，天燈的每個面都有不同顏色，分別代表著不同意義:健康、金錢、幸福等……，我們小心翼翼地將各個面黏上，並寫上自己的願望，完成後店家會幫忙把天燈點火並升上天空，看著天燈緩緩上升直到消失在我們視線之外。天空漸漸變暗以後，整著天空會點綴著一個個發光的天燈，看起來很迷人。回到民宿後雖然很疲憊但是很開心。

When we had to return back to Taipei on the 3rd day, we took a car along the Northern coast and stopped by for a while to go snorkeling. Then we got to Danshui, where we attended an annual kite festival that was being held on a beach and even got to operate one of the bigger kites having thousands of people behind our backs.

第三天回台北的路上，我們開車沿著北海岸走，中途停下來去潛水，之後到淡水參加一個舉辦在海邊的年度風箏節，全部的人還一起操縱著一個超大型風箏。

I can definitely highly recommend going to New Taipei, especially if you want to experience the real Taiwan. Because in that case, you cannot just stay in Taipei but have to visit the countryside as well, that is where the heart of this country is located. They say the people there live much longer than those in the city and there are very good reasons for it – clean air, very healthy food and less stress. It was nice to experience this as well.

我非常推薦去新北市旅行，尤其是想體驗真正的台灣的人，你不能只待在台北市，一定要拜訪有鄉村風味的新北市，那裏就像是整個大台北的心臟，他們說住在那裏的人都比住在台北市的久，因為以下的幾個理由:乾淨的空氣、健康的食物、較小的生活壓力，非常值得去親自體驗。