Hi everyone,
Here's the new blog post you've all been waiting for! Hope everyone is ready to settle in because this is going to be a long one so pop that popcord, grab a nice ice cold beverage of your choice and enjoy this massive blog post.
My Chuseok vacation began last Thursday morning. I woke up at 9 am, turned on the Slingbox (much thanks again Stephen) and proceeded to watch the Twins lose to the Tigers, effectively starting my break off on the wrong foot. Little did I know that my loss of faith would be rewarded by the end of the weekend. I took the subway in from Suwon to Ilsan to meet up with Dave, Mika, and Alex who had all returned from their GEPIK orientation earlier in the day. With plenty of time to kill, we headed to the CGV to see "Surrogates," the new Bruce Willis movie. Most of my readers know that I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi movies but this movie kept my attention for the most part, although I should've known the only reason Dave and Alex wanted to see it was the Boston screenscapes. After the movie the boys took in some Winning Eleven, where I was victorious in shootouts twice thanks to Alex's expert shooting. We had dinner in Ilsan and then proceeded to make our way to the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul. 4/5 of us made our bus but our fifth, Jessie got held up and wound up meeting us the next day in Gangneung. As soon as we got on the bus we all proceeded to fall asleep (a recurring theme for Dave) and we arrived in Gangneung around 3 am. We made our way to the jjingjiban, a Korean bath house where travellers and locals can take in a spa, sauna, and sleep overnight for very cheap. Unfortunately I forgot to ask for a larger uniform and spent most of my night worrying whether I was gonna turn from Doc Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk and rip through my clothes. Needless to say I was relieved to find that nothing had torn the next morning. After a quick dip in the baths and some time in the sauna, we made our way back to the Gangneung bus terminal to meet up with Jessie and continue our travels.
We decided to go to Jinbu, where Mt. Odaesan National Park is located, for the day on Friday. The park was beautiful and we got to see the two large Buddhist temples there, Woljeongsa and Sal-wongsa. After a full day of hiking we made our way to Jeongdongjin, a beachside town located on the East Sea. We got in right around sunset and hung around the beach for a little bit before grabbing dinner. As you can imagine, a seaside town, especially in Korea, has a plethora of fresh seafood dining options and we settled on a restaurant known for their clams. We had every size of clam imaginable for dinner; babyneck clams, medium clams, large clams, mega clams, you name it, we probably had it for dinner. The meal was fantastic and if you couldn't tell already, I was overly enthusiastic for it. Of course, those of you that know me well know how much I enjoy seafood, especially fresh seafood. After dinner we explored the town a little bit and we ended up at the massive cruise ship hotel at the top of the town hill where they had a revolving bar, a norabang (karoke), and a cool sculpture garden that overlooked the sea. While we were tempted to find a room here, we opted for the much cheaper option of a motel in town. The next morning Dave, Jessie, and myself decided to test the temperature of the water but were told to get out by the police who were afraid of people swimming due to the lack of lifeguards on the beach. After our little dip into the East Sea, we hung out on the beach and played some Euchre before making our way to our next destination, Samcheok.
Samcheok is a decent size city located further down the coast in Gang-won do, but when we got there it was like a ghost town. We explored the city a little bit, including a visit to the wedding-cake shaped Cave Museum before grabbing dinner at another seafood restaurant where we met some very cute Korean kids that were all too excited to speak English with us. After dinner we made our way to another jjingjiban, this one was much nicer than the one in Gangneung. While we were in the hot tub, I heard someone call my name and after a few moments I realized I was talking to one of my third grade students. It was definitely a very humorous moment, something that would never happen in the West but is apparently somewhat frequent in Korea, teachers running into students at the bath houses. After our night spent in the jjingjiban we woke up early Sunday morning to go to Hwaseon Donggul, one of the largest caves in Asia. The cave was very cool, it was massive and seemed to go on forever. Our next stop was Sinnam, a small fishing town with a very unique story. Legend has it that a young virgin drowned within sight of her boyfriend and soon after the local fishermen noticed their catch was dwindling, believing that this girl had cursed the sea. But, after one fisherman relieved himself in the sea, the catch began to come back and ever since this town has revered phallic symbols. In short, Sinnam is known for Haesindang Park, a beautiful park with the highest quantity of phallic statues in one area. While the shock value of the statues is definitely prevalent when you first enter the park, most of the statues are expertly crafted and are works of art. Adjacent to the park is a Folk Fishing Museum, which we also visited before heading back to Samcheok to spend the night in a beach villa. The night and the trip weren't complete without a visit to the local Beatles bar, which was a let down, and the norabang for an epic hour of hoarse voices and twirling mics.
Monday morning we hung out on the beach in Samcheok for a little bit before heading back to Gangneung to catch our respective buses back to our cities. Much to my surprise, I arrived back in Suwon to find that the Twins and Tigers were headed to Game 163. I also saw that both the Leafs and Wild are both winless still but it's early on and the Badgers held on to Paul Bunyan's Axe for another year. Glad to see that Grandpa Favre was able to beat the Packers on MNF to keep the Vikings undefeated. That's all for now, expect more from me next week, a weekend trip to Busan for the International Film Festival is in store.
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