Mungyeong Saejae (Fall 2013 in Korea, part 5)

On the first weekend of November, I went to Mungyeong Saejae with two of my co-teachers, Mr. Choi and Mr. Jeon.  Mungyeong Saejae is a famous area here in Korea (it was ranked as the #1 tourist spot for Koreans the week after we went).  The area is famous for a few different reasons.  First of all, the area is just breathtakingly beautiful in the fall.  Its voluminous amount and variety of trees make for some beautiful colors.  Second, it’s famous for its delicious apples, and actually has an apple festival every fall.  Third, there is a fake village built in the valley, which is specifically used as a set for many famous movies and TV shows.  Fourth, the area has three famous gates along a famous path.  Centuries ago, this path was taken by people traveling from other parts of Korea to Seoul in order to take examinations to become public officers in the capital.  As one might imagine, there were tons of superstitions surrounding this journey: where to stop, which paths to take, etc.  Apparently, highway bandits would wait for unsuspecting would-be test takers and rob them blind.  That’s why these gates existed.  Soldiers would stand guard at these gates in order to protect the test-takers from harm. 

There were absolutely shitloads of people there.  Even the extremely wide paths were full of people, and we often had to go around stragglers and people stopping to admire the scenery.

While we arrived a little late, we only had enough time to go through the first two gates.  But, of course, we also took a pit stop in order to eat some food and drink some makgeolli.  Once we returned to Daejeon, we ate at one of my favorite restaurants in my area.  Shortly thereafter, Jayeon came down from Seoul, and we went to a friend’s housewarming party and then went out on the town.  Quite a long day and night, but great all the same!

The Millionth Seoul Weekend (Fall 2013 in Korea, part 4)

During the second weekend of November, I went up to Seoul to see Jayeon.  I arrived early on Saturday afternoon, and we went straight to the Food Festival that was taking place at the COEX (an absolutely humongous convention center).  There was also a craft beer festival taking place within the food festival, but we had been told a “mistruth” about being able to purchase tickets at the venue.  First, Jayeon had called one of the bars that was selling tickets to the craft beer fest earlier in the week and asked them if they could hold two tickets for her that she would pick up on Friday.  They said yes, but when she went there to pick up tickets they said they didn’t have anymore.  The person working the bar then told Jayeon that she could pick up tickets at COEX, which ALSO turned out to be a “mistruth”.  Well, we didn’t let these “mistruths” discourage us.  We were still able to purchase some craft beer at the craft beer festival, so we walked around with the rest of the festival with some beer in our hands.  The food festival was alright, but wasn’t exactly like I had pictured it.  I thought we would be able to purchase entire meals from different countries, but that didn’t seem to be the case.  Each booth was just handing out small samples of food, some of which were absolutely fantastic.  One booth was selling little pieces of grilled lamb with a cheese-stuffed pepper.  The combination of the two was incredible! 

After spending a few hours at the food festival, we went to Seoul’s lantern festival, which-as I mentioned earlier-isn’t nearly as great as the Jinjun Lantern Festival, but was nonetheless a nice time despite some drizzle.  Jayeon and I walked along the “underground” stream that runs through the middle of Seoul while admiring all of the lanterns that portrayed Korean history and tradition.  I actually went to this last year as well with Daniel and Kate.

After leaving the lantern festival, we went to go eat Chinese hot pot.  I ate it all of the time when I was in China, but I haven’t had it since. Basically, you are giving a boiling hot pot of broth (usually half is spicy and half is savory), and then you put any kind of vegetable or meat you want to into the pot to cook it.  This particular restaurant was an all-you-can-eat buffet, so we could just take anything we wanted from the buffet bar to throw into the pot.  It was really good!

Afterwards we went to different bars in Hongdae and Suwon.  Some new places and some old haunts.

Overall, a great weekend!

 

Spooky, Scary Halloween (Fall 2013 in Korea, Part 3)

Over Halloween weekend we went to Busan, just as we did last year.  We got into Busan on Friday night, and since Daniel’s girlfriend missed her train, Daniel and I just drank at our hostel until she arrived around 11 p.m.  We were staying in the Haeundae Beach area, which wasn’t exactly preferable, but certainly not bad.  Haeundae Beach is just very far from where most of the Halloween celebrating was going to be.  After Anna arrived, we made our way to the different bars in the Haeundae area like Wolfhound, Thursday Party, and Fuzzy Navel.  We met up with Max and his friend from Busan.  We ended up going to a noraebang until about 4:00 a.m. 

The next day, we went to Wolfhound for a proper English breakfast and bloody marys (for me...how am I the only one of my friends in Korea that absolutely loves bloody marys is beyond me!).  Then we walked along the beach for a couple hours until it was time to get ready for fireworks.  We put on our onesie costumes (I was a bear, Daniel was a bumblebee, and Anna was a pink kangaroo).  We endured all of the stares and laughs of the Koreans on the street and on the subway.  Most Koreans would never think about dressing up in a costume in public unless EVERYONE else was doing it.  Koreans don’t really like to draw attention to themselves, which is just a result of the collectivist culture here.

Like last year, Busan’s fireworks festival (the biggest fireworks show of the year in Korea, if my thinking is correct) fell on the same weekend as Halloween.  Last year the fireworks were canceled because of rain, but this year the weather was good.  Unfortunately, we were late getting to the beach that had the fireworks show, so we didn’t have a good view.  After the fireworks (which lasted around 45 minutes), we waited until the crowds dispersed and then found Jayeon.  Jayeon was also in Busan leading a tour for her company.  The four of us had drinks and food together by the beach, and then we took the subway to the Kyungsung University area where most of the Halloween partying was scheduled to take place. 

Just like last year, foreigners in costume lined the streets of the Kyungsung neighborhood and populated its bars and clubs.  As we arrived to the area, I heard someone shout my name from a window on the second floor of one of the windows.  I looked up and sure enough, it was one of my friends who moved from Daejeon to Busan.  His name is Alex and we were in the same orientation together when we first arrived to Korea.  He and a girl he was on a date with hung out with us for a while, but Alex isn’t exactly the party type, so he dipped out pretty quickly, haha.  The four of us bar and club hopped all night.  I estimate that we probably went to five or six different bars and clubs in addition to drinking in the streets (which is perfectly legal here in Korea).  Finally, we ended up in a noraebang around 3:00 a.m. and we stayed there until 5:00 a.m.  What a day and a night!  I thought we had just as good of a time as we did last year, if not more!  

 

Jinju Lantern Festival (Fall 2013 in Korea, Part 2)

On the second weekend of October, I went to Jinju.  Every year Jinju has a lantern festival.  While there are other lantern festivals in Korea (most notably in Seoul), the one in Jinju is by far the most popular and most well-attended.  I arrived on the same train as my friend, Dawn, and my friend, Adam, joined us an hour or two later by bus.  Additionally, we met up with two of Dawn’s friends that she had met on a recent tour.  Together we walked around a huge fortress in the middle of Jinju and right next to the river that flows right through the city.  From the fortress, we had some great views of the lanterns before they were lit up, as pretty much the entire lantern show took place on the river (stationary floating lanterns).  The fortress itself was also really nice.

As we were leaving the fortress and heading to the other side of the river, the sun was going down.  The first thing we saw after we crossed the river was a huge, long tunnel of red lanterns.  It was beautiful and a little surreal as it went on for probably the length of a football field.

After we walked through that for a while, we decided to grab some dinner and some dongdongju, which is similar to the rice-based alcohol, makgeolli, but a little bit more potent.

Following dinner, we walked up and down the river taking pictures of the lanterns.  The others were trying to take professional-style photographs, but I was just trying to take photographs for posterity.  I unfortunately got a little annoyed by how often we were stopping so the others could set up tripods and whatnot to get the perfect picture.  I felt a little selfish, but my patience was definitely at an end.  Since Dawn had already left, I convinced Adam to ditch Dawn’s two friends.  I felt a little bad, but I was about to “lose my shit” and needed to leave the crowds and the incessant photography.

Adam and I ended up in a university area and grabbed some more food and some drinks.  We had some good conversation, and it was nice spending some one-on-one time with a good friend. 

As it was getting late, Adam and I made our way to a jimjalbang that he had read good things about.  Unfortunately, we got there rather late so it was quite crowded.  We ended up sleeping in the “barbershop” (every decently sized jimjalbang has a small barbershop area), but were promptly woken up at 7:00 a.m. when the barber came into work.  We slept about 4 hours on the floor of a mini barbershop…certainly not the best sleep I’ve gotten! 

On that Sunday morning I took a train to Seoul and spent the afternoon in Seoul with Jayeon. 
 
 

Wine-Stained Lips (Fall 2013 in Korea, Part 1)

The first weekend of October was the Daejeon Food & Wine Festival.  The first one was last year and we attended that one as well.  The wine festival is…erm…dangerous, because you just have to pay the equivalent of about $3 and the volunteers give you a wine glass.  From there on out, you can just go around to all the different booths sampling wines from all over the world.  What’s more, there is a self-serve station (this year, the self-serve station was expanded five-fold), which is where we spent most of our time.  Most all of my friends went to the wine festival and – no surprise – we had an absolute blast.  I became a little out of it around 8 p.m. and decided to take the bus home (but not before stumbling around an art gallery that was nearby where my friend, J Mo, was showing some of her work).  I ended up going to sleep around 9 p.m. and then waking up the next morning at 7 a.m.  I wasn’t hungover at all and felt like a 100 bucks!  Great success!

After Daejeon Food & Wine Festival, October was a month full of travel and activity.  Not only did I travel a lot, but I also took advantage of the random couple of holidays at the beginning of month to hike the last two major mountains around Daejeon (Maninsan and Gyejoksan).  Now I feel accomplished having climbed every major mountain around Daejeon!  They are Gyeryongsan, Gyejoksan, Maninsan, Gubongsan, Sikjangsan, Jangtaesan, and Bomunsan.  Woo!  Gyejoksan is a particularly cool mountain to hike, because not only is there a red clay path next to the regular dirt hiking trail (people often walk barefoot in the red clay as it is believed it is good for one’s health), but there is also an old fortress wall on top of the mountain with breathtaking views.

Now, on to the traveling...