Saturday October 31
Sunday November 1st
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In April I joined a Meetup.com group. Its a travel and culture group based in South Korea. I'd see events but they never fit into my schedule. This weekend I joined them for my first event. We were going to see the fall colors at Gyeongsangbuk-do which is on the eastern side of South Korea (I live on the Western side). Its about a 4 hour drive from Seoul.
We met around midnight at Samgakji station and we left at 12:30am. We were on a chartered bus. There were 30 of us on the trip. I didn't know anyone. There was a good mixture of people from various countries: USA, Korea, Ireland, India. Most of us were English teachers.
I tried to sleep some on the bus since we were traveling all night long. I couldn't really sleep on the bus. I can't get a good sleep on a moving object.
We arrived at our first destination around 6:30am. We went to Jusanji lake. It was really foggy so it was hard to get good photos. Everything was beautiful with all the fall colors. There were a lot of people there taking photos.
Then we headed to Juwangsan National Park. We had 2 options-a 4 hour hike or a 3 hour stroll on the flat land. About half of the group went on the 4 hour hike.I chose the easiest since I am not in good enough shape to do a hike up a mountain! We were on flat land at first but we found out that to get to the waterfall you had to climb quite a bit. There was a steep climb to get to the waterfall. There was a girl in our group who was afraid of heights and wanted to go back down. I volunteered to go back down with her because I wouldn't have made it up that sleep climb without stopping a ton of times! I helped the girl go down and we just went back near the entrance and just sat and talked. It was mostly her talking and me listening because I'm not a big talker.
We met up with some of the others in the group later to eat lunch. I had some of a fish pancake. I really liked it. We left the park and went to Andong Folk Village. Andong Hahoe Folk Village is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were going to spend the night there. We saw a mask performance first. It was very interesting.
Then we went to see our lodging. We were staying in a traditional Korean house. Koreans live a much simpler life than Americans. I actually like it. Their houses are a lot smaller. The rooms are tiny and they sleep on the floor. The heat comes up through the floor. (It works really efficiently!) I like how the house had a courtyard in the middle where we could socialize.
After we put down our stuff we went to explore the village. I walked around with a girl from the group. We were just walking around the village and we stopped at one house to take photos and we saw a man standing in the yard. We realized that people really live in the village. I think we were under the impression that it was a village for people to stay in but people really live there. We saw the little church in the village. There were 7 small pews on each side of the church. It wasn't much bigger than a standard bedroom.
Then we went back to the house to get our living arrangements, we were staying in the owner's room. He stayed in the kitchen. The owner was with us almost all the time. He enjoyed socializing with us. We enjoyed being around him also. He was an older man. They were telling us that he lives at the village and his wife lives in Seoul. I wonder when they get to see each other. That would suck being so far away.
Later all of us were back at the house cooking dinner together. Our group leader and others cooked. The food was really delicious. We had one chicken dish and some pork and rice. We also had a dish that was prepared by the staff at the village. Our team leader actually made the same dish and his was just as good as what the staff made. Someone brought all the ingredients to make smores! There were people there who didn't even know what smores were!(people not from America!) We made them over a portable gas burner. After eating some people went to bed early because they were tired. Some of us stayed up and just socialized. I socialized till around midnight then went to bed when all of my roommates were starting to go to bed. (I'm never in bed by midnight!) There were 5 girls in a small room which was actually considered "a large room". It was probably 10x10 or smaller. We all slept on the floor. It got hot during the night! That ondol floor heating really warms up the room. I had to throw off my blanket! It was really uncomfortable sleeping on the floor. I had to keep moving around ever so often to get into a more comfortable position.
We actually got up really early. I was up around 7am. I could hear people moving around outside so I just got up. We were having breakfast at 8am. For breakfast I had egg and cheese on toast. They made it in a frying pan on a portable gas burner. After breakfast some of us went to explore the village again.
We left the village at 10:30am. Our first stop was going to be a temple but they miscalculated the time it would take to get there so we just skipped it. Our first stop was the Gosu Cave. We decided to eat first and then go through the cave. I ate with some of the group at a korean restaurant. I had a potato pancake for 7,000 won. It was a good serving size. It was delicious! I need to see if I can find that near my house! I was struggling with my chopsticks but I made it through lunch! We also had some fried sweet potatoes. That was good. Their sweet potatoes aren't orange inside like ours in America. They are more of a white color. I'm not too fond of their sweet potatoes but I always eat it when they give it to me at school.
The cave was interesting. There were a lot of stairs sometimes! Expect to walk up a lot of stairs at Korean tourist sites! We were all walking along the cave in a single file line bc thats how the cave was set up with the staircases. They told us it would be cold in the cave. It wasn't! I was getting hot with my sweatshirt!
After the cave we stopped at an Island called Do dam sam bong. I took some pictures. There was a spot where you could climb up a steep 300m staircase to get to the observatory, but I opted not to go up! Those who didn't go up were either taking photos or watching the outdoor karaoke show. You could pay 2,000 won and sing a song. There were a few koreans up there singing (badly!). One man came down and wanted me to sing. I considered it for a second but I didn't do it. I just didn't feel like trying to "show off" in front of the meetup group. I did like the venue. It was outdoor and there were seats for an audience but the singer had their back to the audience. The Koreans were getting into it. There was a group standing around the singer dancing. We need some of those venues in America. There are so many things in South Korea that need to be adopted in American culture.
Next we headed to Hoeing Sung for supper. Hoeing Sung is a town that is known for their Korean beef. Downstairs you pick out what kind of meat you want. Then you take it upstairs and sit at tables and cook your meat that you bought. We got into groups of 4. I was with 2 Korean guys. The korean beef was really good.
Then we headed home. We got back to Seoul around 10pm. Then we all went our separate ways. I had a great time. I met some nice people. Everyone was laid back and we all got along very well. I saw some great sites. The fall colors were awesome! We packed a lot of activities into 2 days. Our leader was good at keeping us on schedule when moving from place to place.
I can't wait till I'm able to go to another meetup!! I was looking at the site when I got home and they are planning a Thanksgiving dinner on November 28 and staying overnight in a cabin. I think I'll sign up for that.
I spent a lot of time editing my photos when I got home. I had 260, but by the time I took out the bad shots I had about 220. I use Picasa and the only real editing I do is cropping. I wish I had Photoshop. Maybe someday. I take tons of pictures. I love photography. I just need to learn how to do cool things with my DSLR.
