I have come to the awareness that every time I mention my absence from my blog, it becomes more and more redundant. So I hope to make this the last time I do so. Lately I’ve been busy entertaining a set of friends from Minnesota with all the joys that Korea has to offer. This set of entertainment not only took us all across Korea, but was also capable of tiring me out to the point of a twelve hour nap afterwards. The journey lasted about a week and was probably one of the more extensive trips I’ve done since arriving in Korea.
(Note – All the following pictures are from Amy and Jesse’s Camera, as I did not bring mine along.)
The Start. My friends Jesse Weaver and Amy Brown came to visit Korea on Friday night. I was entirely excited to meet them and decided it’d be best to pick them up myself rather than give them the joy I had of figuring out the Korean alphabet. Picking them up at the airport was rather effortless, and the drive back to my house was just filled with excitement for the coming days. It was a non-stop talking car ride which ended with a restaurant on a rooftop and a beer or two in hand. Jesse was enjoyably amazed with the fact that the restaurant had call buttons to press when you wanted another beer. No harassing waiters here, this is the third world!
Day One - The next day we woke up early and drove to Tongyeong. This will be the first of many hours of me behind the wheel, seeing as I was the only one legally allowed to drive. At Tongyeong we took a ferry to the island of Yokji-do. The ferry ride was about two hours long, but was quite breathtaking. It 
took us through several chains of islands and had an open top deck to take all the sights in. While we were concerned with the sights, the Koreans were all concerned with my dog Dajung. We had earlier decided to bring him with, and to my dismay, gave us more attention than an air horn. The words “cute” and “dog” were the first Korean words my friends learned. Once we got off the ferry, we rented some go-carts and drove around the island. The driving was amazing and the fresh sea air just surrounded you in bliss. Due to being able to drive everyday, I relented the wheel to Keziah, so she could feel the thrills. 
While the views were stunning, we unfortunately only had about an hour before the last ferry left the island (due to the holidays, the very last ferry boat was canceled), so the go-karts were short and brief. After the ferry ride we went to Mural Alley. Mural Alley lies atop a hill in Tongyeong, and, as guessed, has tons of murals on the walls from many famous Korean artists. This was quite fun, as ducking in and out of alleyways has always been a joy of mine. From here we watched the sunset (amazing) and then took off towards home. For dinner we enlightened ourselves with Nolboo, a restaurant famous for a meal created during the Korean War. The meal consists of several meats, noodles, cheese, beans all mixed together in a soup-like fashion. From there the sauce is spread over rice and is quite frankly my favorite restaurant in all of Korea.
Day Two – Busan. Jesse having jetlag and probably a bit of plain excitement, decided to wake up at about 6:30 Sunday morning. Much to Amy and I’s dismay, we also were forced to wake up to start the day. We went to a local restaurant that specializes in catering to the late-nighters as well as the early-sun dwellers, and had a nice collection of staple Korean foods. Jesse tried pork cutlet for the first time, and Amy had bibimbap. After our meal we walked around a bit and then picked up Keziah. From here on we headed to the second biggest city of Korea, Busan. Busan is my favored city over Seoul. Busan has all the large clothing markets Seoul has to offer, but without the 24 million Korean population. Bonus! Busan 
is also located on the coast and has some rather beautiful beaches and lit-up bridges. In Busan we first went to the area of Nampo-dong. This area has the largest clothing area on the southern part of Korea. There is several fashion conscious stores and one even tailored a simple shirt for Jesse to wear. What a deal! We walked around Nampo-dong for about two hours and then moved on to Book Alley. Book Alley is an alley with used books packed from the floor to the ceiling. We didn’t really intend to go book shopping, but more thought of it as a great photo opportunity. Unfortunately it was closed, but as luck would have it, when the stores are closed their gates have… Murals! So Saturday and Sunday were the mural days. Keep in mind I don’t mean to downplay the murals, as they were artistically nice. From here we headed to Seomyeon in search of a Canon store for Keziah, and our eats for the evening. We had grilled meat pieces, two different fashions, and Jesse yet again enjoyed the restaurant’s buttons. Afterwards Keziah and I took them to a hotel situated on the beach. This hotel is one of my favorites and features a bay window out to the sea. The hotel also faces Gwangali’s lighted bridge, and is relatively cheap for the experience. Keziah and I went home.
Day Three – Boring. I had to work Monday, so I just kept myself busy planning lessons and teaching. Jesse and Amy on the other hand explored Busan and all it had to offer. Due to Chuseok being one of Korea’s biggest holidays, we also decided to leave that night for the Northern part of South Korea. This would soon be proven to have been a good decision, as several other people remarked on the terrible traffic they experienced. So we left around eleven after I said bye to Keziah (she was off to China for the week).
Day Four – Beginning of Chuseok, Seoraksan, and the joys of a typhoon. As I didn’t mention it before, the weather for the first two days of Jesse and Amy’s stay in Korea was absolutely awesome. So, to 
keep the forces of good and evil at bay, a balancing had to be done. This balancing of course was a quick typhoon across the Korean peninsula. Now rain is not the worst offender in life, but it just so happened that this day was meant to be our epic Korean mountain hike. The mountain range we were at is said to be one of the most beautiful in Korea. It also took a seven hour drive to get to the said mountain range. So the typhoon of happiness was not quite welcomed. Since there was actually 
nothing else to do up in northern South Korea, and we had a busy schedule, we bought some ponchos and attacked the slopes anyways. Well, “attacked,” might not be the best word to use, where “cable car” could be deemed as more appropriate. Now we hadn’t intended to go the route of the cable car, and in my own right, I didn’t even know it existed until Chris (Keziah’s Roommate who came with) mentioned it. The rain was pouring 
and it seemed like the right decision. Riding the cable car brought us a mere ten minute hike from the summit. The view was amazing and you could see the entire rugged mountainside from there. We climbed up a little bit more and then the fog moved in. Our amazing view ended, and the cold swept in. Seoraksan was not all that I had hoped for, and for me, will be a trip repeated on a much prettier weekend. Stay tuned! From Seoraksan we had some
foods at a rest area off the highway. While rest areas in America seem dingy and a rapist’s headquarters, the rest areas in Korea are decked out with cafeterias and convenience stores. So the food was not half bad. We headed to the capital of Gangwon so Chris could take a bus back to Masan as we headed off to Seoul. The bus didn’t happen to go to Masan though and we ended up taking Chris with us on the extra two hour drive to Seoul. (Five hours total from Seoraksan).
To be continued!
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