Wow, it's been a while and i havent even finished the previous vacation...
The weekend after Jen and Suzie were here, we all went to the mud festival in boryeong on daechon beach. it was craziness, as expected. christa, joe, cliff and i met joan and rob at the say motel in cheonan on friday night to wake up early and get to the beach early. good plan. take train at buttcrack and head to the beach. long taxi ride to motel--venus motel. have big discussion about room with owner--paid for 6 people, wanted to add two, would pay more--no. changed into swimsuits and headed to the water. had to walk a ways but on our walk who should we discover on a pallet barely awake? SHAB of all people. she had apparently had a crazy night hte night before and couldnt find her motel or something, not quite sure. we called amanda who claimed her. she was lucky that night. no details, we'll just leave it at that.
as we were returning shab, beard called, he, will and greg, were in town and looking for the beach. they had ridden down on their bikes the night before and stayed at a jimjilbang in boryeong. they found us and we were finally on our way to the MUD. we walked to the tables where they were just GIVING the stuff away and put it everywhere--friends help with backs. then it was time to get beer. the place was PACKED with people--ive never seen so many people covered in mud at one time. and i think most were waegooks. we found michelle--in line for the mud slide we didnt know existed and she graciously let us cut. mighty nice. christa and i went down the slide together--SO much fun. huge vat of mud at the end we basically threw ourselves into.
From there things get a little blurry. I remember the boys hijacking someones airmattress and playing king of said mattress. then we saw krista and adrienne, then joan and i were jumping waves for a long time. Hunger set in and we walked back to the motel to shower and change. went to a fish AND pork restaurant, this rarely happens except at festivals. walked back down to the action. stumbled on some more waegooks from gumi and a couple air force guys--donald and joel. listened to music, ended up at a night club, then to a gs25 to have an unneeded beer. christa me us there and we wandered back to our motel. it was a LONG walk.
woke up the next morning tired yet mud free. took a taxi to the beach, probably slower than walking. couldnt find pizza and the line for lotteria was VERY long. decided to head to the town and get pizza there. no problem. joan and rob got on an earlier train, cliff and joe headed for seoul, beard nad will went on a very long very wet ride, and christa and i went in search of a movie theater or dvd room. found neither. settled on a pc bang and then covered market. train ride back was loud. canadians singing and being drunk. at the other end of our car were americans singing and being drunk.
met evan at the station in cheonan and took train to gumi. stood in line wiht evan for taxi--we are now BFF.
and that was the mud festival. i took a disposable camera--obvious reasons--and when i get the pictures onto cd, they'll come on here.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
pictures from trip
7/4/06--at 3rd waterfall at 1st waterfall stop (can't remember name just now). me suzie jen
7/2/06--us on the other side of dragon rock.
7/4/06--suzie at rectangular rocks
7/4/06--jen at 1st waterfall stop bridge
7/3/06--rock garden at hallim park--note cool red trees
7/2/06 suzie at yongduam sign--mem and women
7/3/06--exit of 1st cave in hallim park
7/3/06--jen and suzie heart
7/3/06--GRASS!! and you can walk on it freely!!
7/3/06--wise sign in garden
7/2/06--wall on the way to dragon head
7/2/06--side of a boat at a temple in busan
7/2/06--street on way to dragon rock
7/2/06--jen and suzie drinkin at the family mart
7/2/06--mermaid at dragon rock
7/2/06--us on the other side of dragon rock.
7/4/06--suzie at rectangular rocks
7/4/06--jen at 1st waterfall stop bridge
7/3/06--rock garden at hallim park--note cool red trees
7/2/06 suzie at yongduam sign--mem and women
7/3/06--exit of 1st cave in hallim park
7/3/06--jen and suzie heart
7/3/06--GRASS!! and you can walk on it freely!!
7/3/06--wise sign in garden
7/2/06--wall on the way to dragon head
7/2/06--side of a boat at a temple in busan
7/2/06--street on way to dragon rock
7/2/06--jen and suzie drinkin at the family mart
7/2/06--mermaid at dragon rock
Monday, July 10, 2006
vacation's over--boo hoo
Jen and Suzie have come and gone. I miss them. We had a great time.
Short break down:
6/30/06 they make the bus to Gumi and I get them at the bus station. Go to Psycho.
7/1/06 wake up late b/c stayed out late. Got train to Busan--standing to Daegu--walked up a shitload of steps to find Busan tower closed. Grr. Go to Jalgashi fish market. Beard and I order raw fish, Suzie and Jen get cooked fish but end up eating some weird stuff anyway. Lots of soju imbibed. Go to a couple bars to watch world cup. Go back to market before going to bed around 5 or 6am
7/2/06 wake up late again. Go to Paris Baguette for lunch. Yum. Take taxi to the station to see where to get bus to airport. Upsa. Walk around Texas St. Take taxi to Sangwansa temple. Very nice, on the side of a mt. Walk down hill, get taxi, drop Beard off at station, continue in taxi to airport. Catch flight to Jeju-do. Get taxi to Oriental Hotel on the coast. Get much cheaper motel room off the main road. Walk along boardwalk to find dragon head rock. Find pond, pogada, and bridge. Lots of pictures, find restaurant and eat on dock over water. Cooked fish and bibimbop with raw fish and veggies. More soju. YUM. Walk back toward motel, decide to drink at family mart. Craziness ensues.
7/3/06 wake up around 130p. Yikes. Get food at E-mart across the street. Some crazy sandwich that fought back a few hours later. Take taxi to Hallim Park. very good decision. Walk around in the cloudy weather, no rain yet. Saw some gardens, an ostrich, caves and GRASS!! take bus to mulsupo. walk. don't find port. get taxi to yeogwan mentioned in book. nice room for 40. order pizza. don't leave. random screaming/cheering outside we disregard for quite sometime and then it stops. go to sleep early.
7/4/06 wake up early. Rented a driver to take us to a couple key destinations. he knew where he was going and how long it would take so we went to many more. YEAH DRIVER! Saw a myriad of waterfalls in the rain. Also a large rock that has something to do with a tv show. Beautiful beaches, rectangular rocks, and a very large folk village. After the village we went directly to the ferry dock to catch a ride to U-do. Short ferry ride later, we were there. True to the book, a bus met us at the ferry. we hopped on--after a bit of confusion. We didn't know where we wanted to go and that determines the fare. I said minbok--the kind of motel room we wanted--he smiled, took by cheon won and we walked back. Two stops later, I saw several minbok and said we should get off. the book said there were only a handful and i felt like we had seen a handful already. off the bus. walked toward minbok, man showed us room. very big--2 bathrooms!--for 30,000. super. dropped our stuff, jen changed into dry clothes, walked a bit to find somethign to eat. not many things open--off season and week day. found chicken place that had pool tables--PERFECT! ate chicken, drank soju, chatted. decided to sit on beach and postpone pool. jen's tummy was acting up so suzie and i and a bottle of soju walked ot the beach. sunset. walked back to check on jen, she had fallen asleep. went to play pool. korean college students amused us, we amused them, back to the beach. drunk man found us almost immediately. his friends came later. broken english + broken korean = many laughs. went in "early."
7/5/06 wake up early. man from chicken place called, his friends had bikes. we walked to the chicken place, eh drove us to said bike place. 3 bikes, 3 hrs, 15,000. we rode a bit, named the bikes--suzie, red rocket; jen, blue lightning; me, silver bullet. Udo is beautiful. reminded us of scotland and ireland. rock walls (here lava) green fields, horses. and it didn't rain! we saw the women divers adn several lighthouses. the island is really tiny so 3 hrs was perfect. that day was one of my favorite in korea to date. got on the ferry at 330-with chicken guy. He had to go to jeju city to look at a motorboat and gave us a ride to the airport. he is great. if anyone wants info on him and his minbok, let me know. he speaks great english and is super helpful. got to daegu around 630 and took express bus to gumi. on the bus i realized that i had stolen a knife accidentally. whoops. back in gumi, clean up and decide to go to waegook cook for dinner. took a while to get the food and we were the only ones in there. the food was delicious though so it was worth the wait. then to psycho for half priced beer and discounted drinks. met beard there and had a good time with our friends. i think jen and suzie like our friends here and i know our fiends here like them. came home late--of course.
7/6/06 wake up sometime. eat egg sandwiches at jam and go to gumosan. cloudy day, not too hot. take cable car to the cve/waterfall area. walk up tiny path/rock wall to cave. see a baby waterfall thats usually not there except in the rainy season. walk to huge waterfall. gorgeous. take lots of pictures. decide to take cable car back down. the trail is super slppery and were not feeling up to it. had car to ourselves. walk the road to the eating area/gumoland. taxi to downtown where we eat at puerto del sol--a "meditteranian style" restaurant. I've eaten meditteranian food and this ain't it. but it's good and definitly intersting. suzie and i had the sweet potato with fruit cocktail, chunks of garlic, garlic bread, cinnamon, and cheese. it's weird but oddly good. jen had something with beef that also had pineapple. finished shopping and came home to wait for beard. went to red chicken restaurant with eungyung. i love that place. jen and suzie liked it too. suzie said if they had that chicken in the states, she wouldnt be vegetarian. we decided to go to a karoake room after that. i love those things! stayed til dawn, smuggled soju in in an umbrella.
7/7/06 woke up with sore throats. ate at orange restaurant, beard went to work, jen went on computer, suzie and i went back to bed. woke up when beard came back. looked online and realized very few tickets left for seoul. eungyung booked tickets for us online and we were OFF. beard went back to work and we hopped on the train. got to seoul in the evening and miraculously got a locker big enough for all our crap. saved a trip to krista's. went to insadong, walked around for a while tryng to find the actual shopping street. found piano street and dunkin donuts. ahh sweet dunkin donuts and their good iced americanos. and helpful people behind hte counter. the woman drew us a map and we walked some more. SUCCESS! jen and suzie bought wall hangings. i bought an unneeded necklace. more souvineir shopping and then to city hall to find the italian restaurant. found it easy enough. great food, suzie and i shared a bottle of wine. then to the stream for a romantic walk sans romance. met beard at the station at 1am, took taxi to kristas--side rant: seoul si one of hte largest cities IN THE WORLD and the subway STOPS from 1am to 5am every day. WHAT THE HELL?! the bars don't close til 7am! which is fine if you want to stay out all night, you can get on the subway at 7. so the taxi wasn't that bad, just annoying that we even had to take it. Go to bed early.
7/8/06 wake up early to shower and be to wedding by noon. get htere around 11am b/c im paranoid and want to make sure we've found the right place. have coffee to stall. go back to wedding at 1130 b/c want good seats. meet vince's parents and sister and brother-in-law. meet yoonsun's parents. take pictures of surroundings. the event announcer tells us exactly what's going ot happen just before it happens in korean and english. the officiate says hes going to say things first in kroean then english but he doesn't say a lot in english. people everywhere were talking the whole time, to each other, on their cells, getting up and walking around--while the wedding's going on!! weird. and htere was a big screen on the left hand side gave different perspectives. after wedding, speed thru photos. ushered down to dinner. huge spread of a little of everything on the tables. token cake. ushered out. mill aobut upstairs and decided to go have drinks with will and his wife and vinces friends. vince and yoonsun join us later. beard, suzie, jen and i take off to see if we can find a knife for hardcore. no such luck. go to annyang to eat spicy chicken and to a bar for beer--will has given in early so we can too. ponder noribang but don't go. back to kristas, chatting, packing. go to bed around 4ish.
7/9/06 wake up at 7 frickin 30 to take jen and suzie to the bus to the airport. thankfully there's a bus stop near krista's. it was sad to see them go. i had a great time with them here. i miss jen so much and it was great to get to know suzie better. beard and i went back to sleep. took krista to italian restaurant (spannew) b/c it's just so darn good and actually italian, not korean italian. and the yhvae pizza AND pasta. then to train and HOME.
wow that was long. pictures later, promise
Short break down:
6/30/06 they make the bus to Gumi and I get them at the bus station. Go to Psycho.
7/1/06 wake up late b/c stayed out late. Got train to Busan--standing to Daegu--walked up a shitload of steps to find Busan tower closed. Grr. Go to Jalgashi fish market. Beard and I order raw fish, Suzie and Jen get cooked fish but end up eating some weird stuff anyway. Lots of soju imbibed. Go to a couple bars to watch world cup. Go back to market before going to bed around 5 or 6am
7/2/06 wake up late again. Go to Paris Baguette for lunch. Yum. Take taxi to the station to see where to get bus to airport. Upsa. Walk around Texas St. Take taxi to Sangwansa temple. Very nice, on the side of a mt. Walk down hill, get taxi, drop Beard off at station, continue in taxi to airport. Catch flight to Jeju-do. Get taxi to Oriental Hotel on the coast. Get much cheaper motel room off the main road. Walk along boardwalk to find dragon head rock. Find pond, pogada, and bridge. Lots of pictures, find restaurant and eat on dock over water. Cooked fish and bibimbop with raw fish and veggies. More soju. YUM. Walk back toward motel, decide to drink at family mart. Craziness ensues.
7/3/06 wake up around 130p. Yikes. Get food at E-mart across the street. Some crazy sandwich that fought back a few hours later. Take taxi to Hallim Park. very good decision. Walk around in the cloudy weather, no rain yet. Saw some gardens, an ostrich, caves and GRASS!! take bus to mulsupo. walk. don't find port. get taxi to yeogwan mentioned in book. nice room for 40. order pizza. don't leave. random screaming/cheering outside we disregard for quite sometime and then it stops. go to sleep early.
7/4/06 wake up early. Rented a driver to take us to a couple key destinations. he knew where he was going and how long it would take so we went to many more. YEAH DRIVER! Saw a myriad of waterfalls in the rain. Also a large rock that has something to do with a tv show. Beautiful beaches, rectangular rocks, and a very large folk village. After the village we went directly to the ferry dock to catch a ride to U-do. Short ferry ride later, we were there. True to the book, a bus met us at the ferry. we hopped on--after a bit of confusion. We didn't know where we wanted to go and that determines the fare. I said minbok--the kind of motel room we wanted--he smiled, took by cheon won and we walked back. Two stops later, I saw several minbok and said we should get off. the book said there were only a handful and i felt like we had seen a handful already. off the bus. walked toward minbok, man showed us room. very big--2 bathrooms!--for 30,000. super. dropped our stuff, jen changed into dry clothes, walked a bit to find somethign to eat. not many things open--off season and week day. found chicken place that had pool tables--PERFECT! ate chicken, drank soju, chatted. decided to sit on beach and postpone pool. jen's tummy was acting up so suzie and i and a bottle of soju walked ot the beach. sunset. walked back to check on jen, she had fallen asleep. went to play pool. korean college students amused us, we amused them, back to the beach. drunk man found us almost immediately. his friends came later. broken english + broken korean = many laughs. went in "early."
7/5/06 wake up early. man from chicken place called, his friends had bikes. we walked to the chicken place, eh drove us to said bike place. 3 bikes, 3 hrs, 15,000. we rode a bit, named the bikes--suzie, red rocket; jen, blue lightning; me, silver bullet. Udo is beautiful. reminded us of scotland and ireland. rock walls (here lava) green fields, horses. and it didn't rain! we saw the women divers adn several lighthouses. the island is really tiny so 3 hrs was perfect. that day was one of my favorite in korea to date. got on the ferry at 330-with chicken guy. He had to go to jeju city to look at a motorboat and gave us a ride to the airport. he is great. if anyone wants info on him and his minbok, let me know. he speaks great english and is super helpful. got to daegu around 630 and took express bus to gumi. on the bus i realized that i had stolen a knife accidentally. whoops. back in gumi, clean up and decide to go to waegook cook for dinner. took a while to get the food and we were the only ones in there. the food was delicious though so it was worth the wait. then to psycho for half priced beer and discounted drinks. met beard there and had a good time with our friends. i think jen and suzie like our friends here and i know our fiends here like them. came home late--of course.
7/6/06 wake up sometime. eat egg sandwiches at jam and go to gumosan. cloudy day, not too hot. take cable car to the cve/waterfall area. walk up tiny path/rock wall to cave. see a baby waterfall thats usually not there except in the rainy season. walk to huge waterfall. gorgeous. take lots of pictures. decide to take cable car back down. the trail is super slppery and were not feeling up to it. had car to ourselves. walk the road to the eating area/gumoland. taxi to downtown where we eat at puerto del sol--a "meditteranian style" restaurant. I've eaten meditteranian food and this ain't it. but it's good and definitly intersting. suzie and i had the sweet potato with fruit cocktail, chunks of garlic, garlic bread, cinnamon, and cheese. it's weird but oddly good. jen had something with beef that also had pineapple. finished shopping and came home to wait for beard. went to red chicken restaurant with eungyung. i love that place. jen and suzie liked it too. suzie said if they had that chicken in the states, she wouldnt be vegetarian. we decided to go to a karoake room after that. i love those things! stayed til dawn, smuggled soju in in an umbrella.
7/7/06 woke up with sore throats. ate at orange restaurant, beard went to work, jen went on computer, suzie and i went back to bed. woke up when beard came back. looked online and realized very few tickets left for seoul. eungyung booked tickets for us online and we were OFF. beard went back to work and we hopped on the train. got to seoul in the evening and miraculously got a locker big enough for all our crap. saved a trip to krista's. went to insadong, walked around for a while tryng to find the actual shopping street. found piano street and dunkin donuts. ahh sweet dunkin donuts and their good iced americanos. and helpful people behind hte counter. the woman drew us a map and we walked some more. SUCCESS! jen and suzie bought wall hangings. i bought an unneeded necklace. more souvineir shopping and then to city hall to find the italian restaurant. found it easy enough. great food, suzie and i shared a bottle of wine. then to the stream for a romantic walk sans romance. met beard at the station at 1am, took taxi to kristas--side rant: seoul si one of hte largest cities IN THE WORLD and the subway STOPS from 1am to 5am every day. WHAT THE HELL?! the bars don't close til 7am! which is fine if you want to stay out all night, you can get on the subway at 7. so the taxi wasn't that bad, just annoying that we even had to take it. Go to bed early.
7/8/06 wake up early to shower and be to wedding by noon. get htere around 11am b/c im paranoid and want to make sure we've found the right place. have coffee to stall. go back to wedding at 1130 b/c want good seats. meet vince's parents and sister and brother-in-law. meet yoonsun's parents. take pictures of surroundings. the event announcer tells us exactly what's going ot happen just before it happens in korean and english. the officiate says hes going to say things first in kroean then english but he doesn't say a lot in english. people everywhere were talking the whole time, to each other, on their cells, getting up and walking around--while the wedding's going on!! weird. and htere was a big screen on the left hand side gave different perspectives. after wedding, speed thru photos. ushered down to dinner. huge spread of a little of everything on the tables. token cake. ushered out. mill aobut upstairs and decided to go have drinks with will and his wife and vinces friends. vince and yoonsun join us later. beard, suzie, jen and i take off to see if we can find a knife for hardcore. no such luck. go to annyang to eat spicy chicken and to a bar for beer--will has given in early so we can too. ponder noribang but don't go. back to kristas, chatting, packing. go to bed around 4ish.
7/9/06 wake up at 7 frickin 30 to take jen and suzie to the bus to the airport. thankfully there's a bus stop near krista's. it was sad to see them go. i had a great time with them here. i miss jen so much and it was great to get to know suzie better. beard and i went back to sleep. took krista to italian restaurant (spannew) b/c it's just so darn good and actually italian, not korean italian. and the yhvae pizza AND pasta. then to train and HOME.
wow that was long. pictures later, promise
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