Exploring the Coast

These past two weekends I have spent time on the East Coast of South Korea. Two weekends ago South Koreans celebrated Chuseok, which is similar to American Thanksgiving, and I therefore had a five day weekend. Two friends I headed to Sokcho, Seoraksan National Park, and Gangneung for the five days and it was wonderful. Sokcho is a small fishing town on the coast of Gangwando. When we arrived we explored the town by foot and bike. There were lots of scenic oceanside and marina side path. I really loved looking at all of the old boats. There also was a really lively fish market that had huge octopi, squid, sea cucumbers and many, many other things right out in the street. At many stands there were tanks and you could choose what seafood you wanted and the owner would kill the fish right then. For dinner we indulged in some delicious and fresh fish, that was grilled at our table. Rachel and Andrew and I also tried Sokcho's version of sundae. Sundae is Korean blood sausage and is generally pretty gross. When I was served it at lunch I could barely manage one bite. But, Sokcho is famous for a special type of sundae. The casing is made of a giant squid instead of intestines and the inside is fish, squid, noodles and other seafood bits. The seafood sundae turned out to be quite delicious.

The market 

Our dinner

Our seafood sundae

The next day we went to one of South Korea's most famous National Parks, Seoraksan. The three of us went on a great hike and enjoyed the scenery. The park was packed though and as I mentioned before South Koreans also have a different understanding of National Parks then Americans do. A lot of the hike had man made stairs, platforms and walkways. There were also several restaurants along the hike and at the peak there was a stand where you could buy coffee, a medal, or a photo of you at the top. It was a little cheesy but the views were phenomenal. I am coming back to Seoraksan in two weeks with my host family and it should be even prettier because the leaves will be changing.

The next day we headed to Gangneung, but not before we made a stop at Namsan Temple, which is a beautiful temple on a cliff overlooking the East Sea. It was beautiful and I imagine would have been an amazing place to be a monk back in the day. In Gangneung we met up with our Korean friend, Caden. He was our RA during Orientation and is in Gangneung working for a semester before returning to his studies at Jungwon Univeristy. Caden was a great host and showed us the beach, the lake, a temple, and a traditional village. It was a great two days and it was also really nice to see a friend along our travels. Rachel and I then headed back to Hwacheon on Wednesday but not before indulging in an American feast at VIPS in Chuncheon. VIPS is an all-you-can-eat American buffet that's a little pricey but well worth the money every now and then. It's really comforting to just have a salad, soup, french fries, vegetables, pasta, etc. every now and then. I really do enjoy Korean food but I sometimes just miss the comforts of home.

Last weekend I went to Busan for the Busan International Film Festival. It is the largest film festival in Asia and therefore was star-studded even though I didn't have any luck spot any American celebrities. My friends and I woke up at 4:45AM on Saturday and headed to the ticket office where we sat in line until the box office opened at 8:30AM. It was quite an experience but our early morning paid off because we got tickets to every movie we wanted to see except for one. I ended up seeing a Kenyan film called A Nairobi Half-Life, Argo, and a French film called The Man Who Laughs. The films were all good but Argo was by far my favorite and the same holds true for my friends. The festival was really neat though with lots of free talks, meet and greets, contests and giveaways. Busan is also an awesome city. It is right on the Southern Coast and is the second largest city in Korea.

The line

The schedule board where they crossed out the films as they sold out.

Sorry, if this was a little less thoughtful and reflective but I wanted to get all my travels in without making the entry way too long.