amazingly, there weren't the normal love motels around the bus station...everywhere else i've been in korea you can always see lots of love motels around bus and train stations...anywho...heather had been to chuncheon before, so she knew where we should go...since she was coming from jochiwon her bus was a little later in arriving, but oh well...there happened to be a huge emart attached to the bus station so we wandered around there for a little while, and found food there...i should say that it has gotten COLD in korea, so wandering around in the dark, looking for food isn't the greatest...heather arrived, found us at emart, and we figured out a plan...we took a taxi to an area in town where she knew we could find a love motel, we checked in and relaxed for the evening...it was a room with a double bed, so i got a yeo (basically a thick duvet that goes on the floor, and a blanket to sleep under) and a pillow...kim had some interesting stories to tell from work...i had another bad asthma attack, but it calmed down soon enough...i'm getting a whole lot more use out of my inhaler these days, i haven't used it this much since i was a competitive swimmer! (it's not a good thing i don't think)...
the next morning we woke up slowly...and all spent some time waking up, going back to sleep, waking up, going back to sleep, etc...around 1100 we started taking showers and such, and by 1215 we were out the door...i had thought it was sunny, but i was wrong...lol...sometime during the night it had snowed!!! it was pretty, unexpected, and cold...i really need to find my scarves...i hope i brought a couple with me to seoul, but if not, i need to buy one soonest...i know i have mittens in my flat, i need to get those out...unfortunately, i didn't have my mittens with me in chuncheon...anywho, we started walking, and soon found a dunkin donuts...(none of us are that picky when it comes to a quick breakfast)...we also talked to local foreigners who told us how to get to a particular island heather wanted to see...
before going to that island, we decided to walk down to the river...which took longer than i thought it would...not that it really mattered...anywho, once we got to the river we decided not to go to nami-do, simply because it would take an hour to get there, and it was already 1300 or so...we decided to walk along the river for a little while, and see if we could find a ferry to another little island...because of the weather, there weren't many people out...it really felt like we had the river to ourselves...that's a feeling you almost never have in korea...there are just too many people...
while walking along the river we found the ferry port to another island, in the middle of the river...according to lonely planet, we could find dolmens and such on that island...so we opted for the ferry, and decided to forego nami-do for another trip...this ferry held 6 cars, and the round trip only cost us each 3000won...yay!! it wasn't a long ride, but we still enjoyed it...
as we got off the ferry on the island, we saw an archeology dig happening...i'm guessing the diggers weren't too thrilled with the weather...heather's dad is an archeologist, so she was particularly interested...we could see a couple pots and such that had been exposed already...the area marked off for the dig was actually pretty big, even though they weren't actually digging in all of it at that point...
we kept walking for a while, just because it was nice...since the leaves have fallen, there isn't a lot of colour to be found...but we did find this small area of red berries, which were pretty...i wonder why they were only in this one spot...toward the end of our walk, we went into a garden/play area of sorts...i suppose it was a historical area, as they had this dolmen and a couple others displayed...if we understood the sign correctly (and one never knows with kanglish) the dolmen had all been on the island, but had been moved so that they were all together for this park...does anyone know what the purpose of these are?
after taking the ferry back, we cut up to the main street (as opposed to the river walk where we had been walking earlier) and saw the end of this war memorial...judging by the flags, it's probably related to what americans know as the korean war, fought from 1950-1953...
we were lucky enough to catch a taxi almost immediately back into town...(we could've walked back to where we started, but didn't feel like it)...the taxi dropped us off at dalkgalbi street...apparently dalkgalbi was invented in chuncheon, there is an entire street with restaurants specially devoted to dalkgalbi...i had planned to sit on the bench in the photo, but there was mud and water on it...lol...
dinner was great...yummy food which really hit the spot since we'd been walking for a while...spicy, and the restaurant was warm...(except for when some dumbhead propped open the door and everyone froze)...and after dinner, we were mostly interested in staying warm...there is always a point in a chilly day when warmth becomes more important than anything else...especially when the sun is down...we found an underground shopping area which was quite warm...it was extensive, and had we been so inclined, could've shopped for hours...as it was, we wandered through relatively quickly, mostly scanning what was available...(a whole store devoted just to children's shoes!)...heather and kim had fun in daiso, which is kindof like the dollar store...lots of random stuff, most of it useful in some way or another...from underground shopping, we went to coldstone...given what i just said about staying warm, realize this makes no sense, but heather and i were in the mood, and kim certainly didn't say no...hee hee hee...the guy in the store tried to tell me i couldn't substitute ice cream flavours, but he backed down when i told him i've been able to do it at every store i've tried in seoul...across the street from coldstone was a north face store, and kim wanted to shop there...she just came from a couple years in new mexico, which isn't known for cold winters, so she wanted to peruse and think about buying a real winter jacket...she didn't buy, but did come away with ideas...
from there we went back to the bus station, got on buses, and came home...traffic going into seoul on saturday evening seemed nonexistent, so we got home fast...woo hoo!!!
we're definitely hoping to go back to chuncheon in the spring:)
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