danyang (단양)...buddha's birthday weekend

buddha's birthday is a lunar holiday..this year it fell on a friday, which made for a lovely three day weekend...i wanted to get out of town, so mel, sheila and i decided to go to a town called danyang..originally, i had wanted to go to sokcho, which is on the east coast...but our friend jenna (also on the rugby team) had recently spent a weekend in danyang, and had spoken highly of the place, so plans changed..as it turned out, not only was it a holiday weekend for the whole country, but danyang was having a festival of it's own..the royal azalea festival..i'm not sure that we saw any special flowers while we were there, but that's beside the point..
anywho, because of the holiday weekend, we weren't the only ones trying to get out of the city..the bus ride took a wee bit longer than expected..it was supposed to be 2.5 hours, but it ended up being 6.5 hours!!!!!!!!! traffic wasn't stopped at any point, but it never moved very quickly either..we knew the ride would be longer than expected, but wow, it was LOOOOOONG..anywho, we arrived in danyang, at the temporary bus stop..it was a little shack set up, and the two guys manning the fort said we couldn't make reservations for a bus ride back..oh well..they did howeva speak great english, hand us a tourist map (in english!!) and tell us to come back if we had any questions..that was just the beginning of all the really nice locals we met that weekend..
after wandering for a while, we found a motel we were happy with..not surprisingly, the prices for that weekend were higher than normal..our rooms hadn't yet been cleaned, but they said they had room for us, and told us to come back at 1800..so off we walked..we had to carry our backpacks with us, but none of us had packed much..the first activity was to pick up some snacks..we hadn't thought we'd be on the bus that long, so we were HUNGRY..(our bus arrived at 1600, instead of the expected 1200)..sheila has some dietary restrictions, so we were looking for a particular type of restaurant, but didn't immediately see it..so we asked the cashier at a GS25, and he gave us directions..he even drew us a little map!! (nice local #2)..we made our way to the restaurant, which was awesome..we had dok galbi, or chicken galbi, whateva you want to call it..and it was awesome..according to the menu we were having a type that was particularly special in danyang, but i don't really know if it was that different from any other dok galbi i've had..either way, it was really good, and there was a LOT of it..after dinner we checked in, ditched our stuff, and kept walking..
our motel was along the river, which was pretty, and nothing like you're ever going to see in seoul..so we walked..according to our map, there was a rose tunnel not so far away so we headed in that direction..about halfway there we thought it would be more fun to walk along the river, not along the road, so we made our way down to the water, and the beach..great sand!! on a sunny day it would be a lovely way to spend a day, so we planned that for the next afternoon..that evening, we just enjoyed the quiet, since seoul never sleeps..sheila and mel played around in the river too..while walking we had noticed a series of tents along the river, so on our way back, we decided to walk through the area..it turned out to be part of the flower festival..the tents were filled with typical carnival type games..darts, throw the ring on the stick, bb guns, etc..i tried my luck at one game, and though it didn't go well, i had fun..mel and sheila tried the bb guns, and were very successfull..a few booths later mel tried the darts...she was far more successful than i was...after getting our fill of making fools of ourselves at these carnival games (always with plenty of locals watching us) we got back onto the streets...earlier in the day mel had seen a place where we could do video golf..the idea is that you can "play" a real golf course inside one room..you use a real golf ball, and real clubs, but hit the ball against a screen...lasers or motion sensors or something detect the ball, and figure out how far (and in what direction) you would've hit it outside..the guy running the place gave us a tutorial, which we thought would be over quickly..but no, that's not what happened..he felt the need to "help" us nearly the entire time we were trying to play..mel, sheila and i, well, we aren't um, any good at all...hee hee...we had fun, and that was all that mattered..after 5 holes we decided to call it a night, especially since it was almost midnight..
the next morning we were up and tried to find a local dunkin donuts for breakfast..it turns out danyang is too small for a DD..so we went to 김밥천국..kimbap heaven...a fast food chain on every block all over korea..from there we decided to walk to the train station, and book tickets home for the next day..after having spent so long on the bus the day before, we didn't want to do that again, and we knew a train would take as long as it was supposed to, and would leave on time, and wouldn't require us to wait until the next available train..the walk took us a little longer than expected, but we stopped along the way for fun pictures.. (mel and sheila have learned that i love taking photos)..since we didn't feel like standing, we booked tickets for a train leaving at 0830, as everything after that was standing room only..
danyang is know for "eight scenic sights" and we wanted to see a few of them..they're all natural formations of rocks..we didn't know of any public transport that would take us to all of them, so we opted to hire a taxi..not something any of us would normally have done, but it ended up working quite well..as it turned out, getting to each of the places took longer than we expected..the first was about 15km from the train station!! we got out quickly, took photos quickly, hopped back in the taxi, and kept going to the next spot..he did a good job driving us around..our last stop was to see three rocks coming out of the river, a small temple having been built on one..the story of what each of the rocks represents was pretty funny..the "daughter" rock could also be called "concubine"..we didn't think they had had an english speaker edit before making the sign, as those two words shouldn't ever be interchangeable..anywho, from there it was a slightly longish (we all enjoy walking, so it didn't matter to us how long it was) walk back into town..walking is always good for you..
we were all hungry, so we opted for pizza..i know it isn't korean, but hey, we eat plenty of korean food on a regular basis, so there is no need to eat it every meal while on holiday..we enjoyed our pizza, and met the wierdest group of foreigners EVER..when they walked in, we were guessing a couple visiting their teacher son..we were VERY wrong..as it turned out, it was a single guy (the "dad") who had met up with the married couple (the "mom" and "son") while in town..the "dad" had previously taught in danyang, and the couple currently lives in daejon..they were all just creepy, and for the rest of the trip we kept referring to the wierdest couple EVER..
after dinner we went back to the carnival..mel and sheila wanted more time with the bb guns, hee hee...they did pretty well and ended up with matching stuffed penguins..i threw darts, and ended up with a penguin of my own:).. i also purchased a visor..the best visor ever..it's HUGE and has red/silver sparkles..i don't think you can get any better, especially for only 5000won!! we walked over to the ampitheater, which was being set up for a concert, and sat around for a while, maybe 20 minutes..people kept filling in the seats, but we didn't know when it was going to start, and didn't feel like waiting in the rain..we were under the cover, but the rain was still blowing in..not so fun..plus the penguins were starting to complain..so we went back to our hotel, and played card games..fun, especially because i won:)
the next morning we had to be up pretty early in order to catch our train..the ajumma who checked us out of the hotel was totally awesome..definitely not the normal ajumma..she gave us coffee (i gave mine to mel) and fruit drinky things..and SOCKS!! she gave us socks!!! she said that i would get sick because i was wearing short sleeves while it was chilly/rainy outside..the socks were great because they had the nike swoosh, nike spelled with a backwards N, and the three stripes of adidas..i love those socks:)
the train arrived and left on time, we arrived in seoul around noon-ish..
an awesome weekend out of the city:)..so nice to be in a place where you can actually see green, and mountains..living in the city, you sometimes tend to forget that not everything is made of concrete..

buddha's birthday lanterns

though christianity is growing rapidly in korea, it's still a heavily buddhist country..there are temples in lots and lots of places..buddha's birthday is another lunar based holiday, and this year it fell on friday, 21 may..in korea, the sunday before buddha's birthday, there are traditional lantern festivals..we're not talking the kind of lanterns you use while camping..we're talking paper, handmade, big..anywho, the sunday before the holiday i went to a couple of the biggest temples in seoul, and sure enough they had lots of lanterns..not only are there big lanterns all lit up, but there are tons of lanterns stung up all over temple grounds, all of which have wishes written into them..soooooo cool..anywho, this post is all about the photos i took that day..

gumi and a national game

it all started with an email about playing rugby out of town, then attending a game between the national teams of korea and japan..korea and japan were playing as part of the asian5nations ongoing tournament, which will add a couple teams to the world cup, which takes place next year..an event was made of it, with itineraries and an overnight planned..
we all (girls and guys) met at the hamilton hotel at 0615 that saturday, which wasn't an easy time for anyone..surprisingly, people were talkative, and in good moods..(usually at that hour of the day no one wants to talk)..the bus ride was about 3.5 hours, including the requisite stop at a rest stop after 2 hours or so..as i've probably mentioned before, korean rest stops are NOTHING like rest stops in the rest of the world..this one had a rather large statue at one end, a memorial of some kind..i wanted potatoes, but ended up getting ice cream..go figure..
we arrived in gumi, and realized it wouldn't be all that easy to get to the pitch..we walked under a bridge, followed a path, then crossed a small river, climbed up the bank on the opposite side, and walked for another 200m or so..the pitch itself wasn't great at all..there were weeds everywhere..and, as we found out later, the boundaries weren't clearly marked, which was frustrating..
it had been indicated to the girls that there would be another girls team there for us to play, but that wasn't the case at all...as usual, we had to play ourselves..the guys got started with their game, and we watched for a little while, until starting our own warmups..it wasn't made clear to the girls exactly when we would play, so several ladies asked several of the men, but they didn't have an answer for us..howeva, as soon as they were done with their game, they started yelling at us to get started..that was frustrating, since they had just told us they didn't know when we'd be playing..ugh..during our entire game the boys kept yelling to keep going, to stop wasting time, etc..since many of the girls are new, and don't really know what happens during a game, it's hard to keep play continuous..our ref wasn't moving quickly either, but he thought he was helping us..anywho, we finished, were practically run off the field, then we attempted to clean ourselves up without the help of a bathroom..after the second guys game was finished, they changed, and the whole group of people headed back to the bus (through the creek and everything).. some of the girls had gone to find a sauna in order to take a shower before getting back on the bus, so they missed the first bus to leave..
the buses then took us to gyeongsan, a bit over an hour away..there was a stop along the way at the smallest minimart ever, so people could grab food and beer and other assorted items..i think we cleaned out the place of beer and drinks in general, and sadly, there wasn't much food..everyone was counting on lunch food there, so it was definitely a disappointment..
we arrived in gyeongsan and made our way to the pitch..LOTS of foreigners..far more foreigners than koreans...nearly all the fans were on one side of the pitch, there were steps, but nothing great in terms of seating...surprising for a national level game...we squeezed ourselves into a space that really wasn't big enough for all of us...the game had already started, but oh well...some of the girls sat on the grass, not too far from the boundaries of the pitch..go figure, after not too long, they were told to move, though i'm not sure of the reason...at halftime we (the girls) walked across the pitch to the other side, and sat down in an area of completely empty steps...(big, concrete steps)...not surprisingly, we were asked to move after not too long..this time, we were annoyed..we were told that this was the official area of the KRU, or something like that..it would've been fine and dandy to tell us that at the beginning of the match, but it was the middle of the second half..who was going to move there that late and need all that space? i don't know who said it, but someone said that we were the official korean women's team, so we were allowed to stay..finally..
japan wiped the floor with korea during the game..it was totally expected, the only question was exactly how bad the final score would be..72-13 i think? the koreans looked very unfit, and their basic skills like passing were terrible..whereas japan was fit, and passed really well..some of the korean guys were huge, and sortof lumbered around, the japanese team was all fast..that being said, a significant portion of the japanese team isn't actually from japan..there were a lot of kiwis on the team..they get paid to go live in japan and play for the japanese national team for 2 or 3 years..i don't know how i feel about non locals playing for a national team, it seems to defeat the purpose of a national team???
i took a cab with mary, janine and rochelle to the train station in daegu and we took the ktx (bullet train) back to seoul..i was signed up for a half marathon the next day, and the other three all had reasons to get back to seoul that night..the rest of the guys and girls got back on the bus and went back to gumi..there, they went out to a bar called waegook cook, and most of them got even drunker than they already were..there were some amusing stories the next day:)