One Last Korean Weekend

Our last full weekend in Korean land is over! Tonight is our last Sunday evening in our wonderful apartment in Cheonan and tomorrow the final 7-day count down begins. It's come around so fast.

After the spending the past few weekends cramming in everything we wanted to see, Ric and I finally decided to spend this weekend in Cheonan, enjoying the city we know so well, and spending time with the people we care about here. Accidentally, it turned out to be a very Korean weekend (by our standards at least).

On Friday we had arranged to meet our friend Ripul for dinner and chats about our future travel plans. Turns out we're kinda popular (or Ripul is at least), and our party of three soon turned into a party of 16! We had dinner followed by beer and soju outside a mart, then went to a Korean club in Doojeongdong. It was our first experience of a "nightclub" in Cheonan, and one of very few experiences in Korea (because we're kinda past it you know?) Smokey, sweaty, and obnoxiously loud; Weed House was like clubs all over the world. The music wasn't exactly to our taste but we did enjoy watching our non-drinking, American colleague Alex bump and grind like a crazy person for a couple of hours. Exhausted from just watching him (!!) we slipped away at the respectable hour of 2am and went home to our hot chocolate and tartan slippers. 

Alex, John, Alisha, Ripul,Me, Ric and Claire in Doojeong Vegas

Sweaty nasty people inside Weed House

On Saturday, nursing our soj-overs, we met Sydney and Michael, who's visiting from the states, for an afternoon in Shinbudong, the 'down-town' area of Cheonan. As we innocently ate ice creams in the park we became the centre of attention as a drunk elderly Korean man began to lap dance for us, and immediately behind us two guys in army fatigues humped statues in an effort to advertise a sushi restaurant. The crowd of young Koreans in the park soon turned their attention from the concert taking place, to the four waygooks sitting slap bang in the middle of a freak show. How quintessentially Korean.

....???

 We hastily retreated to a restaurant and fumbled through an order for the two vegetarians and the girl who doesn't eat seafood (both unheard of ideologies in Korea.) After lunch we went to a dog cafe; yes, a cafe where you drink coffee and play with dogs. This is obviously an odd choice for the girl who doesn't particularly dogs, or animals in general, but it's a popular Korean pastime that sounded like a good idea at the time. In the cafe groups of young women in their Sunday finest gathered around these small fluffy things whilst they sipped their iced lattes. A Korean couple were snuggled in the corner nursing a little dachshund as if it were a baby. I, on the other hand, was much less forthcoming in my doggy affections. For starters the place stank! The dogs were encouraged to do their business on the floor, and I actually witnessed one girl get bitten by a disgruntled pooch! It was a novelty, but it was not an enjoyable one (for me, at least). Any readers wanting to enjoy their expresso with a shot of dog poo can find Play Dog by taking the road next to Baskin Robbins, opposite Shinsegae, heading back three blocks and turning left. 

Begrudgingly I shared my ice latte with one over zealous pooch.

 Following that we spent an unhealthy about of time and money in the sticker booth shop, taking "cute" photos together and testing our boys' patience.

Say "kimchi"

We ended the day in a Korean bar eating kimchi stew; the red, fermented, spicy soup that we all love to hate. Or in my case, just hate.

Today I put aside my doggy animosity as our awesome foursome became five, with Sydney's dog, Sigma, joining us for a hike. We went to Gakwonsa, the local temple, headed up to the ridge and down the other side to Yuwanggol (유왕골). From there we walked through the valley and had a picnic by the stream. It was really pleasant. The first time we did this hike was in the depths of winter, minus ten degrees outside with a thick snow on the ground, so it was quite nice to go again in the summer and see everything in full bloom, we were even able to splash around in the river. Ironically, the first time we went I forgot to take the memory card for our camera, and the second time we didn't even have a camera because it broke! But fortunately this time round we had our sassy friends to take photos, and to kindly give me free reign over their camera.

Hiking up Taejosan

Sydney and Michael getting amorous over the picnic.

Sigma eyeing up her next stick.

As it turns out, we willingly made the exact mistake today as we did in January; we walked all the way to Yongyeon Reservoir (횽연저수지), aka the middle of  nowhere. With it being summer, today there were at least buses running more than twice a day, but unfortunately they refused to let us on with our canine friend. Once again we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, too tired to go back the way we came. Hitch hiking wasn't going to work this time round; not with four foreigners and a big dog. So we walked on, past the reservoir and further into the back-water-burner village of Mokcheon. 

Our hiking squadron.

Yeongyeon Reservoir.

Me and Ric by the reservoir.

When we eventually found people, some five hours after setting off, we had them call us a taxi to take us back to Cheonan, but even the taxi driver couldn't find us! He called us twice, asking where we were, but given that we were lost in the middle of nowhere we couldn't even tell him! Thank Buddha for kind Korean people! I flagged down a car, that pull over and the driver got out to help us. When those directions turned out insufficient, I found a lady who came over to wait with us whilst directing the driver on the phone. Finally we were safely on our way back to civilisation!

It was a good decision to stay in Cheonan this weekend; taking it easy and doing things we know are easily navigable in the confusing world of Korean! It was also nice to spend time with friends, for I am genuinely going to miss certain people.