Twelve Scenic Areas of Ulsan, pt 1

When I arrived my recuiter, Sally, handed me some information about Ulsan that was (mostly) in English.  I don't know how I left it in her car, but I did, so I haven't had it this whole time.  She came here two days ago to bring another teacher and she brought me the information again.  Included was this little pamphlet called 12 Scenic Areas of Ulsan, which Lindie and I decided needed to be (at least part of) our travel wish list.
Yesterday, I spent the morning copying down all the stops that the buses that run through our town make.  We have Zone 4 buses, so I copied down every place a 400 bus stopped...which was a lot of writing, let me tell you :-)  But I found a bus line that goes to a beach!  So, I showed it to Lindie and off we went to find the 411 bus to the beach.  Since the last beach we went to required a trip to the massive bus terminal and a very long drive mixed with various cab rides we were a little suspicious that it could be that easy to find a beach, but we settled in for the drive and were very pleasantly surprised!  
I have to admit, the ride up there was interesting to say the least...we had to go up a very steep mountain that had some of the sharpest hair pin turns I've ever experienced...which was a little unsettling in a bus that refused to apply the brakes, but we made it safe and sound and only a little tossed about.  :-)

Sure, it may not be the most romantic beach in the whole world, but no one can deny that's the ocean right there!!  And there was something really amazing about it, maybe all the big craggy rocks, or the mountains that go right into the water, but I loved it here.  That's a big red pagoda in the background...more pictures of that later.

A lot of people looked like they were crabbing (or sleeping) so I took a picture of the crab traps because they amused me.  My taking pictures apparently amused this guy and he decided to pose, so I had to include him in the blog :-)

Rocks, rocks, rocks, and the pagoda is getting closer!! 

Whaling is apparently big here...a lot of the tours you can go on include eating whale meat, and there are whales all over the cities...like this one, which was on every light post and really amused us both.  :-)

Right on the beach was a fish market, so I had to go in and see what was in there.  There was a lot in there!!  This is just a bucket of very active crabs that the very active sales guy was actively trying to sell us. 

After being there only moments we realized that if we had pointed to anything in this place, they would have instantly pulled it out, sliced it up, and given us the freshest sushi ever.  Luckily, no fish were harmed (or made into sushi) in the making of this photo blog.

I have to admit that I wonder what these taste like...I imagine they would taste sandy...and they look like aliens.

What ARE these things???  I have no idea, but they were very popular...nearly every stand had, at least, the intestine looking things...and they moved, like some kind of weird worm.  I don't think I could possibly eat those...

Yummy calamari...not so yummy when you see it wiggling all over...

Even though we were now at the other end of the market from the initial very active sales guy, he followed us trying to give us information about what we were really seeing...then he decided that we needed to get out picture taken in the market...

Then he decided HE really needed a picture with us.  But, that was totally understandable :-)  I really chose the wrong day to straighten my hair...completely useless venture :-)

I have no idea what these are...but the one in the bottom corner there totally moved it's "head" and "looked" at Lindie...and I started to feel sorry for him...I don't know what he is though...

Squid.  Of course.  It was all over the place.

I'm pretty sure this is a coelacanth...

I know you were worried that pagoda wasn't going to make another appearance.  So, here it is!  We made it!!  Why is it here, I don't know, but there were a lot of fisherman on this pier, so at least we know what the pier is for!

The mountains right up against the ocean is so lovely.  And even though it was a gloomy looking day, the fog on all the mountains is beautiful too!  Looks like the Smokey Mountains :-)

Pretty, foggy mountains.  The water right around this pier was filled with jelly fish, but didn't come out so well in pictures.  Also, there were these REALLY crazy bugs that looks like crosses between house centipedes and roaches...and they were very big...we decided not to climb out on those cement dune things because of those bugs :-)

This is one of Ulsans 12 Scenic Areas and we found it completely be accident!!  We were so excited!  This is a beach made up entirely of little black pebbles (hence the name black pebble beach) it was awesome!

Black pebbles.  Too cool.

Very tired feet :-)  The pebbles don't look so black here...but they were :-)

Lots of people in the cold, cold water :-)

There were families EVERYWHERE!!  And kids all over the beach, the water slides, in the pools, everywhere. 

There were tents lined up all over the beach...and everywhere else.  Everyone of them had sleeping children and bbq's.  It smelled so good on this beach!!

There were some restaurants set up on the beach as well.  If you can't see these clearly, I think you can click on the picture to make it bigger...but the one on the right is definitely shells and the one on the right is...bugs.   Will I try them??  I don't think so...Lindie had the misfortune of being tricked into eating one, so there's no way I'm gonna do that...

We were dying of thirst and found a place that sold ice cream and soda (and noodles) and I thought "I'll try something different!!" The ice cream had literal black beans in it...and was coated with mashed up black beans. . . and this soda was...well, interesting to say the leat.  Neither were good choices.

Frozen orange juice = much better choice!!

So, these pictures were at the bus stop waiting to get back home.  The bus ride home was much more crowded and we had to stand the whole time.  Standing on a bus that is doing hair pin turns very quickly mixed with the delightful black bean ice cream made me a very sick girl.  When we got to Samsan I had to get out.  So, we found another cute shop with more lovely things:

A lot of people wear these big visors.  So, we needed to try them on for size.

I fell in love with this bag..not sure why, it was just too cute!

So, after my stomach decided to chill we grabbed our last bus back home and headed to a chicken place we saw on our way out.  Fried chicken and home made potato chips sounded amazing after a long day of exploring, so we went in and ordered one chicken plate and a salad and this is what they brought us:

Oh my gosh!  So much chicken!  And so much salad!!  That salad was amazing though, and yes those are bananas on top.  It had the sweetest dressing and CHEESE on it!!  It was fantastic.  Then, a mountain of chips topped with a mountain of fried chicken fingers!  Best ever!  Two thumbs up for sure!!  And a great way to end a great day.  We ate every single thing in this picture, and I think the carbs mixed with the over-fullness knocked me out completely and I slept like the actual dead.  Amazing day all around :-)