Summer Vacation Pt 1 of. . .4? Jeonju 전주

I know, I know, I know I tell you lies.  It's been more than a week since I blogged last.  It's been more than a week since summer vacation. . .a couple of weeks, actually I guess.  BUT  I have a really good reason or two!

The first reason is that we were gone for five whole days.
The second reason is that there were three of us each with a camera going 24 hours a day.
The third reason is that we came home with more than 1,500 photos and videos.
Awesome.  But a lot to go through and organize.

So, I thought this time, instead of just uploading a thousand or so of the best ones, I would make slide shows, that way I could show you all the scenery, the good stuff, and the silly stuff without making you scroll through pages and pages of. . .screen?

In addition to showing you more photos and videos than ever before (aren't you excited!?) the slide shows will be accompanied by the very best of the K-Pop summer charts (some of which we know well enough to sing in nori-bangs, and by some I mean the choruses of one. . .and the English.) 


So, let's get started, shall we?

This was the idea (we spent weeks on these ideas. . .) we were going to ride trains for our summer vacation and see what we could find.  See, what happened was, we're supposed to have five week days off for summer vacation and five week days off for winter vacation.  We didn't get our five days off in winter, so it should not have been a shock when they jipped us on our summer vacation as well.  We did get it extended to three days from only two, but only Anriette, Albert and I had the same days off (which was good that we had them off, but left out Rob and Lindie, unfortunately.)
So, to make the best of our shortened vacation we thought a proper gyspy journey would be awesome.
There was only one rule in the weeks leading up to our departure: no plans.
BUT, it's a little hard to really do that, honestly, so Albert and Anriette came up with a basic framwork plan (which was awesome) and we were going to go to the west coast and see what was there, hitting five destinations in five days.  We bought giant maps and sat dreaming about what we would find.

Then, the big day arrived.  The Friday night before we were set to leave was not only a seasonal work dinner for all of us but it was also Mac's going away party, so we were all out pretty late that night.  But we made a plan to leave early, so that's what we did.  To the bus terminal first thing to catch the 9 o'clock bus to Jeonju, home, we heard, of a very old fashioned village and famous bi bim bap.

And that's what we did.  We met each other at 8:30, really only a few hours after we went to bed, beady eyed and yawning and grabbed a bus that took us to the bus terminal.  We stood in line looking a little confused, like foreigners do, a Hot Six (like Red Bull. . .) in each hand.  But all the 9 o'clock tickets were sold out and the next bus wasn't leaving until 11:30 SO we called the whole thing off and went back to bed.
No.
We went outside and bummed around Samsan for an hour and half waiting for our bus to get ready.
Then, finally, we were off.

Here's the show!    Go Away-2NE1

SATURDAY: JEONJU

We arrived in Jeonju about four hours later and walked squinting out into the sun and into a taxi.   Our first stop was a very old church that Albert found on the internet.  So, we went there and took pictures.  Here's Anriette to tell you all about it!

We got to the castle and started looking around.  It was probably a million degrees (half a million degrees C.) but it was really beautiful, the whole city.  It was very old fashioned and had a very relaxed and family feel to it.  We entered the gate to the castle and started instantly snapping photos.  Here's Albert to tell you more!

After we walked around the church grounds a little bit we decided that we needed to feed.  There was a service going on inside the church at the time so we couldn't go in and take pictures, so we walked across the street to get some of the famous bi bim bap that everyone told us we had to try.

Bi Bim Bap is a bowl of. . .stuff.  Really.  Everytime your order it, it's different.  But it's always rice with bean sprouts, sometimes little fish, or mushroom slices (I think. . .) or different veggies, some hot sauce (or not) basically any kind of thing can end up in bi bim bap, then you mix it all together and sometimes it's awesome and sometimes it's not.  We ordered traditional Jeonju bi bim bap and also a raw beef version (never thought I would be ordering this stuff, but it's actually not bad, if you just think that you're eating really, really, really rare steak. . .) And it was pretty tasty.  Like the kimchi, however, bi bim bap, at least to me, was a lot spicier than back home in Ulsan.  But that's one of the cool things about Korea, every province has their own versions and recepies for things, from kimchi and bi bim bap to soju and Makkoli. . .but more on that later.

After finishing our lunch we walked back across the street to take pictures of the inside of the church.  It was really beautiful, everything was.  Then we walked to the rotary, which was also supposed to have something cool, according to the internet, and it has, I think, the enterance to a gate from long, long ago.  It was also very cool.  Then we walked through a huge market place and looked at all the hanbok and random live fish/eels/things in shells, and silk worm larvae they had to sell.

This is the part where I should tell you that even though we tried, we really, really, really tried to pack as lightly as possible, we still all ended up with huge, heavy backpacks, and we also had a tent with poles in tow, and it was very hot, like I think I mentioned, so we decided we needed to find a hotel and unload some of our stuff before we headed out to see the main parts of the village.  And that's exactly what we did.

A little about hotels in Korea for a moment, if you don't mind.

There are really lovely, enormous, very-much-like-back-home hotels all over Korea, of course, but like their Western counterparts, they are outrageously expensive for three road weary and (let's be honest) not terribly picky travelers.  Larger towns in Korea are also usually absolutely infested by colorful/neon/overly ornate or needlessly over-decorated "Love Motels" or "World Inns" depending on who you ask (they changed the name to World Inns, apparently, when the Olympics were here last. . .but we all know the truth.)  The really amazing thing about these inns is that they cost about $30 a night.  But UNLIKE $30 hotels back home, these are actually usually very clean and bright and perfectly safe, so they are perfect for dropping off stuff and catching a few hours of sleep in the middle of long days of adventuring.  It's good that they're here, they're a constant that you can depend on in every single little town, so accommodations are literally the last thing we ever think about when we make a trip.  In many towns we've been to, there's like a motel district, just a part of the town there is a whole empire of only hotels and convenience stores, so it's always easy to find a free room at a good price.

Now, I tell you all this to say that Jeonju is a big city.  But, as we walked around we noticed the very strange lack of motels.  Across the bridge we saw one, only one, so we walked to it.  This one was of the variety where the woman who owns the place also lives there, so we walked in, got a room, dropped off our stuff and then went exploring again.  (I think we were the only people there the whole time, but I'm not sure.)

Near the hotel there was a covered-deck like thing, that are pretty common finds in cities in Korea, and people just take off their shoes and hang out on them, but this one was huge, and was apparently built way back when, over the river, at the spot where two parts of the river met and swirled, which really fascinated the leader at the time.  The river doesn't swirl here these days, that we could see, but we still stared at it for a while.  :-)

The town was beyond charming.  Everything was perfectly manicured, there were cobble stone streets everywhere and little streams built along the sidewalks which were filled with small children.  We stopped at a small shop that had a lot of really nice knick knack souvenirs along with several varieties of fans (for which Jeonju is famous) so we all bought a couple of things and kept walking.

It was a beautiful day, and without all of our gear, we were ready for anything.  But first, we needed some ice cream.  We took pictures, noticed that an outdoor concert was going to start in a while, bought some ice cream, and ate it in a BEAUTIFUL gazebo right next to the beautiful stream and tree lined cobble stone street.

We walked around for a while longer, and then the concert started, it was a traditional dress, traditional instrument concert and we listened for a while and we are all incredibly surprised when they started playing the Mission Impossible theme song. . .here's a vid!

We walked around for a while longer, taking in the sites and then decided to head back to the hotel, or at least to head that way.  Out of no where we were suddenly nabbed right off the street by a wild-eyed restaurant owner who led us over to a table outside of his place proclaiming that it was free Makkoli for foreigners night!  So, what choice did we have?  He was quite insistent.  There were a couple of tables with huge bowls for Makkoli in the middle and smaller drinking bowls all around in front of a collection of Koreans and slightly confused looking foreigners.  So, we started drinking and talking and making friends.  We learned several things that night, one of them being how they make Makkoli and (perhaps their more famous liquor) soju.  Makkoli is a rice wine that is made by mixing rice and yeast and some other things in a jar for about 10 years.  The mixture separates into a clear liquid on top that becomes Saki and the thicker mixture at the bottom becomes the rice wine, Makkoli.  There are variations of the Makkoli, soju, and kimchi (and maybe Bi Bim Bap) recipes from province to province in Korea.  Jeonju is supposed to be famous for it's Makkoli and Bi Bim Bap. . .and we tried both.  The Bi Bim Bap was nice but we all agreed that we liked Ulsan's version of Makkoli better. . .Jeonju's Makkoli tasted a little yeasty to us, but hey, it was free, and we made some new friends so that was cool.  He wouldn't let us leave for a long time, I want to say that we were there for at least three hours, but finally we managed to get away and go look for some food or at least pretend like it was time to go to bed.

We walked around a little more on the way back to the hotel, then Albert went to sleep, but Anriette and I were restless and walked around a little more.

What's fascinating about Korea, something that continues to fascinate us, is how amazingly safe it is.  We are always able to totally enjoy ourselves everywhere we go because it is so amazingly safe.  But before it got too late we went back to the hotel to enjoy some fantastic late night Korean programming.

The plan for the next day was a little place called Yeosu, so after we wound down enough to actually get some sleep, we were ready for the next stage of our adventure. . .which is coming soon.  I promise!!  :-)


And here's a slideshow!!   SHOCK!  By BEAST