Birthday Travels and Long Weekends

Well, here I am about to tell you about things that happened at the end of September and we are already quickly nearing Christmas... I better make it worthwhile, it's soon going to be filed under a history lesson! Right, so now I have to start and I am drawing a bit of a blank because it was so long ago... Let's hope I get the facts straight...

The last week of September ended with my schools mid term exams, so for three days I sat at a desk twiddling my thumbs and planning a trip for Alex's birthday for the upcoming Chuseok weekend. Chuseok in Korea is the weekend where Korean families get together and do their last big harvest for the year, but this is not all, it is also a time of festivals, autumn colours, and food. It takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar and is roughly at the time of the autumn equinox. We were very lucky because this year it started on Alex's birthday and went all the way through to the following Wednesday! Anyhow, this isn't a lesson on Korea...

Day 1:

Because we didn't want to waste our time waiting for busses the whole weekend, we decided to hire a car, which I have to say right off the bat, was a great idea! We woke up early on the Saturday morning and made our way around Gangwon-do... Our first stop was the infamous DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) which is the border between North and South Korea... It is a heavily guarded 2km wide strip that nobody claims as their own... While driving, we managed to go through 'The Punch Bowl' where a few famous battles took place during the Korean war, including the famous "Battle of Heartbreak Ridge". The punchbowl got it's name because of the shape of the surrounding hills that form a bowl around the battleground. Just North of here is the Yanggu War Memorial, where we had the opportunity to see a number of large artillery, video's about battles fought and a room with a floor filled with bullet casings. Very interesting stuff, it's actually hard to imagine that it all happened hardly 60 years ago. From there we decided to venture to the "Third Tunnel of Aggression" and the look out points into North Korea, but because of the holiday, we were unable to enter!

Yanggu Memorail Museum

All this driving and war stuffs make a person hungry, so naturally we had to eat. We headed back to Inje and grabbed Dakgalbi (the spicy chicken dish I speak of so often). We then gathered our thoughts, made a playlist for the drive and headed for the coast. On the way we stopped off at one of the many hiking points around the Seoraksan mountain range and wondered through rock faces, along rivers, across wooden bridges, through gaps in the rock and took LOADS of photos. It is truly beautiful! We also got to drink some pure spring water, which is nothing like the bottled crap! It's got a strong iron taste and it's slightly less than delicious...

The Open Road (also on the wrong side)

After becoming one with nature, we returned to our hired 4-wheeled steed and continued to sea level. We hit the Yang Yang coast in the late afternoon and sat in the car watching the waves come in for a few minutes before heading out to get our feet wet. It was a little chilly so we weren't able to swim but we did take a short walk along the beach and down one of the piers... It is a very different coastline. It is built up right to the edge with buildings like Durban, but not with tourist spots and hotels, in fact there are very few of these types of buildings, it is mainly offices, retail stores and restaurants - much the same as everywhere in Korea. Nevertheless, it is still an amazing feeling staring into the openness of a huge body of water. A great end to a lovely day and a much enjoyed birthday for Alex!

Bridge Joining Yanggu and Sokcho (This river covers the previous US military airport)

From here, we headed north to Sokcho and then continued inland back to Inje. The trip from Sokcho is around 40 minutes to our town on a direct road, but the trip from Yang Yang is almost two hours because of all the winding through the mountains! I would just like to add a little note here that Google Maps fails dismally at navigating around Korea, to the extent of not even finding a road where there is a freeway, Apple Maps on the other hand does very well, possibly the only country in the world, I hear...

Day 2 and 3:

This time we decided to head in the opposite direction to Seoul, the great metropolis. It's roughly a 90min trip and the change from countryside to city is drastic from about an hour into the drive. We made our way listening to a mixture of the latest Two Door Cinema Club and Mumford and Sons, both of which are relatively easy to listen to while travelling... On our arrival we were greeted by crazy road systems and even crazier traffic. I would like to note that it was still Chuseok and most people head out of the city to visit family, but if this is true, I am not sure how they fit in again when they return. There are so many people and so many cars, with no parking, no space and a series of never ending one way roads. It's a nightmare.

We spent the next two days driving around Seoul. We went to Myeong Dong and did some clothes shopping, we had a western style dinner in the very energetic Itaewon, and we did a bucket load of shopping at Costco which a massive American department store here in Korea... Let me just say, Seoul is one of those places that it is way too easy to spend a lot of money! We did find Rye bread, muffins, Ceres fruit juice, Johnny Black, cream cheese, butter, parmasan cheese, cheddar cheese and frozen pizza! All of which is non existent in our local stores!

Itaewon. Energy.

On the second night we headed to Braai Republic in Itaewon, which is a South African restaurant who make boerewors, lamb chops, pap and carry Hunters and Savannah, not to mention Ceres fruit juice! It's a blessing from the heart of the African lion, but as expensive as trying to get Nickelback off the market. A double edged knobkerrie really... Anyway, Alex and I left Braai Republic to make our trip home, and I'm not pointing fingers, but my passenger did drink a few Hunters Dry's and was a little worse for wear (not mentioning names)... :)

Day 4:

At this stage, we were both rather knackered. We had the car for one more day, but we didn't really feel like doing anything! So, we drove around Gangwon again but this time a little South. You see, we were planning to head to a friends cabin in the woods where most of the foreigners had been drinking and partying the night before, but with no address and no energy to call someone for it, we decided we would drive around till we found it ourselves... This did not prove successful! We drove around aimlessly for a few hours and headed home. Our energy levels had depleted and we still had one day to relax, do our washing and prepare for the short, two day week that laid ahead...

Magical Landscape in Inje

Overall a great long weekend!