It's a long way from Lunan Bay...: The Joller’s Big Birthday Day Out!

So, as you may have noticed from earlier posts, we have become good friend with another couple of Brits (one Welsh, one Liverpudlian), two South Africans and an Amurican since moving to South Korea and this is the first birthday of our little crew (apart from Kate but that was way back on the first day of orientation….). After weeks of stressing over birthday plans, Corey decided she wanted to go to the historical town of Gyeongju to sample some cherry blossom and ride some rental bikes.

The day began with a great cooked breakfast courtesy of Mr Shelton including the newly bought bacon rashers from Costco which started the day off nicely. The four of us from Pohang hopped on a bus to Gyeongju to meet Adalet and Matt, from Gumi, in Gyeongju. Unfortunately Kate had a Korean wedding to attend that day but promised to meet us at night for the real celebrations. After a short journey we arrived and quickly rented bikes from a Korean lady at the bus terminal. Now, most people of a certain age are quite confident on a bicycle or at least don’t scream every time they move forwards. Not out Adalet. She lacks experience on said bicycle and we had a lot of fun watching her try to cycle around a very small, quiet car park. But soon we were off! In completely the wrong direction of course, but we were cycling.

The birthday girl with her birthday pressies from Matt and Adalet.

Me trying to figure out how to wear a large over-the-shoulder bag as a rucksack.

Adalet practising her moves (unfortunately from the photos you cannot hear her screams!)

Our first stop was at Cheomseongdae Observatory which is one of the oldest surviving astronomical observatories in East Asia (not the world as I first proffered). Set in a large flat area we cycled around for a while and partook in our favourite ice cream snacks in Korean – the squishy bag. A genius idea where a nice milky ice cream is in a foil carton and has a little screw lid so you squeeze out the ice cream and then can put the lid back on to prevent spillage.

Cheomseongdae Observatory

Another cutester Korean child with a little butterfly.

Garry and his lady friends.

Anyway, we cycled on up a hill and found a wooded area with lots and lots of cherry blossom trees (this being cherry blossom festival season it was quite busy). It was at this point, while cycling off alone, that my right bike pedal decided to break requiring me to push the bike back up a hill to meet the others. Garry was chivalrous as always and swapped bikes with me! We spent some time posing with the blossoms and then headed off to Anapji Pond.

Corey being happy slapped.

Broken pedal.

Old Korean couple enjoying a picnic and the blossom.

Blossom.

Paul rocking the gay blossom ad campaign.

Group blossom pic.

Loving the blossom.

One of my favourites.

Anapji Pond is an artificial pond which was part of the palace grounds of the Silla Dynasty and it was constructed by order of King Munmu in 674 CE. However, as with most things in Korea, it fell into rack and ruin and was left to rot until 1974 when it was dredged and rebuilt. Also, due to the Korean War and complete devastation of the country numerous times by wars with Japan, many Korean historic sites have been rebuilt so all tend to look a little bit similar. That being said, it was a very beautiful and peaceful place and one of my favourite in Korea so far.

Anapji Pond.

A group of Korean girls who were taking a million timed pictures of themselves around the lake.

Anapji Pond foot photo with customary kimchi sign.

A bit of light exercise at the end of a tough day.

Matt loving the cartwheels but not quite the same style and finesse as the ladies.

We were all a bit hungry by this time to headed back towards the bus station and munched on some hot spicy chicken toasted sandwiches. And then it was back on the bus to Pohang for a short snooze.

Then came the night out. There are a squillion pictures on Facebook documenting our initial loveliness and then the slow but ……….. demise into drunkenness, debauchery and noraebong. Needless to say a good night was had by all and I have added a few pics for those of you who don’t have Facebook.

Happy Birthday Corey, it was a blast!