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.

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!

Corey with her golden pig (a present from us to remind her of the special time we had spent together at the bus depot in Pohang)

Birthday girl!

Birthday cake!

Eoghan and Dan, friends from Gumi-side

Drinking with Marilyn in Whistlers, a Western bar in Pohang.

Matt. Just Matt.

Paul and Matt have a close friendship.

Very close.

I am not sure if you are meant to put sparklers in a hookah but we did.

A typical noraebang room and Eoghan blasting out the hits.

Corey and Adalet are really enojying this one - maybe due to the bottle of soju on the table in front of them.

Garry and Matt, you can always rely on them to fall asleep in noraebang, no matter how loud people are singing!

Purple Rain, Purple Rain!

Andong Adventure!

This weekend we made out first trip to the historic city of Andong where some of our friends live - Kate from South Africa and Katy and Danny from Colorado. After a 2 hour, windy bus journey we arrived at Andong Bus Terminal and went in search of breakfast. The best we could find (and we didn't try very hard to be honest) was Dunkin Donuts. Well, it was the weekend after all so we tucked into donuts and coffee. Corey had a rather dry guy doughnut and was not happy.

It was a dry guy alright, but she did manage to eat most of it.

We met up with Kate and her Korean friend, Dana. Not long after, Matt and Adalet also arrived from Gumi so we headed up to meet with Katy and Danny at their place. Once the bags were dropped off, we had a very jealous nosey around their apartment (large, with a bedroom, dining table, 2 sofas - the list goes on) we headed back downtown for some lunch and to do some shopping. We sampled some Korean street food, mainly tteokbokki (a spicy ricecake stew) and some seafood. The girls went shopping and the boys went to play pool!

Garry, Corey, Paul and Matt eating street food.

Not really sure what you would put in here.........

We met up with some other Andongians and all went for 'shabu shabu'. This was my first time eating shabu shabu so I was slightly nervous but I loved it. Firstly, you cook some beef strips in some spicy red stew in a large pan in the centre of the table and have that with some side dishes. When this is finished, you get cooked rice and dry it up with the remaining sauce to make some super tasty rice. Washed down with some beer and its a damn fine meal.

Meat before its cooked in the big pot in the middle.

Adalet, Corey, Me, Katy, Danny and Paul enjoying shabu shabu.

Cheeky!

Kate, Sheena, Matt and Ramy enjoying their shabu shabu.

Corey, Paul and Matt did not have a bed for the night so we spent some time browsing local hotels to find a cheap bed for them. Now, in Korea, there are normal hotels and love motels. Love motels are generally a lot more modern and have great amenities and are cheap but you will find business cards all around the place advertising Korean girls and it all feels a bit seedy. Apparently, they are used both by young Korean couples who live at home with their parents and business men with their lady friends. Anyway, we found them a 'nice' hotel downtown and headed out for drinks.

Cards posted in the hall at a love motel.

And it was off to a Western bar in the new town area of Andong, complete with Red Indian wooden statues outside and millions of bottle stuck in the roof and walls lit up by lights. You also get a very tall beaker of beer with its own tap at the bottom so you can pour your own pints at your table. Genius.

Bottles for decorating.

Pour your own beer.

However, it was not to be a late night as we had a 5K to run in the morning at 9am. Koreans love to exercise and on any given weekend in Korea, there will be Koreans running 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons and marathons. So, we all gathered at 8.30am at the race track and were surprised by the number of people and preparation they had gone to. You even walked into the track with a live band playing 'Eye of the Tiger'. It doesn't get much better than that.

Arriving to 'Eye of the Tiger'.

A rather excited/hungover bunch who stayed out later than we did.

Obviously the cape assists with running speed but am sure you are disqualified if your feet leave the ground.

Prior to the race, there is an en- mass warm up session and we were the star attractions! A group of Koreans next to us were so impressed that Westerners can run (i.e. we are not all fat and lazy) that they kept getting their photos taken next to us and wanting to join us. Matt was a particular favourite and when to race time, he was dragged off to the front by a crazy Korean lady. And it worked, he came in 9th place in the 5k finishing in 19 minutes! Not bad for someone who was severely hungover. I did not too bad, especially as I had not been running for 6 months, and completed the race in 27 minutes.

Warming up with out Korean ladyfriend in the blue trousers.

Getting into the spirit.

Westerners and Koreans unite for running!

Me and this Korean guy who would not let me run past him and said we had to finish together.

First place! Hhhhmm, maybe not but at least I finished.

After the race there was a huge area of free food, BBQs were set up and people crowded round them tucking into the tasty treats. And our friendly Korean omma (mum) was quick at hand, bring us plates of food and even feeding us with chopsticks. She was amazing!

BBQ food, yum yum yum.

Our Korean mum who would not stop feeding us little morsels of meat. Sheils, you have competition.

The cuteness of Korean kids never fails to make my heart melt. Twins in matching pink fluffy coats being fed noodles on chopsticks by their parents.

Danny and his new friends.

In the afternoon, we explored around Andong fish market and ate some Jimdak (spicy chicken stew with potatoes, carrots and rice noodles) which is now my second favourite Korean food. It was in a cool little upstairs Korean restaurant and we got a little room all to ourselves. There was graffiti written all over the walls, even some in English.

Octopus.

Jimdak restaurant.

Grafiti on the wall in the Jimdak restaurant.

But the good times had to come to an end and we trooped back to the bus station for the long ride home.

NB. Andong was where I saw my first 'dog' restaurant and there appeared to be quite a few in the area surrounding Katy and Danny's flat. This is quite common in Korea, unlike the UK, to have all restaurants/shops/cafes of one kind in the same area. They feel that they are more likely to get business and share business if they are all together. Anyway, eating dog is still practiced in Korea but fewer and fewer people are proud of this and many young people do not like this practice.

Dog and Goat restaurant. Yuck.