Coastline & More



It's not the food that makes him nervous
... it's the chopsticks.

Our weekend plans changed abruptly the moment Mia Sorella's alarm went off on Saturday morning. We'd been out a little too late the night before and our original plans -- which involved a four-hour bus ride -- held virtually no appeal. Instead, we slept for a few more hours and then hit the markets.

Now, raise your hand if you've been to a market in any Asian country.

It's something else, isn't it?

There were two versions in Seoul that we checked out. One was the crowded street market we were expecting, and it was impressive. The second type was, in essence, the tallest, most crowded mall I've ever set foot in. Not necessarily people-crowded (we were there near closing) but absolutely packed with stuff for sale, all sold by enthusiastic women who spoke just enough English to sell us anything.

Well, we didn't buy ginseng, but it looked cool...

And of course, somewhere in there was lunch.

This was, after all, a food tour of Korea. Our recovery stew was found in the Korean equivalent of a corner diner and it was pretty much fantastic.

After that, it was time to wander. We managed to find a random festival of some kind in front of City Hall and made our way to the Stream, a fun spot in the middle (ish ... sort of) of the city that was hosting a lantern festival. We managed to appear right before the lanterns were lit.

Somewhere in there, we also found a "Texas"-themed bar ... with Minnesota license plates inside. And New York. And all sorts of random Americana.

It was pretty fun, actually.

We wandered toward Gyeongbokgung again, finding ourselves at the front gates before eventually admitting exhaustion and heading back toward Mia Sorella's apartment. After all, that delayed road trip was happening the next day.



They touched the gate!



That night, Mia Sorella had a late and furious text messaging session with her boyfriend (who I'll just call Jay for simplicity's sake) ... and suddenly our plans the next day were sealed. There would be no four-hour bus ride: we would rent a car and Jay would drive.

He was my hero.

And so it was that we were up rather early the next day and walking to a car rental place just a couple blocks from the apartment. It was, of course, the only day it would rain.

Didn't make it less beautiful, though.

Approximately 130 miles (that's roughly 210 kilometers, for those of you keeping track) straight east of Mia Sorella's apartment and on the East Sea lies the little fishing village of Samcheok. As villages go, it's nothing particularly special. It does, however, have a strange claim to fame in Haesindang Park.

The park cropped up following a certain legend. There are a few different versions of the story, but I'll give you the one from the official South Korea visitors' website:

Legend of Aebawi and Haesindang – There once lived a young maid who was engaged. One day, the maid took her husband’s boat out to sea to harvest seaweed. Her husband dropped her off at a rock that was at a distance from the beach. After promising to pick her up later, he returned to the beach to do his work. Later, the weather changed, and brought with it strong winds and pummeling waves. The man couldn’t rescue his wife and she ultimately drowned. Since then, the village people caught no fish and some said that it was because of the dead maid. To soothe the spirit of the dead maid, the village people made several wooden carvings and held religious ceremonies on her behalf. After a while, the fish slowly returned and the villagers were able to live comfortably again. The place where the maid died was named Aebawi Rock and the building where the religious ceremony is held twice a year was named Haesindang. The ceremony is still honored today as a traditional folk event.

Poor Haesindang.

So here's the thing: I'm not posting pictures of the park. Truth be told, I wasn't even going to mention it because of that family-friendly thing, but completeness won out. And I cannot be held responsible for what you might find if you look it up. Consider yourself warned.

It was, however, a worthwhile, entertaining trip. The coast was beautiful and it was great to get out of Seoul for a day and see some of the rest of Korea. The drive through the mountains (I hadn't realized the whole country was made of them) was fantastic and the food was ... well, fun, albeit accidentally vegetarian. We had to balance that one for the guys by going out for chicken and beer when we got back to the city.

And the upside to the rain and otherwise inclement weather was that the sea was just that much more fun.