DAY 8: FRI APR 17/09
Early Morning & Choo-choo Train
Woke up really early to meet Agnes at Chungyangi station. Managed to finally reach Chris and chatted for a bit. Called Agnes and realized that I should be at Chungyangi TRAIN station, not subway. We both ran to meet each other and met halfway. Quickly got some snacks at ran like crazy. I really thought I was going to die...b/c I was having a slight asthma attack and of course, I didn't have my puffer with me!
We caught the train and talked. The scenery was nice, but many shots were foiled by window reflections.
The Road Not Taken
We arrived in Chuncheon - it took two hours. I slept a bit on the train...b/c I was really tired. We decided to visit a Buddhist temple. We just missed the ferry at the dam, so we hopped on a special boat for a tourist group ahhahaa. When we arrived, we walked towards where the temple should be. HOLY FREAKIN' H-E-double hockey sticks. THe hill was like a mountain that was steep and curved. The temple wasn't supposed to be so far. Every time we turned a curve, there was still more road and lots of sun..my face was starting to turn red. It was supersteep and I kept thinking...oh my god...I'm running out of water...where is this place?!?!?!? We walked for maybe 1 hour and a half to 1 hour and 45 mins. Finally Agnes stopped a car and asked where the heck this temple was and we came to the realization that we had gone the wrong way!! Well, don't YOU shake your head at me ahahhaha...the signs had been in Korean...ahhaa but it's okay. It was quite an experience. By the time we had realized this, we had LITERALLY walked to another village....over 20km...I really got my exercise. We managed to hitchhike down the mountain...thank god!
Buddhist Temple
We decided to try one more time to reach this temple. When we got there, it was really beautiful. There were many lanterns lining the paths and decorating the temple, b/c Buddha's birthday is approaching. I also saw a really nice statue of princess in a legend holding a snake, I drank ancient water to prolong my life ahhahaa. I also bought a lantern and wrote my family's names and some friends (that I could fit on there) to wish you good lives and health! It was a little expensive, but why not?
Market & Dak GALBI
Agnes is sooooo nice! She originally had another appointment, but she cancelled so we could spend a bit more time in Chuncheon. So we went to something like a farmer's market. Chuncheon is known for it's Dak-Galbi (chicken ribs) and they don' t have it in Toronto. We ate it at a restaurant and it was SUPERAWESOME. They also had water in a jug, but with jade stones. The water was very cool, clean and refreshing!
Grandma's medicine...
When I got back downtown Seoul I called Robin as we were going to meet up. I went to Itaewon to a place called Saigon Grill (i think). I got to see Filipino-Canadian Gus again! It was good times. A lot drinking again, gin and tonic, absolut peach drinks, cranberry and vodka and then yaegermeister (sp?) shots. Yeah...I was pacing myself...for sure... Robin also introduced me to some of his friends. One was Korean-French and the other was Korean-Belgian. There was also Sunny, who was quite nice and had visited the Philippines before. Afterwards we went for sam-gyup-sal (korean bbq bacon) and soju...pace pace pace. We had some really fun times and conversations and they made sure to put me in a cab back to the guest house. It was really nice to see them again!
One more full day in Seoul and then back to Canada~
-Sam
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