The last two weekends I have been focusing on a little relaxing and resting the mind. The weather has been great and I have enjoyed to outdoors and the indoors equally. Two weeks ago, A friend came to visit, and we ate good food, had some good beer and spent the day relaxing and watching some nice nerdy fantasy movies. Not much to say about that weekend, other then it was nice to do nothing and have no where I needed to be. Very relaxing.
Last weekend I went on another weekend trip to
Upo Wetland and
Daegaya Kingdom Festival. Rather then deal with trying to figure out the iffy bus schedule to a tiny bus stop it podunk no where, I took the one am bus to Seoul, then grabbed some coffee and charged my phone in the bus terminal for a few hours until I went to meet up with the bus. Once I got on the bus, I noticed a very strange thing.... All of the other people on the bus were female. Normally, this is something that would freak me out. I need a guy around to run to when the females loose heir heads and go all backstabby crazy. But I have found that, on these trips at least, I enjoy hanging out with females on the weekends. It is a chance to have a little female time and get a bit girly without the guys complaining about having to watch chick flicks. There ended up being about 20 or us ladies on this trip and three guys (the bus driver, one of the guides, and one other guy who didn't seem to want to talk to any of us)
We bused down to the wetland and made a few stops to pick up the last people. Once we got to Upo we rented bikes and then spent the next four hours biking and hiking around the area in the beautiful 70 degree weather. We took a lot of pictures and did a lot of talking about a lot of random stuff. We also stopped in at the store for some ice cream and discovered a warren of cute bunnies eating potatoes in a really awesome enclosure. They told us we would see lots of wildlife while we were there, but besides the bunnies, I saw a few birds and nothing else. I really wanted to see an otter.
After the wetland, we loaded back on the bus and napped for the hour it took to get to the little town we were staying in for the night. We ended up having a few rooms we could choose from to sleep in in our very own building in the town. We laid out the blankets and partnered off two to a blanket for the night. Then we explored the cute little village we were staying in with it's traditional homes and fun games. After exploring a bit, we went to the town hall and had a pretty good dinner. However, I don't like cooked fish, I steered clear of the whole cooked fish. This would have meant spending the rest of the night hungry and grumpy, if it weren't for the secnd dinner of samgyupsal the group had planned for us before the bonfire that night. I have never eater so much samgyupsal in my life. It was wonderful and yummy, and toasty from the grill. I don't think we actually ended up finishing it, there was so much. We ate our fill and then headed over to the bonfire pit and stayed warm by the fire while we had some drinks and talked. About midnight we went off to bed and slept on a heated floor, my least favorite thing in korea.
In the morning, we woke bright and early and went down to the river to play on some rafts that where
floating around and then headed back to the house for a quick breakfast and to get packed up to leave. We sleepily got on the bus and headed to the festival grounds. Once we arrived, we were informed that there would be a group of men photographing and filming us while we were there. It was a little odd, they told us where to go and had us pose for all these pictures, by the end I was feeling like a movie star and couldn't get Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" out of my head. There was a lot to see and do at the festival. I made an iron print, a toy bow, threw a pot on the wheel (which was the first time in years and was amazing) we also got to dress up like a dead person and get shut in a coffin so we could experience what a funeral would be like. There was a ton of food and crafts for the little kids (which we gladly partook in as well, including the stick on tattoos) and I made a t-shirt that says the festival name in korean and has an outline of Charlie Chaplin as well, random and beautiful at the same time. I also bought soe new purses because I have been looking for a new small purse and korean purses just ain't my style.
I rushed to the bus carrying my still wet painted t-shirt and we made our way to the strawberry fields to pick some fresh, organic strawberries that were pretty much heaven on earth. We were encouraged to eat as many as we could before filling our plastic containers. They were warm and juicy and delicious and after going through the field I was almost sure I had overdosed on strawberries. At this point another girl and I were shuffled off to the photographers car to hitch rides to the nearest bus stop because it made no sense to drop us off with the giant bus. We figured out our tickets, though my didn't even have a departure time, and said our goodbyes. I got home, dropped my shit, and passed out for the next 13 hours. It was a great time, and I learned a lot. Always a good combo. This weekend, plans have changed, but it is all good. I am actually looking forward to weekend at home with nothing to do. A friend is visiting, we are going shopping, getting food, and just nothing. Sunday is cleaning day. This is actually feeling like a good weekend to come. Peace out and love long folks!
We bused down to the wetland and made a few stops to pick up the last people. Once we got to Upo we rented bikes and then spent the next four hours biking and hiking around the area in the beautiful 70 degree weather. We took a lot of pictures and did a lot of talking about a lot of random stuff. We also stopped in at the store for some ice cream and discovered a warren of cute bunnies eating potatoes in a really awesome enclosure. They told us we would see lots of wildlife while we were there, but besides the bunnies, I saw a few birds and nothing else. I really wanted to see an otter.
