Yes, yes there are. And there's a nice spot to see them in Gangneung, a city on the coast about 50 minutes bus ride away. With this in mind, Molly the Shitzu, Shannon and I set off to travel there to have a look.
Things got off to an average start when we got to the bus station and I remembered that the delicious packed lunch of roast dinner sandwiches and pineapple rings we had made was still sitting by the door in Shannon's flat. They then got worse when Molly started to retch about five minutes into the bus journey. She was sat on a towel while Shannon and I crossed everything in the hope that she wasn't sick. This obviously worked, as fifteen minutes later she went quiet and fell asleep.
Could this be the new Coke ad?
Also, check out the unusual (at least outside Korea) 250ml can.
On the way in to Gangneung we saw plenty of cherry blossoms out on trees dotted around the city. Spring was finally coming to Gangwon and it was nice to be out doing stuff. After a quick trip to MacDonalds-euh (to give it the Korean pronunciation) owing to forgotten lunches and making a new friend (Hi Kwang-ki!) who very kindly put us on the right bus, we headed off for Gyeongpo beach. Sadly, when we got there, not many of the cherry blossoms were actually out. Seemingly the pollution of downtown Gangneung is a more encouraging atmosphere for the flowers. Still, we got off at Gyeongpo-dae and went for a look around.
Gyeongpo-dae. My co-teacher says that this is a fort, not a temple. I'm not convinced. There's a bloody great statue of someone peaceful looking in the grounds, and it doesn't look too defensible. Mind you, the Koreans seem to have a bit of a history of being conquered. Maybe this is why.
Me, a shitzu and an idiotic grin.
Creepy Polaroid man, who offered to take a photo of my "wipe-euh" and I for 5 dollars. We politely declined / ran away.
Gyeongpo Lake through cherry blossoms.
The bloody great statue I was telling you about, and me, and Molly.
There were plenty of people out and about and most of them seemed to be full of the joys of spring. Out in this part of Korea foreigners are still a bit of a novelty (Gangwon-do is the most rural of all the Korean provinces) and to see two foreigners together, and with a dog, was absolutely mind blowing for a lot of them. As we walked around the lake to the beach, we said hi to numerous children, adults and other dogs; we were given a can of cider (the American non-acoholic kind) by some dancing old ladies and disconcertingly assumed to be married by pretty much everyone we met. The concept of people of the opposite sex being friends and doing stuff together seems to be a little strange here. This led to some rather awkward photos, as it seemed easier to let them continue to labour under a false assumption than try to explain that we were just friends in Konglish.
At least there were fake cherry blossoms.
And some real ones!
A Korean couple took this one. They told me I was handsome. This happens about once a fortnight too. I love Korea.
After that, we walked down the beach for a coffee and a game of Rummikub (I won for once), talked to more children and the waitress at the coffee shop, then took a promising looking bus that actually took us right back to the terminal, and headed home. We finished the day back at Shannon's flat eating the sandwiches I'd left there - so at least they didn't go to waste. All in all a pretty good day.
Lunch?
The Tera Rosa coffee shop. If you're in Gyeongpo, you should go here. The staff are nice, the coffee is good and the building itself is awesome. It's down the far end of the beach if you're interested.
More soon...
A
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