Meeting with Friends - Suwon Fortress

So when we left off, I was at the park in front of one of the bigger gates of the fortress.  I had finally found the part of the fortress that had the archery which T had mentioned she'd be interested in doing.  At this point, I figured that there was no chance of finding them so I decided to pop into a cafe above the archery area and have a latte.  Then I'd wander around the inside of another part of the fortress, and then wander toward the bus stop to see if the 62-1 left from there.

So here is the park, the gates you can see and the tunnel that lets traffic go under the wall.  There were a ton of people out enjoying the beautiful day.

The view across the street - I assume there are sometimes archery competitions here.

 The archers!  Apparently they teach you how to shoot a bow and arrow in the traditional Korean style... which seemed a lot like every other style of archery I've ever seen.

 The targets - not too far away, really.

 The inside of the fortress - I didn't get much closer... it's starting to seem like if I've seen one pagoda I've seen them all.

 I liked this view.

 From the outside on the other side of the archery area.  Now at this point, I was headed back toward the bus stop that you can't see because it's behind me.  On my way, I heard 'Amanda!'  I looked around, and there was T, E, and someone I hadn't met yet sitting on the steps outside of the bathrooms!  Somehow, by providence or serendipity, or whatever, we found each other!  I was able to spend the rest of the day with the people from training that I had planned to meet!

 They were waiting to take pictures with this rock - apparently it's a popular photo site.  So here's T with her fun pose.

 And here are T and I - the steps behind my head are where I found them, the building you see to the right of the photo is the coffee shop where I got a very good vanilla latte.

 E taking her pictures next to the rock.  E and I were roomies during training - she was super understanding of the fact that I didn't have an alarm clock and was nice enough to get me up every morning.  She and I also enjoyed chatting about various things, though we are in different programs.  She's super sweet and for sure is Canadian - she's so NICE!

So we decided to go ahead and go up in the balloon that we had all seen all day.  According to T, it was 18000 won (less than $20) so we figured 'what the heck.'  We walked over to the balloon area, found the machine that gave us our tickets, and went to the tent to wait for our #'s to be called.  While we were waiting, E and I got some needed time to catch up.  We had talked on the way to the balloon about our mutual love of books and I told her that any time she wanted to go to Itaewon, I could show her how to get to the bookstore.  She thanked me and said something that I love - "I want to find X book.  I don't want that part of me to die when I'm here because it's not being fed."  That is something to think about - what parts of me do I want to make sure to feed so that they don't die?  And what parts can I starve so they do die and I become a better person?  A thought.

 Here are P and T before take-off.  We ended up having to go in 2 different groups, which really seemed to work out well.  As you can see, you can walk around the 'basket' part of the balloon, there is a net, and the inside is actually where the tether rope is.  It wasn't a hot air balloon, but it was a lot of fun.  You go up 100m and then come back down, the whole thing takes about 15 mins.

 MY turn!  Here's what the balloon looked like when we were on the ground - it never occurred to me to be worried about any of the cables breaking... though it apparently occurred to others. ;)

 I'm in a balloon!  As you can see, it was a bit windy up there... trying to get my hair to cooperate for pix was NOT happening in some cases.

 The view was pretty awesome - I love the juxtaposition of the modern city surrounding the ancient walls.

 The mountains in the background make for some good pix, too.

 Look how small everyone seems!  This is where we just were - the coffee shop, archery area, restrooms, bus stop, and part of the fortress.

 E and I looking fly (couldn't resist, pun intended, not sorry).

 It was so cool, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

 As I mentioned about the hair... had to post this one to prove the point.

 The clouds moved in, but people still were flying kites!

At this point we decided to head back to the big square that I was at earlier.  The other ladies didn't really get a chance to look around there, so we figured what the heck.  When we were there, there was a stage set up, a choir of people in traditional Korean outfits (the ladies were in the hanboks that you have seen on an earlier post), and so many drums!

 We just had to watch!  They split into 2 groups, one staying in the square and performing, the other going down a street.  As we watched, the two groups did come back together.

 It was so interesting, no clue what they were performing/practicing for, but it was so nice to be present for something that was obviously cultural for South Korea.

 And the hats!  So you see the white ribbons there - those are attached to little rods that are attached to the ladies' hats!  They swing their heads and the ribbons go all around.  It looks so cool!

 Here's a slightly better picture of them.

 I loved this lady - she had this huge smile on her face each time that I saw her and when she knew that I was taking a picture, she stopped and posed for me.  You know how sometimes you see someone and just know that they are a beautiful soul?  Well, I encountered one in her that day.  She was banging on her little drum-thingy and having a grand old time. 

 So then we wandered over to the fortress and more pix were taken.  I will refrain from sharing them because you've already seen that part of the fortress.  Then we wandered to the other part of the square where they had all these parade floats.  This one was a phoenix who went up and down and whose wings also went up and down - it was soo cool.

 And a battle ship, complete with smoke and FIRE!

 And the obligatory dragon - we think that it was also meant to have fire, but the igniting mechanism wasn't working.  As you can tell, the head and eyes moved, as did the arms, actually.  I personally loved the tennis balls on the claws - don't want the dragon stabbing someone!

And this was the best picture I got of the dragon - I wanted the eye to be totally open as the steam was coming out.   You can't tell, but my camera was dying at this point which is why there is no video to accompany the blog.  Oops, but you can image how it went, right?

So these pix are a bit out of sequence.  On our way to the square, we had to cross over Chicken Street - I had to take a picture of this.  There were so many fried chicken places.  They were all super popular, too, because at least 2 of the ones we walked by had lines literally out the door.

We found this one and the wait wasn't awful, so we decided to stay and have dinner. 

As we were waiting, they brought us our drinks (yay beer and chicken), some snackies (I still don't know what they are, they're pretty bland but still pretty good), the pickled radishes that I've told you about before, a garlic dipping sauce (the red one) a mix of salt and pepper (they don't use shakers here) and a really good horseradish-mustard dipping sauce.  They felt really bad that it was taking so long for us to eat, so they also gave us a free dish of... fried chicken gizzards.  They weren't too bad - a little crunchy and chewy at the same time.  (I HAD to try them - I'll try anything once, remember.)

Then our chicken came out.  We had 2 kinds of chicken, this one is the original... (you can see the chicken gizzards in the corner of this pic)

And this one was the soy sauce spicy kind.  And it was spicy.  A note - when you go for fried chicken in South Korea, that's ALL you go for.  Chicken and beer, with whatever sides they serve.  In certain places you can maybe get a salad or appetizer, or some kind of other side dish but for the most part if a place advertises 'chicken and beer' that's what you're gonna get.  There were 4 of us, and the waiter said that we should get 2 chickens... there were 3 pieces left over.  The waiter won.  A note on the forks - each person gets 2 forks when having chicken here.  The Koreans know how to use them to basically shred the meat off of the bones and not get their hands dirty.  We all dug in with our hands.

It was here that E asked me an interesting question - did I prefer traveling as a tourist or actually working in one place so that I can get to know it better.  I told her the jury was still out.  On the one hand, being a tourist is easy.  You have your bank account, temporary phone plan to cover international stuff, what is in your luggage comes with you all the time, no Visa necessary, you book and go.  Here was much more difficult just because of the Visa process, getting my ARC, then my bank card, still haven't sorted the phone situation, wifi-less for a month, etc.  So from a purely convenience standpoint - tourist, hands down.  In a few months I'll check back in with you to let you know how I feel about actually getting to know the culture and people better. 

The fortress is lit up at night and it's beautiful.  This is the Jerkface gate again - P and E took a taxi back to their places, T and I waited for the bus.  And waited.  And waited.  I'm guessing the parade and such caused a bit of a back-up and the buses weren't running for a while.  Eventually one came... and was promptly filled up.  Then another came, and we were going to get on that one no matter WHAT!  So she and I both took the 62-1 to our respective stops (hers much closer than mine) and I got home sometime around 10:30-ish.  It was then that I was able to check all my FB messages from her asking where I was.  Oops.  I've GOT to sort out my phone... you know... after Jeju.

So that was my long, glorious Saturday of hiking, good convo, good chicken, and a good ride home.  The one down side was that my digestive system didn't appreciate just getting fried chicken... sigh... message received.  Sunday was a chill day - I did laundry, watched the first 2 Avengers movies (getting ready for Endgame in a couple weeks, you know, once all the crazy dies down a bit), went to Mass, cleaned the apt a bit, enjoyed a sammich, just a real chill day.

So now it's back to work, but I feel so revitalized for it.  I'm reminded why I'm here in the first place and that is a wonderful feeling.  I'm grounded again, and I feel like me.  It's a beautiful thing.  :)  This coming weekend is Jeju weekend.  Yay for seeing a bit more of South Korea!

My Hike - Suwon Fortress

So this last week, my friend T from training asked if I'd like to meet her at Suwon Fortress.  So I googled how to get there - take the 62-1 bus and get off at Janganmun Gate.  According to the Google, I should recognize the gate when I see it.  I should also get there in about 45 mins.  So, I believed the almighty Google... to my shame.  LOL.  So it turns out that when Google says 45 mins, they mean in a perfect world it would be 45 mins.  I got on the bus, right, and figured OK, on the bus at about 10:05, I'll start looking for my stop at about 10:35 just to be sure that I don't miss it.  About halfway to Suwon I realize that I didn't bring my computer (so heavy, carrying Little Buddy all day) and we never really said where we were going to meet.  Well, too late now so let's see what happens!  So, at about 10:50 I jump off to check the signs because I'm not seeing anything that looks like a fortress.  The signs for the bus are in both Korean and English (score!).  And I check to see that I am... ELEVEN stops away!  UGH!  At this point, I'm gonna be late!!  Again, oh well, they have to expect that, right?  So I'm counting bus stops and then I see something that for me will forever be known as the Jerkface Gate.  It looked like a gate to the fortress in the middle of the road - so I jump out, check the sign, NOPE.  Instead of looking like a tourist and jumping back on the bus I just got off of, I figured it was a nice day, so I'll walk.  I start walking along the way that I saw the bus leave.

 The Jerkface gate - and the bus that I had just gotten off of.

 The bell - pretty cool.  And across the street from the bell I saw -

 This - there was also a TON of people there, so I figured if we were going to meet anywhere, it would probably be here, right?  I mean, lots of people, what looked like a fortress gate, a martial arts demonstration, this had to be it.  So I wandered up to the martial arts demonstration, looking for T.

 This was really pretty cool to watch.

That bamboo and the straw never stood a CHANCE!

After the demonstration, the crowd started to break up and I realized... T was no where to be found.  So I wandered around a bit more, found an Information booth and grabbed a map (yep, I am my father's daughter).  Then I decided, what the heck - I'm late, I have no clue where they could be, why not just wander around on my own and if we're meant to find each other, we will.  I also had a moment wondering what kinds of Facebook messages I was going to come home to.  So I wandered - now this was the temporary palace that the king used when he visited Suwon - the architecture is much the same as the ones that you've already seen in Seoul, so I'm not going to post a ton of those pix - I do want to show you some things that were different in this palace.  For example, they have mannequins in this palace showing what day-to-day life could have been like.

 I honestly found them to be kinda creepy.

The part of the palace where the king would have seen visitors and suchlike.

 I like this pic, so I'm including it.  Not sure what the big column was all about, but as you can see, it was a BEAUTIFUL day.

I never did figure out what this turtle thing is.

Another artsy pic that I like.  At this point, I had been all around the palace, so I decided to go up the hill behind the palace that had a bunch of trails and such.

 This is my happy pre-hike look.  Such a nice day I took my flannel off... but I was glad to have it later when the clouds returned and reminded us that it's only Spring, not Summer.

 The first of MANY stairs that day.

 I like this pic because I feel like it encapsulates Korea - they have a lot of nature, and hold on to their history while embracing technology.

 The trees were nice and shady.

 This is a beacon tower - the first of many that I saw throughout the day and the first time that I thought 'The beacons are lit!  Gondor calls for aid!"  Notice I said the FIRST time - that went thru my head all darn day!  Not sure what the deal is with the fish...

 I like how the trees framed this one.

 I came back down that hill because there was a wall that I couldn't get thru, so back down I went to continue my wandering.

I hope that sign said 'watch your head' because that was a LOW doorway.  The first of a few that I found, as a matter of fact.  Oh also, something I forgot to mention - everything was free.  There was no fee to go inside the palace, which was weird because everything online told me that there was.  Turns out, Suwon is having some kind of promotion to get more people to come!  So you know, if you're around in the next couple of weekends, go take advantage of it!

 More flowers - it was such a great Spring day!

 And I found TULIPS!  This seemed to be an area with a bunch of shops, but the flowers and the buildings were so pretty I had to stop to take a pic...

 I mean, so nice, right?!

 I even had to take a selfie!

 These were definitely not old buildings, but I thought they were pretty fun to see.

 So here is the Janganmun Gate that I was supposed to have gotten off the bus at and where my friends had probably actually met up.  At this point it was well after our 11:00 meeting time, so I figured the chances of finding them were pretty slim.  So up the stairs I went to check out this gate.

 And look what I found!  A sign that says 'Watch your head' - cuz as you can see, if I don't, I'll full-on hit my FACE!

 Mo, this place was BUILT for taunting!  I missed people so bad here because I wanted to call someone an 'English bed-wetting type' but was afraid it might be taken the wrong way.  Assuming an English speaker was nearby who is not fluent in Monte Python.

 The view of the park from the wall.  I walked along the path at the top of the wall to the fortress for quite some time, lemme tell ya.

 Another gate that I came upon.

 Another view of the park - it was at this point that I started getting SUPER park envy.  I mean, Dongtan's Central Park is OK but it was nothing like THIS!  And the trees still had flowers and I smelled some lilacs, it was just lovely.

 Then the stairs - these were about the last of the stairs that I had to climb to get to the top (and I HAD to get to the top).  Thanks to my brother-in-law, I now know how to take a picture so that you can really APPRECIATE the steepness of the stairs.  This is where I paused to look down...

 And also look up at what remained.  I am not ashamed to tell you that I was breathing pretty hard by this point!

 At the top this was the first pic I took - I like it.

 The tower on the top of the mountain (hill, I guess technically, but mountain by Korean (and flatlander) standards.

 The view of where I had just been - the palace and the square in front of the palace.  I'm pretty sure that's a Catholic church across the street, BTW and I'll be looking into if they have English Mass times.

 And then I saw this - the Metapolis of Dongtan.  It didn't quite work, but I did think 'I can see my house from here!'

 Another well-framed shot, this time of where I had walked.

 Korea loves these kinds of signs.  This is a designated 'photo zone,' by the way.

 I was wondering what denomination all these churches were - the big one?  I'm pretty sure it's Baptist based on my Googling (though I no longer trust almighty Google in all things).

 The trail continues.

 Looking fresh and happy at the top!  Time to keep on keepin' on.

 I was fascinated by this balloon - who would have guessed that I'd be going up in it in a few hours!

 This was a 'secret' entrance for food and supplies.  There were apparently a lot of these in the fortress.

 Just another view of the tower I had just left.

 Apparently UNESCO likes stones.

 This was the part that really felt like a fortress to me - wall on both sides, small gate, guard house on top - this felt really fortress-ey.

 And this is my favorite pic of me in the fortress-ey part.  I think people were laughing at me, but let them laugh!  I was high on endorphins and I liked my look that day.

 Nature vs the city...

 I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland coming back down the hill - 'you can learn a lot of things from the flowers.'  It was around here that I started feeling really like me again.  Hiking is great therapy and I was loving the quiet and solitude.

 More of the path and flowers.

 More stairs - these ones I did not climb because I figured I'd already been on the top of the hill, I didn't need to climb back up.

 On the way down, I saw a sign for a bronze statue of King Jeongjo the Great.  I had to stop, of course.  It was pretty cool.

 I also found lilacs!!  Look what blooms in the US and in Korea!  It made me happy and took me back to WY and KS!

 I had to take a pic of the windmills because of Ana - I found what I'm getting you, my friend!

 This was a walkway that was all tile... not surprisingly it had a sign that said 'slippery.'

 Continuing my hike along the wall, here's the spillway which was another part of the park, by the way.  Seriously, the parks and walking areas in Suwon are SO NICE.

Another view of the insane Baptist church. Yes, I judged them for their neon sign.  Sigh, I must get better about not judging.

 Another watch tower - these are fun.  So you see the ladies sitting on the top there, you have to take off your shoes before you step onto the little platform before you climb the stairs to sit there.  I thought it was weird when I came up to this and saw the shoes, but apparently it's a thing even when outdoors.  Who knew?  I've gotten pretty used to taking my shoes off when I get home.  It's kinda nice, really.

At this point I was getting kind of tired, but it was also becoming a game.  'How far do I want/can I go?'  I could turn around or I could keep going.  I had the thought that T mentioned wanting to do the archery.  I hadn't found where they do archery yet, so I thought I'd at least keep going until I found that.  Then I could get some kind of coffee drink and head back to Dongtan.  At least I could say that I got one helluva workout in, I had a good day even if I didn't find my friends, and I could make dinner at home - the whole day would just cost the bus fair.  So I found the other end of the fortress and I saw this last gate.

The park had a ton of families out flying kites and things.  As I mentioned, it was a beautiful day so there were a lot of people out.  Now I feel like this is getting super long and this is about the end of my solo day as it is, so I'll leave off here and pick it up again later this week to show you the rest of the pix and tell you how it came about that I got to take a balloon ride (I know it's not a hot air balloon, but it was still awesome/fun).

Thinking back on it, this was probably exactly what I needed.  Just a good day of solo exploration and a 3 hour hike around a mix of city and nature.  I was laughing at myself for not bringing my laptop and not arranging a specific meeting place with T, but I also figured the last thing they would do would be to sit around and wait for me.  The important things was that we all have a good time, and I had certainly done that!  And yes, I stretched like crazy when I got home that night! ;)