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! ;)