So the day started at 7:15 am. A, her mom, and I met up at a CU and walked to the bus. Took the bus to the subway station and then waited for the train to come. And waited. And waited. And waited. With 20 mins until we were supposed to be picked up, we decided to take a taxi instead. We took the taxi to the subway stop (and got a call in the cab that the bus was running behind). We ended up talking with some of the other people who were obviously also waiting to be picked up. On that note, it's fun watching Korean people looking at big groups of foreigners. Sometimes I think they want to take our pictures, but they never actually do. Anyway, the bus came, and our little group was complete (T got picked up at another stop). And on we went to Boryeong. We pulled up in this area that had a bunch of buses, a bathroom trailer, some tent-pagodas, and people. There were stone steps that led down to the mud flats. So we went to the info tent to get our number for the marathon and also to get our socks. They gave us socks for the mud flats because of 'rocks and things.'
The starting point of the marathon. We didn't have to do it, but we had to at least start it. LOL.
The socks on my feets - I am glad that we had them, because it was pretty weird feeling stuff in the mud.
A and her mom with their socks, waiting for the festivities to start. The mayor of Boryeong stopped by to welcome us and tell us that this is the largest natural mud flat in the world. We waited a while before being able to get on the mud flat... though some of the people in our group took it upon themselves to go out prematurely. Sometimes I'm embarrassed when people around me feed into the 'ignorant American' stereotype. When it was time for us to actually get in the mud, we went!
T in the mud! We sank right up to our ankles right away.
A in the mud! LOL - it was kind of hard to walk and the mud sucked at your feets! As a point of interest, A is still complaining that her legs hurt. Personally mine feel like they got a workout this weekend, but they're also resigned to it. ;)
My foot in the mud. It sank pretty far, and you can see the tracks where someone else stepped before me. Eventually I aimed for those parts, but then the water splashes up and gets ya! Not that we were trying to stay clean, you know... it was a MUD fest.
The first ones to give up on the marathon, making mud angels.
Fallen soldiers - someone lost their socks.
The day was cloudy because there was a typhoon hitting Jeju island at the time. The most we got was some rain, which wasn't a big deal because we were already muddy.
Mr just sittin' in the mud. This was before the crab pinched my butt! LOL - I decided to cover my legs and eventually my arms in the mud. It was so fun!
But not as fun as these guys. Turns out, I met a couple of them... toward the end of the day I showed them this pic. This one is my favorite from the weekend, hands down! In fact, apparently A needs to send this one to one of the dudes... LOL.
My legs are all muddy!
They opened the slide, which I was going to enjoy, until the line got way too long. They tried to hose you off a bit before you got on, otherwise I think people wouldn't slide so well.
The mud wrestling was fun, too. I did not partake, but I did watch and laugh. I think when I go again, I'll wear shorts instead of my swimsuit bottoms.
No idea who these guys are, but again, fun to get pics like this. I don't think I met these ones, but you never know with these things.
Me after getting my shower and rinsing all the mud off. Does my skin glow? I feel like it's glowing. I did get a lot of sun, but didn't burn, which was nice.
Our room at the hotel - that's right, no beds. We got the mats, the blankets, and the pillows. There was also no wifi in the room. It was kind of weird being in Korea and not having wifi, but also kind of nice. There was a GS-25 across the street from us, so we knew where to get drinks and food if we wanted. We did want real food, however, and we were RIGHT by the ocean, so we thought sea food would be good for lunch.
Our little kitchen area, with a table in case we decided to cook. Oh, and also the water heater either didn't work or was never turned on. It was a night of cold showers for all. I have to tell you, I was looking forward to getting home and having a proper shower.
The boardwalk. There were so many places and it smelled SO GOOD! There were a lot of places that were grilling clams.
The beach. We didn't get in because according to T and A, the water was FREEZING. Which is weird cuz last time we went to the beach it was warm. I blame the typhoon.
A cool statue welcoming people to the beach.
The clams - these were unlimited. They cooked them at their table and the clams, I think, were alive until they were cooked. It was interesting to watch, and as I mentioned, they smelled AMAZING.
My seafood soup. There was a whole shrimp (which you can see) and clams and octopus tentacles. I thought there was going to be abalone, too, but I didn't find one. It was kind of bland until I put a piece of kimchi in it. The noodles were good, and I can finally say that I'm better at eating noodles with chop sticks. (Mom, you would have been in sea food HEAVEN here.)
More of the beach. I want to jet ski some day.
There was a stage and everything. We didn't do much with the actual music part. Turns out that the people T wanted to see will be there on THIS Saturday, not LAST Saturday.
Another one of the stages, this one closer to the mud part of the mud fest.
They had a place where you could cover yourself in bud if you wanted, without having to go into the mud fest part you see behind me. We thought it'd be nice to get some of those good-for-your-skin minerals. Also please disregard the sagginess of my suit... I've lost some weight since I bought it and haven't felt like going shopping for a new one yet.
This guy was interesting - he was dancing along to the music, and combing his hair and beard with the rake. I feel like you can find the video on YouTube.
There were also these guys performing music. It amazes me sometimes how people outside the US are fascinated by Native Americans. I tell people I grew up next to a reservation and they get all kinds of excited. Though I have had to tell a couple people not to refer to the race as 'Red Indians.' Apparently that's still a thing in other parts of the world.
I bought a new shirt! You can kind of tell here that I'm a bit pink from the day's outing. Good news is that it didn't last long and I've recently invested in a sun stick for my face.
Korean drummers.
There was a really cute park and I felt the need to get some pix.
Who doesn't want to be in a conch shell?! T took a pic of me, but I slid down the thing!
A and her mom having a cute moment while we waited for the rain to let up a bit.
Calling my Steubie Alumns! GAZEBO TIME! I was informed that this is a pagoda. I don't care, it was a smoking gazebo and it took me back to college days and it made me happy.
Dinner. We decided to go for pork belly cuz the rest was too darn expensive. You're also seeing kimchi, black beans, some kind of kelp soup, corn, and the grey stuff at the top of the pic are snails. I liked the snails - which kind of freaks me out. But they were marinaded in something and weren't chewy like the octopus was. A tried one, but didn't like it. So I ate the snails.
Snail, pork, and kimchi. I had to get a pic of the actual meat of the snail... I swear, it didn't taste bad, no matter what A says!
After dinner we wandered some more. T checked out the rap artist on the beach stage, but none of us were really feeling the music.
I like this sign, too. It's a cute beach area, and I think I'd like to go back without the festival to just experience it as the beach town it is.
I loved this pic - T and A look like they're about to drop the best album of 2020!
After this, we headed back to the room and went to the GS-25 to continue to drink. That's right, we were having beers and soju as we wandered around the town. It's kind of nice to be able to wander around with a beer in hand. We met up with some people that we'd traveled down with and hung out with them for a while. We ended up playing a card game called Mafia where I got killed a lot. LOL. Then we went home for sleeps.
Lunch the next day was a pork cutlet. I was super hungry, so I had cut it up before I remembered to get a pic of it. It was super yummy.
One of the tanks with the octopus in it. Talk about fresh seafood, that's all I can say!
Another pic of the beach.
I kinda wish it had been warmer so that I could have tried to play on that thing.
I like that dude's shirt... can you guess which one?!?
Me chillin' by the beach, waiting for the bus to be ready to take me to the winery. It wasn't super sunny, but it was enough that I was squinting, so had to go for the sunnies. Took the broken ones, just in case something happened on the mud flat.
It was a little hazy or rainy.
The mascots of the mud fest. You gotta admit, they're cute.
The winery. I just love the flowers! It was humid as hell, FYI.
Logo.
Making apple pie - demonstration. So they gave you 2 balls of dough, had you roll them out, and then the filling was pre-made in baggies. You put the filling in, covered it with the top of the crust, decorated it however you wished, brushed it with egg and gave it to them to bake.
Process of making the pie.
More instructions. I was hoping that we'd be able to have a bunch of spices to add to the apples - cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. However, that was all pre-made. I guess they wanted us to have 'good' pies, not 'great' ones. All in all, it was fun tho. The apples weren't peeled, which was interesting to me. Easiest apple pie I ever made, but I prefer when I can make it MY way. ;)
Have a BIIIIIIG bottle.
The blueberry wine.
The apple wine.
The first room we came into on our tour.
The still - I love how hard alcohol is made, but I don't understand it. They made apple brandy, before you wonder. And yes, I tried it.
The barrels with the apple brandy.
The tasting - this was the apple wine. It is sweet (not as sweet as ice wine, but it's made in the same style. I don't think they can freeze the apples to get the sweetest bits out the way they do with grapes in Canada).
The blueberry wine next to the apple wine and yes, that's gold flakes in there.
The taping of the barrel. That's right, we had apple brandy right out of the barrel! It was... strong. Good, but really strong. Like, burns all the way down and leaves an apple after-taste kind of strong.
Another view of the first room - this time without any people to wait to leave. LOL
Fun little cork holder.
My apple pie. I thought it was cute how the bag said 'Have a good day.' So this was my artsy-food picture for the weekend. It would be better if I could make it a portrait photo, but I can't figure out how to flip my pix on the blog! Ah well, such is life. Just turn your head.
On the way out.
I thought those were cute and yet terrifying at the same time.
I mean, he looks happy, but who is to say that those eyes aren't screaming?
Me with the apples in the background. Felt weird being in Korea at a winery and not being in TX at one. Missing our Fredericksburg trips, not gonna lie.
T with the apples. She's so fun.
So that was it. Back on the bus we went, back to the stop where we were picked up. I realized once we got back to Dongtan that I was missing a plastic bag that had my sandals, towel, T's T-shirt, and the mud socks in it. So A messaged our tour guide and he's supposed to send those to me via a delivery service. Payment on delivery, so I gave some money to the desk staff for when that comes in. Hoping it'll be before Friday since I'm leaving for Taiwan at oh-God-it's-early o'clock on Saturday.
I have to laugh at me - I'm trying to make sure that my fridge will be mostly empty when I go on vacation. I also took out the trash and plan to refrigerate or freeze anything that would stink the place up while I'm gone. I think that I just evicted the rest of the fruit flies, too, cuz this time I took the bag out of the apt to tie it. I'll keep the trap out just in case, but this should be it - I have won the fruit fly war of 2019.
I did think that I should have gotten my hair cut before mud fest... now the plan is to get it cut Aug 17th or so. Full on pixie this time, though I might see what kind of asymmetrical funness Jay can do for me. So I'm looking forward to vacation next week, then back to the grind with immersion on top of normal work. Yay for overtime pay. Hope you enjoyed the muddy shenanigans, much love to all, and this will have to tide you over for a while because I'm not going to be able to post anything about the trip until mid-week when I get back. Can I just mention that I love technology, though? I can take a ton of pix and then just give T a USB drive with all of them on it instead of trying to email a bunch of files or wait until I get the film back to find out all the pix are crap. I remember those days.
