So it is official – I have begun my travelling journey! Admittedly I left Yoenchoen with Friends (Sandy and Colleen) but we still did it by ourselves. AND MORE DIRECTLY: I got home on my own! As the sun rose I made my protein breakfast of Fried Egg and Bacon/Pork/Beef/ Mystery meat? (Pick that which takes your fancy ;) ) and backed my little backpack (it was a short overnight trip) with pillow, sleeping mat and a change of clothes and took the 30min walk to the train station in the rain.
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| My Travel Companions (And Sam's green Birthday gift) |
I love travelling by train! It is not the commuter trains in India or China (far from it, it was a very comfortable trip) but it was really fun. It is a smidge more pricey than busses but I’d rather have the extra time (it is about 20min faster. We stared out the windows at the beautiful scenery and shared travelling stories. Colleen’s was by far the most ‘adventurous’ on her travels from Germany to Lithuania. On arrival (10:40) were greeted by the smilling face of Monday’s birthday girl – Sam, and the flush cheeks of Irishman, Dan.
I re-affirm my awe of the human condition in ports of travel be it Airports (See some fantastic Asian spelling below), bus or train stations. The greeting of friends, family and just general loved ones after a period of travel (however brief) if pure insight into human emotion. A warm, smile or embrace, and a firm welcoming handshake greeted us on arrival. Sadly Courtney was unable to meet us but did so later in the day.
Pohang is much like any city with its hip and vibey “downtown” and then you have the old town where things are a little more run down. I was very lucky to go and visit Jukdo Fish Market. It reminds me so much of Kalk Bay harbour. The sights of people gutting fish, live eels and MASSIVE KING CRABS was something to behold.
I even saw (to my memory) my 1st live Squid. More than anything for me the highlight was the unique smells that came out of the market place. From fishy to spices, to leave the market had it all. And one thing I have noticed about shops here is the all HAVE IT ALL.
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| A sign of one of the MANY "Love Motels" in Korea |
They all stock almost anything! It is only if you have like a more people centred western area where you will find speciality stores. We hung around the Western Side of town for a bit and had lunch at a fantastic Korean restaurant with, oddly enough, lady liberty watching over us as we stared out onto the Pohang skyline from out seated positions (See Panorama). I can’t quite remember what I ate but it was superb! All the food I had there was brilliant. I must have looked like a true westerner/foreigners/(I prefer to see myself as traveller). I had my backpack with overnight stuff,, my laptop case, in case I got to use net() and my pillow between the bag and my back. I got to see both Sam and Dan’s places (I stayed with Dan). Both are really nice, a bit smaller than mine, but very modern and they have made them look very homely.
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| Second Kind of Bulgogi |
Throughout the day we did more touring and walking (Picking up Courtney along the way) and I got to see the climbing gym. It was small but it was wall to wall mats and grips which was really cool (*bookmarked for future visits). After another sumptuous supper of 2 kinds of Bulgogi and a pan cake thing....
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| A Sweet-Potato Latte |
ASIDE: OOOO, I nearly forgot to mention – I tried a sweet potato latte for the 1st time and it will be my last. It was really nice and very sweet but as my mom likes to say about Chai Latte – it was close to baby food (in colour and texture). Way too rich for me (I KNOW RIGHT, WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT!) and the taste us something I won’t miss.
Continue...
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| Crazy Korean Drinking buddies - the Asian guy on the left at the back was THE MOST DRINK I have seen an asian before |
After dinner we went and had drinks at a pub and I got to watch some English Premier League. A bloke named Joe whose folks are from Yorkshire (Creepy I know right) met us (he too is from Yorkshire-Huddersfield to be specific, so maybe the gloss lifts off my friend reference there) and then one large Korean gent started flirting with one of our party. So as we had nearly finished our Pitcher of beer (I had had 4 glasses, which was where I stopped for the night – small glasses mind you) we joined the Korean table, where Dan became known as Harry Potter (as he wore glasses and was from the England region), Brandon (a friend of Sam, Dan and Courtney, whom I met that night. He is from Chicago and majored in Ling (we had a nice Ling chat which was great!) was “handsome Jim Carry” and I apparently was too quiet but looked like one of the Korean national Footballers. The Koreans got progressively drunker (Think a drunk Jackie Chan from Shanghai Noon) as we sat and pretty much just smiled for 2 hours as we didn’t know what they were saying to us AND they even offered to pay our bill and theirs (which we added too because they kept buy us more drinks). We declined and left when the large Korean man started to get a bit “too friendly” for our friend’s liking (up until then she had handled herself brilliantly-but then got very uncomfortable). Dylan Moran comedy and a Brit Comedy called “The In-betweeners” ended my night at 01:45 and I slept like a LOG!
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| Ram-yoen (WITH CHOPSTICKS) |
10am Dan wakes me and we head to the climbing gym where I was meeting the girls to climb. Sadly it was closed but I did have Ram-yoen (like the cup n noodles only with more broth) which was spicy and yummy! Sunday Lunchtime I caught the train back after a thoroughly enjoyed 2 days in Pohang.
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| The Climbing Gym Run by 2 really cool people! |
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| Dan's Lunch in Pohang |
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| MeWith my Bags and Pillow on the train back home |
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| A really cool music video kind of Shot! |
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| Some of the members of the Yoenchoen and Pohang crews |
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| NOTE THE SPELLING OF "AIRPORT" |
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