chungju and cheongju

When I think of Chungju, I think of Hoam lake, it has a nice walking path around it, badminton courts, exercise equipment, a few restaurants, strawberry farm, monument, and all kinds of nice stuff. Plus, I can see it from my apartment, and it was the first place I walked when I moved here. Now that I've spent a bit more time here, I think of the bike paths, parks, dam, pagoda, and Chungju lake (which I plan on ferrying across soon).

This weekend, I got a flight to Jeju from Cheongju airport. Chungju and Cheongju sound similar, and sometimes there are variations on how things are translated into English from Korean. If I didn't live in Chungju, after flying out of Cheongju airport, I would think they were both the same place. And according to this apple tower outside of Cheongju airport, "If one thinks of Chungju, One thinks of apples." There are a lot of apple orchards and sculptures around here, but I think they're selling themselves a bit short by just sticking to apples.

Ad for Cheongju airport, in the airport, with Good Chungju fruit, chestnut and makkeolli (rice wine) seats below it. One of the reasons I would think they're the same place. But Chungbuk is a more rural province, so maybe they're just trying to sell everything they've got, since there isn't as much as other provinces?

Either way, it's nice having an airport close by. There's a direct bus from Chungju to Cheongju airport that takes a bit over an hour and is under 10,000 won, not a bad deal. Except there are only three trips available per day. The airport itself is pretty small, located outside of the city so there isn't much else around, except for a military base. They have some mini exhibitions of information and cultural artifacts about Chungbuk province on the second floor, along with a mini sculpture park outside, but otherwise not much else if you've got time to kill.

 And then I was on my way to Jeju! I feel like this picture sums up the experience pretty nicely. And my memento from my rainy trip is a sunburn, but only on one arm. I have no idea how I managed that.