cats museum

I decided to make this after reading this post: making spanish tortilla college student style
But instead of making a tortilla, I opted for something similar; a frittata. I used 2 eggs, potatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers and cheese. With the cheese it basically ended up looking like an egg pizza. Can't really complain about that.

 Lunch on Friday, bori bibimbap and kalguksu in Seoul, a place I don't go often.

And then the cats museum.

 

Filled with lots of wonderful cat art.

OK, it was really the Trick Art Museum, but I prefer to remember it this way.

And then we went to the 63 building on Yeouido, these are some shots from the aquarium.

 And then there was the wax museum. And a wax museum is pretty pointless without Michael Jackson, who made me feel pretty short, which I am not.

Blurry Frankenstein outside the mini haunted house.

 Innocent teddy bears being assaulted.

 And a horrible Elvis Presley. After the large head sculpture park and this wax museum, I'm starting to get the impression that Koreans don't put that much effort into creating likenesses. But it was a pretty fantastic trip because there's nowhere I like visiting more than cheesy, slightly creepy, tourist traps like these.

bruised by the mountains

Another road trip around the mountains.

 The most beautiful parts of this area are outside or on the edge of Chungju city.

 Chungju lake.

 The major undertaking of the day was climbing the fortress wall up the mountain, in flip flops of course.

 Resting on the plains along the lake.

 Nice little dock that would've been cool to hang out on, if there was some way to get to it...

 Bibimbap and dongdongju at a roadside restaurant.

 And back in Chungju, a crane stalking minnows in the river that goes through the city.

 Bibimguksu, cold noodles with spicy pepper paste, with the most sesame seeds I've ever gotten on anything ever. My favourite summer food.

 홍초 hongcho, vinegreat vinegar drink. It's not as sour as normal vinegar and pretty awesome for adding to drinks.

And my battered and bruised leg from clambering up the fortress wall. A painful memento from a weekend of mountains. But in good news, I only have two days of school this week (for exams) and once I finish marking and submit my grades I'll be heading off to Cambodia! I applied for an e-visa and already received it. They said it would only take three days or less. I applied for it on Friday, and assumed they didn't count the weekend. But obviously they do, as I received it today, a Sunday. Now I'm all set.

수안보 suanbo 미륵리사지 mireukrisaji and 송계계곡 songgye valley loop tour

 I've been to Suanbo plenty of times, and Mireukrisaji once before, but I had never visited Songgye valley. Looking at a map, it seemed like the best way to go was doing a loop around through Suanbo. I followed 3 into Suanbo and onto the 597, which took me out to Mireuksaji when it started to rain.

 Hoping it would let up, I decided to stop at a restaurant and get 산채비빔밥 sanchaebibimbap, mountain vegetable bibimbap. The rain didn't let up, but it did slow down a bit and I decided it was fine to keep going.

 I made a short visit back to the stone Buddha and then headed off towards Songgae valley.

 And pretty quickly I was at the valley in all of its rocky glory. There were a lot of camping spots along the way, but it didn't seem too busy today, probably because of the weather.

But the best part was when I stumbled across Chungcheongbuk-do monument no. 35: Deokju mountain fortress. It was absolutely stunning in person. I had to walk through a field of flowers/weeds to get a picture as the mountains faded off into the distance. It felt like the set for a fairy tale.

The wall disappearing into the mountains. According to the signage it played an important part in the resistance against the Mongolian invasion in the Goryeo dynasty (1200s) and the Japanese invasion in 1592, in case you're interested in history at all.

 Another fortress on the way to Deokju temple.

A man praying to Buddha at the temple site. 

And then it was time to head back. I continued on 597 until it dropped me off on 36 and then I headed back to Chungju. Which has absolutely beautiful views of the mountains, rivers and lake along the way. 36 follows the edge of Chungju lake going between Chungju and Danyang.

Mountains and more mountains.

And some animals at a stop along the way back, fenced in outside a restaurant. So I've got a good idea what will happen to them in the future.

미타사 mita temple

I found the other 성충문구 big stationary store downtown. It was closed, forever. And then minutes later my bike chain broke and fell off. Luckily there was a bike store close by and 5 minutes and 15,000 won later, I had a new bike chain. First time that's ever happened.
Then I stopped for bibimbap. And it came with beef, which doesn't happen often. So I got to scoop that out before enjoying. It wasn't looking like a good day.

I decided to take a trip west of Chungju, since I always seem to go north, east, or south. I went Eumseong way on 36 and noticed a sign for a temple. My first thought was to just keep going, until I saw the giant gold Buddha peeking out from the hills.

 Then I knew I had to stop.

 He was surrounded by tons of little Buddhas.

And big markers were out front. It was a Buddhist cemetery.

The view down from the big gold Buddha. It's impossible not to see from the highway and definitely worth stopping by for a visit and it wasn't very busy, I think there were a total of four other people there when I visited. But then this area generally never seems busy.

미륵리사지 mireukrisaji and hiking failure

I decided to take another trip out Suanbo way, to visit mireukrisaji, a historic Buddhist temple site promising a very old stone Buddha. It's about 8 km from Suanbo. And I figured I'd give Woraksan another go on the way home.

 I had lunch before I went, bibimbap of my own making because bibimbap just isn't bibimbap without gosari (the brown branchy looking parts) and for some reason Chungju restaurants often seem to omit it. If you don't know gosari (and I didn't before Korea) then you might know it from fiddle heads. It's part of that plant. If you don't know fiddle heads, then I got nothing.

I drove my motorcycle out there. I live in the country side, so there's very little traffic and lots of winding mountain roads, perfect for summertime rides. And it's definitely a lot nicer driving along without having to contend with many cars. I do get a whole lot more attention though...

 The weather was perfect, and I passed by many restaurants and dongdongju (rice wine) stops before getting there. If I hadn't already filled up on bibimbap I would've stopped for lunch. The place wasn't very busy at all, so I don't know how so many shops and restaurants stay open (especially in Suanbo). There were only two other people (아저씨) at the temple and they seemed more interested in following me around than anything. So it was a bit uncomfortable.

The Buddha statue was pretty fantastic though. And there were the typical Buddhist chants being played. There was also a little shop selling bracelets and the like, with another lady selling temple tiles.
I headed further along the road and there were a couple more stops, for a head statue and a field of ruins, nothing really picture worthy. And then I kept going to see what was up the hill.

There was another small, new temple, and they offered bathrooms. Essentially a little shed built of leftover materials with some planks over a shallow hole that you can squat over. No door for privacy, but there weren't many people around so I guess it wouldn't matter. There was absolutely no way I was using it though, this had to be the worst "bathroom" I've ever seen.

And then I hopped back on my motorcycle and headed back to Woraksan for round two. A 2.3 km hike to the peak on the "Samunri Nature Interpretive Trail." Things weren't so bad, until I hit these stairs.

 And then after that, the trail got quite a bit sketchier and a whole lot harder.

It started involving climbing up steep rocks and holding onto chain railings. With 0.8 km to go, my legs were really starting to feel it and the sketchiness of the trail wasn't helping, so I decided to call it a day. I didn't see a single person on the trail the whole time and I was starting to understand why, it's one serious hike and it was sketchier going down than up. I'm definitely not hardcore enough to finish it. Woraksan got me again.

문경 moongyeong-ish area

Earlier, some of us went out on a road trip to find a rock face. And in that search we found some go carting and cool hang out spots. This being a long weekend, it seemed like a decent time to check out those sights again. Chungbuk (my province) is comprised of lots of farmland, so there is lots of natural beauty, but it doesn't always seem like there's much to do. But as we've discovered, there are some out in the middle of nowhere things to do. This being the type of day to reinforce that.

Two Buddhas carved into the rock, that we passed on the way to our destination.

This was a popular stopping point, as lots of cars had pulled to the side and people were hanging out at the river across the road from the Buddhas.

Along the way, we saw plenty of people using the pedal... carts on old railway tracks. It didn't look like the funnest activity, but a tonne of people were doing it.

 We stopped for some dongdongju (rice wine) and toast (which is really a sandwich) to take a break. And that's when a game of punch buggy started, except instead of beetles, we went with popped collars. Which is way too popular here.

 We checked out the pedal boat area. 10,000 won for 30 minutes. Not bad, but there was a long line up and only a small roped off area that you got to paddle around in. For me, it would've lost its appeal very quickly, just like pedaling along on old rail road tracks.

Horse rides. They had real horse rides as well. But the fake ones come with video screens, so it's a cheap substitution.

 And then onto go carting! 12,000 won for 10 minutes. Kinda pricey, but it's been a long time since I last went, so maybe that's a normal price? It wasn't as good as it could've been though, because there were lots of couple go carts (two people, one cart) which generally had a parent and their very young child. Doesn't really make you feel comfortable letting loose on the track.

 Then there was 오미자 makgeolli/rice wine with dinner. I'm not even sure what the berry is exactly, maybe currants? It seemed to be a local specialty. It was nice and sweet, but nothing special that I would go out of my way to get.

And dinner, my favourite standby, bibimbap, there was also pajeon (onion pancake) and kimchi jjigae. Along with a plethora of sides.

And then at a souvenir shop we came across this gem, penis wine. Basically, the ceramic part (penis) on top is a shot glass which you drink the wine out of. I'm not exactly sure what it's made of, but I had to try it.

And naturally the best place to try it is by the river. It smelled horrible, but it didn't taste as bad as I expected. But since it's apparently an alcohol to improve male performance, I think the whole experience was lost on me as a female. Oh well, at least I get to keep the nifty happy penis shot glasses.