Taking it easy in Tongyeong

Everyone needs to get away sometimes...even if it's just to a city an hour from here and only for a day. Adventure is necessary...that is why I came to this country...well besides teaching, of course.

Lately, as it may seem, my weekends have been shot. The weekends usually consist of me drinking....waaaaaaay to much both Friday and Saturday nights, that I do nothing all day, except sleep. It's sad but true...I wanted more than that...so last weekend my genius best friend, woke me up and said we were going on an adventure.

You are probably thinking, "why Tongyeong?" My dear friend Nickole, who I traveled with, had an amazing Korean travel guide and we decided that is was close enough, but just far enough to call it a vacation destination. The description made it seemed wonderful...water, fish, boats, islands...it was going to be a great weekend.

After an hour and a half bus trip...we arrived. Much different than we expected...no water, no boats, no fish...yet. We felt like aliens...we can't speak Korean and we had no idea where the fuck we were. Luckily...we found a map, which didn't help, because in order for a map to work, you need to know where you are. So, after enough courage, we got into a taxi, and pointed on the map where we wanted to go. He laughed, of course...but took us to our destination...first stop the cable cars in the sky.


We arrived, and were immediately turned away...from what it seemed they were sold out for the day. However, Nickole and I were soldiers...we came this far and were not giving up. We were gonna play the "we are stupid foreigners who have no idea where we are" card. Which works sometimes...we continued trucking on...and sure enough a man came up to us and sold us some tickets...and we got to cut to the front of the line...fantastic. The one thing I hate and I don't think I will ever be used to is getting "eye fucked" by every Korean person. We had to stand in line to get on our car...and everyone literally undressed me with their eyes...I know I am not super skinny...but what the hell? It gets better....every Korean that had a kid wanted to impress everyone else and forced their child to say hello to us. Seriously ladies....everyone knows how to say hello...your children are not uber geniuses. Anyways...the cable car was great, I attempted to get over my fear of heights...but was still a nervous wreck. Unfortunately, the family riding with us thought Nickole and I were a circus side show attraction and wanted to take pictures with us...uuuggghh...seriously Korea, I am American...not a freak or a celebrity.

After our experience with that, we were lost once again. However, feeling adventurous we started walking hoping we would find something exciting. Instead, we found a man that thought he was the coolest thing ever, because he can flip his eye lids inside out...and continued to do so, point and make weird noises...it was at this point Nickole and I knew we were no longer in Changwon anymore. Laughing hysterically, we questioned why were here again. We defiantly were in the ghetto town of Korea. We saw no cabs...but managed to get on and feel gutsy enough to ride the bus. Then, we found water!

We got off the bus in a central part of town...and alas we found the fish market...I loved it, but not the smell. Fish were everywhere...and were alive. I was so worried that one of the workers were gonna knock over one of there big bins with fish and live fish were going to be everywhere. Luckily no such thing occurred. Once our exploring there was done....we found a hotel and were off to look for some food. A much harder task then we thought.

Until we found a little piece of heaven. We must have walked around for what seemed like hours. There was arguing and frustration in the air...and I didn't like it. Finally, we found it. La Vela...a taste of Italy that is very much missed here in Korea. It was simply wonderful. I ate real Parmesan cheese...which may sound funny...but they don't really have that sort of stuff here...so it was a delicacy. A perfect dinner with a perfect friend. Once dinner was finished...we were determined to find friends...we are good at that...and it has become a habit. No matter where we are, we look for new Korean friends to hang out with and look for a foreign bar that we had read about.

Which we did...however, we almost got kidnapped and dragged to Jinju with these older drunk Korean men. Damn me for asking for directions....it led to me getting grabbed and having to run, with Nickole to make a get away. I do wish I remembered our new friends names or remembered to take pictures of this portion of the evening...but I don't and didn't. We enjoyed their company over some soju, beer and snacks. They were very sweet, but shy. The helped us to find "condition," a drink that is supposed to cure hangovers...while tasting like shit. After saying goodbyes to our friends, we managed to get home in one piece. Tomorrow was going to be when the fun began...mass sight seeing with little time to do it.

We woke up...way later than we wanted...the front desk called us and was kicking us out of the hotel...check out was 12 and it was now 1. The sight seeing for the day was reduced a lot. So out of all of the things...taking a boat excursion to the islands around the city seemed like the best option. It was a confusing and insanely packed...but we managed to find a boat. The ride was beautiful...it made me miss Seattle...the water and the smells.

We got to one of the islands, walked around...saw the different temples and then saw a place where you could put on traditional war clothes...and get your picture taken...I had to do it. everyone was already staring at Nickole and I for being foreign...so now I was giving them an excuse to look more. I knew I was probably one of the first foreigners to go to this island and be so stupid. The workers ate it up. I rocked it.

After we had our fill of the islands, it was time to take the ferry back. We were lucky enough to make friends with an old dancing man, who was kind enough to get our pretty toasty on soju. Let me just tell you drinking soju on an empty stomach on a boat is not the best idea. I needed food...so Nickole and I ended our trip, getting a pizza and some beer, sitting on the port having a picnic...it was a trip that won't soon be forgotten.