Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Trip with mom - Day 2

Hello everyone :)

(this cat and 2 other cats came by our room to say 'good morning')

(cough, yes it's me...cough cough) 

Phew, today was a LONG day. We went a lot of places in 남해 (Namhae) area. We woke up around 7am and left the pension around 9am to go around places. Our first stop was Hilton Hotel & Resort. They had golf range and two different areas for buildings. One area was more like hotel rooms and the other area was more like condo. We didn't go inside because I didn't feel like it...and there weren't much to see inside anyways. 

(condo area)

 (hotel area)

After we stopped by Hilton, we went to 다랭이마을 (Daraengi Village). Daraengi Town is known for farms that looks like stairs. They cultivate garlic during winter and rape flowers during spring. We drove down to the village area and walked around for about 30 minutes or so. Village was really small, but definitely pretty; scenic view was really nice.

(panorama view of Daraengi Village)

(Daraengi Village. View from away from it)



(it was cute to see all pensions/hostels match their banners)

(left: new plents are growing! / right: farms filled with garlic!)

 (we walked this area to see ocean and the village)

(left and right view of ocean area)

After not-so-short walk, we stopped by 상주해수욕장 (Sangju Beach) on the way to 미조항 (Mijo Pier.) Sand was pretty solid and full of shells :D I wish I can come here again when cherry blossoms bloom or during summer. There was a middle school next to Sangju beach which made me get a bit jealous, because they get to see beautiful beach whenever they want to! Sigh.

(Sangju Beach)

 We headed to Mijo Pier for lunch and had 참돔회 (red sea-bream sashimi) Fish was fresh and soup wasn't salty at all! We were a bit surprised because food in Kyoung-Nam area is usually salty and spicy.
 (Mijo beach!)




After we filled our tummy, we went to 보리암 (Boriam Temple) I wanted to drive so I told mom that I will drive :P We were concerned that we might have to hike a lot, but we were able to park not too far away from the temple. We stilled had to walk about 1km (approx. 0.6miles) to the temple. Distance wasn't too bad, but height was.....pretty high so it was a bit tougher than we thought.
 (Boriam Temple is located on (almost) top of the mountain)

(on the way to the temple)



 (One thing I like about temples: beautiful colors and designs)

There were few more areas that we could've checked out, but my left leg was started to hurt again so we went back to the car and went to our next stop: German Village and House 'n Garden.

German Village got famous after this drama called 'Fantasy Couple' starring Han Ye-Seul and Oh Ji-Ho, or at least from what I know of. House 'n Garden is located right next to German Village; about 20 houses are inside of House 'n Garden and each house is designed differently based on different countries. We walked around and tried yuzu ice cream and stopped by Cafe Bene, located at this actress's house for a cup of coffee.


(wow, my head looks super big there, but ice cream was delicious :) shared it with mom)

 (There is a photo of an actress. She's pretty known, so lot of people stop by her cafe to check it out)

(interior view of Cafe Bene)

 We walked back to our car and started to drive towards 남해대교 (Namhae Bridge) Namhae bridge is designed very similar to Golden Gate Bridge, but smaller and different color (and a bit uglier in my opinion)

(made me miss Golden Gate Bridge more :/ OH I MISS SF)


(so pretty <3)

After we crossed the bridge, we drove back to the pension since we can't really go anywhere after sunset. It took us about 40 minutes to drive back to the pension; we passed by a downtown, bought some groceries, and arrived when sky was pitch dark and it was only past 7:30pm.

PHEW. THESE WERE DONE IN ONE DAY. Lot of walk and lot of drive. We are going to 통영 (Tong-Young) tomorrow early in the morning and drive around this island. Can't wait for tomorrow! Maybe I will drive again so mom won't get too tired....maybe.


I should get some sleep now, but first, gotta wash my face and teeth!

Good night!!!!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Trip with mom - day 1

Hi everyone!

Long time no post! (again, sorry :( ) I've been....lazy, sigh I know, I promised myself I would write a lot but..yeah. So sorry :'(

Anyways, before I start my main writing, I wanted to spoil you guys with some photos that I took from date with my parents ;)

(on the way to Gangwon-Do!)
 
(황태 / dried pollack. Passed by lot of these on the way to the sheep farm)
 
I mentioned about a day trip with my mom on my last post - I went to Gangwon-Do to check out sheep farm, but we arrived 30 minutes after they closed it. UGH! I was hoping to walk around the farm and get hungry, but oh wells. We decided to come back when weather gets warmer and headed out to 횡성 (Hoengsung) to eat dinner. Hoengsung is known for beef. Mmmmmm.

 (OMG I'm drooling again...)

 IT WAS SO GOOD! IT MELTED IN MY MOUTH! I want to go again :( I don't know where each part belonged to, but it was some special areas near ribs or something. It was expensive, but worth it. Thanks mom for buying awesome dinner for me :P
We went to 찜질방 (jjim-jil-bang, sauna) after dinner to get sweaty. House was made of mud so it was interesting. We stayed for over an hour and went back home.

I also went to 노량진 수산시장 (Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market) 2 weeks ago at night with parents because I (sort of) begged to go lol, oh and dad wanted to go out for dinner. We arrived around 7:30pm ish and walked around the market to see what it looks like. We only passed part of the market because a lot of places were getting ready to close down.

 (mmm fresh seafoods :D)

Dad wanted to buy some shrimp and shells to eat at home. Price was pretty cheap too! 24-26 medium-large shrimps for $14 dollars? It's a deal! 
 
 (shrimps!)

(left: they were SO BIG! / right: it's called bamboo shells or something like that)

After we walked for a bit, we went to a restaurant to eat some sashimi and other seafood. It was kind of pricy, but all seafood are pretty expensive, so we expected to pay the amount, but oh man, there were SO MANY SIDE DISHES and they were so good!


(these were pretty good but not as good as food above. mmmmmm =9)

I don't have all pictures, but I got SO FULLED. Oh, I had hard time eating one in last picture because it was fried fish...so I just ate tiny bit and gave up lol. I ate lot of sashimi and other seafood. I got stuffed (and didn't gain much weight thank goodness)

So these were what I did while I was gone. Other than these special dinner, I've been having regular schedule: exercise, work on some stuff, tutor, go to church and hangout, and etc. Oh yeah, did I mention I joined praise team? I sing now...I'm not that good, but the leader is teaching me how to do harmony and stuff. I'm thinking of learning an instrument! Not sure if I'm really going to learn for sure or not, but I'll let you know once it's decided :)

hehe.

-----

So, why did I write 'Day 1' on subject? Because I'm on a 5 day trip with my mom! My mom is on a break, so we decided to go around 남해 and 통영 (Namhae and Tongyoung.)
Before we left to a trip, we had to finish laundry, make soups and kimchi fried rice for dad (so he won't get hungry,) pack, get some stuff from market, and stop by hospital to get treatment for my muscles. I have muscle sore on my thigh muscles since last November? or somewhere there, it's been awhile but got worse, so I had to stop by it. We left Seoul around 1pm, which was way later than our plan, but oh wells, gotta finish stuff before I relax and enjoy right? xD

Anyways, Namhae and Tongyoung are supposed to have nice areas to visit according to my mom, so I'm excited for tomorrow :) 
We stopped by 3 rest stops and arrived safe :D

 (Pigs!)

 (On the way to Namhae, view was really pretty but I only had my iPhone on my hand :/)
 
 (Namhae Bridge)

 (Namhae Bridge)

 (Pension we are staying is pretty! Makes me feel so girly)

I will post more as I take more pictures :D See you!