It’s getting much warmer here in Korea, so we are trying to get out as much as possible before we are housebound for a few weekends because of the heat. We heard it gets pretty hot here, so we are preparing for the worst. June 6 was Memorial Day in Korea, which meant we got a random Wednesday off. It was spring like weather so we decided to hit up a nearby national park and make the best of it! The train ride down to Daejeon was only 25 minutes, which is way too short on a KTX train (it isn’t enough time to drink coffee and it's way to short to get settled in). Anyway before we knew it we had arrived in Daejeon and we easily made our transfer to a local bus for the 30 – 45 minute ride to the nearby national park. The bus quickly reached the outskirts of Daejeon and then all of a sudden the traffic was at a stand still. The road out to the national park passed the national cemetery and with it being Memorial Day, it meant everybody was going to the cemetery. We stood on the bus with the Korean hikers and finally accepted the fact that we would have to wait it out. But the hiking gods were on our side! Our Korean counterparts started to put pressure on the driver to let everyone off of the bus. Reluctantly, he finally agreed, and we started the 4 mile hike into the national forest. About a mile into our walk we had passed all the traffic. It was just us and an almost empty road. Suddenly, a van pulled up beside us and the passenger asked “Where you go?” We looked into the van and we recognized one of the two men from our bus ride! His brother had picked him up a little bit beyond the traffic and the man from the bus had recognized us and he must have asked his brother to pick us up. We told him we were heading to Gyeryongsan National Park. After a few sentences of broken Korean and English, we all realized we were heading to the same park and they were more than happy to give us a ride. They dropped us off at the trail head we showed them on the map, and they continued a little bit further down the road. We waved goodbye, not knowing we would soon cross paths again! This park isn’t that big so we knew we would be able to easily finish the loop in a day. We started our hike at one of the few temples and made our way up the mountain to the well known Nammaetap Pagodas. We decided to sit down and eat our homemade bean burritos (O yeah, we totally figured out how to make our own refried beans here in Korea, because, imagine this, they aren’t super popular here. Weird huh?) Anyway, after happily devouring our lunch, we packed up and decided to head out, when we all of a sudden we heard “HEY! AMERICA!” We turned around to find our two new Korean friends from the van were taking a break themselves. We were all heading in the same direction, so we happily decided to hike together. We speak just a small amount of Korean and they spoke just a bit of English but somehow it worked out. Kim Oh Sung led the charge and he and his brother were more than happy to show us how to properly experience a Korean temple. He bought us each a candle, and we all lit them and placed them near the shrine at the base of the pagodas. We hiked with the brothers for about an hour and a half. They were probably some of the best hiking partners we could have had in Korea. We were cutting it close to catching our train though, so we told them we had to take off and we trucked it up the final peak and down to the famous Donghaksa Temple. This temple is known for housing and teaching female Buddhist monks. The next weekend we went to Jeonju. Jeonju is famous for it’s preserved Hanok Village. Jeonju is the birthplace of the amazing dish Bibimbab (which of course we tried). We bought a drink called Moju there, and it’s actually really yummy. It kind of reminds me of Horchata. We also found a rail bike on the outskirts of the city. Jeonju was a little touristy for us, but we had fun all the same. During the weekend of June 16, 2018 we got a rental car and had an absolutely fabulous weekend. We left somewhere between 6:00 – 6:30 AM on Saturday so we could make it bright and early to Suncheon Bay Wetland Eco Park. We got there around 9:10 which was about an hour after the park opened. We immediately headed over to the boat ride around the reserve and we easily got onto the next boat that was leaving. While we were waiting, we sat on a dock where we watched some crabs and freaky fish with flipper legs move around on the mud flats. After our boat ride we walked along the boardwalks that were created all throughout the reserves. It was spectacular. It was just green everywhere and the sound of the reeds in the wind was crazy cool. We made the hike up to an observatory called Mt. Yong-san where we could see the reserve from above. It was really cool to see the combination of ocean, mountains, wetlands, and rice paddies. We really want to go back in the fall, because the reeds turn red and the views of the sunset are supposed to be amazing! It was around noon when we decided to do the hour drive over to the Boseong Green Tea Fields. This little area had been on our radar since the first time we visited Korea, but it is just so hard to get down to from Seoul, that we skipped it. We arrived to the tea fields ready to eat! There is a restaurant on the premises that serves everything with green tea. The green tea kimchi pancake is to die for! OMG! We did a tour around the green tea fields where we took our time taking pictures and enjoying the views. We even bought some green tea lattes and ice cream and bread and cookies and... :) to enjoy on our walk. After a few hours of wandering it was time to make the 3.5 hour drive back to Cheonan so we could get some sleep before our hike the next day. The next day we were up at a decent hour so we could get to Byeonsanbando National Park. This park is pretty cool because it is the only national park in South Korea that consists of both mountains and ocean. It was a really enjoyable hike; not too hard and not too easy. It was way more rocky than I thought it would be, but it just added to the experience. We also bought some berry and ginger flavored makgeolli there, which was surprisingly strong. The hike ended at a really old temple that we explored for a little bit. Our last little current exploration took us to the city of Boryeong. Most people visit Boryeong to go to Daecheon Beach, which is exactly what we did (and we visited the coal museum). Daecheon Beach would be a perfect place if you liked beaches. We are more into mountains, but we always enjoy a little beach time : ) And....... Here is another Kpop song to enjoy. Here is Sunmi and her song called Heroine. And also, here is some of our outtake pictures :) Enjoy!
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