My weekend just ended and, as usual, it was awesome. On Friday Mark, Peter, Steven and I headed into Masan to celebrate a birthday (don't worry Mark, your secret is safe with me!). We went out for dinner, then alternated between going to the batting cage a block off Hapsongdeong to going into all sorts of bars and pubs for a drink (eventually meeting up with Zoe as well)...it was an awesome night. I have never done the batting cages, but for about 500 won (45 cents) you get something like 10-15 balls, and it's wicked fun, even if I ended up with a nice bruise on my forearm because I can't hold a bat properly haha. We met up at 8 p.m. and parted ways just after 4 a.m., making it my longest night in Korea so far w00t! These guys are a ton of fun to be with...I've never gone barhopping and never understood the point, but it's a lot of fun! The change of scenery every hour or so is awesome haha.
On Saturday, my friend Laura came from Jinju (by train!) and we headed into Changwon for the day. After a rocky start (she left her camera on the bus :( ) we had an awesome day. We bummed around downtown, set her up with a cellphone (thanks for the phone Hayley! I found it a good home!) and explored the streets and parks around downtown. Changwon is decorated with awesome red and yellow tulips and a bunch of other flowers right now and after the rain we've had the big circle in the middle is FINALLY green (not brownish-yellow) so it was pretty wicked, plus it was warm and sunny, so you really can't complain. We bumped into Chris and, despite his warnings, had a sub at a shop that used to be Subway (Lion Sub for you locals) and decided it sucked.
After a few hours downtown, we headed up the hill toward the provincial building, the university and a beautiful Buddhist temple...I've been here before and posted pictures, but there's always something new, so I'll post a few I took this weekend...I really liked the reflection of these people...such a beautiful little park right in front of the provincial building:
A few feet away:
The Buddhist temple up the hill (w00t for f2.8)
The temples are starting to look even more beautiful...it's Buddha's Birthday in 2 weeks, so they're getting all decorated with lanterns and stuff (more of that later).
And a Buddhist monk decorating inside the same temple...one of my favourite pictures of the weekend:
After that, we headed back downtown and were hoping to catch the light show at Yongji Lake, but were sadly disappointed when they never showed (we did have a veggie pizza on the lake shore, though, so that eased the pain a little!). Mark and Peter met up with us at the lake, so we hung out with them for the rest of the night.
On Sunday, we headed into Masan and I bought my first bit of street food (roasted chestnuts!) I have had these before from another guy who randomly gave us some that tasted a lot better, but they were still pretty good...I love the expression on her face haha
We walked around Masan a little then headed for the hills (literally). There's a park that's supposed to have a lake in the middle and a bunch of cool stone monument things, but all the maps I've seen in Korea look like they were drawn by a four year old. So, despite having a map at the trailhead we never found the lake or the stone thingies...so I'm going to go back there soon and go in the other direction and see what happens. Still, it was a beautiful hike on a gorgeous day!
After that, we headed back down into Masan and since Laura wanted to see the sea (it's a really disappointing bit of sea there) we went to the area near Shinsegae, a big department store. While there, we figured we'd check out Shinsegae and wow, were we ever shocked. Prices are absolutely INSANE in there.
This ugly golf shirt was (are you guys sitting down?) 363,000 won, or about $320.
We saw a nothing-special North Face rain jacket for 590,000 won ($520) and my favourite...these three decorative sheep for a cool 3.2 million won (nearly $3,000!!!).
Needless to say, we didn't buy anything. We did, however, buy a bunch of stuff at the E-Mart in the basement...I'm finally out of the shampoo and body wash I brought from home, so I bought some of that as well as a bunch of frozen soy stuff I found (cutlets, sweet and sour pork, etc)...pretty stoked about that! Then we parted ways and I headed home and Laura back to Jinju. I crashed not long after I got home, it was an awesomely exhausting weekend haha.
Eeek...the bell just went, I have to go...I just noticed that the counter for my blog is at 996! I'd love to know who visitor 1,000 is...so if it's you, let me know!
Have a great day everyone and thanks for visiting...I'll have more stories (and way more pictures, I still have to edit a bunch) from the weekend soon!
T.
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