Discovering Daegu...and check out my Giant Iguana!!!!

Well, I apologize for taking so long to get this blog written, but I've had a pretty busy week...

On Saturday, Dawni, I, Lina and Johnny headed to Daegu because I and Dawni have never been there. Daegu is Korea's third most populous city. It's about an hour away from here (roughly 90km from my house) and about 2.5 million people call it home.

We first headed into their downtown, where they had a ton of streets for pedestrians (and scooters) only, where we wandered around, looking at the millions of shop windows an for a place to eat. We settled on pizza (for the first time ever, I decided to try cheese-filled crust...I always thought it was a dumb gimmick...but damn, does it make things delicious...you can never have enough cheese).

Anyhoo, after more wandering around and Lina giving Johnny roughly 1,496 mini heart attacks with her spirited driving, we arrived at the Woobang Land, Daegu's amusement park. Now, most of you know that I hate amusement parks. I refuse to set foot in Disneyland and I generally stay away from amusement parks at all costs and only go to carnivals to check out the workers and see if I can get a date with a 22 year old with 6 children, 18 tattoos and a bad meth habit.

However, I am in Korea. And I've sworn to say "yes" to as many things as possible. So...when the idea of  going to an amusement park was thrown out there, I thought "why the hell not?". First off, this amusement park was ridiculously cheap. Since Lina bought us tickets in advance, it cost us roughly $14 and that included admission to the park, every possible ride you could go on, a gondola ride to Woobang Tower and admission to the CN Tower-like Woobang Tower. Add those up. Back home that would be $100+.

First, we headed to took the gondola to the Woobang Tower (I apologize, I took way too many pics of that place). It was pretty neat...

Then we saw someone jump off the 202 metre tower:

Then we got to the top and were greeted with the amazing sight of Daegu below us...here's a 12-shot panorama:

Then we hit the rides. Or, rather, they hit us. First, we went on the Viking Ship (although, to be honest, I doubt the authenticity of the vessel...the extensive use of plastics and lead-based paint to decorate it makes me think it was a historically inaccurate boat).

Then we went on the rollercoaster...I'll have some more pics of it later, but suffice it to say that the thing did about Mach 3 on its way up and down loop-the-loops...half of which the bloody thing did while screaming down the track in reverse. I've never been on a rollercoaster in my life, and damn, this was one hell of an introduction. Lina and I did it three times (Johnny and Dawni were too scared, so I think they went off to crotchet socks or some other thing scared people do)...the last time we sat in the front seats...that was interesting.

After a few more random rides, we also did bumper cars...which, if you've ever seen Korean traffic should simply be called "cars" here. Bumper cars is a very accurate depiction of driving here, so I'm not sure why it's so popular. Also, the cars kind of look like Kias...

Another cool thing about the amusement park here is that we rarely had to wait long for anything...on most things we got on right away, for the bumper cars we had to wait maybe 2 or 3 turns...really not bad...just enough time to take some pics...

Then night fell...so I went kinda crazy taking pics of the tower...I apologize for the repetitiveness, but I like unique buildings...

Tons more pics on my Flickr if you're interested :) http://www.flickr.com/tamasv

Another cool thing about amusement parks here...at home, you go to a carnival, midway, hootenanny, or amusement park and you better be prepared to pay $7 for a hot dog and $5 for a bottle of water. Not here. Snacks cost as much as anywhere else and gifts/souvenirs were even cheaper than in the stores. It was good to see that your average family doesn't have to cash in the kids' college funds to have a bit of fun. (Even though it's not MY kind of fun haha).

Oh, random...Lina insisted we take her car and wow...after 7 months of not having a car and rarely taking taxis, you have no idea how much of a treat it is to be in a car for an hour or two. I felt like an excited dog..."Tamas want car ride? HUH??? YOU WANNA RIDE IN THE CAR???"

On Sunday, I took it easy, just went into Masan and bought a bike from Johnny! As much as I love my roadie, it's amazing to be back on a mountain bike. Initially, I was going to keep both bikes, but I live in a tiny little bachelor apartment and still want to get a folding bike (to take to the neighbourhood store, etc), and with all these bikes, I barely have enough room to move around in my house. Here's the new rig:

It's a Giant Iguana Disc. Aluxx aluminum frame, 100mm lockout Suntour Magnesium fork up front, Deore/Deore LX drivetrain, Michelin tires, etc, etc. It's not quite as nice as my bike back home, but it'll certainly do while I'm here. One thing it has that my bike at home doesn't are disc brakes...and I tell ya...once you go discs, you'll never go back...Avid Juicy Three hydraulics...amazing:

And this is what my apartment looked like while I was cleaning/tuning up the Giant:

Yes, I was watching some crappy Ashton movie just to have some English around me.

I've been riding it every night after work and, while it's a little slower than than the roadie, it's also a ton of fun bashing through whatever comes my way...I also started getting back into Urban Assault stuff (jumping on/off stairs and stuff) and turns out I suck. Apparently if you don't do something for 10 years, you tend to lose your touch. Oh well, it's still fun and hopefully I can get some of my mad skillz back.

Okay...this has turned into another way-too-long post, so I'm going to wrap it up.

Hi ho, hi ho, off to teach I go!
T

The Wanderlust King hits the big Three-Oh!

That's right, folks...I'm officially old. It's all downhill from here. Time to start shopping around for a good deal on a hip replacement. Maybe if I look hard enough, I can find a coupon for it in the Pennysaver.

I'd tell you that I don't feel a day older than when I turned 20, but everyone says that. I am, however, having more fun and in better shape than I ever have been in the last decade, so that has to count for something. But, I think it's time to make some changes. It's time to realize that I'm too old to do dumb stuff like take a Ford Escort wagon and lower it then put in a stereo so loud it shakes the rearview mirror off. I'm too old to pull all-nighters on some remote beach with my buddies. I'm too old to throw a blanket and a camera in my car and disappear for days, sleeping in the back of my wagon like some sort of 1960s hippie. Time to move onto more grown-up stuff like planning my RRSP and finally watching my fibre intake. You can't underestimate the importance fibre has on your overall health. In case you took any of the above seriously, we need to catch up...you obviously don't know me well enough. ;) How's coffee on Wednesday sound? The only things that'll change about me is the cars will get lower, the stereos louder and the roadtrips more epic. Though I did bring up a good point about fibre...

Anyway, instead of boring you with a bunch of feelings and junk, I'll give you one of my favourite forms of expressing myself...random lists:

Things I thought I'd have/do by the time I turned 30:

- Okay. Moment of truth. I didn't think I'd still be a bachelor at 30 (though a few months ago I started to suspect that that's where things were heading). I thought by 30 I'd at least be married (preferably to a supermodel/theoretical physicist...the kind of woman you see in James Bond movies), and - at times -  even kids weren't out of the question.

- I thought by now I would have achieved the Holy Trifecta of awards: The Nobel Prize, the Oscar and the Participant ribbon at the annual Nanaimo Horseradish Eating Contest. But, sadly, my mantle is depressingly devoid of these lofty honours.

- I thought I'd have a car worth more than $500. Not that I don't love my stunning 1993 Ford Escort wagon, but, honestly, I thought by the time I hit 30 I'd have at least a half-decent daily driver (something made in this millennium) and a toy or two.

- I thought I'd be working somewhere where there was a reasonable chance I may last until retirement. Oops.

Stuff I can check off the "Before I Turned 30" list:

- I have lived on three continents. Not just visited, but actually lived on. How cool is that?

- I'm on my second career. Leaving the first one was my choice, and I have enjoyed both careers and like to think I have done pretty dang well in both.

- I have enough stories to tell to entertain my future grandchildren (or current friends with no means of escape) for years.

- I'm still awesome. Seriously. Thirty years of keeping it real. No small feat.

- I'm nearly debt-free with a degree in my pocket and a future as bright as the drug-dealer chrome rims on my old lowrider.

- Despite all the crap that's happened in the past couple of years, I wake up every morning loving life and I go to sleep every night (or morning, in some cases...like this weekend) thinking "damn...life's good".

- I have a perfect relationship with my family and have the world's best group of friends at home and a pretty damn sweet crew in Korea...if success was measured in terms of amount of time spent surrounded by genuinely amazing people, I'd be Bill-flippin'-Gates.

Okay...I think I'll stop there, before it starts looking like I'm trying to brag. Oh yeah...in case you're wondering, the actual birthday was awesome, thanks to my peeps in Korea! On Saturday Dawni took me out for lunch (w00t...pizza!) and we wandered around town then I headed to another one of the Masan reservoir parties...it was epic as always. At midnight I had 20+ people singing happy birthday to me...yay :) And here's where I turned 30:

Okay...that's it...except for some song lyrics...Sweatshop Union (awesome Canadian group)...Cut Back...I always think of my drifter lifestyle when I hear this song...seems especially appropriate on the day I'm turning 30...

Getting older by the minute and I'm like wow
I won't admit it but I'm in it for the lifestyle
It can be wicked but I'm sticking with it right now
...
Each time one more thing, then roll up late
In a Super 8 Motel, know this rate I won't rejuvenate so well
Oh hell, don't tell me to slow down, it won't help
I'm in it too deep to know how

Okay...now I'm done :) Ooooh by the way...few cool things coming up in the next couple of weeks...Jinju lantern festival in 2 weeks followed by the Busan Fireworks Festival....stay tuned!

T

My first Chuseok...and I've reached a few milestones!!

Happy Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), everyone!

I've been hearing about this holiday since before I moved here...it's 4-5 days of freedom in September or October (it moves around)...it's the first time I've seen Korea slow down. Seriously...Korea never seems to sleep...or even take it easy...but...for Chuseok, traffic (at least on the middle days) seemed to die down, all the things that wake me up every morning seemed to take a break and streets were eerily empty.

The first two days, we had a tropical storm blow through Korea, bringing rain, rain and more rain to my area, so I did what I haven't done in...well, ever. I stayed at home, watched movies and ate junk food. Oh, and played video games...it was wonderful. On the third day, the weather was better, so Dawni, Johnny, New Allison and I decided to hit up Busan...it was pretty trippy, because Busan is usually really busy, but stores were closed and streets were deserted. Ghost town...by Korean standards, anyways. We finally managed to find a restaurant to eat at and sat down, looked through the menu handed to us, sipped the glass of water the waiter kindly bestowed upon us and after about 5 minutes were ready to order. It was at this point that the waiter informed us that they don't actually have a chef and it would be at least an hour before one would show up.

This was one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time...seriously, who opens a restaurant without a chef? And why give us menus and water and act like everything is normal when you know the dude cooking the food is - at that very moment - sleeping at the other side of town.

Long story short (I have a lot to cover in this blog post), we just bummed around Busan, walked everywhere we could think of, had some awesome laughs and saw some wicked things...Busan simply rocks. I can never get bored of that place!

Anyhoo...I'll have more pics coming as soon as we figure out how to get it from Dawni, but for now...here are a few...the 4 of us on the subway in Busan.

The waterfront...panoramas rule...

My visual commentary on contemporary Korean fashion:

A cool pagoda at a temple behind a row of shops in a shopping district...way cool and unexpected find:

And a gorgeous moonrise over Haeundae Beach (where there are way too many out-of-shape white people wearing way too revealing clothes...just sayin').

The next day (I LOVE that we can do Busan in one day without stressing about time...with the lack of traffic this weekend, the bus took 40 minutes to get from Masan to Busan...oh and it costs a little over $3...yeah...do that back in Canada or the U.S.)...anyhoo, the next day, I decided to saddle up ol' Two Wheels and head to Daegu, about 90 km away. I carbo-loaded (rice, beans and corn), water-loaded (few bottles in the freezer at all times) and backpack-loaded (camera, spare tube, clean dry T-shirt for the bus ride home) and hit the four-lane blacktop. Now, I love the sun and the heat, but damn, riding in 30 degree weather in a semi-tropical (read: humid as all hell) climate on pavement with no shade kinda sucks...but whatever the scenery was beautiful, the sun was blazing and the hills were challenging, but not murderous. Life was good.

And then, at around the 21 km mark...I heard what every rider dreads hearing, especially out in the middle of nowhere. *POP* sssssssssssssssssssshhhh.....flop flop flop. Excellent. I blew an inner tube to smitherenes in the middle of nowhere (time to change the actual tire, the real cause of the problem...it has holes in the sidewall...oops). Being the wise man I am, I had a spare inner tube, but no pump. So, I got off the bike and started walking. And I walked. And walked. And walked. I saw dead bugs. Big ones. I saw gigantic live spiders. I saw snakes that had been run over by cars. And I walked on. After 3 km of walking on the side of the highway, a gas station (or teleporter to take me home) still failed to materialize, but 6 Korean knights in bright yellow armour and on $5,000 carbon-fibre steeds did ride into my miserable life!

These guys were the proud members of Kyongnam MTB, a local mountainbiking group and wow...they were as nice as their bikes were sexy. They rode up behind me, stopped to see what the problem was and then transformed themselves into a Formula 1 pit crew. All I wanted to do was to borrow a pump, but these guys were having none of that. They were tripping over each other helping me with my bike and within minutes I had my bike roadworthy again. We took a quick picture, waved goodbye and went on our way (I headed back home, not wanting to temp the tire one more time...still, logged 45 km...yay).

Say what you will about Koreans, but they rarely leave a stranger in need stranded. Huge thanks goes out to these guys for not only proving once again that Koreans are, by and large, kind and generous people, but also for turning what started as a thoroughly negative experience into a very positive memory.

So that was my weekend...today I'm going to chill out and going to take it easy tomorrow (maybe finally get that new tire the bike has been needing since I bought it)...but, I wanna lay a few more things on you guys before I leave...

Guess what. Seriously. Guess....okay, no guesses? I have been here for six months!!!

I know. Isn't that crazy? On March 14, I landed in Busan and it's been an incredible ride ever since then. Not a single boring day, and not a single day (despite some negative experiences) when I wanted to pack my bags and head home.

Don't get me wrong...I miss home. First and foremost, I miss my family and friends. I am lucky to be surrounded by some amazing people at home, but thankfully I have some awesome friends here too, so that's really helping a lot.

Some other things I miss: being able to go out to eat. Seriously. Seems simple, right? Yeah...try being a vegetarian in Korea. Good luck. I miss the Island. I miss perfectly clean and crisp air, beautiful blue water, massive old growth forests and being in the middle of nowhere. But, most of all...the thing (people don't count in this category haha) I miss most is my stupid little station wagon.

I miss driving and having the freedom to go anywhere anytime. (Or, in my case, everywhere all the time). Going from driving 65,000 km/year to 0 km in 6 months is ridiculous. Sadly, I don't think I'll buy a car while I'm here, so I better find a way to get over the driving withdrawal before I go crazy. Oh...I also miss my car's stereo :( The pair of Sony headphones I have just can't compete with this:

My parents always knew when I was coming...they heard the boom from the subs, and knew that about a minute later I would magically materialize...sigh.

Despite all the things I'm missing from home, I'm having a lot of fun and I have a great life here. I'm good at my job and I'm appreciated at work, which feels very nice (just the other day the senior English teacher told me that she appreciates the way I teach and I'm very "sincere" when I'm teaching...it was awesome). I make good money; I live well here and I'm paying off my student loans. I'm on the ultimate trip of my life, forget a weekend here, a couple of weeks there, I'm living in Asia for a year or two...how crazy is that? This is something I'll be talking about for the rest of my life.

In fact, I like my life here so much that, despite coming here with the intention to stay for one year and one year only, I am 99% sure that, if offered another contract, I will sign it and rock out in Korea for two years before settling down in Canada again.

And that brings me to my second anniversary. On Sept. 15, 1993, my parents did what must have been one of the most stressful, scariest and most anticipated moments of their lives: they packed up eight bags and two children and stepped on a Malev plane and left Hungary. Twenty four hours later (but still on Sept. 15, thanks to the time difference), the four of us touched Canadian soil for the first time and became Canada's newest residents.

My and my brother's futures were no small part of the decision for my parents to leave their families and homes behind and try their fortunes halfway around the world, and for that, I can't thank them enough. Eighteen years later, we're all Canadian citizens (in fact, we're all dual citizens...we have more passports in the house than a KGB double agent), and I am proud to tell people around here that I'm Canadian. I love Canada and I know my family (especially my brother and I) have the kind of life we couldn't have even dreamed of back in Hungary.

Oh yeah...there's another big milestone coming up...stay tuned...blog coming soon!! ;)

Also...I'm always listening to music...and I was thinking of starting some sort of a musical component to the blog...not exactly sure what to do. Was just going to throw out some cool lyrics and/or stuff I'm listening to as I'm writing the blog...tell me if it's a huge flop/waste of time...currently listening to Peter Bjorn and John's (with Victoria Bergsman) 2006 track "Young Folks"...when was the last time a song where whistling was a big component charted so well? Plus, Victoria has an awesome voice. First few words of the song...

If I told you things I did before, told you how I used to be
Would you go along with someone like me?
If you knew my story word for word, had all of my history
Would you go along with someone like me?

So...here's to 18 years in Canada, six months in Korea and a few days short of three decades on the planet...yup...this is a big week for yours truly!!!

T

Got me some wheels again! Back in the saddle of a sexy Specialized roadie...

As you all know, I have been going crazy not having my own form of transportation here. My love affair with a motorcycle ended quickly and I've been very reluctant to get a car for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that gas is almost 2 bucks a litre here.

So, I started looking at bicycles. Ever since I was a kid I have been into bikes, and throughout high school and college rode a lot both on road and off. Originally I was looking for a mountain bike here, but the only decent one I found sold and I realized that riding mountain here would be nearly impossible (trails here consist of very steep ascents filled with loose rocks, dirt, and roots. In addition, the soil seems to be something resembling clay, so riding up those trails looks to be more of a pain in the ass than is worth it. So, I started looking at road bikes...I've been wanting a roadie since my last one was totalled when I got hit by a truck...after a few weeks of looking (I wanted a non-Korean bike, which are fairly rare around here), I found it...a Specialized Allez A1 24. It's a few years old (2002 or 2005, I'm not too sure). The components aren't top-shelf, but they're not bargain basement either (for you bike geeks: Shimano Sora and Tiagra shifters/brake levers and derailleurs, Ritchey Logic Aheadset, Ritchey handlebar, Ritchey hubs front and rear, Sugino cranks)...it's decent and fairly light (putting it on a scale with me revealed it to be roughly 22 lbs...much nicer than my 30 lb mountain monster at home).

Dawni and I went to Seoul to pick it up last weekend and though the guy was shady as hell (he was bragging about making $250,000 a year as a colonel in the US army, but felt the need to try to rip me off on a $400 bike), the bike was in beautiful condition...it still has the original tires and brake pads on it that have barely any wear on them. The biggest problem with it was that it wasn't shifting right which I found out was caused by lack of use...the grease in the shifter hardened! (A quick spray with WD-40 solved the issue).

I've been meaning to take better pictures of it, but it's such a pain having to carry a backpack just for my camera that I have been lazy...sooo here are some picture of it in my apartment (yes, it lives inside haha)...in the sun it looks amazing...it's metallic blue with pearl white...two of my favourite colours...and everything else (handle bar, stem, seatpost, wheels, etc) is semigloss black:

With the fix...all I have to say is WOW...the thing is ridiculously quick. Leaving an intersection, I'm usually around 30km/h by the time I reach the other side...cruising on slight uphills at 30km/h is no big deal...in fact, even this felt pretty effortless (not the fastest I've gone on a bike...on my old Peugeot roadie I clocked 78 km/h, but his is a start)

I've been riding the hell out of the bike...in the week I've had it, I've clocked a little over 258 km on it. Most days I ride 40-45 km after school...but on Sunday I put a little over 50 km on it. Surprisingly enough, doing it day after day is not tiring me out...I'm hoping to work myself up to 100+ km days. I used to do that back in Canada, but I haven't really ridden bikes seriously since I left Victoria in 2005.

It's amazing riding, though...I can finally be out exploring more than the few kilometres around my house and not have to rely on stupid buses. I'm growing more and more hateful of the six-wheeled sardine cans and the people who inhabit them. I've been out exploring Masan and Changwon (when you rely on buses it's easy to have no idea how the city is laid out and where exactly things are in relation to each other...I'm finding that riding is helping with that a lot) and I have been heading out to the countryside as well.

Surprisingly enough, it feels much safer to ride in traffic than it does to even walk on the sidewalk around here. I think it's because there are soooo few riders on the road (I literally bump into another one every 50-100 km) that people are not sure what to do with us and they err on the side of caution. As insane as Korean traffic is, I don't feel any less safe commuting in it than I did back in Canada...was definitely a positive shock haha.

Okay, this is it for now, I just wanted to show off the bike and give you guys the initial impressions...I'll try to have some more pics of it out and about ASAP.

Have a great Labour Day weekend, guys...wish I was at home for it!!

T