On Saturday I was up early and so was the Sun, swimming in a beautiful, flawless blue sky...so I packed my backpack, grabbed the bike and headed to Masan to take a bus to Tongyeong, where I was hoping to hop on a ferry to some random island. Well, Masan (which has a population of maybe 300,000) has THREE intercity bus terminals, and the Tongyeong buses leave from the one across town from where I was...so I took a quick gander at the board and realized that a bus to Pohang was leaving in 7 minutes. I had never been to Pohang, so I got a ticket from the barely-alive ticket teller (customer service in most places rivals Alberta here...most times they treat you as if it's a huge inconvenience for them to be taking precious time away from texting to help you with whatever insane request you have, like buying tickets at the bus terminal).
The bus took just under 3 hours to get there and it went through the beautiful ancient capital of Gyeongju (where Mark and I went in June). Then it stopped in Pohang and I started riding around...the first thing that hit me was the amazing sea breeze. The air always smells different in coastal towns and, having grown up on an island in Canada, that breeze will always smell like "home".
One of the many cool things about Pohang was that it had some decidedly European-influenced architecture...a welcome rarity in these here parts:
Also...check out the colour of that sky!!! Yeah, betcha you won't see that too often in Seoul or Changwon!!
After riding around the docks and the industrial area, I found the beaches and wow (oh yeah, I saw two tourism offices...neither of which were open...on a Saturday in October, quite possibly one of the most popular months to travel in Korea...go figure)...anyhoo...the beaches were amazing. Long stretches of sandy heaven. One reminded me a little of Haeundae in Busan...check it...panoramic goodness...
Interestingly, across the way from this awesome beach was...what looked like a bombed out and abandoned row of buildings...makes no sense at all:
On the way to the beach, I also found a random Korean battle ship. It's all restored and open to the public free of charge. Kind of eerie walking around on it...it's credited with sinking a North Korean war ship back in the 1980s.
The small guns...
That's all about Pohang, except I couldn't find the famous Pohang hand in the water (do a Google Image search for "Pohang hand" and you'll see!). Oh well...a good reason to come back. I found some wicked waterfront motels with incredible views for about $60 CDN, so I'm hoping to gather some friends in the near future and head back there for an entire weekend!
On Sunday, I took it easy...just rode into downtown Changwon and hung out with Dawni...we went to the markets where we hung out until we had enough of the raw fish smell haha...oooh and had delicious smoothies...I think I'm going to buy a blender and start making my own...thanks for getting me hooked, Dawni. Also, on Friday I met Rachael, another bike enthusiast...really stoked about having her around, now I don't have to be constantly lonely on my two-wheeled explorations!
Speaking of which...I racked up 386 km on my bike last week...booyah!!! I really need to take a day off, but the weather is absolutely perfect right now, I just can't stay at home.
Hope you all had a great weekend (and I hope my Canadian homiez are having an awesome Thanksgiving!)...talk to you soon!
T
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