Chuseok in Jeonju, South Korea

To Jeonju!

This week we traveled to the city of Jeonju for our Chuseok holiday. We both worked on Monday/Tuesday and left for Jeonju first thing on Wednesday morning. We made plans to meet up with 3 other EPIK teachers that all work in Gyeongbuk province and we met most of them in our orientation in August. Jeonju is a far journey and it took two bus transfers and over 5 hours to get there. We all arrived around the same time and headed over to our Airbnb together. We unloaded our things and headed out to walk around and see the Hanok Village. We were lucky to find a nice and clean place to stay for a pretty reasonable price and were just a minute's walk away from the edge of the village. 

Within the first hour or two of being in town, we found another EPIK teacher who is placed in a different province but we'd had an opportunity to meet and talk with her a bit at orientation. She had made the trip to Jeonju on her own so we were excited to turn our group of five into six for the remainder of the trip. 

On Wednesday we did a lot of walking around and looking at what there was to see. We made plans to meet up with another EPIK teacher from our province for dinner so that was a lot of fun! We ate a lot of really weird food but it was nice to have the experience without being pressured into eating the sliced raw fish and 'pig trotters' if you didn't want to. 

While planning our trip, one of the group members had suggested doing a holiday gift exchange on the trip. A 'secret chusanta', if you will. After we finished dinner we hiked up a spiral staircase to a rooftop cafe/restaurant and basically had a second dinner with drinks and exchanged our gifts. It was fun to see what everybody else had picked out and finally share what we found in our town. In true Malloy fashion, I wrapped both of our gifts in ramen packages and newspaper ads. I feel like unwrapping the presents is half the fun and I didn't want to spend any of our small budgets on wrapping paper. I think my mom would be very proud. 

Chuseok 

Thursday was Chuseok day. We had been warned by a few people that most shops and things may be closed because of the holiday, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that wasn't necessarily the case. We made it out to the village around 10:30 on a mission to find breakfast and quickly settled on a restaurant serving "Jeonju Bibimbap". This town is famous for its Bibimbap so even though it wouldn't necessarily be my first choice for breakfast it was yummy and felt like a big bucket list item checked off the 'tourist list'.

After breakfast, we started hiking. We weren't sure where we were headed, but we followed the leader to the top. We ended at the Omokdae Pavillion. It is a beautiful spot with excellent views of Jeonju city and the Hanok Village from up high.

From Omokdae we walked to the Jaman Mural Village. Wowza! One of the most excellent parts of this trip is that we came with zero expectations. We were thrilled and delighted at almost every corner. The mural village was so beautiful and I snapped a plethora of photos of beautiful backdrops and cartoon classics. At the top of the village, we ran into the ET Café where we stopped for even more whimsical backdrops and delicious drinks. The cafe was painted bright pink and blue and was filled with quirky movie memorabilia and trinkets. This was such an awesome spot and I could have spent all day sittin', sippin', & starin'. 

After we finished our drinks we walked to the Hanbyeokdang Pavillion. This was located in a cute little park with a big trail and beautiful views of the river. We spent a little bit of time here just walking around and taking in the sights. We enjoyed watching for fish in the river and relaxing after a long walk. When we made it back to the Hanok village we went to a PNB shop which is famous for their Choco Pies. Quite delicious! We shared a cream cheese one and a classic but we should have bought 10 cream cheese ones, they were so yummy! Unfortunately, the classic pies had walnuts hidden in the middle so a friend from the group had to go home for a Benadryl and nap after expecting a nut-free dessert. 

We'd hoped to go to Veteran for noodles this night but they were closed due to the holiday. We found another place nearby and had very delicious meat, Kimchi-buchimgae (egg pancake things), and small Kimbap rolls. 

Friday

On Friday I woke up thinking we didn't have much to do and was hoping to stay in and watch a movie or something as my feet were exhausted from all the walking. We decided to hunt down a 'Western' breakfast with the others this morning and decided we could always go back to the apartment and rest if we didn't want to join the others in more walking. We did find a spot in the Hanok Village that had waffles and it was the best breakfast I've had in months. The restaurant was called Sobok and I would eat the waffle and ice cream combo every day for the next month if I could, delicioso! After discussing plans over breakfast it turned out there were still several wishlist items unfulfilled so we headed out to our next adventure, the Jeonju Rail Bike! 

This was such an awesome experience! It was a little further away so it took us about 30 minutes of both busing and walking. The rail bikes are located on an abandoned stretch of the Ajung train line and it is about 1.7 km there and 1.7 km back. The rail bikes can hold 2, 3, or 4 people. We had 5 people in our party so Brandon and I did a bike and the other 3 did the second bike. In total it cost ₩7,200 (about $6.50 USD each). The trail is on a slight slope there so we (Brandon) had to pedal hard, especially near the end. On the way back we were able to mostly coast which was great. The tracks run along the mountain so we had beautiful views in both directions. Some of the wooden tracks under the rails were painted in rainbow patterns and at one point there were old bikes painted in solid colors along the way. We went under a few tunnels and the tunnels were decorated with colored lights on the ceilings and under the rails. 

After the rail bikes, we were able to go to Veteran for a late lunch. This place was very popular so we waited for a bit and eventually squoze all 6 of us into a tiny floor table intended for 4 people. There was a line out the door all day and my, it was for good reason! Brandon and I ordered a plate of dumplings and one noodle bowl. The dumplings were made with very delicate noodle casing and they were so tasty. The noodle bowl was also delicious, very fancy ramen with yummy spices and egg. 

Hanbok time

Hanbok is a traditional Korean dress for semi-formal or formal attire during traditional occasions such as festivals, celebrations, and ceremonies. It is very popular for people to rent Hanbok dresses and walk around the Hanok Village. This is another activity that I don't think I would have been brave enough to try on our own but I'm glad we did it as I'll probably never find the occasion to do so again and it was fun as a bigger group. It was 10,000 won for each outfit for 2 hours and 3,000 for my hair and Brandon's Gat. So for only ₩26,000 (about $23 USD total) you too can walk around Jeonju Hanok village and feel like a fairy princess! There are shops to rent Hanbok all over the place so when we finally settled on a spot we jumped right into outfit picking. There are lots of different styles to choose from… But I'm not very picky so I had my dress picked out in about 2 minutes and it's the first one I pulled off the rack. You can go ultra glittery or with super fancy lace but I loved the red and blue combo as soon as I saw it. I thought I might try it on to make sure it's what I wanted but as soon as the Korean shop lady saw it in my hand they were in my bubble and pulling and prodding to get it on me. Very helpful! But also… maybe too helpful? The dress slips on the front, loops around your back, and is tied above your chest in the front. This all started very quickly and with no explanation! My helper then picked the top piece she thought matched and yanked it on me. I was wearing a striped shirt that you could see through the sheer top so next thing I know my dress is being untied and my shirt pulled off. Again, very helpful and I was the first one dressed before others had even settled on a dress. They mean business! Brandon did a great job finding a matching set and after some pressuring I got my hair done as well. We walked all around the Hanok Village taking as many pictures as we could manage. Four people in our group had their fill of fun after an hour so we headed back to change into our clothes while the other two took full advantage of the time for more pictures. 

Nambu Market

On Friday and Saturday nights, there is supposed to be a huge night market. We were all excited to see it after our Hanbok experience but after walking there it turns out most shops were closed up. It took us about 10 minutes to walk down the two aisles that did have vendors and another 10 minutes to loop back around and buy fried chicken at one shop, ₩2,000 frazils at another, and for Brandon to buy me a stuffed kitty pillow at the last shop. I really wanted a kitty pillow after seeing one at the Pohang market but didn't get a chance to stop and ask about it with our group there so I was thrilled to see something similar and to agree with the price tag attached. We headed back to Hanok village and ate our chicken. My last food request before we left was candied strawberries which seemed a very popular choice amongst the locals. It was a skewer of strawberries basically dipped in high fructose corn syrup and then kept in the freezer. A bit odd but with that much sugar how could it not be delicious? With all dreams fulfilled we headed back to the Airbnb. We packed our bags so we could be ready for a 7 am departure to make our 8 am bus to Daegu.

It was an excellent trip! It was awesome having other people with us as we saw a lot of super cool things and it was very action-packed. I'm very glad we left early Saturday morning though as we should be home with enough time to unpack and unwind and still have a full Sunday at home to do what we please. 

A lot of our Hanbok pictures were taken on a friend's camera and I'm not sure exactly when I will get those so I'm just going to post the few we have on our camera for now. I will come back later to share the rest if I remember but I already have way more pictures than I could ever share so you should get the idea. I would definitely recommend Jeonju! It was certainly worth the 5-hour bus ride and I'd love to take somebody there again!