Chungcheongbuk-do & Chungcheongnam-do
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| Sejong City Skyline |
This was a solo adventure just the two of us to see the north (buk) and south (nam) province of Chuncheong! We used one vacation day on Friday to make this a three day weekend and spent two nights in the city of Cheongju in Chungbuk. On Friday morning we headed towards Cheongju and finally arrived around 2 pm. Luckily our two buses there lined up fairly well so we didn't spend too much time sitting around the bus terminal. As soon as we stepped out of the bus terminal we spotted an awesome interactive Christmas display. The prompt was, "Tell me your wish!". There were cutout Christmas stockings and hearts to write a small message on before you secure your note to a twinkle-light tunnel filled with others submissions. This was such a cute little to-do and fun to see people's hand drawn pictures and other English responses.
After hitting up the wish tunnel and Burger King for a quick lunch we headed straight for our first destination. Brandon was the champion of our to-do list this weekend and he directed us towards Suamgol Mural Village. Similar to the mural village we visited in Jeonju back in October, the murals were painted by local artists as a public campaign to beautify and enrich a small and poor area of the country. After doing some research on this area I discovered that the village has become a popular sight for filming even though it was once a poor shantytown inhabited by struggling refugees.
This village was amazing! It was an overcast day but fairly warm and very quiet. Brandon and I took our time walking around and searching for happy little pictures. I really liked that this village had hidden paintings wrapped around pipe drains and friendly faces on stacked piles of yeontans (briquettes). Brandon especially enjoyed small painted tiles that look to be provided by younger kids from an elementary school or other classes. After wandering through the village we headed to a nearby observatory where we had an excellent view of the city in front of us. As always we were impressed by the vast spread of tall apartments and the hazy outline of fog-covered mountains surrounding us. Following the observatory we climbed up an extremely steep parking lot to visit the Gwaneumsa temple also in the area.
Suamgol village was perched at the top of a steep hill and walking back and forth between the observatory, temple, and village left our calves aching and shot. Right as dusk was settling in we stopped at one of the towering cafes positioned near the village, Fullmoon Cafe. The cafe was beautifully decorated and oh so cozy but we ultimately opted to share a drink because as Brandon so eloquently put it, "They definitely capitalize on their location here". Hello, my beautiful but extremely over-priced teacup of coffee! Cafes in Korea are usually quite reasonably priced so although $6 for a small cup back at home might not seem like much it was definitely a shocker! After watching the sky darken and the city lights slowly switch on we headed back to the center of town to drop our bag off at the Airbnb and make plans for dinner.
One of the most intimidating parts of traveling just the two of us is the responsibility to find a good place to eat that one of us is brave enough to attempt walking into and ordering food. Brandon did some research and found a place that looked promising but was ultimately closed when we arrived. Right next door to our original destination I spotted a place that looked promising to me but I was too nervous to try it because I didn't see any other customers sitting inside even though I did spot a handsome kitty staring at me through the window. We started to walk around hoping to spy a haven of sorts that would welcome us and feed us with the least amount of anxiety as possible. Unfortunately, a haven we did not find. So, when we finally circled back to the second restaurant I had spotted earlier I was overjoyed to see three sets of customers sitting at tables and was able to muster up the courage to open the door and seat us at a table. It is the small things that can be the most frightening when you don't speak the language! This restaurant was a score! Here we shared a delicious four cheese pizza on a thin tortilla crust dipped in honey (honestly amazing!), crunchy deep fried chicken pieces, and yummy grapefruit and coconut drinks.
On Saturday we took an hour bus to the neighboring province, Chungnam. We set out to see the Sejong Lake park which officially crossed off the province of Chungnam and the only special self-governing city of Sejong! On the bus from Cheongju to Sejong we were shocked to drive through tunnel after tunnel of empty countryside and nothingness until we finally pulled into view of Sejong that is absolutely covered in high-rise buildings and new infrastructure. The city is planned to be the de facto administration capital when the construction is completed in the year 2030! Sejong Lake Park is the largest urban man made lake in South Korea and has very nice walking paths around and even a bridge across the lake. It was fun to see small sculptures around the lake as well as young kids rolling down the bridge with scooters and roller blades, we were jealous! While in Sejong we ate at a small noodle shop that was cheap and delicious. The National Library of Korea is very conveniently located across the street from the lake so we tried to get inside to take a look but unfortunately because of the Corona virus they were letting people in by reservation only. This was a bummer but we were happy to still enjoy the building's interesting architecture from the outside at least.
Before heading back to Cheongju we walked to the center of town and visited a newly constructed shopping mall. It was very impressive from the outside but even more interesting once we got a look at the inside. The first three floors were filled with clothes shops and restaurants but we were able to take the elevators all the way to the 11th floor where we freely walked around a completely vacant building. Floors four to eleven are empty as the building was recently constructed and they must be working to fill the levels one by one. It was almost eerie walking through the halls and interesting to see that they allow visitors to climb to the top and use any of the bathrooms in the building rather than blocking it off from public access. Finding the mall was great though as we were able to get great views of Sejong from up high and also walk across a glass floor walk.
A lot of places in Korea feel like they started out small and were somewhat hap-hazardously built upon and extended to accommodate huge population growth and density. Sejong was very different from a lot of the other places we have seen in that every building seemed methodically placed to optimize space and ensure that every building, park, and sidewalk is both uniform and perfectly functional. After marveling at the city we headed back to Cheongju and stayed in the same hotel for one more night. We hunted down a delicious chicken burger at Mom's Touch for dinner and did a little bit of shopping before turning in for the night. The highlight of our accommodation (for me at least) was certainly a real life bathtub. I haven't seen a tub in almost six full months so this was an incredible treat. I am definitely excited to get back home to utilize my own bathtub once again! On Sunday morning we shared coffee and donuts before heading back home to Yeonghae. The bus schedule lined up just terribly so that we spent almost the whole day either driving or waiting for the next bus in the terminal so that was a bummer but we did eventually make it back home and were reunited with our sweet Nacho!
I finished that embroidery hand bag within the last week so I thought I'd share that today as well. We are doing well and excited to continue ticking things off of our South Korea bucket list in the next upcoming month! Here is my Google photos tracker of what areas we have visited so far. Stay tuned!
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