Weekend in Geoje and Tongyeong

Sat. 7/13

This weekend we headed off for a little road trip to Geoje Island and Tongyeong on the southern tip of the peninsula on the coast.  I have lots of pictures to share with you on this post J 

Gyeongsangnam province is the area highlighted in white, Tongyeong is highlighted in red, and Geoje is the larger island to right of Tongyeong:

Gyeongsangnam Province

View of Dojangpo Maeul from the Windy Hill

On Saturday we spent the day on Geoje Island.  Yeji’s parents joined us for the day.  Our first stop was the small fishing village of Dojangpo Maeul.  We climbed to the top of the hill overlooking the village where a windmill is located.  This hill is unofficially called the Windy Hill, and it surely lived up to its name today!  Here are a few pictures from Dojangpo Maeul:

View from Windy Hill

After grabbing some lunch, we hiked around the coastline for a bit to admire the sparkling blue sea waters!  Here are a few pictures from the gorgeous coastline:

Me and Yeji

Me and Yeji's mom

Our next stop was Oedo Island!  The entire island has been turned into a botanical garden!  Oedo is meticulously adorned with various flowers, fountains, and themed gardens.  The story behind this island is that in 1969, a man who had been out on his fishing boat came across this island when he needed to escape from the high wind and waves of the sea.  He and his wife ultimately ended up purchasing the island and turned it into the beautiful work of art that it is today.  We had to take about a 20 minute ferry ride to get to the island.  On the way there, the ferry captain took us on a scenic route – zigzagging in and out of the rocky island cliffs that dot the sea.  Here are a few of the pictures from our experience to Oedo Island:

The ferry ride to Oedo Island -

The ferry to Oedo Island

On the ferry

On Oedo Island - 

Time for an ice cream break and a photo op
with an elephant!

Yeji's parents!

Our hotel in Tongyeong

After our adventure to Oedo Island, Yeji and I parted ways from her mom and dad and headed to Tongyeong for the night.  We checked into our hotel and then headed into the center of the city for some dinner.  

Since Tongyeong is located right on the water, the city is well-known for its seafood, specifically raw fish.  Yeji asked if I was up for a raw fish dinner and of course I said yes!  We started strolling through the outdoor fish market set up on the side streets.  There was every kind of wriggling sea specimen imaginable in buckets and tanks lining the sidewalks.  I thought our stroll through the fish market was a fun sight-seeing activity before we chose a restaurant for dinner.  It turns out that we were there to pick out our dinner!  We ultimately ended up choosing halibut and another kind of smaller fish that we couldn’t figure out the English translation for.  The woman who sold us the fish sliced it up into sashimi and packaged it fresh right before our eyes.  We were then directed to the restaurant right behind her where we feasted on our freshly purchased fish!  It was absolutely delicious!  Eating sashimi will never be the same again J. 

Unfortunately at this point in the evening, my phone’s battery was on its last leg so I only managed to get one picture of our yummy dinner.  I’ll post some pictures of the fish market at a later time when I get some of the photos from Yeji.

Fresh sashimi for dinner!

After dinner we decided to stroll around the city for a bit and happened upon a stage set up right on the main part of the sidewalk.  It turns out that there is an art festival going on this week in Tongyeong with nightly performances throughout the entire week.  We were lucky to catch a percussion group’s performance.  It was amazing!  Again, I’ll post some pics later.  We lucked out two weekends in a row!  We caught a free concert in Busan last weekend and in Tongyeong this weekend! 

Sun. 7/14

This morning we headed to Mireuksan Mountain.  Rather than taking on the two hour hike to the top of the mountain, we opted for the 10 minute cable car ride instead J.  The top of the mountain was misty and cloudy this morning, so while we were not able to really enjoy any of the views of the city and sea that the mountain’s summit had to offer, we still enjoyed hiking around for a bit.

After the mountain, we sought out a bakery in town that sells ggul bang, or honey bread (traditionally stuffed with sweet red bean paste), that Tongyeong is famous for.  So delicious!  Here is a pic from Google images: 

With the yummy honey bread now filling our bellies, we headed to a section of town called Dongpirang Village.  What is special about this village is that many of the walls, fences, sidewalks, and stairs of the homes and small shops here are donned with beautiful paintings and mosaics.  The story behind this beautiful and unique section of town is that at one point in time, the area of Dongpirang was slated to be torn down for redevelopment.  What happened instead was a campaign led by university art majors to paint the village.  Over time, the colorful paintings of Dongpirang started to attract tourists, and hence attention.  The plans to redevelop the area around Dongpirang were eventually cancelled and the small village still stands today!  The paintings are constantly being changed, expanded, and added to.  Yeji says that each time she comes to Dongpirang, she notices new paintings either added or painted over old ones.  Here are some of the pictures from Dongpirang.  Jamie, I thought of you while we were here today.  I know that you would love to spend hours here taking photos of all of the diverse paintings!

This says "Dongpirang"

After our trek around Dongpirang Village, we headed into town for some Chungmu kimbap, famous in Tongyeong.  Unlike other varieties of kimbap that are stuffed with meat and vegetables, Chungmu kimbap only contains rice but is served with radish kimchi and squid marinated in a yummy spicy sauce.  We chose to eat this well-known Tongyeong dish in the restaurant established by the woman credited with creating it.  There was a line out the door by the time we finished eating our lunch!  Here is a pic once again courtesy of Google:

      

Another fantastic weekend! :)