Ganghwa-do and a Few Other Little Things

Hello everyone. I have a few pictures to share! I went out to Ganghwa-do, since it will soon be cold and less fun. I visited the island last time I was in Korea, and I was very glad to be able to get back. I went out with a friend, and it was a good time. We had some issues finding the right place to catch the bus out, and spent too much time waiting for busses in various places. Even though there were some annoying issues, it was a really good day.  As I'm feeling pretty lazy, I'm going to let the photos guide me through this. Hope you enjoy them!

Fall's here, and the leaves are all changing and falling. This is a spot between the school and the Museum of Art that you can see below.

I walk along this road on my way to work. The ginkgo trees are really dropping their leaves.

I was given tickets to a special exhibit at this art gallery by one of my coworkers. I went one Sunday. It was really cool. The art was all very abstract, which is usually not my favorite thing, but it was really good. There was an art student from Incheon who works at the gallery, and she showed me around. We talked about the pieces, and she told me about the artists and what they were trying to convey. It was a good experience. The gallery is really close to my place, so it was very convenient.

This is another picture at the school. I took it as I was coming in in the morning. You can see the A and B wings of the school, and the Dorms are just out of shot to the left.

I finally stopped by Hyehwamun to get a few pictures. This is a few blocks from my place, on the way to Hyehwa. It was a smaller gate, but it looked really cool lit up at night.


So on to Ganghwa. I made this little Tripline trip to illustrate the trip!

We bussed out when we finally found the right place to catch the bus, and then we bussed to the port of Oepori. We jumped on a ferry to take us across to Seokpori.

Inside the ferry. We didn't sit inside during the trip there; there were too many interesting bird antics to watch.

The birds followed to catch snacks thrown from the boat.

The birds would even swoop in really close to the boat to grab snacks directly from people's hands.



I took a video of the birds and their crazy snack-catching antics. Disappointed that I talked during the video, but it still turned out pretty well.

Also on the ferry was this sign, which reads: "Jump and clear all the steps for a bonus prize!"

I got a few pictures of myself at the temple. One of the bonuses of touring with other people! This is near the entrance to the temple. To the right is the second or third largest ginkgo tree I've ever seen!

Here you can see the entrance to the cave room, a juniper tree that looks like a dragon breathing fire (which was news to me, but I was able to see it very clearly once learned this). You can also see the platform up on the cliff where a buddha's been carved into the wall.

Here you can see me with a carved buddha and a large number of monk statues. The monks were stored in a huge class case last time I was here, because this part was still being built. It was really cool to see it finished, and I was happy that I could get a few pictures of myself here. You can see that it was a popular place for people to get photos, and also the family on the right were trying to throw coins up onto a pagoda.

I was also able to get a photo of myself alone here. Thanks to C. for being a willing photographer!

The pagoda mentioned above, with coins visible. Both my friend and I were able to toss coins up and have them stay. I hadn't seen this kind of thing before, but I bet it's lucky! There is very little area on the structure that isn't sloped, so it was a bit of a challenge for us.

I suppose this sort of ruins the attempted anonymity I've been shooting for, but oh well, it's worth it. Here you can see a roof tile that we paid to write on. We decided to share one since it was 10,000 for each tile. We wrote simple messages. The tile will be used at some point when they retile the roof of one of the buildings. As my sister sais, it's got to be good Karma. It was a fun thing to do, and was another first for me!

After the temple, we took the ferry back to Ganghwa island. We wandered close to the ferry landing point, as we had heard that we could have good crab stew here. We found a place that looked good, and got some good food! You can see the stew cooking in this picture.

And here you can see the food after it had cooked. This is after we had eaten some of the crab already. It was quite good, and nice and spicy. It was kind of difficult to get at the meat, but all the work was worth it!

After this, we spent some more time waiting for a bus, and we ended up grabbing a taxi to get back to the Ganghwa Bus Terminal. We then caught an intercity bus back to Seoul.

As I mentioned it was a good trip, and I am glad I got out before winter. I am sure I'll return again in the spring or summer, since I still need to see fortresses, and I'm sure there are other things I haven't yet seen.

I hope you are all doing really well, and that the weather is staying relatively warm so far! Let's all get ready for the cold of winter!