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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Me on New Years
Turns out I only took one photo at the park during new years, not the greatest picture of me but it'll do. Hey everyone!
I spent 3 days in Daegu for the first part of my New Years Vacation. My roomate used to teach there, so she gave me a hand-drawn map right before I left of places to go and see. Some of the things weren't to scale, but all in all I'm appreciative of it because I'd had no idea otherwise where to go. Neither did Bob who went with me on this trip.
So on New Years' Eve we woke up early and caught a bus to Gwangju and then a connecting bus to Daegu. It's like 4 of the longest hours ever by bus. Good thing I packed my iPod and my gameboy. So we get to Daegu and using Mia's map, we go to the downtown area she recommended. Almost all of the hotels were full and we were able to find one not too far from the beaten path.
After putting our stuff in our rooms we headed out to explore the area and get some food. Later on after walking around we met some other foreign ESL teachers who had us tag along for their New Years gathering at a bar. The name of
The district I was staying in
This is the only picture I have of the downtown area I was staying in. Nearby is a Bennigans, Burger King and McDonalds. And of course a lot of Korean foods and stores. it was the Organ. There was a quote next to the name that I can't remember where it comes from "Do androids dream of electric sheep?"
Midnight is approaching and maybe twelve of us leave the bar to this park nearby where there's a huge bell. There's a huge gathering of people, more than any concert or event I've ever been to. They're all packed in close. We make our way through the crowd and get as close to the stage as we comfortably can. At midnight some Buddhist monks ring the bell and the best fireworks show I've seen in my life starts.
Not to long after this, we head back to the bar and sit around, there's talk of going to noraebang (korean karaoke) but after sitting for awhile we decide to just head back to our hotel because we've got a busy day the next day.
On New Years' Day we go to a famous statue of the Buddha at a Buddhist temple named "Donghwa Sa". There's a lot of walking around to be done, to go around the various shrines and buildings. I guess the original parts of the temple have been there since something like
57BC. From what I've been told, at one point when the Chinese invaded Korea they destroyed a lot of temples and other places in their way through Korea but didn't get as far south as Daegu so Donghwa Sa was left intact. Anyways, it definitely made the bus trip out there worth it to see it. It was very cool, we don't have a lot of historical places in America that are older than the settlers from Europe and survived the westward expansion. But for the most part all of the Western stuff in America is only a few centuries old at best, so to see something that's even older than that is awe inspiring.
After making our way around the temples, we come to a large statue of the Buddha, easily 8 stories tall and more. There's a lot of carved stone sculptures in this part of Donghwa Sa. This is by far the most impressive thing I've ever seen in my life.
About two hours later we decide to head back to Daegu.
That night we found a club that has "billibow" or a mix of bowling and billiards. You shoot the cue ball at mini bowling pins.
We met a bunch of military people who were cool to hang out with. So there's a chain of bars in Korea called "Munich Ice Bar" where your glass is made of ice. You finish your drink and then you get to throw the ice cup at a target (think dunk-tank target) and a wheel gets spun to see what prizes you win. Later we went to some clubs and ran into some of the same people we'd met at the billibow and the ice bar.
Not much later I call it a night and go back to my hotel.
Friday morning we get up before check out, and hop on a bus to Gwangju. We figure we'd seen a bunch of Daegu, and we never found the underground shopping mall nor the underground american food store. After a looong bus ride to Gwangju we arrive and start looking for those two places. No luck. So Bob calls someone who'd lived in Gwangju for awhile and we find the Underground food store. Turns out its' not underground like below the earth, it's underground like the name and it has a London Underground Subway style sign out front. If I ever
really, really want some bacon I'll go back. I did pick up salsa because I haven't had any in too long.
The underground shopping mall. Turns out we'd gone there last time I was in Gwangju but taken a wrong turn and met with the actual subway. We found it this time around though. Maybe next month, when I haven't already spent a bunch in another city I'll go back and check it out.
Then we make our way to the bus station again, and catch a bus back to Mokpo and an hour later I get back and start unpacking. There you have it, my New Years trip to Daegu!
The best part of coming back a day earlier than I wanted is now I have a few days to unwind from my vacation and start grading finals. I've still got a weekend to have fun and relax with.
I was going to meet with an Irish ship builder today. Last night he offered me and my friends here a tour of the vessel they're building but we haven't heard from him yet.
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