Exploring Daegu

My girlfriend did not seen yet really Daegu, excluding Bu-ku (North) area where my exchange university is. The last time we had been to Daegu City centre, it was closed due to the Chuesok Holiday. There had been not much interesting to seen excluding the parks, but the food vendor and museum been closed.

I token her to the places which I had visited here on my arrival with my English friends.  We had a look around the town - there is just no more activities in the town as used to be during the IAAF Games. As all the tourist have gone home - the activities in town also have stopped.

Therefore we just had gone to buy some small gifts for family and friends.

New friends

Today I had Strategy Management. The professor had assigned us into groups for the semester on where we will be working teams on case study and group project. The professor gave a deeper understanding of Strategy and make sure to have next time a study for the class.

After class I went into the book store and purchased all the books I needed for class and also finally a bag so I do not need to carry my pen and paper in my hands from class room to class room.

Later for lunch I met my new friends on whom I met last week. We had gone for some lunch and cup of lemon juice.  It was a great place, which maybe on you would never find. As the Koreans like to build good restaurants and bar on top floor, and usually myself looks on stores on the ground floor.

Later in the day my girlfriend and me had meet up with my friends at the fountain to practise our presentation speech for Persuasive speech. The area on focus is the usage of body language. I knew I had a few problems, but with the help of Toastmaster and A1 Speakers in Newcastle – I managed to resolve some of the issues.

We had just a few chats, as they met my girlfriend for the first time. It was a nice relaxing chill out again at the fountain.

Chuesok Holiday

(9th September until 13th September) 

  

As you may read the last article it stated I am in the airport. Here it continues.

My girlfriend had arrived and we meet up with our friend from Korea who we meet in Newcastle. He lives himself in Seoul and he has shown us around his city. We had been to a small market street near to our hostel and continue along to the National Museum where we met up with his girlfriend.  While we visited the Museum, most of us felt very sleepy as we all did not sleep well or had jet leg off the long travel.  We decided therefore to head back for a little sleep all of us and meet up again at night time for Nansam Tower in Seoul.  It was a great view during the night onto Seoul.

In the second day we had gone to the bus station to purchase tickets to Andong, it is better to do in advance due to the holiday. Everyone is travelling back home to their parents or a meeting point with all the family.  After purchasing the tickets from the East Bus Station (DongSeoul), we had taken a look on the map where we could go. I saw that just few stations away the Olympic Stadium of 1988 was nearby. Therefore we visited the Olympic Park of Seoul Games 1988.

We then taken the Subway back into town of Seoul, on the way back we come across a stop which called “Market” and decided to have a look. We found out it is a whole sale market and was very interesting to see on how they sell it. It is sometimes very hard to purchases something as they try to sell you either the full box or a bowl of 5 fruits. We only just want to try the pears, peaches and apple, therefore are not willing to purchase the bowl.  We manage to find some stores on where we could just buy one apple, and at some other stall one peach and one pear.  We had a look around the market and continued back on the journey to city centre on where we try to find the market at Nansam and maybe to have also some dinner.  As it is the last night of Seoul, I also liked to see the river as I only seen from the car while stuck in traffic.

We manage to get a subway to the river where we stayed for an hour before traveling back to the hostel and take a good rest for the journey southward to Andong.

It is Sunday now and tomorrow is the day of Chuesok. It is a Korean thanksgiving day, where family member get together and worship their ancestors.  We had made the way the to the bus station and had around a fours journey to Andong. The bus was full and I did not been aware we will drive direct to Andong – so great service. I was as well surprised that 50km before the destination we take a 15mins break.  As 50kms is not anymore a long journey.

We arrived late afternoon in Andong and still manage to visit Tourist Information centre before closure, so they could tell us on how to get to the famous village in Andong. The most important aspect on where is the best place to stay overnight. They had given as a few suggestions and then we made on the way to ask for the best price.

We token a walk in Andong and seen a nice park which looks many hundred years old, but was just recently build for its local citizen to relax and for us tourist after the long journey from Seoul. It was a good place to relax.

The next day has broken in and we been had been given the information on bus services to Hahoe Village which is not very frequent. Therefore we decided to take an early bus, maybe a bit too early.  It was good as no tourist expect us had been on the side of arrival, and you got the best spot on taking pictures of the village. No one will appear in the peaceful village.  As today is also Chuesok holiday I will not expect many visitors coming, but later in the day more people joined from Korea. Maybe some of their family member used to live in the village. As they worship their ancestor as mention above.

As we only would spend one day in Andong we decided for lunch time to head backwards and see if we could visit the bridge, but before that look on how to return back to Daegu and stop by Tourist Centre. They advise us that the train and bus service would be very busy and indeed the train service was fully booked, so the plan change and we gone to bus station to luckily manage to purchases tickets back to Daegu or may would stuck in Andong.

After purchasing the tickets we went to the longest pedestrian bridge in S Korea. It was something special, as usually a bridge is just for walking over, but on this one you could take a rest in the shadow as you do on the river bank in Korea.

In our tour guide it had been mention that the chicken dish is original from Andong, so we shall try it here. We went to the market on where many vendors been and just decided for one and ordered the dish, being unaware it is for sharing.  As my girlfriend is vegetarian I had the whole plate for myself – I am sure you can imagine on how I felt after finishing the dish.

This was the end of the Chuesok, thanks for taking the time to read the blog. As this was a long blog entry so far.

Relax at the fountain

Today I visited the Immigration Office with KNU to apply for my Alien Register Card and Student Visa D-2.  It was a fairly easy process, KNU thought we would spend 2-3 hours but we already been on the way back home after 1 ½ hour.

For the rest of the day I had no plans so just wondered around and saw a society for photography and I asked them if I could join them.  Therefore I have joined them and they told me they will get in touch with me in October time for orientation (welcome) session of the society.

In the evening I had met up with my friends at the fountain of the university to socialize with a few chicken and snack. Chicken is very common to eat as students here in Daegu. The plan was to play a few card games, but we did not come to it. We had so much to talk and shown pictures of our home countries or home university cities where we study.