The Suncheon adventures - part one

Friday was a holiday here in Korea. I'm not exactly sure why but it was a day off so I'm not going to be the one to question it too much. Despite the fact that it is known as Gaecheonjeol or National Foundation Day, the brief write up I found on wikipedia did little justice to the story that my co-teacher tried to tell me.

So rather than sit around and do nothing (I had originally planned on going to Pusan to visit a friend but he was called away at the last minute to Japan) I decided to check out a bit of Suncheon.

Three days a week I take the bus to work. During the ride I can see a temple perched atop a mountain located in the centre of Suncheon. I thought that this would be a good place to start. So I got on the bus and got off near the base of the mountain figuring it would be easy to find the entrance. Not so much. I walked north for about an hour, following the curve of the mountain before I finally found the road that would lead me to the park. Still not too bad.

The park itself was beautiful and had amazing views of the city. Here is something of a photo diary of that day.

Exercise equipment along the river

A fountain in the river. Don't I look happy?

A view north of the city

The stairway to the temple

Some detail from inside

A view south

Apparently this statue is a famous feature of the park

A mountain in the distance

***

In my previous post I mentioned the numerous 'barber shops' where you could get a little extra service. Here is one such place.

Note the double barber poles on the left

For whatever reason I thought I'd share a photo of my new cell phone. It has a painting for the screen's wallpaper. I think it's by Rubens. Well the kids get a real kick out of it. Two kids asked to see my phone, they opened up, gasped in surprise, closed the phone immediately and then started going on about a nude picture.

My cell phone


A video I made from the temple observatory overlooking Suncheon