I am guessing that the nurobang night was the precursor to my recovery. Shortly thereafter I decided to get my arse outside and start exploring this fair city. And just so that you know, Korea may indeed be small, but on foot it seems just as big as Canada. In any case, I started walking. All told, my walks ended up being about 4-6 hours at a go.
But, I managed to find some really interesting spots, sites, and hidden jems. I started out as I always do, in little itty bitty stages, so first I headed out towards the Gongotap Rotary (essentially a sculptural monument that you can't get near because it is in the middle of a traffic circle) and found a really fabulous English bookstore, some really interesting stores and finally made it to the Ulsan Grand Park! It was really beautiful and I had quite a bit of fun.
There are some interesting pictures that resulted because of this particular trek. At one point I was standing at the bell temple thingie and this fellow kept following me around as I took pictures and finally asked to see my pics...well, he mimed to that effect and I figured out what he was getting at. Then I got a resounding "good" "good" in that particular Korean accent. I decided that after the supremely long walk I wasn't going to walk this park that was several kms long.
So i went and checked out the bike rental place, walked up, gave up my alien registration card and was told several different times for so much money...in other words the guy had no clue how to tell me how long i had so he just said a bunch of things...so i figured, ah well, just go and check it out. if he charges me, pah...what's another 3bucks. haha, yes, i paid 3 bucks for a bike rental. in any case, what you see in the pics is korea through my eyes.
And the odd Christmas background with the Koreans posing? I dunno, it was late January, and there was Christmas greetings everywhere. Don't ask me! The windmill was just gorgeous, so I had to take a picture, and of course it seems completely out of place.
The wierd round shaped things? I dunno, they looked like planters to me, underwater. And the monument? I don't know either, but it is huge. Well over 15 feet tall. (I think in any case) but it was impressive nonetheless.
This is a war memorial, it is massive and about the size of Olympic Plaza. It was pretty amazing, too bad I can't read the Korean! ...and the dragon thing? That is a sewer grate, as far as I can tell. I think Canada could do with some serious Korean engineering or city planning. There are such details everywhere here. Simply beautiful.
Needless to say, that was a good day. And I discovered that I could stick it out here and probably enjoy myself bigtime. Coming up next?More of Ulsan, a trip to Busan, and a few laughs. Hold tight, its on the way! haha...i am such a celebrity.
2 comments:
Hahahah, I just read Leanne's last comment and I hadn't thought about the whole New Kids on the Block thing, haha. New Kids on the Block! Do you need a liver transplant, now? 'Cause it must have taken a lot of alcohol to get to that point.
Your pics are beautiful, and hey I love your scarf. p.s. - I have the blog, for some reason it doesn't link from my profile (I don't know why?) I tried to fix it yesterday, but anyway it's http://pskettios.blogspot.com
I haven't written so much in it yet though, but it's there!
Stacey,
Yes, there was a great deal of alcohol involved and even more pressure. It was a real torture to try to avoid singing, constant pressure, and since I like April so much I agreed to sing what she wanted. Sadly, even though I hate NKOTB, I knew pretty much every word. Though I couldn't sing a Pearl Jam song for the life of me. Harumph! But there it is, I have posted it online, so no one can blackmail me now! Thanks, I am really enjoying the picture taking, and have become obsessed with scarfs...funny enough most of them have or are green! HA! I will check out your blog again...hopefully there is something for me to read!
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