Local Exploration

The last couple of weekends Svein and I have decided to stick around our place and explore the surroundings! First off, we ventured through what we like to call "real Korea".  This area is located just south of where we live and it is actually where my school is located as well. The streets are very narrow, windy and lined with little shops and restaurants. There are fruit vendors ready to make a sale almost every 100 feet. There are very few sky rise apartments in this area, unlike most areas of Busan.  Instead, the area is filled with two to three story buildings that house quite a few families.  I've been told by my school that this area is very poor and so the students are "very bad" and not very bright. Well, despite this fact, the student's, as well as their families, do not give off that impression.  Everyone in this area is very put together. There are no homeless people wandering the streets or beggars on the corner.  Despite being coined a "rougher" neighborhood, you really wouldn't be able to tell!

So, as we made our way down through the maize of streets, we found a little pottery/plant store. This place offered quite a few gift ideas for our lovely friends and family back home :)

Just down the street we found a GIANT warehouse that seemed to be some sort of wholesale produce store.  The large warehouse offered so many different kinds of fruits and vegetables; mainly in bulk.  Everyone was very friendly and beckoning for us to purchase from them. We decided that maaaayybe a giant crate of persimmons would be too much for two people to eat, so we headed out empty handed - well, except for the many photos taken.

Our next adventure in our area was on Sunday when we decided to trek around Oncheondong, which is one subway stop away from us.  We went out in full hiking gear because, well, you never know what will happen when you're walking around Korea.  The area is 70% mountains!

We stumbled upon a Botanic Garden at the base of Geumjeong Mountain.  The tropical looking plants in this garden were beautiful and we made note to return to this place in the springtime when we are sure everything will be in bloom.

This garden happened to lead up to a hiking trail into Geumjeong Moutain - thank goodness we were prepared! We ended up hiking for about 2.5 hours up and down the mountain.  The rocky peak gave way to beautiful views of our area (Geumjeong-gu), as well as neighbouring regions.  Svein and I were also able to spot our schools from uptop!

 As we hiked down the mountain we came across a group of middle aged Korean men - ajosshi's - taking a break uptop a GIANT boulder. They were singing along with a harmonica players tune and eating fruit. There were also quite a few ajosshi and ajumma (middle aged korean woman) couples stopping for a mid mountain hike break. It is so great to see how active this demographic is here in korea. Not to stereotype, but your typical middle aged couple back home, on a sunday afternoon, wouldn't be out hiking a mountain and eating fruit. No, they would most likely be sitting on the couch, watching either Football or a movie and eating junk food. If only North American could adopt some of the Korean ways.

After exploring our area for a couple of days, we've realized that there's quite a bit to offer right on our doorstep! What's next ? Maybe some pottery classes, cultural events a Hongbeopsa Temple and more hiking!