wandering waegookin (photos from june)

this is a reposting of my third facebook album of korea for those not on the site.

weekend trip to somewhere near seorak mountain:

ellie and i in the dong seoul terminal. this is about a half an hour into the unexpected three hour wait for the next bus

curing boredom by photographing reflections

this is where we stayed. i have never been so grateful to see a hostel sign (full story is in the blog)

entrance to the cabin we stayed in

just one of four rooms we had...the place was at least twice as big as our apartment back in seoul

i went exploring and found this cool suspension bridge near the hostel

view from one side of the bridge

next i found the closest thing south korea has to blue hole. the water's not too deep, but koreans are short so it's okay

then i found this little mountain thing. funny story: it actually has a waterfall coming off of it sometimes. they pump the water up from the stream below, but the amount of water that comes out is too small for it to make it back down to the stream, so most of it ends up blowing away as mist

last i found this observation deck and thought i'd check out the view

head carefulness is essential around those low beams

zig-zaggy path to the top. the view wasn't worth photographing; as it turns out, it's just as hazy in the mountains as in the city

our hostel had a hut with hammocks! oh happy day

random light-up sculpture thing at the hostel, and a crescent moon

glowy bridge at dusk

coloring is tiring

the "terminal" where we waited for our bus back to seoul

real life rice paddies! and a scarecrow, haha

ps please ignore the smudges. the bus windows were dirty

picnic in olympic park...hands down the best way to spend a warm sunday afternoon in seoul

clear beautiful days like this need to be documented because they're so few and far between

exploring dongdaemun:

a beautiful temple down a side street that was filled with koreans doing their bows and chants. the glowing things inside are giant gold buddha statues

hundreds of koreans protesting somewhere near city hall...the protests, which have been going on for weeks, started out being against the u.s. beef imports and the trade agreement but are now more about their extreme dislike of the current president, lee myung-bak. his latest approval rating is even lower than that of president bush (and that's saying something)

people were pretty chilled out, which was a huge contrast with the only other protest i've experienced (anti-war rally in d.c.)

the line of blue things near the base of the statue is made up of police buses that are acting as blockades. this intersection and the whole surrounding area have been closed to traffic while the protests are going on

ellie's solution to my wanting the lights out before she does

saturday night fun:

exclusive dj party at circle club in apgujeong

typical jimmy...