Snow in Daegu

The Prairies are calling me home.

Busan

I took a solo trip to Busan on the weekend. It was just a chance to explore and take photos, and give Carmen and Cate some girl time (whatever that means). I basically just walked for 36 hours straight. I had an idea of places I wanted to see, but the city is so big that it's difficult to navigate in a short period of time. So, I got lost a few times and my feet still hurt, but it was worth it.

I met this lady in a park on top of a mountain. Well, we didn't really meet, she just laughed at me while I was taking pictures of some guys playing checkers, so I snapped a shot of her. Surprisingly, she was fine with it, but made me give her 50 cents. The whole incident wasn't quite as weird as it sounds now that I've written it down.

I stopped by Jagalchi Market, the largest seafood market in Korea. I say 'stopped by' because when I got there most people were closing up for the evening. It was still a disgustingly interesting experience though. Any creature from the sea you can imagine. Some of it alive, some of it dead and some of it somewhere in between. Just a lot of blood. And guts. Etcetera.

This is the area I stayed for the night. As I was leaving my motel in the morning, this guy was strapping up his load of random restaurant-related items. So I took a picture.


I spent most of Saturday in the Haeundai Beach/Gwangan area. I'll post photos from the beach later. This harbor was a big fishing spot, so there were plenty of gangs of old men and their scooters.
This is Gwangan Bridge. It's really long. And looks nice in front of a sunset.

Sidenote: I've created a new Flickr account. I wanted to upgrade, so I just scrapped the old one. You can still access it, but I'll only be uploading to the new one now. You can see it here. I've got some old photos in there too. As well as a bunch of others from Busan on the weekend.

Graffiti

Sanctuaries

These churches don't look like they belong in Daegu. But the grey cathedral, in the third photo, is visible from miles away. I stare at it from the bus every time we go downtown, so yesterday I finally decided to get out and have a closer look. On my way there, I found this brick church about a block away; far less visible from a distance, but far more interesting.

This wall-sized mural, inside the cathedral is made with oneinchsquared tiles. I appreciate the intricacy. And it's a beautiful picture.

'Days gone by'

The final sun of 2007sets over Pohang.
The first sun of the new year rises over the East Sea.

It's a popular tradition in Korea to watch the first sunrise of the new year, and Pohang is the Eastern most point in the country. Seeing as it's only a two hour train ride from Daegu, we decided to check it out. As we stepped off the train, we were greeted by a blistering, freezing wind - by far the coldest day we've seen in Korea. And after being ignored by two taxi drivers who apparently didn't want to deal with foreigners, we took a ride to our hotel - the Ramada Encore. It was a very Western establishment and we were able to walk on carpet. That may not seem very cool, but after ten months of walking on cold, dirty linoleum everywhere we go, we may as well have been walking on gold. Despite Cate not being able to sleep and eventually having to crash in our bed, the night was great. That's a lie. The night wasn't great. It was long and frustrating. If you've never shared a small hotel room with a two year old, I'd compare it to trying to sleep in the same room as an espresso-drinking spider monkey. It was that relaxing.

Nonetheless, we answered our sixoclock wakeup call, bundled up and headed to Bukbu Beach. There were already hundreds of people on the beach, shooting fireworks and huddled around campfires. We found a spot, set up the camera and waited. And waited. We stood around, freezing our lips off before the big moment finally arrived. After taking it all in and contemplating life - and doing all the things you do when you experience such a natural wonder - we headed to Family Mart to warm up. There were hundreds of people crammed inside already, all of them eating ramen. It was one of those you have to live in Korea to understand the humour in this situation kind of moments. Despite not being able to move my fingers and being reduced to tears in the taxi ride back, it was well worth it.

Then it was back to the hotel for a 40 minute shower before we headed back to Daegu, where we are now enjoying the remainder of Carmen's vacation in the comfort of our own, tiny, lovely home.