The next day we decided we would visit a Hanok village which is now part of a much bigger town.
A hanok is a traditional Korean house, usually one storey, built using wood, earth, and stone. It has wooden structures, tiled roofs, maybe a yard or courtyard.
Unfortunately we arrived in a holiday period and it was heaving! However we managed to circumnavigate the traffic jams and find free parking underground (great because it was a hot day).
Again lots of people were wearing the Hanbok outfits. We wandered about the touristy area and ambled to the Jeondong Cathedral. This was a distinctly western building built in the early 1900’s. It was Sunday and the Vicar greeted us as we came out and began chatting to Ahyoung. As soon as he heard that Tatjana was German he was keen for us to meet his colleague in the offices, so Ahyoung steered us in that direction. We met the chap who had studied in Münster Germany for five years. He recommended a famous place to eat Bibimbap. We had to put our names down for when they opened.
We continued to wander and had a silly few minutes. I do wonder what Ahyoung thought of us! The pictures make me laugh so much!
At the restaurant our name was one of the first called so that we went to the front of the large queue. Here we had the Korean mixed rice dish Bibimbap and it was really good. This was the second time we had this but they are all different!
We then decided we would try to get a ticket for the Palace grounds because it had been too busy earlier
The next day we went to meet one of Ahyoung’s friends in Gwangju. The plan was for him to take us and another chap to Hampyeong. We arrived and had dinner, another Bibimbap, this time with raw beef. Tatjana preferred this one to the day before. Ahyoung’s friend paid which was very sweet of him.
Later he dropped us at the expo park where there was meant to be a butterfly event but, it too was cold and rainy. The gardens were lovely though and we enjoyed them. It’s spring here too!
There is a valuable statue here of the golden bat!Bats are auspicious symbols and the golden bat or reddish-black myotis is endangered and is found in this region. I do wonder at spending so much money on the sculpture and providing so little information about the bat and conservation efforts! It seems I am not alone in my thoughts when I started to read up on these creatures!
We met up with Ahyoung’s friends and another man and went to have ssanghwa, a Korean tea with nuts and seeds in it, it’s a meal in itself! It was set in a traditional style Hanok.
After this and back in Gwangju us girls went to play ping-pong as her friend (pictured sat next to me) owned a table tennis club, they all seemed to call it ping-pong though. That was great fun, Ahyoung trounced me! Tatjana was playing with Ahyoung’s friend and then when he went to loo, another guy stepped in who had been playing with the automatic serving device, he was good but, he must have enjoyed playing with Tatjana because he told someone she was his girlfriend! Yes 75 year old Korean men like women 20 years younger too, but after the basket of balls had been emptied, he seemed to have forgotten and left!!!! Phew!
Ahyoung after seeing where she would be staying that night at the ping-pong club, decided to come with us to our hotel. She would have been OK I think but, it really was not set up for guests although our host for the day lived there!
The next morning we went to have Korean BBQ Duck for breakfast!! Ahyoung once again went home with the remains and it would probably feed her for a few days! Sadly we said our goodbyes, she went back home and to work and we set off towards the East.
The Travelling Bee 