Before I try to tackle my recent trip to Australia I want to catch up with a quick post about some nice bike rides I took at the end of the last school year, which was still spring-like here, not too hot, and quite breezy. They involved ferry-rides to some of the islands just off the largest next-door island (Yeongjongdo, the 'do' suffix means 'island') on which the airport is located. So what I would do is ride to the nearby subway station, take the subway out toward the airport (usually getting off just shy of the airport), ride my bike to the ferry terminal, take the ferry to an island (there are three which are ferry-accessible), ride and/or hike around the island, then do it all in reverse to get home. On the first trip I went by myself just to scout things out. I was able to get to the northern ferry terminal (it serves the two islands to the north, and there is another ferry terminal on the south side of the island which serves the island to the south) and find an English-speaking person at the ticket window who could help me understand the schedule and cost (very reasonable: about $3 each way including my bike) but I didn't go over because it was fairly late in the day since I'd had a leisurely start and it had taken me a while to figure out how to ride to the ferry terminal. I don't seem to have gotten any pictures from that trip, though I remember some with some Korean bicyclists on the ferry ride home. They had thought it was very funny to raise themselves up in their subway seats while their friends took pictures of us from the chest up so they seemed to be taller than me. Big laughs all around. The next time I went back (this was the Sunday of the weekend just after I'd returned from Japan) and made it to one of the islands (the westernmost of the northern islands, Jangbongdo, which, I was told, appropriately, translates directly to "long hill"). That was my most grueling trip as the road on the island goes over some hills and then stops before the westernmost tip I'd wanted to reach so I had to hike the last several kilometers to get to a cool lookout. The night I got back from that trip I developed a hideous head cold and had/got to (because I couldn't arrange a substitute on such short notice) go on a field trip to the Ilsan AquaPlanet (aquarium) with my environmental science students. It was fun overall but I felt like crapola and only got worse as the week went on. Several weeks later I was ready to get back out on the road. On the next trip I wanted to check out the terminal to the south so Eric and I rode over there and got the information but once again declined to actually cross over to the island itself, Muiido (which I was told is the name of a - historical? - soldier's uniform since the shape of the island is supposedly reminiscent of that profile) but instead visited the new casino at the airport (where we got valet parking for our bicycles and Eric won $200 and I just watched). But it was a beautiful day and a very nice ride also. The final ride was the most fun because four of us (Eric, Ben, Laura, and myself) went to the other northern island together (Sindo) and had a great time exploring. Besides beautiful beaches we found a really fun sculpture garden where they served beer.
On the rides I did by myself I always found many Koreans riding in small groups and they were very friendly, especially on the return trip when we'd all had a little libation, I think. Anyway that's the big picture explaining the individual pictures below.
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| My first time on the ferry. The ferry building is at top left. We're still loading up. |
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| We depart! I enjoy boats! |
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| Passing the nearer northern islands (which are all linked by bridges) on my way to the furthest one (which is not). |
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| The seagulls following the ferry were an entertaining diversion. |
Hitchcock would love it (from Eric):
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| Some of the island coastline. Do you see the pattern I just noticed? |
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| The view from the westernmost point of Jangbongdo. |
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| On the way to the point I'd kind of had to find my own path and ended up bush-wacking much of it, but on the way back the path was clear and took me right along a ridge which had lovely views in all directions. |
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| There was another path I could see along the coast behind me which I didn't have time to do because I had to catch the last ferry back (left at 6:00) but I want to go back to this island again sometime and hike some more. |
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| This is actually a view to the east, of the other (closer) set of northern islands, Sindo and Sido and Modo, which I'll end up visiting in a couple more weeks with Ben and Eric and Laura. |
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| Tide was out. Previous picture was from the little island you see here connected by the footbridge. |
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| Some of my instant friends on the return ferry trip. Just add soju! |
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| I made it but I was really beat. It had been a long, exhausting day. During the following night I came down with a sore throat which turned into a wicket head/chest cold which plagued me for the next several weeks. This was probably my last smile until just before I left for Australia. |
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| Look how tall that Korean woman is! (I think her friends were trying to set us up). |
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| Okay, I guess we got enough of these pictures. |
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| Riding back across Yeongjongdo (airport island) from the ferry terminal to the subway stop I wanted to take a picture of these flowers on this tree which was everywhere in bloom during those weeks. Look at the leaves. It really reminded me of a Locust tree (at least by the leaves) but it had these flowers which smelled very lilacy to me. |
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| Blacky reflected in the subway window. |
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| On the AquaPlanet field trip with my Environmental Science class. |
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| I guess the habit of smiling for the picture is a hard one to break even if you're as sick as a sea anemone. |
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| Minah, who was the prime instigator and organizer of this field trip. |
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| Gaeun, who will be going to CU Boulder next year. |
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| We ate at "South of the Border" (student's choice). Wow, I'm still smiling. It hurts me now just to look at this picture. |
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| After I started feeling better (2 or 3 weeks later) I went to dinner by myself in "town" (my local town, Cheongna). I decided to try a new Japanese place rather than my usual favorite sushi place and I ordered sashimi, thinking it would be sushi without the rice. Well, it turned out to be a lot of food! But I ate it all. |
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| I was a little wary of these things, especially not knowing what they were, but I ate them and they were pretty good. Sort of firm-chewy and nutty flavored. I found out later they're butterfly larvae. |
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| This was another thing which I'd had once before (I think I already talked about it in this blog a couple months back). They're like small snails and you just suck on the big end and something slimy, slightly salty, and chewy (almost rubbery) pops out into your mouth. I like them. |
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| Eric on our ride out to the southern ferry terminal. |
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| Not too exciting here, just documenting the view back toward the mainland from the southernmost tip of the airport island, where the ferry terminal is. They're in the process of building a bridge to replace this ferry, however, so I'm not sure if I'll ever get a chance to take it. But either way I want to get over to that island (Muiido, to the south) to explore eventually. |
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| Eric exiting the casino, up $200! |
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| Valet service for our bikes. And best of all, there's no tipping in Korea! |
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| This is a place I went in town just after school ended. Behind me is the lake park. It had a nice sunny porch to sit on but the drinks and food were nothing to shout about and the service was awful. |
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| Laura posing with one of the many funky statues at the statue/beer garden. This is only the tip of the iceberg! |
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| Eric and Ben impersonating statues from the Karate Kid. Anyone else hear an echo of "Chicken Power!" |
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| A larger view of the sculpture garden from Eric |
Also from Eric: in the sculpture garden,
and waiting for the return ferry to dock:
