Weekend getaway to Chuncheon: June 8-9, 2013

We have done a fair amount of traveling around Korea, and one thing I have noticed is that every region is famous for some type of food. It seems like every time I tell my co-teachers we are going away, they always say "oh (place) is famous for (some kind of Korean food), you should try it!" Gyeongju is famous for this special bread, Sokcho has its seafood, etc. So this time round, we decided to pick a food and go to the best location. This led us to Chuncheon this weekend!

One of our favourite Korean dishes is dak galbi - a delicious chicken, veggie, rice noodles and hot sauce stir fry that is cooked in front of you. One of our friends, Isabelle told us about how Chuncheon was known for dak galbi, so a group of 7 of us decided to make the trek there, and it really was quite the mission to get there. After taking a subway for two hours and forty five minutes eastbound, we arrived in Chuncheon which is about half-way to Sokcho. We walked around the small town, and of course had dak galbi for lunch, before heading to a river. We searched for the ferry to the island, but even after getting in a taxi and translating 'ferry', and asking many locals, we weren't able to find it. Once you leave a big city and venture to the smaller towns, there is less and less English. Not finding the ferry definitely didn't affect our afternoon, since it led us to the swan boats. Renting swan boats, and paddling around the river was a great way to spend the afternoon. After drinks on a patio near the water, and a bit more walking, we worked up an appetite for dak galbi round two! Although, I admit it was a lot of dak galbi for one day, how often are we in Chuncheon, right? 

That night, we stayed at a jimjalbang, which is a bath house where you can sleep the night as well. For a mere 8,000 Won (~6$ CAN) we were given pjs, went to the saunas and baths, and were given a mat and pillow in the common area. I was surprised as to how many Korean families stayed at the jimjalbang. It was our first time staying over at a jimjalbang, and it wasn't actually that bad of a sleep.

Sunday morning we opted to take the train back to Seoul, where we did a little shopping in Myeong Dong, before eating lunch on the Cheonggyecheon stream that goes through Seoul. We found a Pita Pit in Seoul which was very exciting, but sadly it wasn't quite the same as home, still pretty good.

Overall, it was a fun weekend with friends. Next weekend is Ultra, a music festival that Ian and I are both very excited about! Here are some pictures from Chuncheon and our Sunday afternoon in Seoul.

Traveling from Incheon to Chuncheon.

Entering Dak Galbi Street in Chuncheon. 

Delicious dak galbi - one of our favourite dishes in Korea! 

Walking around Chuncheon

Finding the swan boats, bets way to spend an afternoon in Chuncheon.

Swaning around.

Boys in their swan. 

Girls in our swan boat.

In the ice box at the jimjalbang. (Nadia, Ian, Patrick, Leana)

Girls in the ice box.

Sunday afternoon in Seoul, walking along the Cheonggyecheon Stream and finding a place to have our lunch.

Even on this gorgeous day, there was plenty of great places to stop along the stream. We later realized why, when we saw so many Koreans under the bridge avoiding being out in the sun.