Korea 2023

 As promised I am back after a long day to finish my first full day in Korea. After lunch, coffee and more coffee we headed out to the Heo Gyun Nanseolheon Memorial Park in the northeast part of town. Heo Nanseolheon was a painter and poet of note from the mid-Jeoson Dynasty (1500's AD). Unfortunately I didn't learn much about her during our visit, but thats mostly my fault. I was going nuts because this was the first time I was able to break out my SLR to photograph Korea. The park has a few Hanok-style buildings, one of which you can pay 2000 won to enter and have tea and rice cake in a traditional setting. Of course we had to partake. Replica of a traditional Hanok-style house where we had tea Settings for multiple tea parties Rice Cake Just to show it wasn't just a façade on the outside to make it look traditional Lovely place settings Next to the tea room there were additional traditional buildings that demonstrate key pieces of old-world Korean life. In-floor heating ...

 Once again I am writing this about a day behind the actual events mainly because there is too much to keep up with! I briefly woke up the morning after the flight at 8am only to pass out until 11am. Disoriented, I got dressed and stumbled out the door to go out to lunch in the "Gangneung Byeongsan Dough Soup Alley." There are several, let's call them districts?, centered around a certain food. This is a needed export to the western world. There is also a Sundubu district for tofu based food. Lunch was an acorn jelly (dotori muk) salad and potato dumpling soup - gamja ongsimi guk. Gangneung is apparently well known for potatoes and it was apparent in the taste - very fresh and very wholesome. Apparently Korean map applications have an object class dedicated to specific food areas. Gamja Ongsimi Acorn jelly salad with lettuce, chives, onion, cucumber and red chili sauce After lunch we strolled through potato soup alley to a coffee shop while taking in the beautiful day. Ma...