Buyeo

Once I finally got myself out of the comfy chair in that coffee shop in Buyeo, I decided that I really wanted to see some of the sights and history in town instead of traveling on.  I hadn't decided yet what I would do - I figured I could catch a room in Buyeo and continue on the next day, or, if I was just too beat, I could take a bus back home.

So I set off.

There was a really pretty, spacious park out by the tourist sites around the coffee shop.

And this bridge, which you may remember from last year.

But instead of crossing it to continue up the Geum River, I went down into town.

 And saw some puppies!

And a big statue of someone famous.  (Sorry, I can't tell you who he was.)

I also saw some cool construction machines on the street.  When I came back I took some even better pictures you'll see later.

I'm not sure what this building was.  One of the words in the title may mean "Love Room" when directly translated, so I don't know if it's a sketchy place or what.  I couldn't really figure it out and my dictionaries and translating apps haven't been much help for me.  Either way it stuck out on this street so I took a picture, just because.

My major landmark in the town:

But to be safe I snapped some shots of maps and tourist info.  Handy having a smartphone - I can always have the information I might need!

I decided to check out one of the tourist things.

Cool!  A fortress!

I think maybe that's the fortress there in the distance...but mostly I just wanderd around the park looking for the fortress and wondering why no path ever seemed to lead to it...

I thought maybe I'd found the way to it at last, but it just seemed to be an unfinished area under construction, not a path that led up to the building.

So, since I kept not reaching the fortress and even seemed to have passed it, I decided I would shoot for a famous cliff where a tragic number of women committed suicide.  Apparently this place now honors them, because they killed themselves "to remain faithful," but I can see how "remaining faithful" and "trying not to be violated by hordes of angry men rushing in" could really be the same.  Either way it's kind of a creepy thing to think about as you're walking up: "I am approaching a cliff where three thousand women committed suicide."  I wouldn't be surprised if there are some creepy vibes around this place.

But it was still beautiful, and offered an amazing view.

Check out the boats below and the farmland in the distance.

That strange arch may be the entrance to another tourist trap.  I didn't go to check it out, but I've seen similar things decorated to be giant crabs and other interesting themes to lure you into stopping by.

Those boats looked pretty cool in all those pictures, right?  So of course I had to go and ride one!

A combination of the old and new...

Sorry, I don't know what the red writing means.

There were all kinds of fascinating little things tucked up into the rocks and trees for you to find as the boat slipped by.  The tour guide may have mentioned what these were, but my Korean's not that good to start with, and on a crowded boat with noisy kids galore, you know I didn't catch a word.

A better view of the traditionalized boats tourists can take:

As it turns out we didn't come back to the point at which we'd started.  This was a big deal for me, because my uber-expensive bicycle was way back at the starting point!  Inside the gate!  And the park was closing within 30 minutes!  Everybody else had apparently known that this would happen and had parked their cars down here on this side where they could just get in and roll away.  But I didn't, so I had to lumber around town on foot (so slow!) and hope that I could make it back before the park's gates shut so I could get my bicycle again!

Hey, is that the fortress that I never quite found earlier?

I must be on the right track...

Good thing I had that landmark to remember!

I got back just fine and got my bike.  Then I took some pics of this construction as I passed, because it was really fun to watch!

And then I was so exhausted that I decided to take the bus back.  After having cycled at least 60 kilometers in one day and essentially gone hiking for hours afterwards, I was ready for my adventure to be done.  I wanted to kick back and relax.

So I found the bus terminal and asked if I could bring my bike on if I stowed it in the bottom.  Hooray!  I could!  But there were no buses going directly to Gunsan, she said.  I figured surely there would be a bus going to Jeonju or Iksan or some other place where I could transfer.  She said I'd have to go to Seocheon, which is a city across the river and a little north of Gunsan, and then transfer there.  I agreed, then sat down with my bike to wait.

There was no time on my ticket, and nobody seemed able to tell me when the bus would be arriving or departing.  I really wanted to eat dinner but I thought the bus would be arriving any minute now so I kept my eyes on the space under the sign.  Several buses came and went but they weren't the bus that I was getting on.

I forget now if it was one hour or two that I waited, but I definitely had time to eat dinner if I'd known.

I finally got on the bus with my trusty bike down underneath and got ready to rest.  It felt like a long ride and I was tired.

Finally we got to Seocheon.  I forget now what time we arrived but it was late, maybe around  9 p.m.  I expected there to be an actual bus terminal with actual people who could tell me how to transfer, but the place was dead except for some old ladies and a smartly-dressed young man.  I checked the schedule and saw there was a sign indicating that the bus times had changed due to the summer school vacation.  The last bus to Gunsan departed at 9:30.  Lucky me!  I'd made it just in time for one more bus!

I wasted no time in going to a Lotteria across the road, grabbing some dinner, and coming back to wait.  But then, as I looked at the sign again, I realized that it didn't say what platform I should wait on.  So I asked the ladies and the young man waiting there - only to be told some very alarming things:

• There was no large bus traveling to Gunsan.  It was just a city bus that probably wouldn't allow bicycles.
• The extension of that bus line out to Seocheon was really just for college students, and since it was vacation now, no buses would be running, especially not this late at night.
• The only way for me to get back was to cycle two more hours from Seocheon to Gunsan, along the secluded highway I'd never been on before and at night.

You can imagine my distress!

The kind people waiting spent copious amounts of time using their smartphones and mine to try and show me how to go from where I was to the bridge that led to Gunsan.  From there I knew my way back easily, but I'd never ridden up this far before, even in the daylight, and at night it'd be a very different matter.  And did I mention that I was exhausted?

There seemed to be no other option, so I was about to set off when - suddenly - Gunsan City Bus No. 72 rolled in.  It just happened to be the line I sometimes use to ride home after church, so I already knew it went both to the stop across from my church and the stop near my apartment down in Gunsan.  The gentleman who'd helped me with the ladies ran and flagged it down for me and asked the driver to wait while I scrambled back.  I explained my situation to the driver - that I'd been told I'd be able to transfer here to get to Gunsan and hadn't known there'd be no bike-carrying buses available - and asked if he would make an exception and allow me to bring my bike onto his bus.  He did!  He also didn't seem to mind letting me ride as long as I wanted, so I rode the whole way from Seocheon to the stop near my apartment.

When I got in I was exhausted.  My vacation travels had only lasted one day, but it was definitely enough!

And the good news was that never before had I realized I could have a whole vacation in one day like that.  If I could go to Buyeo in one day, then in a weekend I could do almost anything...yeah!