Whew! Weekend recap…. Sitting here with a nice cup of tea (complements to our friend Katya and her mother for sharing her garden herbs) and enjoying a tasty piece of toast with strawberry jam.
Rainy Friday, snow squall Saturday, and a Sunny but windy Sunday…
What are the Bees to do with themselves when their original plans fell to the wayside because of mother nature’s indecisiveness?
Well, of course we just don’t let it get us down! Ha, that’s right! (Enter in a judo-chop) Take that mother nature! 😉
We celebrated our good friends birthday this weekend with dinner and drinks at Zelens (Bulgarian cuisine). We walked around Itaewon, where they showed us a hidden little gem called the Hidden Address (no pun intended). The Hidden Address is a vintage shop with a little coffee shop too. It really is a hidden address, located off the beaten path of the main street flowing through Itaewon. We loved it! Everything from the look of the building on the outside to the clean style inside called out to us. Thanks for sharing with us guys!
Throw in a morning waking up and seeing snow on the mountain! Yes! Snow! Comeeee on paaaallleeeaaasseee! Where is Spring?! The grandparents told us it’s been in the 80’s (and don’t forget this is central PA we are talking about).
Back at our place, we met up with some more of our friends this weekend and filled our bellies with some Budae jjigae. We couldn’t not think of anything more perfect to eat with the craziness of the weather. (Double negative-our high school english teacher’s ears are currently burning). The soup was awesome! However be prepared to smell like garlic the rest of the day. It worked out well for us Bees, we both smelled pretty ripe, however we smelled ripe together so it didn’t matter. If you remember from an earlier post Mrs. B ate Budae Jjigae in Uijeongbu, where the soup is pretty famous. This soup is MMmmmmm Mmmmm good!
I hope your weekend was as great as ours!
My iphone tells me…
I’m obsessed with our cat, Bean,
I’m really trying to learn Hangeul, the Korean alphabet,
I have a handsome husband,
Korea needs to jump on the whole spring thing,
and food plays a disproportionately large part in my life.
the end. <3
Sunday we decided to take a stroll up Soyosan to the buddhist temple. The last time we had hiked up there, the temple grounds had seen better days. Yes, the flooding from the heavy rains last year really did a number.
The air was quite brisk, but the sun was actually shining through the bare tree branches keeping us warm on our hike.
Once on the hiking path, we were glad to see that the grounds were in full swing of repair. The park crew already had water runoffs dug alongside of the roadway leading up to the base of the mountain.
Now…all we need is the beautiful spring weather! We just might get our request later this week!
Woot-Woot!! Check out that weather forecast!! Okay, don’t look at the snow folks..it’s the 50’s we are digging!
What fun! Today we met up with our some good friends in Myeongdong. We grabbed a bite to eat, walked around, and shopped.
How was your weekend?
These are pictures from Mrs. B’s trip to the Inje Ice Festival this weekend. Hope you enjoy! The temps were quite chilly! Oh and no, she wasn’t brave enough to eat the live smelt fish….she just draws the line at bugs :).
Hope you are all warm and toasty wherever you are located.
Diving…. You read that correctly. Yes, we are aware it is the beginning of January and it is indeed very cold out. Mr. B and his friends decided they were going to bring in the New Year right, scuba diving of course!
This was my first time ever tagging along on a dive weekend. I think mostly because a typical dive week starts at 3 or 4 AM on a Saturday morning and doesn’t end until late Sunday night. I love my sleep way too much to pry myself out of the warmth of my big comfy bed.
Mr. B took it easy on me this time. Well…sort of. We didn’t wake up until 5 AM, and didn’t leave the house until 6:30 AM. Hey! I will take all the spare minutes I can have to sleep in.
We hit the road bright and early. It was really nice getting to see new parts of Korea! I was really excited to see the site of where the 2018 Winter Olympics will take place. The city is called Pyeongchang and it’s beautiful! HUGE mountains covered in glistening white snow… ahhh! How picturesque!
We passed some shopping outlets that I cannot wait to visit sometime soon, an ice fishing lake where we saw a few families ice fishing, a multitude of beautiful hotels and resorts, ski resorts, and of course the Seorak Mountains.
We arrived at the rest-stop at around 9:30 AM a bit later than we expected. We grabbed coffee and a sweet potato latte and waited for the others to arrive. Once we were all there we got back on the road and traveled another hour or so until we reached Gisamun Harbor, where 38 Marine Resort is located and the guys had made diving arrangements at.
A few miles up the road from the resort we passed a large statue of a mushroom mascot of Yangyang. Allen told us that the region is famous for its pine mushrooms that grow wild in the surrounding mountains. Pretty Interesting!
This area is really popular for divers and surfers. You may remember Mr. B posting awhile back in the blog about the 38th parallel, well, that is where we were again.
(Map picture taken off google search for 38th parallel).
The guys all suited up and just like that they were loaded into the boat and gone. CRAZY! The temperature at the beach was ranging 23-32 degrees. Mr. B’s dive watch showed that the ocean water temperature was 49 degrees. I was beyond shocked to see so many surfers this time of the year. BRRRR!!! Much too cold for me! However, I am a HUGE chicken.
I finished my book while we were there, took a stroll on the beach and checked out the local harbor area, snapped pictures, watched the waves divers and surfers. I really just enjoyed the peace and calmness that the beach gave off even more so in the winter. As far as the typical beach goer, I think i was the only crazy hanging around.
The guys got in 4 dives the first day. Mr. B was ecstatic! I worried about him being too cold, he was the only nutty one in the group with a wetsuit and not a dry one. He said he was a bit cold but not as much as he expected himself to be. Those words made me feel a little better about the whole dive.
The guys worked up quite an appetite after the diving. We quickly found our hotel, thanks to Allen, threw our stuff in our rooms, and piled into one car to go get some good eats.
We went to a typical Korean BBQ restaurant located in the city of Gangneung . The food was outstanding! Really, what BBQ place isn’t? Never a letdown! We had pork jowl marinated in soy sauce and samgyupsal (pork belly). We also ordered and shared a nice big bowl of spicy beef and fresh vegetable soup with egg and glass noodles. DELISH! I seriously could eat Korean foods every day.
After dinner we went for desert at Baskin Robbins. The location was perfect, sitting right around the corner. We each enjoyed a nice scoop of heaven and then swung by the Family Mart to pick up breakfast for the next morning.
We got back on the road and checked in to our Korean hotel. We took some pictures to share with everyone. The place was brand new and get this it only cost us 50,000 won because the guys are Scuba divers! Yes! That’s almost like saying $50.00 US dollars for a night’s stay. I guess the Scuba diving card comes in handy! The rate without the scuba card was 80,000 won, still not bad at all.
Once we got back the guys hung out a bit and tried on Mr. B’s new dry suit. It wasn’t too long before we all were tired and decided to retire to our rooms and go to sleep.
The next morning we got up and meet at 8 AM. The sun coming up over the ocean was just beautiful! I snapped some pictures. When I was out on the balcony just about to go back into our room I heard what sounded like a cameras shutter opening and closing, Louis! Larry’s dive buddy Louis had seized the same opportunity to snap some quick pictures of the sun coming up so beautifully over the ocean and snow covered fields.
The guys wanted to get in two more dives today and that is exactly what they did. Another wonderful adventurous weekend to mark in the books!
So, how was your weekend? Would you be crazy enough to scuba dive in January??
38 Marine Resort Address: 138-15 Gisamun-ri, Hyeonbuk-myeon, Yangyang-gun
Phone: (82) 33-6710-3801
To Songtan that is. We left Friday night after work, loaded up the car, and headed south for the weekend.
One of Mr.B’s scuba friends had a birthday dinner planned. We couldn’t imagine not going as some of these people have become like extended family.
We arrived just in time for dinner. We headed directly to the restaurant called Churrascaria Rio Grill. This place was a Brazil steakhouse and we were eager to try it out as we didn’t have the best experiences with a Dongducheon Brazil Steakhouse.
What a treat! This place we actually pretty good! The meat was great, service great, and dessert….mmm…Perfecto!
We had all sorts of meats. We learned that Churrasco is a style of grilling meat over a fire pit, that originated in southern Brazil. At Rio Grill, various cuts of meat are put on a skewer and slow roasted over hot coals to mouth watering perfection. Tonight we had choices of, picanha steak, alcatra steak, frango chicken leg, linguica sausage, baby beef, and custelao rib.
We were so busy engorged in our food that we completely forgot to snap any good food or restaurant pictures to share. Yes, folks it was that good! Well…I did manage to pry my fork from my fingers and mouth while switching for my spoon to eat dessert and snapped a quick pic with the iPhone.
Amazing, right?!
It was vanilla ice-cream with like a bananas foster sauce. Trust me, order it!
After dinner we were getting ready to go check into our hotel when I decided I really needed to bite the bullet and purchase my very first pair of long underwear. Yes, you read That statement right. Korea’s winter is no joking matter. The temperature plunges well into the 20’s and the wind just whips against your body. So yes, it was a total necessity to survive this winter without turning into frosty the snowwoman.
With my newly purchased knickers in hand, we went to the hotel and checked in. It was around 11pm and after the drive we decided to relax.
The next morning we woke up, grabbed breakfast, headed out and about to do some errands. We had fun walking to the Ville area where all the shops are located.
Nothing real eventful to report. We ate lunch for the first time at Blue Opera. Overall, a pretty neat atmosphere inside the restaurant. The tables are cozy, all seated with small love seats. The lunch menu was pretty westernized with a nice selection of teas and adult beverages. Food consisted of soups, salads, pastas, rice, etc. the cherry tea caught my eye so of course I had to order a cup.
Hmm… It tasted like they put a few sugar packets into the maraschino cherry juice jar and served it piping hot. it was awesome, at first. Then after commenting how I’ve never met my match where I’ve ate or drank something that I considered to sweet. Well, I spoke much to soon. This drink made me eat my words. I ended up with a slight stomachache because I drank half of the drink and it was just too sweet. Guess I now know the feeling that normal people have towards my candy corn and super sugary icing.
Cherry Tea
After lunch on the way back we froze out little butts off because the wind was no long at our backs. Brrrrr! Korea you are so cold!
We got back to the hotel, warmed up, and suddenly there was a wrapped gift sitting on the bed. Mr. B told me to open it. He laughed and said quickly it was the book I had been searching for over the past few weeks. I of course did not believe him because we just came from the bookstore together where they did not have my book. What a sneak! Also I have to point out that Mr. B didn’t keep his word. We agreed no gifts because we were going to the Philippines for Christmas and we had agreed that was our gift to each other. Some days I just have no idea how I got so blessed to be married to this sweet man. I love him to the moon and back, even if he is a little sneak ;).
Mr.B was tired and wanted to take a quick nap. I had big plans to finish my book and play with my new gift. We got our act together in time for our next dinner meet up, 6 PM. Mexican at La Casa Del Mexicano! Woot-Woot! We headed back to the Mexican restaurant we snapped pictures of a few weeks ago when we last visited Songtan.
I changed my order up from the last we had been here and was daring enough to order fajitas diablo. A tad bit spicy, guess the two little peppers pictured beside the dish should have been a good indicator. I still loved it! Mr. B ordered the something he had last time. No cilantro for this man. We all had birthday celebration drinks consisting of beers, frozen mango margaritas, and regular margaritas. We topped everything off with a delicious light Korean cake from Paris Baguette. What a fantastically fun dinner. The birthday boys wife gave everyone potted plants with a beautiful hand panted flower (she painted) on the pot. How amazingly sweet are these people?
After dinner was over we grabbed drinks with some new friends at a little Irish Pub called Muddy Murphy’s. This place is small but boast with plenty of comfy character. We enjoyed getting some drinks, laughing, and chatting. Eventually our new friends had to get back on the road and get home. We parted ways but decided we have to meet up again very soon after the holiday madness settled down.
How was your weekend? Anything eventful to recap that makes you smile when reminiscing?
without technology?
We Bee’s woke up and had plans to go to the Korea International Exhibition Center, also known as the KINTEX Convention Center, to check out our friends Scuba Diving booth along with some others at the 9th Annual Gyeonggi Tourism Expo. Not quite knowing what to expect from the Expo, we still were excited for a new adventure!
The drive was a little under an hour from our place in Dongducheon. The time really just flew by and the next thing we knew, we were already coming up the Ilsan exit.
Driving into Ilsan we could see this massive building structure. We could make out the letter on the building pretty easily and were fairly positive that this was the place we were looking for. WOW! This place is just ginormous and has a really crazy wave-like shape to it.
The KINTEX Center opened in 2005 and spans 224,795 m. There are five exhibition halls that span 53.975 m. plus just this year they expanded into a second exhibition center that provides the building with 54.508 m of extra exhibition space! The KINTEX website says, “that with the combined exhibition areas of 100,000 m from the first and second Centers, KINTEX is Asia’s 5th largest and world’s 34th largest exhibition and convention center. Go big or go home, huh?
When entered into the building we were still just amazing at the size of the Center. There were tons of booths set up as far as the eye could see. The first booth that we saw was a facial stand. Surrounding booths were make-up, hair, skin care, etc. Pretty cool!
We walked around the expo with Mr. B’s friend and checked out different countries like Egypt, India, Japan, etc. Each booth had something different to offer, whether it was informational or free gifts, all geared towards getting you to go visit and travel their country.
We were handed all sorts of materials. We looked at a bunch of different booths on Scuba diving, drank various teas, mashed soybeans, Facebook LIKED Korea tourism’s site, ate rice cakes, sipped Gyeonggi Rice Makgolli, bought Yakgwa (Korean Fried Honey Cookies), and snapped some fun pictures. We had a blast!
The Center is located at Daehwa-dong Ilsan-seoug, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. For more information on upcoming events at the KINTEX Convention Center visit www.kintex.com, plus there is an English site too!
The fun had to end. We were on a time crunch to get back to our place to get changed and catch the train to Seoul. Tonight was Mrs. B’s second work party just with the ladies that she works directly with. The reservations were at the Korea House for a traditional Korean dinner and show.
Well, we missed the first train by minutes because of a wardrobe malfunction. We caught the second train twenty minutes later and were off. We transferred from line one to line four. We got off at Chungmuro Station Exit 3. The restaurant was incredibly easy to find! As soon as you come up the steps from exit 3 look to your right and you will see a gas station and the Korea House sign right behind it up on a building. Bam! You are there!
We had a wonderful time at the Restaurant with all of the dinner guests. We learned some new Korean foods and how to serve and prepare them as well. We also really enjoyed the show afterwards. The music was beautiful and the cast had incredible singing voices. (We included some photos of the cast in the attached album).
The address for the Korea House is, Seoul-si Jung-gu Pildong 2(i)-ga 80-2. To make reservations or find out more information about the restaurant or shows you can check out the website here.
After the show we decided to grab some drinks at place nearby in the Myeong-Dong area at Bier Halle. We had so much fun just laughing, drinking, and eating. We thought it was very comical that Mrs. B’s co-workers were using chopsticks to eat nachos. You know what they say… only in Korea! Ha-ha!
It was getting late and we still had to take the train back to Dongducheon. We all left and ventured back home.
What did you do on your Saturday?
