Out and About with Samsan Staff

I didn't know how we were possibly going to top the previous night, but my day certainly started out on a great note: Our bathroom had a shower! An actual shower! Who knew a simple glass door could make one so happy?

Once all of the guys had showered, we made our way down to the restaurant for our complimentary breakfast. Of course, we were the last ones there. We sat at a table for four and just ate our breakfast in silence. Nobody was in the mood to talk. All of my energy was concentrated on my soup, and the rest of the world didn't exist as far as I was concerned.

Afterwards we went back upstairs to collect our bags and hit the road. I still had no idea where we were going, though. Hell, for that matter, I had no idea where we were! I had tried to get some information out of Mr. Kim, but his English isn't ideal, and so from what I could make of his words, I was pretty certain we were going to be riding the rails on one of these bad boys:

All I could pick out were the words "train tracks" and "bike" and an up-and-down motion. Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong. We arrived in the region of Samcheok, where I learned that we were basically riding on 4-passenger golf carts called rail bikes that were powered by bike pedals. The little carts rode on rails along the beach shoreline and offered wonderful views. I just wish we hadn't decided to do this after a drunken noraebong night.

We made a pit-stop after half an hour or so to snap a group photo, as well as shots of random statues, and grab a drink. Then we hopped back on the rail bikes and continued on our way.

About halfway through the ride, we entered our first of many tunnels, each of which had its own little theme, ranging from the Olympics to whales, and trippy festive lights.

Once our ride was done, we headed off to our next destination, which still remained a clue to me. At this point, I figured I'd stop asking and just be surprised. And boy, was I surprised. I fell asleep on the bus, and when my Korean big sister eventually managed to wake me up after a bit of a struggle, we found ourselves on a sheep farm. Yup, a sheep farm; you read that correctly. Don't get me wrong; the farm was beautiful, the sheep were super fluffy, and it was awesome to feed them from out of my hand, but it was certainly not what I had expected. Regardless, I still had good company and got a chance to chat about family and travel experiences with yet another English-speaking homeroom teacher.

Look at all the pretty sweaters!

Apparently we were now in the area of Pyeongchang, which is where the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held. That explained why everybody was so up in arms about my attire. See, it's typically colder in Pyeonchang, and they actually get a fair amount of snow in the Winter, and snow everybody was concerned about the fact that I was just wearing a shirt. But what they failed to realize was that I'm Canadian, and we have a very different definition of cold. I thought the weather was perfectly cool, but they refused to listen to me, and one of the guys lent me a spare jacket.

Lunch was essentially spicy fish. Or at least, I was told it was spicy fish. From the day I got to Samsan, I've lost count of how many times people have asked me if I found the food spicy. Every single time, I give the same answer: it has the perfect amount of spice, which allows me to still savour the taste of my food.

Our next stop after lunch was supposed to be a temple, which I was very excited about, since I'd yet to visit one during my time here, but after I woke up from yet another slumber on the bus, I was informed that we'd had to abandon our plans for the temple because there was an absurd amount of traffic heading there. So instead, we made a quick pit-stop at a small market on the side of the road, got back on the bus, where I fell asleep once more (pick up on the pattern yet?), and headed to a museum dedicated to Korea's most famous writer, Lee Hyo-Seok, and his short story, When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom.

It was actually a pretty cool place, filled with biographical information on Hyo-Seok, as well as locations in the area that he directly references in the book. It sort of immerses you in the book in that way. It made me wish Canada would do something like that for Margaret Atwood or Douglas Coupland. It also fascinated me enough to convince me to buy a copy of the short story. It's a fantastic story about an old merchant who's been down on his luck his entire life and made poor decisions along the way. The one thing keeping him alive, the one thing that pushes him to continue working as a travelling merchant is the hope of once again coming across the one woman who ever loved him--even if it was just for a single night.

What a handsome fellow!

Who apparently loves Christmas...

...and fancy old man hats...and vinyl records...we would've been total besties!

After the museum, our only other stop was dinner. I'm always grateful when I can eat my food with a fork, so a pork cutlet dinner was right up my alley. A fork and knife, I couldn't believe my luck! And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how I ended my weekend trip on a high note.