Daejeon

I made an impromptu solo trip out to Daejeon last weekend, which is about 3 and a half hours from Ulsan. It's basically halfway between here and Seoul. After doing some quick research, I found a couple sites of interest worth checking out: Dunsan Grand Park, Bomun-san Mountain, and Uam Historical Park. With a vague outline of a plan in mind, I set off for the day, slightly later than I had initially hoped for, but still excited for some traveling.

Unfortunately the website I got the bus schedules from hadn't updated their information, and so when I arrived at the bus terminal at 8:40 expecting to catch the 8:50 bus, I found out that the bus had actually already left at 8:30, which meant I had to wait until the 10:00 bus.

Fast forward several hours later, and I found myself at Daejeon Bus Terminal. The ladies at the Tourism office were exceptionally helpful in showing me where my potential sites were on the map, as well as how to get there. Uncertain as to whether I'd have enough time to see everything, I made an executive decision and headed for Dunsan Grand Park.

First impression of Daejeon: wtf?

 It was definitely the right call. As soon as I got off the bus, my eyes were drawn to a large grass area littered with interesting art sculptures.

To The Future

Family

Oh God!

Kang Heejoon

Souls Without Home on their Way

Toward Cosmos

This tells the story of some professor back in '93 who, during the opening ceremony of the Taejon Expo, reflected on the tragic loss of the tree that was removed from the construction site, which had provided him with the insects needed to complete his research. After standing in a trance for a while, he eventually realized that the aunts had actually survived and were now feasting on him, just as they had feasted on the tree. Instead of freaking out, he just stood there and took it in a weird moment of serenity. 

Daejeon Museum of Art

Rhythm

Fessura

I checked out a couple art museums (I can't help it) that were right beside each other--the Daejeon Museum of Art and the Lee Ungno Museum. The latter was closed off for the most part for some reason, but there was a small exhibition downstairs of interesting (and some not-so-interesting) photos (including three that were sectioned off behind a mysterious black curtain, which featured three tall black and white portraits of women urinating. I guess porn is art now.)

This was a cool little box with its lid propped open, and inside it had this colourful design that was reflected in the mirror and created a kaleidoscope sort of effect.

The Lee Ungno Museum was much more interesting. It's named after a famous visual artist who was born in 1904. I immediately fell in love with the guy after I read about the first piece. Apparently this guy was imprisoned in his 60's for 2.5 years for his participation in something called the East Berlin Affair, and went on to produce over 300 pieces of art during his time there. He believed in love for people and hope for the future, and so facing solitude and loneliness, he turned to his art to keep him human. The guy had to resort to using toilet paper, rice paste, and soy sauce for ink. Friggin' MacGyver over here. Many of the paintings from this period made up his Abstract Letter Series, which featured shapes that resembled letters and positioned in such a way as to vaguely suggest some sort of story and sometimes carrying a political message.

My favourite thing about the museum was that you could download an app that offered you a free audio tour of several of Ungno's pieces. Thankfully after my visit to both museums, I didn't feel compelled to buy a large art piece bigger than my luggage like I did last time. Though if they had small postcards of certain pieces that featuring some of these chickens, I definitely would've snagged one.

After the art museum, I checked out the Arboretum nearby--it was like being in a tropical rain forest--and then I just strolled around the park for a while taking in the beautiful scenery. There were kids racing remote control cars around a track, couples and families riding bikes, rollerblading, and skateboarding, kids playing on the playground, a little girl watering flowers with her water bottle. It was a happy day under the sun.

A rare sighting.

By the time I was done exploring the park, it was already 6:00, which meant I wouldn't be able to see any other sites before the last bus that left for Ulsan at 7:30. I was more than happy with my day under the sun, so I got on a bus and headed back to the terminal. I'm so happy the weather has finally warmed up, because I'm looking forward to more weekends like this in my last four months here.