More Solo Adventures

And this time, I was really on my own. Now there are a bunch of websites out there to get discounted experiences and tours when your in a foreign country. I went with one tour group a few months ago to Yongpyeong. I actually had a lot of fun, even though I was by myself, there were a bunch of people in the tour. Last weekend, some of my plans had fallen through, so I though, instead of spending the four day weekend home alone (my host family was going away for the weekend), I would make new plans.

I looked around and found a tour on Friday to three locations. I knew that I may not have this chance again, since I usually have to spend the night before and after in Seoul. But Thursday was a holiday so I was able to have a four day weekend. I signed up for it on Wednesday, got a place to stay and was in Seoul
the next day. I'm very proud of how spontaneous I have been able to become since being in Korea.

My original plan on Thursday evening was to explore a bit. See some places I haven't been able to see yet, but it was a very rainy afternoon. So instead, I went to the movie theaters. I had planned on seeing Aladdin, but when I got there, I got way too excited to see X-Men: Dark Phoenix had come out already.

Friday morning was a bit muggy, but still okay. I knew that the rain was supposed to clear up by lunch time, so I was hoping it wouldn't be too much of an issue.

When I arrived at the meeting place to catch the bus, I was really surprised to have trouble finding any other people crowding around. I was alone. My tour guide approached me, and I found out, I was the only person on the tour. Apparently there were three other groups that all called in and cancelled. So I got on the bus, just me and the tour guide and the bus driver. This is going to be interesting.

My tour guide was actually really nice. He was close to my age, cute and spoke really good English. He really tried to make sure I was having fun, literally with only me on the tour.

The first location was Gwangmyeong Cave. I visited a different cave in Jeongseon with my host family back in September, so I was not expecting it to be so small. I was in and out pretty quickly but it was still beautiful to look at. There was even a little replica of Lord of the Rings. I also learned a bit of history about the cave and it's role during the Japanese Occupation, the Korean Civil War and the financial crisis during the 70s. It was actually really interesting. Though short.

The second location was Anseong Farmland, which seemed like a pretty good place for kids when it was in season, but it being a Friday at the beginning of June didn't really help the place. It was pretty deserted, which I overall didn't mind. I don't like being in huge crowds of people. We spent the longest in this place. There wasn't much to see but there were lots of animals. I saw different breeds of cows, some sheep, goats, pigs, horses, ostriches, peacocks and a bunch more. There was a room where I could go in and feed beautiful birds and they could actually eat out of my hand. There was another little paddock that was filled with bunnies that I could pet and feed grass. Although this was the least Korean thing I did the whole day, it was probably my favorite. It felt like I was home being able to see all these animals.

The final place, which took some waiting around for was the Ansan Starvillage Photoland. The smallest of the three places, but the main reason I had picked this tour. I love lights. I love looking at them and just being surrounded by them. This place definitely held up to it's name too. Everywhere you looked was a photo-zone. A place to take a perfectly instagramable picture.

After this, I returned back to Seoul and got some dinner.

I went home on Saturday and was able to relax all day Sunday.

Four day weekends are great!