Afterward, we ventured to a pool hall. This place let us bring in our own food and booze, and so we spent a few hours playing pool and drinking... you guessed it... Soju! Like bowling, neither of us were particularly proficient at billiards, and so we mostly played the role of spectator. Still a lot of fun though, and the owners of the place were great, doing shots of soju with us =)
The local pool hall
Our final stop of the night was a place called New Bar, in the new downtown district of Yeonghyang Dong. This bar was absolutely amazing. We got our own big booth on the upper level, ordered a few pitchers of beer and soju smoothies, and received UNLIMITED service!
**Service: An amazing aspect of Korean culture in which customers are given free items after purchasing anything, even if it is small. Examples include- free socks at a clothes store, free gum from taxi drivers, free bowls with a box of cereal, free food at bar... the list goes on**
The service at New Bar was far and away the best we'd yet experienced. Kimchi pizza, Ramyan noodles, creamy corn, french toast, ice cream, and more! And whenever we polished one course off, the servers would come around and fully replenish our stock! It was an amazing experience all around.
Jenna, Mike, and the many drinks and services of New Bar!
The night was completed when two of our coteachers showed up at the bar! At first they were hesitant to join a group of rowdy foreigners for drinks, but we convinced them to sit with us and we all ended up having a great time together! They stayed late with us (especially Jenna's coteacher, English name Clint Eastwood) even though they had to work the next day! (Korean teachers and students have to go to school every second Saturday - us lucky English teachers the only ones who get every Saturday and Sunday off!)
Suncheon exploration continued on Sunday, when a group of us finally made the trek to Suncheon Bay. This is a famous place in Korea, and is indeed an internationally renowned wetland! We walked along the boardwalk through the mashy wetland, and hiked up one of the surrounding mountains! It was a foggy day, but the views were beautiful nonetheless. Koreans love to explore the outdoors at this time of year, and the place was PACKED!
Waygooks at the Bay
After our nature wanderings, we came across the Festival of Reeds, which is on for two weeks every October and takes place at the Bay. There we feasted on 전, or 'jo-hn', which is essentially vegetables in a crepe/pancake like batter, fried and served with yummy sauce. We were also offered 막걸리, Korean rice wine, from a group of older festival-goers. By the end of the day we were exhausted but very happy to have finally experienced this area of our city! Next up: the Suncheon Temples!
Suncheon Bay at Sunset
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