Yellow Watermelons
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.
The weekend before last, Gavin, our friend Hyung-jin and I took a daytrip to Ganghwa Island (an hour northwest of Seoul).
These yellow watermelons were for sale at a roadside stand. The flesh inside these strange melons was also yellow, with a texture slightly tougher and less juicy than expected. There were also albino peaches for sale. And there was black makoli (rice wine), normally white. Weird.
On Ganghwa-Do, we planned to go to the beach, but the tide was low and there was nothing but mud flats. It was nice to escape the hot concrete city for the countryside, though. Hyung-jin drove us over hill and dale, along winding roads twisting through fields of squash, corn and rice. I wish I had taken photos...
Every city has it's own cute character mascot. Here is Ganghwa-Do's, a clever little caveman. Ganghwa-Do has a number of ancient stone-age tombs.
This past Sunday, Gavin and I hopped onto Line 1 and took it to its last stop in the neighboring city of Incheon. There, we met Gavin's brother, Tristan, to have lunch and explore. Incheon's mascot is a wacky space-age bunny.
Incheon has a Chinatown, complete with a massive red gate, so I was hoping for some real Chinese food. While we did share a big round table with another family (Chinese-style), and one of the dishes did feature 3 wedges of pei-dan (aka "thousand-year-old eggs"), it still didn't quite meet my standards for authentic Chinese fare... Maybe next time...
After lunch, Gavin, Tristan and I walked along the boardwalk. Incheon's boardwalk is a bit reminiscent of Coney Island: creaky and weathered amusement park rides, colorful sun-bleached signage, children sticky with cotton candy, a feeling that one has stepped back in time to a previous decade...
From Incheon, we took a ferry to nearby Yeongjong Island, where there was a beach at the end of an hour-long bumpy bus ride. We sat and people-watched and had some snacks before heading home...
