Liberation Day, All you can drink, and Millions of Peaches.

Hello again!!

So I've had an eventful weekend!

First up is just a photo of what I have seen a lot around over the past few days. The humidity is finally dying down and the monsoon season is over (I hope) so it seems as though this is a good time to dry out your chillies...

This is one families chillies out drying in the sun on the walk to town.

Anyhoo, back to the week just been. Thursday was Liberation Day. This is a national holiday for the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation in 1945.

Fiona and I thought it would be an awesome time to go to Jekjeong and visit the "Cafe Street" where there is a block that is designed to look like a European cafe area. Along the way we got lost....so stopped of at Paris Baguette for some lunch.

I forget to take photos...and this is why all my photos have have eaten food in them. This is a pastry hotdog. Om Nom.

Super fresh double cheese bagel with cream cheese on the side. It was cheat day, can you tell?!

Looking one way down the main cafe street

Looking the other way...

We stopped off at a little cafe called...wait for it... Cafe. Seriously. Just Cafe. We had something to drink and played a quick, fairly unskillful game of chess to make ourselves feel cultured.

Iced blueberry tea. This came with pine nuts in it but alas, the photo was forgotten until after the first sip. Best blueberry tea I've ever tried.

Some really good lemonade

Cute little rice snacks that came with the lemonade and tea.

Halfway through our wee game of chess.

I won!!! By complete fluke. I'd lost my queen about 5 turns previously.

Hard to see but this is Cafe's sign.

We weren't long at the cafe street as there actually weren't quite as many cafes as we anticipated. in saying that, I would like to go back and try the Italian food as it has a good reputation.

After the Cafe Street we headed towards the train station and wandered through the Emart and found the pet store. This was a new pet store where we found an array of new and unusual pets..

Asian Great Horned Beetle

I apologise for the average photos, it's hard to take them with the shiny plastic container :(

This was the greatest find ever. Hermit crabs in pimped out shells. They were all just crawling around in there!

Once we tore ourselves away from the craziness that was pets in Korea, we headed to Bundang for some dinner. We found ourselves an awesome sushi restaurant!

Salmon roe, prawn, salmon, calamari and tuna.

It was a sushi train but we were a little early so we ordered our own.

The best bit of the Tuna....the fatty part. Melt in your mouth goodness. Otoro.

Jae likes to claim I food cheated on him by getting Otoro with out him present. We left the sushi place and I found this guy in the street making these awesome sugar and baking soda creations. This has to be my favourite street food! It tastes just like hokey pokey from the middle of a crunchie bar.

The trick it to eat the cracker thing without breaking the print in the middle and you can get another one for free. I usually break it though :(

On my way home from Bundang I found 1000 won (worth about a dollar). My lucky day!

Sitting at the bus stop and I had to share this, almost all the kids wear some form of Crocs. It's terrible.

Back at work on Friday and then off again on Saturday. It was Jaehyun's birthday on Friday and we were all having family lunch. Stopped by the farm to catch up with the parents.

Mushroom conveyor belt!

Plastic wrapping machine

Jae's parents house.

Office and mushroom container prep

We headed off to...actually I have no idea where for lunch. On the menu was cold noodles and tonkatsu. I had the fish tonkatsu which was really nice but I definitely had menu envy when the cold noodles came out for everyone else!

Lunch menu!

My meal with some cold noodles on the side

After Lunch we went to Apa's cousin's farm in Cheongju to check out the peaches. In true Korean style, I came home from this trip with a big box of peaches and a big box of mushrooms.

Peach farm

Peach protection

Millions of peaches!!

I ate way too much peach that day...

Jaehyun, Jieun and I left the parents to hangout and headed back to Bundang. on the way we stopped and I got myself this nasty nasty NASTY energy drink for the night ahead. Did the trick tho!!

Dinner! Fried chicken from the street with spicy sauce

I caught the train from Bundang to Seoul to meet up with Eric in Gangnam. We were eventually joined by a few others and we headed to the bar. I was lead to believe it was a roof top party however we are sorely mistaken. This was all made up by the fact that it was all you can drink from 7-11pm for only 20,000 won plus free entry and a free drink at the next club. The people who came to the pub for the drinks mostly spoke English and there was a lot of foreigners there too. The idea, I believe, is to encourage getting to know Koreans and vice versa. With some of the cool new people that we met we headed to the next club.

Club with free entry and drinks!

This club was HUGE. The music was pumping and the drinks were not cheap but it was a lot of fun.

This is what happens when I try and take photos when I'm drunk...half a forehead and a bad flash.

Needless to say, no more pictures from that point on...

I had planned on trying to get home that night but failed miserably and ended up going to a love motel with my friend to sleep it off. Love motels...these are wonderful relatively easy to find places that you can pay for by the hour or the night. Unfortunately for Koreans, they mostly live with their parents until they are married so there is not much of an opportunity for them to have sex at home. This is why love motels exist. They are cheap, easy to get to, offer sex toys in vending machines and are almost completely anonymous. The front desk had a big shield where you couldn't see them and they couldn't see you. It was awesome. Also, as an aside, can have anything (foodwise) delivered to the motel. I finally arrived home in Gwangju at about 5:30pm. Epic night and cannot wait to do it all again!!!

Next time I stay at a love motel, I'll remember to take photos to share with you all.

Much love,

Ally