Open Day and Gojeh Island

OK - TRAGIC!!!! I've now been home for several days and I'm only now finishing this post..... I'm so sorry!!!!

So - my last Saturday morning in Korea I needed to be in Busan at the Buam dojang at 10am. The parents of the students had been curious as to what we'd been doing and what their children had been learning under the instruction of the strange English speaking instructor. The presentation was pretty much along the lines of a normal class, just with all of the parents sitting around the edges. Warming up, relays, line work, Saju Jirugi, and then some English phrases that the kids have been practising. It actually went quite well, and I'm told that the head instructor was happy with the results which is always good - right?

After the presentation Park and I headed back out to Gimhae where we met the President and Ki Tae and started our trip to Gojeh Island. The trip takes around 2 and half hours by car/bus, or about an hour by ferry. We were taking the van so that we had transport on the island, so we drove the van there.

I think I could really love driving the motorways in Korea, they're clean, solid, multilaned things, which take you past some beautiful mountain scenery. Is difficult to get decent photos as you're flying down the motoway at 140kms per hour, so you're just going to have to imagine mountains covered in maples, evergreens, gingko and a ton more that I wasn't able to see properly. The trees appear to have grown in patches on these mountains, as I'm sure they have, with one tree seeding the family that has grown around it..... anyway - enuff of my rambling about trees.....

We stopped during the trip to free the snake that we had found in the dojang, thank god as I'm really not sure that he was enjoying the "house" that he was in.... But other than that and the odd rest room break we flew down the road....

Finally we crossed the bridge to Gojeh Island (거제도) and made our way to the Gumdo Dojang of one of our new ITF instructors. Greetings were exchanged, Korean conversations had and we were back on the road again, this time to one of the coastal towns on the island for some dinner.

I'm a huge sashimi fan so this was amazing for me, we sat at a small plastic table on the side of the road that ran along the water. Next to us the water lapped at the rocks and concrete pylons that the road was built on, across the street were 12 shops almost identical to each other, their shopfronts made up of fish tanks containing live seafood. Next thing I know the table is covered in plates of seafood and side dishes and sauces..... Crab here, a still squirming sliced octopus there, a full dinner plate of raw fish and something called Meong-geh which Mr Brown called Sea Tulips. The outside appearance is a little intimidating, but cut into these things and you get to the edible part which was like eating the firmest, tastiest bluff oyster - YUM!!!!

Accompanying the seafood was of course the ever present Soju..... and so began the night....

Park and one of the Geoje Instructors disappeared to pick up Mr Chirtoca, Christina and Yanni (am not sure I've spelt that one right...) who were arriving by bus from Busan, and meanwhile we changed venues to a Japanese Restaurant where we were joined by another WTF instructor thinking about making the change....

The final additions to our group arrived and out came the cake (it's Mr Chirtoca's Birthday this week) which I have to say was delicious!!

The rest of the night was spent at a Korean dance club (where the dj's don't just arrange the music!!!!) and back at the apartment of one of the instructors where we finally hit the hay at around 5:30 in the morning.

Sunday was a late start for obvious reasons, and when we finally emerged into the day after a subdued breakfast it was off to the Gojeh POW (prisoner of war) memorial and museum. This site gives visitors a run down of the main events within the Korean war and then describes the treatment of Prisoners of War during this time. It includes diaramas and photographic records and some interesting commentary on what must have been a horrific time......

And of course we added some levity with some posy tourist shots.....

After the POW memorial visit we headed for one of the Ferry terminals on the island where Mr Chirtoca, Christina, Yanni and I bought tickets for the Ferry to Busan. The President, Park and Ki-Tae had booked the van onto another Ferry to a port closer to Gimhae and we went our separate ways.....