Entries about scenery

I decided to head out to the Korean Folk Village, a combination outdoor museum and small amusement park on the outskirts of Seoul. Turned out to be a pretty good decision. There were, as might be expected, hordes of kids on field trips and most of them were very young - 1st grade and below? They all carried identical backpacks and were cute as bugs, but I was reluctant to take any pictures. There was plenty more to see, though.

For starters, there are dozens of traditional buildings from farmhouses to provincial offices. Koreans are proud of their ancient adoption of the ondol, or in-floor heating systems that are widespread across Korea. Pretty tricky to arrange as it requires a wood fire be maintained under a wooden house to transmit heat without causing a fire! Another interesting innovation is the green roof, which I saw in the countryside on my last trip to Korea. Rural dwellings frequently grow squash on the roof - lots of sun up there and some protection from pests. Here's an example a bit past its prime.

Lots of cultural information as well. They staged a traditional Korean wedding. I liked the part where each party is served a cup of tea. They take a sip and then the cups are exchanged and another sip taken. Pretty familiar from Western weddings and an interesting convergence. Rather nicer than smashing pieces of cake into each other's mouths!

A few of my other favorite Korean customs on display.

Ancestor poles that clearly harken to Pacific Northwest and Northern Japanese totems.

The tradition is to stay up all night on New Year's Eve. If you fall asleep, your eyebrows will turn white. Here's mom pranking her kid.

My favorite is this one. When in labor, the wife is given a rope attached to her husbands hair and pulls it to share the pain of labor.

And of course there was a demonstration of traditional Korean hip-hop

Had another traditional Korean dish for lunch

The square brown stuff is dotorimuk, which is a jelly made from acorns. Requires lots of washing to remove the bitter/toxic alkaloids from the acorns and the result is a very mildly woody/bitter product. It was traditionally eaten in times of hunger, but is now part of regular Korean cuisine.

But apart from the culture and food and cute kids, it was just a beautiful day so here are a few photos of the scenery.

Plan to go out of town tomorrow and see if I can top these photos!

With only one day left, I decided to head out of town on a train and take a look at the countryside. I headed for a popular tourist destination called Nami Island, which styles itself as the Nami Republic. I ran into a couple of very nice people from Singapore on the train going out and we spent the day together taking pictures of the leaves and each other. By pure luck, we were there near the very peak of color and so I went nuts taking pictures. Here are a bunch....

We ended the visit with a meal of grilled chicken and tofu and 'hangover soup' - which in this version is a dried fish soup with an egg added.

What a great end to a great visit to Korea! On to Perth tomorrow!

On the advice of the helpful travel agent at Blue and White Travel in Piraeus, I took off on one of the many ferries and cruise ships crowding Piraeus harbor in the morning.

As we left the harbor, I spotted this yacht at dock. Googling it up, I discovered that it is the Topaz which is the world's largest mega yacht. Apparently it cost $500 million to construct. Egad. Later we passed a rather better looking boat.

It took about an hour and a half to get to Aegina harbor which is quite pretty and lined along the shore with tourist restaurants and shops. The harbor is full of charming small fishing boats that are in active use.

The major attraction on the island is the Temple of Aphaia. It's some distance from the harbor and I decided to use it as an excuse for a stroll. I bought a bag of pistachios (a major product on the island) from a nice guy who gave me directions - turn left at the stadium and just keep going. He thought I was nuts (ha). I also bought some mandarin oranges and with my bottle of water I set out. The first thing to say about the walk was that the weather was unbelievably perfect. A real Mediterranean climate, mildly warm, low humidity, brilliant blue sky and a very light breeze - one of the best weather days I have had anywhere. Here's a look back towards town - quite a bit of climbing on this walk. I also passed this perfect little Mediterranean house with pistachio trees in the front yard.

It just kept getting prettier as I walked. After a while my first destination came into view, the church of Agios Nektarios.

The church is quite new, less than 20 years old. It was built to honor Fr. Nektarios who, after what appears to have been a somewhat tumultuous career in the Orthodox church, retired to Aegina and ministered to the locals.

The interior is under renovation (leaky roof; what church doesn't have one?) but did get a nice picture of the altar and the charming mosaic map of the islands on the floor in front of the altar.

There was also a lovely domed chamber containing the remains of Fr. Nektarios (miracles have been attributed to him, but I don't know if he has been canonized) and another beautiful altar and mural.

After this break, it was back on the road (it's about a 7 mile trip). More gorgeous scenery and, finally, a glimpse of the temple.

I reached the bottom of the last climb to the temple and a car pulled over. A very nice lady, Lisa, who is a sport teacher on the island had pulled over and offered me a lift up the hill to the temple. Maybe she was motivated by the fact that by this point I was crawling on my hands and knees and weeping . Whatever the reason, she zipped me to the top of the hill and even took me a short way down the other side to get a view of the other side of the island, which looked fabulous.

The temple itself was remarkable. It has suffered far less damage than other temples owing to its isolation and I was also the only visitor that afternoon. Here are a couple of pictures of the temple, one when I first arrived and one later near sunset.

Of course, the view from the hilltop was also spectacular.

Lisa had encouraged me to consider staying overnight on that side of the island and I was tempted. I decided to walk into the town on the other side of the hill and see I could find a place to stay. I arrived after dark and the entire town had apparently closed for the season. I found one open restaurant and one supermarket - as far as I could tell all the other restaurants and all the hotels were closed. Fortunately, I had a number for a taxi service and so I bailed and called a taxi for the ride back to the harbor to make it in time for the last ferry back to Pireaus.

I made it, rested on board and grabbed a sandwich for dinner in Piraeus before going back to my apartment - what a remarkable introduction to the true Mediterranean experience.