chuncheon

Two weekends ago, I went to visit my birthmom in Chuncheon, a smallish town of about 265,526 people (thank you, Wikipedia!) situated about 40 miles northeast of Seoul. The train ride is, rather remarkably, two hours long, but it's quite a pretty one, running through the mountains and all. At least, that's what it looks like on Google Earth; I couldn't really have told you otherwise as I slept all the way there.


At Namchuncheon Station, when I arrived on Saturday evening.


Hai-ryun, my birthmom.





On Sunday morning, my half-brother Ji-won took me on a walk along the stream running by their apartment complex. Along the way, I saw some of the first graffiti I've seen in Korea. I really enjoyed its whimsy...






...and downright emo-ness.


Ji-won and a friend.

Chuncheon is, apparently, known for two things--being the home of dakgalbi, a marinated chicken stir fried paella-style on a grill in front of you in gochujang (Korea's traditional red chili pepper sauce); and being the setting for the K-drama Winter Sonata. I know nothing about Winter Sonata besides the fact that it's ridiculously popular throughout Asia; however, we did make a point of having dakgalbi for lunch. Regrettably, I neglected to take any pictures of it. Steph would be disappointed in me. It was delicious; my favorite part (as with any paella-style dish in Korea) comes when you ask the servers to fry you some rice in the leftovers.

After lunch, and just before I caught my train back to Seoul, my birth-grandmother took Hai-ryun and I on a quick drive around the outskirts of Chuncheon, along the foot of the mountains surrounding it to the east, and then along the river cutting through its western end.


Korean War memorial in the park along the river.


Hai-ryun.


My birth-grandmother.


Additionally, Chuncheon also appears to be home to a first-rate fish-jumping-through-hoops statue...


...as well as this pretty awesome pedestrian bridge.





A lonely shin ramyun wrapper.



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