Anmyeondo!

Good luck trying to say that word ... ha!  It took me about a week to twist my tongue around that one.  

Just got back from a long weekend at the beach on the western coast of Korea called Anmyeondo.  A nice place to go and relax for a few days outside of the busy cities in Korea.  

This weekend was Korean Chusok ... which is there holiday to celebrate with family similar to our Thanksgiving in the West.  They also pay respects to family members who has passed away by cleaning up their grave sites and performing ceremonies in honor of their ancestors.  This is quite a busy weekend for traveling as most people leave the cities prompting a mass exodus to various places over this peninsula.  

A group of 6 of us took the journey to the beach.  All English teachers at various schools throughout the Daejeon area.  We took a bus to get to the coast and it occurred to me how easy it was to travel through alternate forms of transportation.  You must have patience and often will have to accommodate conditions but for relatively short periods of time.  It is so very easy to hop in the car and go but when you are without, you have to be creative and somewhat adventurous especially being in a foreign country.  

As my friend on the trip commented, it's all part of the fun.  We were a little unsure of our exact destination as only one of us had been there before.  Add the language factor in there and you have a fun time.  Collectively we could probably muster up a solid game of charades should the situation call for it but we got by good enough and to out little pension cabin for the long weekend.  

As you can see from the pics above it is a beautiful place.  So much of my life was spent on the beach and in the water growing up in Florida.  Which I took for granted for sure.  Being in a place such as this did make me feel right at home.  Not only that but the bloody heat and humidity was about the same as well!  

For the most part during the day we would sit on the beach and do some walking around the interesting outcroppings of rock formations from the beach.  There was a massive resort about a mile down the beach from our location which we decided to check out on our first full day there.  A rather luxurious resort, the only one of this size and magnitude on the island.  It has a nice spa and sauna with great views of the sunset and ocean.  Several of the spas had different theme tea leaf water but part of me doubts the validity of this.  Nonetheless I enjoyed taking dips in the luke warm water of Green Tea, Mint, Roobios, and Jasmine just to name a few.  A nice atmosphere for sure.  

Overall a great weekend to get out of the city and relax on the beach.  It took me back home if only momentarily to wade in the water and to walk on the sand.