Alex and I decided to hike around Seolbong Lake. Koreans are known for their love for hiking so we knew there would be some good trails. We hiked for about 2.5 hours. It was a beautiful day (the weather here feels like fall in Wisconsin). Along the way, we met a woman by the name Hwang Song Su (not sure if I spelled it right) who asked us where we were from and kindly gave us some oranges. She also invited us to walk with her and her friend the rest of the way. She didn't know a lot of English, but she knew enough to make jokes about Alex (haha). She even made him wear her gloves because she was worried about him getting cold. She was so nice! She even tried to teach us some Korean. Definitely made the trip more enjoyable and got us to practice communicating with our hands.
In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Icheon Termeden Spa & Resort (http://www.termeden.com/english/index.asp/ 이천테르메덴), Korea's first German style hot spring resort. Spas are pretty popular in Korea (normally called jimjibangs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang ...although this one was a German style spa so a little different) so we thought it would be fun to go to one. It was a 20 minute taxi ride from Abby's apartment and in the middle of nowhere. I was worried at first the taxi driver was taking us to the wrong place. Once we got there, there were tons of people/families inside. A very popular place. After we got our tickets and locker keys, we had to go upstairs and take off our shoes. We then had to put them in a shoe locker and go into the men or women's locker room to get changed. There was a "clothing-free"/gender-specific spa area inside the locker room and a "swimsuit area" outside the locker room where both genders could hang out together. At first, I thought Alex was going to meet me in the combined gender area. I waited for probably 30 minutes before finding someone who spoke English to go get him (haha). He was enjoying the spa inside the locker room, not knowing there were other areas. It turned out that the gender-specific spa areas were better/more relaxing so having someone get him was probably overkill. Overall, the spa was very relaxing. It had different temperature pools (inside and outside), massaging jets of water, and saunas. Shampoo, lotions, hairdryers, and hair products were provided. I felt very relaxed after the whole experience. After we were done relaxing at the spa, we realized that it was going to be nearly impossible to get a taxi because the spa was in the middle of nowhere. Also, the English-speaking staff had left an hour before closing (the spa closes at 8pm...we got out of the spa at 7:15pm) so we had no one to ask for help. Luckily, there was WiFi and we could contact Abby to pick us up at the spa in a taxi. Our savior yet again!
For dinner, Abby took us to a restaurant with really good soups. When we first walked in, we had to take off our shoes and leave them at the door and take a seat on mats on the floor. They didn't have a menu with pictures or English so Abby took a picture of the food advertised outside of the restaurant and pointed at what we wanted. We also ordered dumplings (mandu). Yum! When the soup arrived, it was still boiling. The soup had beef bones for flavoring. It was all very delicious. After dinner, we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. They had some interesting flavors that I have never seen in the US (cookies n' green tea, white berry unicorn, wizard's Halloween...which contained blue mint ice cream, chocolate ice cream and pop rocks).
In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Icheon Termeden Spa & Resort (http://www.termeden.com/english/index.asp/ 이천테르메덴), Korea's first German style hot spring resort. Spas are pretty popular in Korea (normally called jimjibangs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang ...although this one was a German style spa so a little different) so we thought it would be fun to go to one. It was a 20 minute taxi ride from Abby's apartment and in the middle of nowhere. I was worried at first the taxi driver was taking us to the wrong place. Once we got there, there were tons of people/families inside. A very popular place. After we got our tickets and locker keys, we had to go upstairs and take off our shoes. We then had to put them in a shoe locker and go into the men or women's locker room to get changed. There was a "clothing-free"/gender-specific spa area inside the locker room and a "swimsuit area" outside the locker room where both genders could hang out together. At first, I thought Alex was going to meet me in the combined gender area. I waited for probably 30 minutes before finding someone who spoke English to go get him (haha). He was enjoying the spa inside the locker room, not knowing there were other areas. It turned out that the gender-specific spa areas were better/more relaxing so having someone get him was probably overkill. Overall, the spa was very relaxing. It had different temperature pools (inside and outside), massaging jets of water, and saunas. Shampoo, lotions, hairdryers, and hair products were provided. I felt very relaxed after the whole experience. After we were done relaxing at the spa, we realized that it was going to be nearly impossible to get a taxi because the spa was in the middle of nowhere. Also, the English-speaking staff had left an hour before closing (the spa closes at 8pm...we got out of the spa at 7:15pm) so we had no one to ask for help. Luckily, there was WiFi and we could contact Abby to pick us up at the spa in a taxi. Our savior yet again!
For dinner, Abby took us to a restaurant with really good soups. When we first walked in, we had to take off our shoes and leave them at the door and take a seat on mats on the floor. They didn't have a menu with pictures or English so Abby took a picture of the food advertised outside of the restaurant and pointed at what we wanted. We also ordered dumplings (mandu). Yum! When the soup arrived, it was still boiling. The soup had beef bones for flavoring. It was all very delicious. After dinner, we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. They had some interesting flavors that I have never seen in the US (cookies n' green tea, white berry unicorn, wizard's Halloween...which contained blue mint ice cream, chocolate ice cream and pop rocks).
Hike around Seolbong Lake
Burial grounds along the trail and view of the lake
Seolbongsanseong of Icheon, a historic stone wall we saw while on our hike
Highest point of our hike
View of Icheon during our hike
Hwang Song Su, the kind women who we hiked with
Pavilion near the lake (at the end of our hike)
Icheon Termeden Spa & Resort
Dinner. Awesome soup (arrived boiling) and dumplings!