HOLT KOREA 김 창 희 LOVE IN ACTION: WEEKEND IN INCHEON

This past weekend Keren (from the U.S.), Mee Hyang and I went to Incheon. We took the subway down on Friday and spent the night. We had so much fun!!

This was our..."interesting" hotel we stayed in. The best part? it had free ice cream cones in the lobby!

After checking in, and dropping off our backpacks - we went out exploring...first stop...the largest China Town in South Korea.

For lunch we popped into this little place, and low and behold - they were making mandu (Korean dumplings)

It had to be some of THE BEST mandu I've ever had!! I'm gonna dream about that mandu later on!

We found this tribute to Confucius.

His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家). It was introduced to Europe by the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius.

You gotta love a house that's completely covered in bottle caps!

Then we found this cool market...

Beautiful mandu!

The stuff in the red bin is called, "Top-poh-key" The main material of this food is the rice cake[‘Ttoek’], fish paste and vegetables.The person who cooks it usually has their own special sauce, So taste can vary...but it's red...so it's spicy.

Not uncommon to see..everything smothered in red pepper/paste...VERY SPICY!

After finding this market, we made our way to Wolmido Island

The island is about 1 km off the Incheon coast, but with the creation of the highway, became part of the mainland. The name Wolmido Island comes from the shape of the island as it resembles the tail of a half moon. Because it is near Seoul and the convenient transportation, many people visit here on the weekend. Many cafes and seafood restaurants are congregated by the West Sea in Wolmido, so you can enjoy the food while viewing the sea. There are about 50 seafood restaurants all in one area, so you can enjoy fresh raw fish dishes. The Culture street starts with the Doodle Pillar, and continues on with the Meeting Square, Arts Square, Performance Square, Good Harvest Square and others. On these squares, spontaneous performances are performed, and the street artists can draw you a sketch on the spot. A not-to-be-missed tourist attraction at Wolmido Island is the Play Hill. It’s not as large as other theme parks in Korea, but the Apollo Disco and the Viking rides here are famous for their first class thrills. The Apollo Disco ride is fun just watching. You can also get on a cruise every hour to look around the island. Cool breeze of the West Sea, and many sea gulls frequent this island.

This restaurant cracked me up!!

"People who look for sliced Raw Fish"

We were there on a beautiful day!

And Koreans will spare no shame when it comes to the sun! They don't like to get ANY sun. These ladies get 10 points for creativity!

There's that Korean "trust factor" again...we walked through this park and found these benches just sitting there. We also saw some beautiful wood, some granite slabs, and lots of beautiful bricks. How long do you think they would last in a park in the U.S.?