checking out Andong

With it being a three day weekend I decided that I needed at least one day outside of Daegu. I have wanted to go to Hahoe village, Deosan Seowan and the city itself for over a year now but for reasons that are unexplainable I never seemed to just get up and go. So on Sunday I grabbed my coworker Kris (not to be confused with my old coworker and friend Kris), met Geoff and one of his friends, and headed off to Andong. We were also meeting Angela and two of her friends there. Our plan was to meet at the bus stop, cross the street and grab a bus to Hahoe.

I had read about Andong in my Korea travel guide and on my friend David's blog (he lived there for three years) so I had a pretty good idea what was up. However, this being Korea things change faster than you can keep up with and in the last year Andong has built a whole new bus terminal in the west end of town (a 7000 won cab ride away). So the four of us opted to bus to Andong Station to get train tickets for the ride home and meet Ange and her friends there to catch the bus. We grabbed our tickets but then decided just to cab it out. It was like 30000 won but split four ways was cool.

Hahoe itself was packed for the mask festival, so we got some food and decided on the 330 show. This gave us time to walk around the village, which is set in an absolutely beautiful mountain setting, with rice terraces, gardens and minimal power lines and apartments. The village itself is very similar to the folk village I saw up in Suwon but it was still really cool to see it. The buildings have retained their traditional architecture and design but unlike in Suwon, there is a large family clan who live here (so big sections are off limits). The Korean government subsidized people who are willing to live in the traditional Joseon way. It keeps the traditional culture alive in an era of rapid modernisation and it is great for domestic (and some international) tourism. Either way it was very cool. Next was the 330 show which was good, but all the dialogue made it difficult for those not fluent in Korean (ie -us) to really grasp what was happening, so we opted to head back to the village and see a bit more. We then had the task of getting back in to town. The bus, which only runs every couple of hours, was not put in to higher circulation for the festival. We all lined up but when it did come people just ran/shoved each other in a mad dash for the bus (like those really fat ladies that wait outside Wal-Mart on Boxing Day or Black Friday in North America). I was actually a bit sickened at the lack of regard/courtesy for other people, but then I remembered where I was.......... anyway we all got on, crammed in though we were and got back in to town. We then decided to walk around Andong a bit and eventually found a bbq place to sit, eat and chat for a while before we parted ways and hopped on the train.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to see Deosan Seowan or really as much of the city itself as I had wanted to, but that's okay as I've already decided that Andong is somewhere I will go back to a couple of times before I leave Korea. I will probably do another trip up there in the next couple of months as fall sets in and Deosan Seowon gets its beautiful fall setting. I also had more time to catch up with Ange, meet her friend who I  really liked and get to know Kris better than I thought I would. With that in mind the trip itself was an overall success. Andong itself is a cool little city and being one of the few Korean cities without any major industry, the air was very clean and the mountains especially beautiful.

When I replace my camera cord I'll throw up the pics.