Since we got to Gwangju late our first night, Monday was pretty much our only day to explore the city. Jill gave us some options what to do since unfortunately, she had to go back to work.We decided to check out Juknokwon, also called the bamboo forest. We took the city bus 311 to get there, took about an hour. It cost 3,000 won to get in. It was pretty cool; the way the tall bamboo trees surrounded you from both sides. At first it was pretty nice since they blocked most of the sun, but of course, the humidity got to us and after only a couple minutes we were drenched in sweat. Didn’t stop us from walking around though. They named the paths in the forest some interesting titles, like Contemplation Road and Old Memory Bypath.

After the bamboo forest, we took a cab to Metasequoia Road. It was close by and taxis aren’t super expensive here like they are in the states. The road is long pathway with huge sequoia trees lining both sides. So it’s super peaceful and pretty. It cost 2,000 won to walk down the pathway. Since it’s summer now the trees were lush with their green leaves, but I bet they are so pretty to look at with their fall colors. Metasequoia Road is one of South Korea’s national parks. All the seeds were planted in the early 1970’s and every year they hold concerts, cultural performances, and many competitions on the path.

There’s a little town right off of the road so we went there for ice cream since we were so hot. We also went into a café next to the ice cream shop to grab an ice cold drink. We both got flavored ice teas, but I couldn’t even finish mine. They were both much too sweet. We hung out in the café for a while just soaking up the air conditioning, but we stayed a little too long because when we were finally ready to go it started pouring. We didn’t get to look around the town anymore, but all the buildings were little shops and food places. I hailed a cab to take us back to the main bus stop, where we got another bus back to Jill’s place.

Older Koreans in Gwangju were very rude. Before I was even done talking to the lady at the bus stop counter, an older man pushed me to the side so he could have a turn. I was shocked. Then on the bus ride back, nobody wanted to take their bags off the empty seat next to them so Sarah and I could sit. I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it but I felt so awkward when an older man wanted to sit next to this lady and she was avoiding eye contact with him so she wouldn’t have to sit by him. Finally, he crawled over her to sit in the empty seat, but it was a bizarre thing to witness.

Jill got home around 5 and we went over to Penguin village, which is a little walkthrough area downtown, basically just has a bunch of random junk laid out in an artsy way to make it look cool. There were shoes and weird photos hanging on the outside house walls. Computers, xylophones, and other items were sprawled all over. One wall was covered in nothing but clocks and watches. Nothing really to do in Penguin village beside walk around and see all the crafty decorations, so it didn’t take us long to get through that. I’m not very certain on the ways to get there, but it’s right off of the stream in downtown Gwangju. The address for it is 7, Cheonbyeonjwa-ro 446beon-gil, Nam-gu, Gwangju, Republic of Korea

Next, we walked up this tower in Sajik Park, which overlooked Gwangju. It was close to Penguin Village, but it was a climb. Thankfully it wasn’t as hot as earlier in the day. The tower was on top of a hill and then about five more stories up. The view of the city was pretty nice. I was surprised at how big it was. Gwangju is the fifth largest city in South Korea, with two million people. That’s about as big as Las Vegas. The thing that gets me is that the country is only like the size of the state of Indiana, but it has 50 million residents. That’s crazy.

For our last meal in Gwangju, we decided to give Korean BBQ another try. Jill took us to this all-you-can-eat spot, which she and her friends enjoy. It was all you can eat pork and the cuts of meat seemed to have a lot of fat on them but we went in on it anyway. Three more rounds later and we decided to call it quits. We stopped by this coin karaoke spot right next door. You get in a little room and instead of paying by the hour you pay 1,000 won for four songs. I love that idea since karaoke after awhile definitely isn’t as fun for me as it is the beginning. So we sang and jumped around and I could feel the pork trying to settle in my stomach. When we got back to Jill’s house I can easily say the pork went right through me. Wow, I do not have a Korean stomach at all. Unfortunately, Sarah had the same problem. Let’s just say we are going to stay away from pork for a while, hahaha.