Julia's Buyeo Birthday

Yesterday was Julia's 29th birthday. We spent it right here in Buyeo. It seems like every few years she has a special birthday abroad. In 2009 we were in Australia and she turned 23, watching the sun rise over the ocean, hanging out on the beach and enjoying a special dinner that I made for her, inspired by Masterchef Australia. In 2012 we were in the High Sierras of California, hiking the PCT, the entire day was somewhat typical for that adventure,  but the beauty of our surroundings made it epic. What lacked in the area of dining was more than made up for with ambiance. This year, again three years later, she turned 29 here in South Korea.

First thing this morning I went and picked up Korean rice cakes. Julia's favourite dessert here. You can find them pretty much anywhere (market and grocery stores) and Julia's favourites are the big white ones. So rice cakes for breakfast it was! The forecast called for rain all day, but we made the best of it before it started. We went out for a bit of a workout on the mountain, running around and ding bodyweight exercises.

After a quick clean-up, we hit up the grocery store and picked up some essentials. Not exactly an exciting birthday excursion, but important nonetheless. After lunch we headed out for a walk and ended up at Gungnamji. It's a giant pond / maze that's jam packed with Lotus plants. They bloom in the summer and in about a months time there will be a big festival with many, many tourists coming to our little town. Today was also busy, and for good reason, it's absolutely beautiful! The plants have grown immensely and the flowers are starting to bloom. We wandered around and took photos, but it started to rain heavier so we had to run and find shelter. We decided that it was a good time to go eat dinner, as it was now 4:45 and we were both a bit peckish. There's a place right near the pond that specializes in Lotus Leaf Rice. They cook rice and wrap it in the lotus leaf and add some beans and a couple other vegetables. It's pretty delicious and one of Julia's favourites! The owner of the restaurant speaks almost fluent English, which was a bit of a shocker the first time we went there!



















After dinner we were standing out front of the restaurant and trying to get a taxi home ($3) as it was raining pretty hard and we didn't have an umbrella. We tried to hail a few, but with no luck. Eventually, one of the employees of the restaurant came out and handed us an umbrella! So generous. It was a tad small, but we were more than happy to accept and walk home with it. We still got a bit wet on the walk home, but were able to duck into the market and walk through under some cover... and also pick up some more rice cakes.

The rain continued for the rest of the evening, so we stayed in and milled around. I got myself ready for this morning's bike ride (90 - 100k) and Julia tidied some things up and Skyped with her mom. A great little finish to her 29th birthday.

Today we're planning to head to Boryeong and go zip lining. We'll catch the 11:25 express bus, which should get us there shortly after noon.