Another day full of new things! As we had a week of free-time before the lectures start we wanted to travel. First we wanted go to Busan, but decided to go somewhere closer to Seoul. My roommate heard that Suwon was good so at the subway station we decided to go there. It took about an hour to get to Suwon, the capital of Gyeonggi, by subway and a bit to walk to the guesthouse we were staying at.
Things to do in Suwon
Suwon is not as big as Seoul but still worth a visit. Here are some things to do in Suwon.
- Visit the fortress and stone walls surrounding the centre of the city. Just walk around and enjoy it, hopefully on a sunny day.
- Visit the toilet museum. Wait, what? No, I am not joking. It really exists. Apparently Sim Jae-duck, a guy known as Mr. Toilet had campaigned for improving toilets and donated his toilet-shaped house to the city after his death.
- Sing karaoke. We did it, it was great.
- Shoot some arrows. But check the times you can go, we missed the experience since it was so many hours ahead.
- If you have a bit more time, visit Samsung Innovation museum. It is not in the city centre and I would have visited it if I had more time.
- Eat. What is a place without food, right? When in Suwon, eat at the Bonsuwon-galbi – a fancy (and a bit pricy) place with great barbeque!
Three girls looking for karaoke in Suwon
Imagine that it is pouring down rain and three foreign girls try to find a karaoke place in a completely unfamiliar city. We took cover at a local store and asked for help, luckily that one of us could understand some Korean. Our dripping wet skirts could then dry up inside the warm karaoke room. We sang everything from Green Day and ABBA to different Korean songs. Definitely need to try this again.
In Finland we usually only sing karaoke when we are (very) drunk. So the inner Finn in me was like “hey, where is the beer?!” but even so, it was great fun. My Estonian roommate also explained that they have a couple of big karaoke bars in Tallinn, which only are visited with overly drunk Finnish middle-aged men. Haha.
Then we went and had some chicken and beer. Interesting that the chicken “bits” are brought to the table, after which the waitress cuts the meat to smaller pieces with scissors. Scissors are apparently often used here to cut meat when out eating at a restaurant. Another interesting thing to learn!
As we ate dinner I asked if the other girls miss their home. “Not really, but I miss my team”, my roommate, who is in a dancing team, answered. At the time we had been in Seoul for only one week but I was curious. My answer was kind of the same really, I miss all my friends, co-workers and family but I still feel happy to be here.
