Jeongseon is a working town, remember all the pictures of the people working in the fields from the rail bike blog?  Well, they sell all their stuff at the 5 Day Market.  The 5 Day market happens every 5 days, on the 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22th, 27th of every month but it is open every day.  Makes sense, I know.  Anyhoo - it was not totally what I expected, but things were MUCH, MUCH cheaper here than in Seoul.  Here are a few pictures from the 5 Day Market, (we went on the 10th, so it was not really open). ?

O I N K!  We often say  this when we see something we normally do not see in the states, or anywhere else for that matter...O I N K ~ It stands for Only IN Korea! 

Nan Hyang Ro Won is one of the most O I N K places I have seen!  Are you ready for this?

I copied the next paragraph right from this website.  I did not correct their spelling or writing.  This is a great example of 'Konglish' ....  hold on tight as pictures will follow!  ;-)

"In the past people displayed a tone which look like a woman's vagina. Shortly after the housewives stated cheating on thier husbands. Then people put another phalic shaped rock beside the woman's rock and the local men's peace came back. This story sounds like a fairy tail but it it really happened. There is also a park for stones located at Na Jeon station, Buk Pyong - myoun, called " Nan Hyang Ro Won ". Once you enter this small park you will see interesting rocks most of them look like a penis or vagina. Some of the mail rocks are very majestic. Two of the femal rocks are called grand daughtor and grond mother. The Grand mother rocks a expecially interesting because the grand mother rock has a huge hole. When poeple come through it, it look like a mmother giving birth. Till last year only a few rocks were there. These rocks were discovered in different parts of the city from 1971. At that time it was believed that if women touched the vagina rocks they would cheat on thier husbands to counter this, poeple curried vagina rocks in. But after that there werw many car accidents and local poeple getting sick with no reason. So the people dug up the vagina rock again. But Jeong Seon Province still wanted to keep thier wives from cheating, so they brought in the penis rock. Meanwhile local people thought if the vagina rock and penis rock were together then it would keep Yin and Yang in harmony. At first local people worried that something bad would happen when the penis rock came in. But nothign came of it. Local women don't have extra-marital affairs even though they touch the vagina rocks. Man's and Woman's energies are said to gather here. Many couples come and pray for their marriage, babies and their bealth. Tourist take pictures of those rare shaped rocks. This spot is becaming a tourist hot spot."

I read online about this cool waterfall...& the picture on this site is beautiful.  Really, click; go look at what at is online.  This is what we found.  Seriously, there is a waterfall behind me!

Sometimes we find the oddest things while hiking.....

Some of you may be wondering what a pension is. I like to describe it as a bed and bed and breakfast, without the bed or the breakfast.  Here are a few pictures of our pension...

Although I am very thankful for a western toilet, please take note of the shower....see it?  It is right there, to the left side of the photo - look up on the wall to the left side of the mirror, between the mirror and the cabinet -.  Oh yes, that is right it is right there!  Also notice the sink for brushing your teeth and washing your hands?  That's right; it is in the picture above!  The sink is in the KITCHEN! No sink in this bathroom!  Seriously, I'm was just happy to have the toilet!

Here is our room when our beds are made -

Don't forget to bring your own cocktails like we did, or you might just get stuck with what they have at the local convenience store, like this "House Wine" that cost all of 2,000 won, it taste 2,000 won good as well...

We took this picture for my MIL - don't you own this blanket?

And a few pictures from outside the pension.

Oh, one more thing, the owners of the pension spoke no English, and we speak no Korean.  Thank goodness for our friend that booked for us!   We had a great time here!   Stay tuned for our hike and building of a rock bridge....

OK, OK, on to the bike ride!

At the end of your bike ride, you can get a bite to eat in this big fish made out of an old train car.  (There are actually 2 big fish.)

Then you ride back on a train that is jam packed full of people!  While you are riding the train is pulling the bikes back to the start location.

The other thing that has rubbed off on some of us is the Korean style breakfast!  A nice hot bowl of (fish) noodles! However some of us (the three little people)  can't hack the noodles for breakfast just yet, so they had Dunkin' Donuts.

Korea really is a beautiful country.  I think we went through at least 10 tunnels before we go to Jeongseon.  Hubby enjoyed tormenting the kids in the tunnel.  He would pause the TV while going throug them, telling them he didn't want them to "miss the tunnel".  He's a freak and the kids will need therapy because they will have a fear of going throug tunnels when they become adults! 

More to come soon.....

Boy 3 did a fun photo shoot at Olympic park last week and Flat Stanley came along for the ride....

Boy 3 really just wanted to play with the balloons. 

I loved the scarecrows at the park....

Hubby and I found this great little galbi restaruant a few weeks ago, we liked it so much we took the kids back the following weekend.  To get here  take the blue line, line 4 to Chongshin University, go out subway exit #1 and walk straight  go to the first BIG intersection (you will have to wait for a light to cross), once you cross the street, turn right, you will walk about 1 block, right after you pass a small hospital (you will know it is a hospital because there is normally an ambulance sitting out front AND there are patients all over the streets in their hospital pajamas) you will see this restaurant, it is the very first restaurant past the hospital.  Just FYI, there are NO ENGLISH menus or pictures.

This is the best little galbi restaurant I have eaten at here in Seoul, no joke!  I am sure there are better ones out there, but this is the best I have had, and the price was great!  For our family of 6 (we had beef and pork galbi) we paid 65,000 won!  Here is what our meal looked like....

Oh baby, I'm hungry!

Two weekends ago we hiked Mt. Yongmasan (the other side of Mt. Achasan). Let's get the directions out of the way, here they are:

Take Subway Line 7 to Yongmasan Station (Exit 2) → Walk into the entrance of Hanshin Apartments, and walk ahead → Go up the stairs next to the pavilion and take a right past the playground to an exercise facility → Next to the facility, go up the stairs behind the wired fence.
Time: From the summit of Mt. Yongmasan to Mt. Achasan, it takes about 2 hours to 2 and a half hours.

Here are the rules.....does that really mean 'no coughing'?

It is all about the snacks....we had to stop before we even started the hike to eat snacks and feed the birds....

I picked this hike because of the waterfall - I wanted to mix things up a bit.  The kids do not want to go hiking every weekend anymore - to them we could be hiking the same mountain each week & they wouldn't know the difference.  They just know they are climbing.  At first they loved it, now they complain until we get there, but they have a good time once we start climbing.  So I thought the waterfall would be a nice change in scenery for them, I totally talked it up. This is what it says about it on the 'official site of Korean tourism';
"... make sure to stop by Yongmasan’s Waterfall Park. The largest man-made waterfall in Asia, where the central falls are 51 meters high, while those on each side are 21 meters. At regular intervals, the water volume increases making a stronger flow."

This is what we got....

nothing, nada, zip!  The waterfall was not flowing AT ALL!  So up the hill we went....

Somehow we got off the main trail and ended up here.  This is when things started going awry....

After my heart attack and the poop episode we got back on track and finished off our hike with a little fun....

And on the way down, we took the stairs...

Hubby says these are the best chicken wings I make.  I got this recipe out of a grilling magazine a few years ago.  They are very simple, delicious and surprisingly much spicier than they look!  I always have people devouring the celery & blue cheese after a couple of bites! 

5 pounds of chicken wings
3 1/2  teaspoons garlic salt
3 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
3 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano.  
Celery sticks
Blue Cheese dressing

Combine all spices, sprinkle over chicken wings & grill!  Grill about 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.