going to gohyeon

Ken and I are headed to Seoul for a long weekend on Thursday. I can't believe we have been here for over a year and have only seen the Seoul airport. Well, more on Seoul later - after our trip! Yesterday morning I headed to one of the towns next to us - Gohyeon. It is larger than Okpo and I go there often to Tesco Home Plus for grocery shopping. It also has a shipyard - Samsung Heavy Industries. The downtown area has more shops than Okpo and I have prowled around the downtown in times past.

We have decided to take the bus to Seoul. There is an express bus (meaning no stops) to Seoul leaving several times a day from Gohyeon that takes around 4 1/2 hours. There is also a fast speed train leaving Busan for Seoul that only takes around 2 1/2 hours. However, we would have to take the ferry (45 minutes) from Okpo to Busan, get to the train station, and catch the train. Maybe some other time - I wanted to try the bus this time. I have also wanted to try to take the bus from Okpo to Gohyeon. I had asked around and it seemed easy enough. So I took the bus to Gohyeon to buy tickets for the bus to Seoul.

I got to the bus stop and found a young man waiting. I said, "Bus to Gohyeon?" and he nodded yes. I knew it was 1000 won and that they didn't make change, so I had my money in hand. Well, a bus came and the young man got up to get on the bus. Then he turned around and made a motion like don't get on this bus. So I didn't. Well, I didn't realize that there were different bus lines so I made a quick call to Ken to ask a secretary at the office. She said most all of the buses go to Gohyeon and to just ask the driver before you get on. I followed her instructions and hopped on the next bus. It took around 20 minutes to get there, which really wasn't too bad (maybe around 10 by car).

I decided to wander around the streets a bit before I went back to Okpo. The towns around here don't really come alive until 10-11:00 in the morning. (FYI- some of my pictures today seem abit blurry because I was trying to take them quickly on the sly. But if you want to ever see a larger image of any picture in my blog, just click on it and you will see a larger image. Then just press the back button and it will take you back to the blog.)

This place looked like it was getting ready for a grand opening.
Even the cotton candy didn't seem to have someone to manage it when I arrived.


However, things gradually became animated. The marketplace had the older women peddling their vegetables and fish.

The shops and stalls opened - selling anything
from shoes


to flowers.




Trucks were parked on the side of the street selling fruits and vegetables. By the way, the strawberries are good.
And if you need a new springtime blouse - no need to go into a store - they are arranged quite nicely on the sidewalk by the bus station! (Maybe a new outfit for our trip for Seoul?)

Also, as I returned to the bus station, I passed by the establishment that earlier was getting ready for their grand opening. Most business celebrate this with large arrangements and sprays of flowers, decorative banners and balloons.



This restaurant was also using "go-go girls".
You see alot of this here, not only for grand openings but for sales events. They alternate between dancing and talking about their product and/or establishment. There is always music, loud speakers and cute little outfits. Something, huh?

Well, the rest of my trip was uneventful. I purchased the tickets to Seoul and managed to get back on a bus that was headed for Okpo. There were fewer stops on the way home. It's funny how proud I can be of myself for the littlest things.....like riding a bus in Korea!