A Day Trip to Gwangju

Approximate Date: December 18, 2010
Location: Gwangju, South Korea
Details: Nick and Becky, along with two friends Shanna and Joe, spend the day exploring around Gwangju.

Gwangju is about 50 minutes from Mokpo by bus. As a reminder, Mokpo is a city of around 250,000 - Gwangju is a city of around 1,500,000. We immediately noticed a difference in city size - the traffic alone was very telling of this. Nick and I agreed that the hustle and bustle of Gwangju is what we expected when we thought of a large Asian city and this was just a preview to our journey to Seoul.

We found these at the Underground Market. Those come out to be about $19.00 for one big box. Good thing I haven't had a big craving for honey-goodness since I was a kid. I do have a cereal of choice that I have come to like here. It is still around $7.00 a box.

The busy streets of the shopping district in downtown Gwangju.

The woman running this cart yelled at us for standing in front of her merchandise... personally, I don't think that we were the reason she wasn't getting any business.

The streets of the Arts District of Gwangju.

I thought this was quite cute. I am now determined to fund an adorable old Korean artist that looks just like this one.

I would have encouraged graffiti artists back in Minneapolis to tag the garage if their handiwork looked anything like this!

For dinner we went to an amazing little Indian restaurant called First Nepal. A very nice Indian family owns the place and treated us very well. Thinking of my dad I ordered Dal (his Indian specialty), Basmati  Rice, Garlic Naan and a Mango Lassi. My plate didn't stand a fighting chance. Nick enjoyed a plate of Chicken Curry and was surprised how much he liked it only having had Indian food a few times prior. Needless to say, we will be back again!

Night lights of Gwangju.

Ahhhh, even after gorging ourselves full of Indian food we found a way to fit in some dessert (as we always do). We were told they had creamery ice cream in Gwangju, but didn't realize it was actually a COLD STONE! I was very pleased to see they had my favorite on the menu, Berry Berry Berry Good. Nick on the other hand was saddened to find Peanut-Butter-Cup-Perfection not one of the offerings. He only pouted for a few hours, but every time it is brought up he doesn't hesitate to curse S.K. for their lack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.