Last weekend we went to Andong with a couple other teachers from our school, Stephen and Elizabeth, and with a couple of our directors friends, Daniel and Kim. Our director, Michelle organized the trip with a tour company Andong Tour and we took a bus down on Saturday morning and came home Sunday afternoon. Andong is a city in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, South Korea. It is the largest city in the northern part of the province with a population of almost 185,000. The Nakdong River flows through the city. Andong is known as a center of culture and folk traditions. The surrounding area maintains many ancient traditions and they have several museums that we visited.
Stephen and Elizabeth
Our smaller tour van
First Museum: Andong Folk Museum
Our tour group
Making Soju (
Daniel checking out the Farm equipment
Rice farming
Mourning Ceremony
Casket Carrier
Burial Mound
Various group games played in the villages:
Mask Dance, we saw this live later
One of many rice fields
Tree dedicated to George W. Bush
Bigger Tour bus
Start of Mask Dance
We were peed on by a fake bull
Don, unknowingly getting married to an American woman
Don Dancing at his wedding
Don coming back to his seat with a wedding gift
What was inside Don's "wedding" gift
Yes, these are all people's actual homes, so neat!
The village is located on the Hwachon Stream which is a tributary of the Nakdong River. To the north of the village is Buyongdae Cliff while Mt. Namsan lies to the south. The village is organized so it has the shape of a lotus flower or two interlocking comma shapes.
This is us in front of the cliff
This is us on the cliff
Panoramic shot of Hahoe village
Kim posing on the cliff
Our home away from home
The traditional Korean home is laid out with a few building build around a courtyard. Part of the courtyard is a raised up platform, kind of like their living room/dinning room.
Don with Daniel and Kim
Daniel lived in a home like this in Seoul when he was a kid, so this wasn't anything special for him. It definitely helped to have these guys around. Kim actually lived in Andong for a year for work, so he knew the area pretty well.
The entrances to our room
Watching the South Korea vs. Greece game in the Hahoe village
We had a great time and the area was so beautiful. It was really nice to get out of the city and to get some fresh air. We were a bit disappointed with the tour, we were rushed through most places that we went and the tour people only spoke Korean the whole time so we were left to read the English explanations in the areas that had them. Daniel and Kim helped a bit with this too.
View from the entrance of the Dosan Academy, a Confucian Academy established in 1561
This Confucian academy that we visited was in a beautiful location, but it took us a long time to get there. The picture of this place is actually on the back of the 1000 won bill, so it is important in Korean history.
Daniel resting
We ate a few different Korean dishes while we were there too. While we have eaten quite a bit of Korean food so far, this was our first time eating it for breakfast and actually for every meal. Most meals are the same, rice, soup, various side dishes that pickled in some way, always kimchi, and some kind of meat. We had fish for lunch the first day and breakfast the next day. We had bulgogi (beef marinated with soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and garlic) for dinner on Saturday which was great, and a ginseng chicken soup before we left to come back to Seoul. This wasn't really soup as we know it. It was a whole steamed chicken stuffed with rice in a thick broth in a hot bowl. You break up the chicken and ladle some into a smaller bowl to eat from. The hot bowl stays hot for a long time keeping the food inside hot too which is great, since eating Korean meals tends to take longer than western meals.
Ginseng Chicken Soup
None of us will ever get used to sitting on the floor all the time, made me feel old...
We also went to a food museum to see other dishes, I took some pictures before Don pointed out the no Pictures sing, oops. Don also tried and bought some Andong Soju, which is 45%. He said that it was pretty good.
The last stop of the trip was a lookout point over the river and the city.
