Gwangju Sunday or Fun (Sometimes) Free Things in the City

Waking up after the hike + night out in Gwangju was a bit of a challenge, but we managed to get up and out only slightly after noon.

The night before, Ty had bought me an absolutely hilarious flower. It's two pink lilies, wrapped up with gauzy pink ribbon, with a gold heart with a pink crystal hanging off it and butterflies dangling around. The florists in Korea are amazing with what the artistry that they can do - and it's completely tacky and over-the-top -- but so much fun at the same time. I stuck it in the side pocket of my backpack so it became my antenna while we walked around.

We limped (me because of hike, him because of dodgy ankle) around downtown Gwangju - stopping in at the Dog Cafe. Now, before you assume that we were eating boshintang (dog soup) or something - take a good look:


It's a cafe/pet store/groomers with about a dozen dogs and cats in various states of dress and decoration running around. You can order tea or something, or just play with all the cute puppies and kitties. Yes - they are wearing dresses. Yes, some of them are dyed pink. But these are some of the happiest animals I've ever seen.


I surprised myself by completely adoring this little fluffy dog-thing. But the total highlight was this completely blissed out cat-in-a-dress that spent all her time attempting to turn herself inside-out while purring.

Don't you want to be this cat?

We got more ridiculous photo-booth pictures taken (Mom - same place as we went that time), but were once again too slow/confused/spastic to decorate them all up before the time ran out. Then, we headed out for some ice cream.

Korea has this whole "dating couple" culture that I was previously only witness to. Here, couples will dress alike (from head to toe) and a lot of the restaurants serve "couple sets" that seem to have been born from some random 1950s Coke advertisement - outlandish drinks with two bendy straws sticking out of them and the like. So, two simple scoops of ice cream get blinged up (like the flowers and the puppies) with random cookies and decorations and served in one bowl with two spoons. Great fun.... once again in a cute-overload, over-the-top, drag queen kind of way.

We limped/wandered around a bit more, then gave up and headed to Shinsegae. I was happily surprised to be recognized at the Aveda counter (well, seeing as I own almost every Aveda product known, and I've bought them all from the same girl, and I do sort of stick out here - maybe it isn't that surprising) and I took advantage of this moment to get us two free blue oil head and neck massages.

Finally, it was time to go to the bus station, but instead of hopping on our buses right away, we sat in the middle of a bookstore where you can find almost every single Lonely Planet guidebook (in English) and learned a bit more about each other's countries and/or places we've been or want to go (there was actually a Montreal guidebook - but it didn't show any really good pics - disappointing! And even, get this, a Saudi Arabia guidebook!). South Africa seems to be over-run by a plethora of rather scary insects (Meron, ever heard of a Parktown Prawn?), zebras and random cute-looking fluffy animals with unpronounceable names. And penguins.

As I got on the bus to head to Mokpo, I was surprised to find Ms Jeong (who I've mentioned tons of times in my blog already). Yay - a friend on the bus who let me cut in the line half-way through instead of having to wait at the end!

Last week was an insane week of near-constant socializing. This week might end up being a bit the same with a Korean movie, French Club, possible school outing, Suncheon Friday and Wando weekend coming up.... And only 11 days 'til Taiwan!