Yeoju

Trying to explore Korea is sometimes pretty difficult if you don't understand Korean or are able to know where you are going. I discovered this on a day trip to Yeoju. I researched everything and thought that everything was planned. We headed to Express Bus Terminal in Seoul and got the bus to Yeoju. The plan was to go see the ceramics village and make our own. Upon arriving in Yeoju, we had quite a struggle to get a cab to take us to the ceramics studio. We finally got that down after asking the woman at the bus station for directions as well as several people on the street trying to help us.

Once at the Ceramics studio, we travelled two hours to find out that it closed THAT day to get ready for the Ceramics Biennial (a giant world ceramics expo that is held every two years). It is taking place this year and they needed to start preparing for it. What luck, eh?

We enjoyed the nice weather and got to walk around the ceramics village and down to the river. We then proceeded to go to a nearby temple, which is the only main Korean temple situated on a river. It was great to see and we had good pictures turn out. The highlight of the day was sitting in a tea house and having an old woman pour us traditional Korean tea in nice ceramics and how to pour it correctly.

The day was not all lost, but it turned out to be a very relaxing day of just walking around. When we arrived back in Seoul we took the subway to Insadong and had another excellent cup of tea at a tea house.

Yeoju wasn't a full success (as we have no ceramics to show), but it wasn't a loss of a day either. Just having some difficulty with language barriers! It's time to learn more Korean!