Hwaseong - Wintry Fortress: Part 1

During my Christmas break I took a trip to Suwon, a city about 30 minutes south of Seoul. Unlike the city where I live, Suwon doesn't feel like a suburb of Seoul, but rather is its own sprawling city-space very separate from its larger neighbour to the north.
My time there was mostly taken up by my walk around the walls of Hwaseong Fortress. Constructed during the 1700s, this world heritage sight stretches for over three miles around the city, dotted along the way with dozens of gates, pavilions and military facilities.

I arrived at Suwon via its metro station.

Paldalmun Gate, the southern entrance to the fortress, was under construction when I visited.

I saw a guards' performance at some temple grounds within the fortress walls.

The temple grounds were dead quiet.

Here's where I started my journey along the actual fortress walls.

From Seojangdae Command post I had a great view over the city. There's the Christmas tree I saw earlier! 

It occurred to me that this is the furthest I've ever been from home.

Click here to continue the adventure in Part 2!

Skiing in Pyeongchang

A couple of weekends ago I went skiing with some friends at Yongpyong Resort in Pyeongchang County. It was my first time skiing so it was a little nerve-wracking at first, especially as there were so many people around to bump into. But after a few hours of practice I (sort of) got the hang of it, and I'm already eager to go back.

The pension that we stayed in was perched in a pretty, Switzerland-esque valley about 15 minutes from the resort.

The pension-owner was this friendly old man. Wish I'd caught his name. His English was very good.

Close to the pension was a dog that always greeted us with a wagging tale. I felt pretty sorry for it being tied outside in the cold. 

Here we are at the shop where we rented our equipment. 

Pyeongchang is the county that will be hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2018 Winter Paralympics. In fact, some of the skiing events of those tournaments will be held at Yongpyong Resort, where we were heading.

This is how things looked with my skiing goggles on.

At Yongpyong Resort.

Here I am looking pretty calm and content but actually really struggling not let my skis start sliding me forward into someone else.

On the cable car.

I was pretty envious of people who actually got to have lessons. 

We had dinner in Dragon Plaza, Korea's largest ski-house.

We also did night-skiing.

It was fun skiing at night except for the fact that, due to one of the beginner-intermediate slopes being closed down, we all got lost in a maze of ski slopes that were too advanced for us (well, certainly for me anyway). I think I fell over probably 30 times.

When we got back to our pension the dog was there to greet us again. 

The next morning we got a taxi to the nearby town of Hwahyung.

Some idyllic scenery on the train ride home.

This trip was absolutely worth the aching that my muscles experienced the next day at work. In fact I may consider going skiing or snowboarding again while I'm here.