[Part 3] 153. 1st sunrise of 2011

The journey from Cityhall Station to Gangreung Station 강릉역 took about 4 hours by bus and we arrived there at 2am. To get to Jeongdonjin 정동진 to watch the 1st sunrise 해돋이 by the beach, we were supposed to take the Mugunghwa 무궁화 train from Gangreung Station to Jeongdongjin Station, just 15 minutes away, but the 1st train only departed at 6am so we slept in the bus from 2am till 5.30am before entering the train station and squeezing with everyone. Initially, it was cold in the bus when it was moving. But when the bus was parked by the train station for 3.5 hours, it became a furnace for me. I had 3 layers for my body (without my downfeather jacket) and 3 layers for my legs. Even after removing my outer layer and just wearing a cotton black long-sleeved t-shirt and one long-john underneath, it was so hot that I perspired and wasn't able to sleep :(

Ice on the window! 

When we got out of the bus at 5.30am, it was snowing. I was happy to see snow...but later, I realised that seeing snow there wasn't a good thing at all and I'll explain later. It's funny how I thought we paid for the package tour which included transportation so we should have seats assigned for the Mugunghwa train but no...I think we got a standing ticket.

We arrived at Jeongdongjin at 6.15am and were given time to eat before going to the beach to watch the 1st sunrise at 7.39am. But it was snowing, freaking cold (for my poor toes) with freaking long queues into the eateries that the 4 of us went into hiding on the stairs of some building near the station instead. Around 7am or so, we went out of hiding and walked towards the beach and...it was a cloudy day because of the snow :( When it's a rainy day, you don't see the sun. So when it's a snowy day, you don't see the sun either so basically, we travelled for more than 4 hours to see the sea. We couldn't see the sunrise at all :(

Here's what we should have seen.

image taken from http://icolumbus.net/tour_kor/goods_tour_list.asp?idx=77  

Here's what we saw.

The ship is actually a hotel called Suncruise Hotel/Resort. Maybe we should have booked a room there! 

We stood huddled on some wooden platform by the sea with the whipping wind and snow everywhere. My toes almost froze until YW saved me by putting heat packs on my poor toes. After taking a few more photos, we left before the high tide came and made our way back to the train station to take the train back to Gangreung Station. The crowd was insane. People here, people there, people everywhere...and no sunrise in sight :(

It was too cold and windy :(

snow + sand + seawater -.-

Chaos at the train station!

Really strong wind and erm...2 couples braving it.

Here's a video I took:

Initially, I didn't want to upload this because I said a bad word. But after reviewing the video, you can't hear me properly because of the wind so...I think it's ok to post this online :) It was so cold that my face was partially frozen and I couldn't enunciate my words properly.

As part of the package tour, we were supposed to go to Daegwangleong 대관령 to visit a sheep pasture and I was looking forward to taking photos like these:

photos from http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=una216&logNo=90083270741&redirect=Dlog&widgetTypeCall=true

But because of the mad cow disease and fear of further outbreak, we went to Herbnara 허브나라 in Bongpyeong 봉평 instead. I'm glad we went there because it's a really beautiful place! I think it'll be really nice in Spring as well. We had lunch in the restaurant there before taking some photos and leaving the place at 1.30pm.

We were given less than 2 hours to explore the herb land. If only we were given more time! But as YW said, we had to leave for Seoul early because traffic would get quite heavy in the late afternoon. We reached Seoul at 4pm, 3 hours ahead of schedule. Since Cityhall Station was just beside Euljiro-1-ga Station, YW, Phyllis and I decided to go to Myeongdong to shop while Jeannie went back to Anam to rest because she was too cold :( I bought spectacles for my cousin for 50,000KRW and got myself a new pair as well because YW said my old one from Jeju's ugly :( We went to Beans Bin Cafe for the ice cream waffle I wanted to have before I go back.

Reality is beginning to hit me. Today's 1st Jan. I leave on 7th Jan. I think this will be a year of crying for me. But I can deal with this, I CAN. I am brave and I will face it all. We will make it, even if others think we won't. All I need is faith...and technology. Can't wait for iPhone 5!