不可以！六月二十五日-七月一日
The first really sunny day here occured today: it was magnificent! The sea was turquoise, the beach looked whiter than ever. Sadly I have to leave tomorrow, although I will most likely have time to enjoy beautiful beaches later on as well.
Some pictures from our first real holiday week, beginning 25th of June.
Three happy mountain climbers eager to climb 泰山, Taishan (Tai Mountain). Entrance ticket at Hongmen cost 127 yuan. The picture was taken right in the beginning of the ascent: their faces 3 hours later were somewhat different...
Some of the thousands of steps we had to climb.
Halfway Gate to Heaven! Merely 2 hours of climbing left!
Resting before the final few hundreds of steps before the Southern Gate to Heaven.
Xu xiaojie klarade sig också till Södra porten till himmelen! The view down was exhilirating!
At the top, 1545 metres above sea level, 3 hours and 35 minutes later! Let's go back down!
Not so happy anymore. The descent took some 2 hours: the final half from Halway Gate to Heaven down to Hongmen bus stop was pure torture. My legs were trembling and every step ached in my thighs. For the next 4 days I had a MINOR steps and stairs allergy.
Time to leave Tai'an. Att klättra upp på Taishan skall bringa mognad i bestigaren: i Ouliweis fall är jag dock inte helt säker på detta...
At Qingdao beach! The G246/247 leaving from Tai'an 09.25, brought us here in some 3 hours after we had paid 150 yuan.
At the food market in Qingdao you could find all kinds of delicacies, such as starfish, scorpions and grasshoppers.
In Qingdao they don't quite seem to get the thing with Christmas decorations: you usually don't leave them hanging until June.
The boat tickets with Weidong Ferry to South Korea are bought! A student ticket, including the harbour tax, cost 675 yuan in economy class. The boat leaves at least on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday at 17.00 (although we were somewhat delayed) arriving in Incheon at around 11.00 (10.00 Chinese time), but boarding is almost 2 hours earlier. Buying tickets on the day of departure would not have been a problem for us as the boat was far from full (perhaps because it was Wednesday), but we had reserved tickets in advance (although without some knowledge of Chinese it can be complicated).
The GS25 convenience store on the ship played some real party music! We sat outside, playing cards and just enjoying. The ship has a kind of a spa (a sauna and 3 pools as well as a tiny gym) FOR FREE! I really came to like this ship, it was wonderful! Never mind that it might in theory have been possible to buy an aeroplane ticket for almost the same price and get to South Korea faster: sitting in the sauna, feeling the waves was so soothing!
On our first morning in South Korea we were greeted with excellent weather as Tonatiuh smiled at us! From Incheon harbour we walked towards Dongincheon metro station, but as our bags were rather heavy, we took a bus the rest of the way. Had we had less luggage, walking to Dongincheon station would not have been a problem. From Dongincheon station metro line 1 took us the whole way to Seoul.
After resting on a boat for 19 (?) hours we had more than anough of energy to go to the Lotte World amusement park in Seoul! I never really understood what kind of ticket I got: mine cost 19 000 won. After 16.00 the ticket is cheaper, although in my opinion it still should have cost 31 000 won. Well, I won't complain that I was able to save 12 000 won.
Some strange ice cream they sold at Lotte World. The ice cream consisted of tiny orbs of chocolate "ice cream" (they did not quite feel like ice cream in my mouth).
Lina kom från Shanghai och mötte upp oss över helgen!
At one of the royal palaces in Seoul. The name of this one is VERY tricky, but I think it was Gyeongbokgung. The entrance fee was 3 000 won.
On Saturday we went to see the (in my opinion) coolest place in South Korea: Panmunjeom! The three soldiers in the picture are South Korean, guarding us against potential aggression from the grey building in the background, located in North Korea. The three blue buildings are located on top of the border: the concrete block between the buildings (separating the white gravel from the grey one) is the border between South and North Korea. We got to enter the conference building to the left of the soldiers after standing in a row here for some minutes, taking pictures of North Korea.
Now we are all standing in North Korea! Våra kära klasskamrater som läsa japanska kommo också till Seoul och följde med på utflykten. This half of the building is located in North Korea, but while the tourist groups are visiting from the South, access from the North is supposedly restricted. This is the only place where you can enter North Korea visa free and somewhat conveniently (there were some rules we had to follow to participate in this Panmunjeom tour and we had to pay 78 000 won to get here, but it is still far simpler and cheaper than going on a tour inside North Korea).
The Bridge of No Return. Once you cross it, you won't come back. The other end of the bridge is in North Korea.
All the impressions on our tour were too much for some who couldn't resist dozing off.
Delicious Indian food in Hongdae! The mango lassi was to die for!
Delicious Korean food in central Seoul! It was rather spicy, though, but unfortunately the staff don't understand my favourte restaurant phrase, 不太辣！ (not too spicy)
While wandering around Hongdae (the part of Seoul where we stayed) we couldn't avoid noticing this and wondering what on earth these joints are serving.
I understand that I have mentioned a lot of places that aren't perhaps that well-known: here's a map of our summer holiday travel so far:
勿行！