Day 11, Leg 7

I had originally planned to put up the pics of dinner today, but I became impatient yesterday, and while I still had some energy, I uploaded the pics last night as an addendum to yesterday's post. Here are some random images for today:

Not all convenience stores are conveniently open during the early hours.

Lions Club is everywhere. Like the Mafia.

tree in the dark

bridge in the murk

paging Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon

lots of bikers, walkers, and runners

꽃/ggot/flower

all those (midgety) sunflowers

a closer shot

zee purple floof

fucking park golf, the bane of these walks

more shaman spiders and dew

Like the others, this one was alive but sluggish when I nudged it.

The graffito is correct: this is, in fact, Goryeong Bridge.

obnoxious bikers in the pedestrian lane

small bunker, a reminder that the country is still at war

persimmon trees in the distance (zoom)

a sign about how not to dispose of your waste plastics

glove in the gravel

Korean Letterkenny

animal assholes

farm in November

beaten-up shwimteo (rest area)

one of many travel companions

civilization looms

a more classic shwimteo/쉼터

Hillside? We've got graves for that.

These are hard to photograph, even at a distance.

배수문/baesu-mun, drainage gate

Okay, so lemme explain...

Like Spock in "Star Trek II," I exaggerated. I was tired and stupid with fatigue, and I'd written that the snake was as long as the bike path was wide. In reality, the snake spanned not even half of the bike path. Turns out that I did have a pulled-back shot to confirm or disconfirm my claim, so in the interest of truth and rectumification (or rectification, whatever), I'm slapping this pic up as an apology for my earlier exaggeration. I've also gone back and edited yesterday's post.

Even in November, the growing goes on.

shwimteo, hiding

Pronounce it "shweem-taw." The eo in romanized Korean is like the eo in George. Or so my former boss says. It's not "ee-oh."

one of many short, steep hills toward the end of this segment

American Ninja monkey bars

tributary to the Nakdong

maeng ggongi/맹꽁이 is a type of frog native to this area

maeng ggongi ecological park, with boardwalks

These are apparently very talented frogs.

frog symbolism everywhere

Hotel If exterior (not Château d'If)

Korean-style Chinese "restauran" An Shi Seong (安市城/안시성, peace-city-fortress)

I'm still reveling in the memory of yesterday's lunch-dinner (dunch? linner?) Today, I've decided not to eat anything to make up for yesterday's carb orgy.

Room 302—assassins, come get me

anteroom (take your shoes off here, filthy Westerner)

the room's main living space

Lucky for me, the room has a fan, which makes for fast drying of clothes. I hand-washed everything except my pants and my bandanna (the pants will get a thorough washing right before the end of the walk; the bandanna will be washed several times at random points). With the fan going all night (it needed only about an hour or two), my clothes are dry and ready to go.

the bed, where I will again be sleeping alone

a view of the baffroom

Naver Dictionary, in cooperation with Google Translate, gives me the following explanation for the Chinese resto's name:

A castle of Goguryeo on the border with the Tang Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. It was located in present-day Liaodong, Manchuria, and is famous as the place where the castle lord Yang Manchun defeated a Tang general.

So: An Shi Seong was a historical place, and the restaurant's name wasn't just an airy-fairy stab at peace and love. 

My lower back has been hurting for the past few days. The ache normally goes away when I'm walking (ibuprofen also helps), and when the core muscles are getting a gentle workout, but on rest days, all I have are short strolls and resistance-band exercises. Those are the only things on the agenda today, in fact: (1) look for an electronics store to get a new power pack and (2) do my resistance-band thing. Otherwise, I'll be shambling around my room like a 90-year-old. On the positive side, life is simpler when you're out on a walk. I'm not looking forward to coming back to the big city. I never look forward to that. But life must go on.

ADDENDUM: I don't think I'll be going electronics-hunting. The nearest store is a cab ride away, and even though it's a break day, I'd prefer never to step into a vehicle while I'm on a walk. Sure, I've made exceptions in the past, but the "power-pack crisis' simply isn't acute enough to justify cabbing anywhere. So—just resistance-band training today.