Hangeul (Korean Language!) Day in Yeosu

At the National Garden of Suncheon Bay.

It was recently Hangeul Day in South Korea. Hangeul Day celebrates the creation of hangeul (한글), the Korean alphabet. Hangeul consists of 24 simple characters, vowels and consonants, that combine to make syllables and words. It's very straightforward and considered one of the easiest written languages to learn, because once you memorize the characters you can read the words. Furthermore, unlike many other East Asian languages, Korean is not a tonal language. In tonal languages such as Vietnamese, the tone and lilt you use when speaking changes the meaning of sounds, which is how you can say 'fish' when you meant to say 'tomato' (and of course make other, far more critical mistakes). 

Thankfully for people learning to speak Korean, those issues don't arise when reading hangeul out loud. And once you can read hangeul, you can actually understand some Korean right away! While learning the meanings of Korean words is of course more complicated, many words are actually 'Konglish': English words in hangeul characters. Reading a menu, for instance, you may come across a 블루 베리 smoothie- bl-lu-bay-ri. This makes reading and speaking in Korean quite simple in some contexts.

Katie enjoying the bubbles at Cafe Day Nine, Yeosu.

Hangeul has a great origin story as well. Korea traditionally used Chinese characters as their written language, and only a very small portion of the population could read and write (such as royalty, nobles and court scholars). In 1443 King Sejong wanted to unite the country, and he decided to create and implement a written language that everyone would be able to learn and use. Apparently the aristocratic class thought this was a terrible idea, but he persisted, and today we have hangeul. I suspect that hangeul is one reason the South Korean literacy rate is one of the world's highest, although this wasn't the case until the country's recent, rapid economic ascension. You can literally learn how read Korean in a week if you want to- I used the KoreanClass101 lessons on YouTube.

Anyways, thanks to beloved King Sejong, I had a long weekend in mid-October. We decided to visit Yeosu, a small city in the southwest part of the country (a region called Jeollanam-do). My friend Esona had lived there previously, so I thought it would be fun to travel there with her and our mutual friend Katie (we all live in Hanam-si, just east of Seoul). I had only been to Busan (the major southern city) and Jeju Island, so I was hopeful to experience more of southern South Korea and its temperate climate, particularly as temperatures began to chill here in Seoul. As I get closer to leaving Korea, and without international destinations to tempt me, I'm more and more eager to explore other towns and regions here (as much as is safely possible right now). Seeing more of Korea has definitely been the silver lining to this difficult time.

We took the first subway train from Hanam-si towards Seoul Station, to catch the 7:00 am train south. It was an early morning, but it's worth it when you're just doing an overnight trip. We decided to stop in Suncheon first, as it's only about 10 minutes by train from there to Yeosu. If you ever find yourself travelling around Korea, I highly recommend you travel by train. Of course, this depends on your budget and how much time you have: buses are considerably cheaper, but they take considerably longer, particularly when holiday, weekend and/or rush hour traffic is factored in. Personally, I think the train is usually worth the elevated fares, and you can get almost anywhere in the country within a few hours.

Seasonal grasses at the National Garden.

We opted to visit the National Garden of Suncheon Bay (after seeking out brunch, of course), which is also home to a protected natural wetlands area. The wetlands are apparently quite scenic and nice for walking in, but we were interested in the sprawling garden, which features plots themed by country and unique, architectural landscaping. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the garden proved a perfect place to spend a few hours. As with many tourist attractions in South Korea, there were ample photoshoot opportunities, and we put the skills we've gained through watching young Korean people pose to good use. I suspect that this garden would be a lovely visit in any season, although the indoor pavillions were closed at the time we visited. The only thing lacking was available snacks, so I would recommend packing some in your bag if you decide to come.

Once we arrived in Yeosu, we headed to our hotel room. We stayed in a boutique (which as far as I can tell, means small and cute?) hotel called Hotel The One. The room was nice and spacious, with ondol-style floor bedding. 'Ondol' (온돌) is the hangeul word that refers to floorboard heating, the most popular form here in Korea. In many Korean accommodations, especially more traditional ones, you will find floor mats instead of beds for sleeping. I find them quite comfortable, but definitely more so if you can stack two on top of each other (I'm still Canadian, after all). The room also featured an amenity that one rarely, if ever, sees in Korea; mood lighting. In place of the usual single, atrocious fluorescent square that haunts all of our poorly-lit nightmares, there were many ambient lighting options that could also be controlled from the floor (sleeping level). Foreigners here seem to care a lot more than locals about good lighting, and I was very happy to have it. Finally, the room had something I had never before experienced- a clothes steamer. It looked like a fridge with clothes hangers, and had settings I didn't recognize (with writing in hangeul, of course). We guessed a setting, put a dress in for about ten minutes, and lo and behold the wrinkles were gone... amazing! However the mystery machine may also have shrunk my friend's turtleneck, so proceed with caution.

A scene from Yeosu.

After a languishing period in the hotel room, we ventured outside. Yeosu is a small city with a handful of lovely attractions, the main one (in my opinion) being the many nice beaches there. Another popular tourist attraction is the cable car, which provides a short journey and one of the most beautiful views I have seen here in Korea. You can choose one-way or round trip, and between a regular car or crystal floor car (which allows you to see directly below you). If you're trying to save a bit of money, we found the view from the regular car to be plenty stupendous (note also that you cannot bring any luggage on the crystal car). I recommend riding the cable car on a clear day, as Korea's infamous pollution and ocean fog could combine to obstruct your view significantly (this is true for all view-based attractions in Korea. One time we hiked to a temple with a magnificent look out point, only to find ourselves literally in a cloud. Still worth it, but hiker be warned).

Yeosu cable car.

A fun evening activity was walking around the pier area and taking in the sights there. We had a local dinner of seafood and pork cooked on a flat grill; make sure you get the rice at the end of your meal, which is cooked with dried seaweed and the remaining sauce on the grill to make a delicious fried rice (when you think you're full here, there is usually more food coming). We also saw the replica of a historical warship unique to the area, the interior of which is usually open to visitors (likely closed due to covid). Standing outside the ship at night, an older man insisted on commandeering my friend Katie's phone to take pictures of us. We attempted to politely decline, but he was very persistent, so we agreed to humour him. He proceeded to direct us very specifically in individual and group shots, perplexing us with his determination to lead us in a full photoshoot. Turns out he was actually awesome at taking pictures, because we ended up with some beautiful shots! You never know. We finished the night dancing at a little bar called Soul, which had a low key house DJ and delicious cocktails (and mocktails).

Thank you, random man who took our photos at the pier.

The next day, we did pay a visit to the beach before we had to catch our train back to Seoul. It was a beautiful day, warm enough to swim (in the mind of this Canadian at least! My South African friend felt differently), but we opted for sunning ourselves by the water. Esona was picking up some stuff from a friend, and one of those items was conveniently a thin mattress (ondol style). Any unusual activity tends to draw a mix of curious and disdainful attention from locals here, so we were quite a sight taking a nap at the beach, but it was totally worth it. We ended our trip with lunch at a very Instagram-worthy, family-run cafe called Day Nine, and headed back to the metropolis relaxed from our little getaway.

Bedding at the beach, not at all strange.

Until next time! xoxo