For the next part of my adventure in South Korea I left Seoul and went over to the east coast and the city of Gangneung. I chose to take the bus rather than the train, although the price difference wasn’t significant.
As I wasn’t completely sure what to do, I took the advice of my host and went on a walk alongside the river, heading toward the sea. At first, I felt a bit disappointed. As I was walking along, the water was blocked by tall river grass for quite a while, and when it wasn’t it appeared to be very shallow and not very pretty. Hoping it will get better later on, I kept walking forward.
After some time, the view of the river started to change. The tall grass that blocked the view was no more, and the river itself was wider and full of water. Still not very interesting, but certainly an improvement. Then I noticed some ducks swimming in the river, and further down the road there were birds flying above the water. The further I walked along the river, the more birds I saw. At some point along the way there was an observation post along with a sign that details all the different birds that could be seen in the area.
I kept walking until I finally saw the wide ocean. While there was a beach in the area, I wasn’t sure if it was okay to swim there, and the weather wasn’t very good for a swim anyway. Instead, I climbed up some stairs until I got to a little park and stayed there to rest for a while.
On the way back I decided to walk on the other side of the river, which turned out to be a better choice. Not only did I have a better view of the river for most of the way, there was also a nice little garden with colorful flowers that provided more interest in the scenery. It was a very leisurely way to start experiencing this new city.