Day Trip to Gangneung // 강릉

 

After a very very stressful first week of English Camp, Saturday morning found me awake bright and early to catch a bus over to Bokhap terminal in Daejeon to meet a friend so that we could go on a little one day adventure up to Gangwon-do.

For anyone who paid much attention during the winter olympics you may remember Gangneung as the city, in addition to Pyeongchang, where the ice hockey, curling, and skating events were held.

But what Gangneung is usually known for in Korea are it’s beautiful beaches.

We’d been planning this little trip for a while but for the past week it’s rained pretty much non stop. Even the morning of they were calling for rain all afternoon. But we figured it was worth a try.

 

 

 

So at 10:00 we hopped on a bus headed north. Any bus trip here that is over 3 hours long get’s a 15 minute break at a rest stop so we were also able to eat the most shockingly delicious sausage/rice cake on a stick thing I’ve ever eaten. 10/10 would recommend.

 

 

When we arrived at the terminal in Gangneung we hopped on another city bus headed for the beach.

 

 

 

My friend, having been here several times before, was the expert for the day and we decided to start off at a beach with less things to do but more natural foliage and smaller crowds. It turned out to be an excellent decision.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you walk through this little strip of pine forest there are a few shops and restaurants for anything you might have forgotten. Then you’re at the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

We set up our stuff a little further down the beach away from most of the people.

I haven’t been to the beach since I was back home in the US in February so my Floridian heart was finally perfectly content to just sit in the sun and swim around in the little waves. It was amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether it was all the stress from the previous week finally leaving my mind, the sun, the sound of the waves, or a perfect combination of all three I actually fell asleep for a while.

After that we packed up and walked a little ways to a spot closer to the trees with a view of the beach to have a picnic dinner.

 

 

 

Aside from all the bugs who quickly joined us as soon as the food arrived, it was absolutely perfect.

From there we kept walking down the beach to Gangneung’s “cafe street.” We picked a cafe called Bossa Nova which has a really good view of the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

Then at 7:40 we caught our bus back to Daejeon.

We were so lucky and thankful to have had such perfect weather, especially on a day that had called for rain. And for me, it was the best way I could have asked for to de-stress after a long week of camp.

If anyone you have been to Gangneung let me know! Hope you’re well!