Hi - Touch Gongju!

"Hi-Touch Gongju!" is one of the many classic English city slogans of Korea. We found this one to be particularly entertaining and we still aren't quite sure what they were aiming for...Experience Gongju? High-Five Gongu? Hello, Touch all Monuments in Gongju? It's officially a mystery.

Now, Gongju is not alone in the English slogan tourism. In fact, all cities seem to have a catch phrase that is vibrantly advertised across bridges, on monuments, or in some cases - on flying bikes in the sky. This particularly wondrous slogan actually resides a mere block from our Galaxy Apartment. The hot-spring/bike friendly neighborhood of Yuseong features a 10 foot wide bicycle, complete with spinning wheels and a geared-up cyclist, tooting, "Yuseong, Very Good!" Our city at large, Daejeon, boasts "Let's Go Together!" with cute anime characters sporting space suits. Who can resist the appeal? It is almost as alluring as all of the cartoon characters dressed as food items plastered on restaurants. Yes, I will eat you dancing kimbap roll flashing me the thumbs-up sign. Good times.

That was a bit of a side-track from today's actual adventures. We ventured out early on a day trip to Gongju, about 30 minutes from our casa. According to the Lonely Planet, "Gongju became the second capital of the Baekje kingdom in AD 475 when the first capital near Seoul was captured." We were tempted to the city by the rolling hillside portraits of the Gongsanseong fortress. Our pictures did a decent job capturing the scenic beauty as well. However, they don't quite capture me nearly sliding down a ledge in my slick wooden flip flops or Jake going ape shit when the gnats attacked in the inner woodlands. And those were pretty much the highlights of the trip ; ). Later, we swung by the tombs of King Muryeong and rented utourista video tour guides --gotta love Korean technology.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the monsterous spider photos and the minbak that Da' Bears stay at in Korea.

Happy Weekend!