On Sunday, May 6, we finally visited the nearby university that my coworker, Robin, has often told me about. She lives near our institute and has often told me that Kyung Hee University has a beautiful campus that we should visit. She reminded me again that Friday before I left work, and so we decided to take her advice and take a walk on the university grounds in the late afternoon. The weather was lovely and the lighting perfect. We really enjoyed our stroll around the university campus that stretched into twilight.
The architecture on this campus is quite striking - even imposing at times
The landscaping is quite good as well
Everywhere you turn you see green, rocks, and flowers
A secluded pond
Ali liked these flowers
Reflections
One building resembled a castle
There was also a cathedral on campus
Unfortunately we were not able to get in
But I did get quite a few pictures of the outside, at least
Windows
Enjoying the vista
The castle building from another vantage point
Notice the apparent angles in this shot... parallel lines in the real
world become right angles in the camera
You can knock, but it shall not be opened unto you
This is the castle building up close - I think just a classroom building
Amphitheater with four tennis courts in the center - and this is the small one!
This school really employs vast sizes in various forms
The truly huge amphitheater/stadium - there's a spacious basketball court, a full soccer field (I think)
plus a huge pile of sand at the far end.
The "crown" building - our name, not theirs
Seating
Quite a skyline
I really enjoyed the scenery on this campus
Lights and camera, but no action...
Fiber optics and a statue, near the university hospital
We ended this series about our Sokcho trip and still had quite a few pictures left to add. So we decided to make a wrap-up post and tell you about our wonderful accommodations while on the East Coast. We found The House Hostel in our Lonely Planet guidebook and we would definitely recommend it to anyone staying in Sokcho. The Korean couple who own the hostel are extremely kind, helpful, and accommodating. The minute we walked in the door, the man sat us down at the coffee table in the lobby and unfolded an English Sokcho tourist map, then gave us a 15-minute rundown of all the interesting things to do around the town, complete with bus numbers to get to all the main tourist attractions. In addition to free breakfast every morning, we also had free access to the hostel's assortment of bikes (the guidebook had said we'd have to rent them so the free bikes were a nice surprise). All in all, buying the Lonely Planet guidebook was totally worth it just for that one piece of advice it provided!
This is what the hostel looked like when we first got there
Outside during the day
They had some pretty fancy-looking doors, till we learned it was just a film put on
Hall phone
Our breakfast nook
The resident hostel dog, Gulumi (Goo-loo-mee)
The terrace and Gulumi's lair
Enjoying the quiet
The kitchen where we got free breakfast
Interesting strawberry jam packets (see video below for how they work if you can't figure it out by the diagram)
Quite the quirky quarters
Unfortunately we weren't able to stay at that great hostel every night: Saturday night they were already booked, so we had to relocate for that one night to a nearby motel - which was not quite as nice... Not tons worse but somewhat, plus it was more expensive. Needless to say we were happy to be able to return to the hostel for the last two nights!
We felt so secure...
Tired after a long day of hiking
My flip flops after being stuffed in a side pocket of my backpack for two days - luckily they're moldable
so they straightened out after wearing them for a few minutes
Ali took some nice pictures of flowers
Finally, a few photos from an impromptu photoshoot the first night on break, of Ali's brand new haircut! :)
So pretty :)
Glamour shot!
Through the looking glass - or bathroom door window, in this case...
For pictures and commentary about our other days in Sokcho, click the links below.
