Jeonju, South Korea 2014 - Part 1

I wanted to visit Jeonju while in South Korea because it was known as the home of hanji and also known for bibimbap. Hannah went with us and set the whole thing up including staying overnight at a hanok. We took the bus from Seoul and it was about 2 hours 40 minutes including a 15 minute stop halfway.

The rest areas are nothing like the ones I have seen in the States. They have all sorts of food available for purchase along with a small grocery store.

When we arrived, we took a taxi to our hanok to drop off our overnight bags. This is the hanok we stayed in.

                                       Then we did some exploring. Jeonju was so beautiful.

     We saw lots of hanoks and there is a very famous hanok village which had all sorts of shops in it.

We decided to get lunch at this bibimbap restaurant. It was before twelve and we were the only ones in the place.

                                                                 Inside of the restaurant.

                                        Side dishes and accompaniments to the bibimbap.

                                   This was the very hot bowl of bibimbap.

To which you added rice and whatever else you wanted and stir. It had no red pepper sauce which I had always gotten with bibimbap. The sauce was sesame seed oil and soy sauce based and the most delicious bibimbap I had ever eaten. I'm still craving it.

                                       Then we checked out the hanok village as it began to rain.

                                    We had to check out the famous chocolate pie shop.

We bought some and when we walked past a second time, they were closed because they ran out of chocolate pies.

                       Hannah even found us a hanji shop still making hanji the old fashion way.

                                     A couple of friends were hanging outside the hanji shop.

                                                         Here he is making hanji.

                                             We saw a lot of construction going on too.

We ended up in a coffee shop due to the rain and waited for the time we could check in at the hanok. Out our window was this vendor selling fried cheese. He had a huge line even in the rain.

 

                       Now some photos of our hanok room. This is the shower in the bathroom.

                                                                    The sink was really cool.

                                                             I would love one of these.

                                                                 More photos out and about.

The Jeondong Catholic Church. I was just in awe of how this church survived all the invasions and wars on the peninsula.

                                                                   Inside the church.

Rocketman was not having bibimbap for dinner so Hannah managed to find a restaurant not serving it. I loved these lights made from jukbuin which is called a widow's pillow in Korea.

                                                       I even found some hanji lamps.

It was raining pretty good by the time we returned to the hanok and we decided to turn in for the night.

                                                         This was our room key.

                                     We even had some cool decorative hanji lights in our room.

                        Rocketman had to be very, very careful whenever he used the bathroom.

                             The colorful cables lined the roof of our room.

There were so many pretty flowers around our hanok.

Here is a video of our room: