Weekend Trip to Jinju
Last weekend Jennifer and I went to Jinju (about 1 and 1/2 hours by bus nw of Busan) with some friends. The town was much smaller than Busan with a population of just over 340,000. The town has a beautiful fortress that was rebuilt in the 70's after being destroyed by the Japanese during the war. The fortress had traditional gates, shrines, and temples inside that were quite stunning. We also went to Lake Jinyang and hiked until we came across the first bar where we proceeded to have a couple beers and enjoy views of the lake at sunset. The most unusual part of the trip happened at night when we went stumbled upon what appeared to be a nice bar with a decent size crowd. We'd been searching for a bar for a while. 4 of us foreigners walked in there eager to get our first beer, but we were stopped by the bartender who said, "Korean only". Then he held up his arms in a cross and said "foreigner no". Well I guess that would have to be the most racist thing that has happened to me here so far. I never thought I'd be kicked out of a segregated bar but I guess it's good for us to experience some of the world's animosities....as long as we can see it with a sense of humor. It would have been hilarious if they had a picture out front of white people with a big "X" through them.
Happy New Year everyone
Cheers,
Heather