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Start
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Soyang River
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Cheongpyeongsa
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Flower Garden
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Ethiopia
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Pension
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Park
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Uiamho
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Kim Yu-jeong Station
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Jade Garden
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Finish
Songam Sports Town (Uiamho Mullegil, Songam Cart) 송암스포츠타운
As a lakeside city, Chuncheon supports various leports related to water. Especially we can't miss canoe walking along the way on water and Mullegil(spinning wheel street) course.
Mullegil experience center is where you could take a round Uiamho on a canoe inside Songam Sports Town located in southwest area.
Songam Sports Town is not so far away from Gongjicheon area but it was quite isolated where there's a few bus lines only a few times a day.
This is a complex sports center that has sports facilities including Chuncheon city's main stadium, supplementary stadium, baseball stadium, indoor tennis courts and ice rinks.
At the door, a statue of a marathon runner who won the first place in 54th Boston marathon tournament in 1950, Ham Gi-yong, was waving and welcoming the visitors.
A gigantic symbolic icon that looks like a player running, almost slipping, in front of X-game Park stadium. X-game Park is a stadium for extreme leports like inline skates.
Leaving behind different stadiums around, we approached the Ice Rink and saw a sailing ship shaped building in the middle of heavy wind along with a wide parking lot far away.
As we got closer to it, Uiamho was spread out in front of our eyes next to alongside yellow flower road and I could see bicycle riders heading to Samak Mountain that is well-known for trails.
As we got closer to the sailing boat building, it looked even more like a boat floating on the sea water. So this is the Mullegil experience centre we'd been looking for.
On the second floor, you have to make a reservation. You could also book it online or telephone or on website but you'd better hurry on weekends since it gets really crowded.
It offers canoe services 10 times a day at predetermined times, and on weekends they added extra canoe activities, wet fog canoeing in the early morning and sunset canoeing in the late evening.
After booking, you will get instructions on safety including how to slow down and change the direction of canoe, courses and actions in emergent situations.
Instruction time lasts 15 minutes. After the instructions, you wear life jacket for your body size and move to the riverside to try for real.
Before you get on the canoe, you should pick a paddle that you feel comfortable with in the container in front of the building. Normally they put two people on one canoe here but depending on situation they add one one adult or a child.
The front and the end of a canoe looks quite the same but if you take a closer look at it, the end is narrower than the front. So two people sit on the front and back seats and move while they paddle together.
People who left before us were coming back to the canoe boarding site as below. My heart started to beat so much faster than I was instructed to see the canoe floating in the water.
I was also worried that the canoe would be sinking on my side because I'm heavier. Then I remembered that the instructor had said if I move too much to get balanced, canoe starts to sway more and then finally turns over.
So people who were instructed with us started to get on the canoes, then it was our turn so I left my camera just in case and rushed into getting on it.
Mullegil has a 3km long course for beginners, 5km long course of Uiam Dam course/Carp Island course/Samaksan course, and 8km long Animation Museum course.
However, only Uiam Dam course was avialable for many reasons at the time. So as beginners, we had no choice but to keep paddling along Uiam Dam course.
Unlike what I had worried about, I got used to it in 10 minutes so I grabbed the paddle with one hand and the other hand supporting the back of the handle like a professional and started to paddle stretching my arms long.
While we were so into paddling watching the canoe cleaving through the water, we got to the halfway even before we knew it. I regretted not taking my camera because I was so worried about falling into the water.
As we were enjoying the view of Uiamho under us and Samak Mountain above us, one hour flew and arrived at the boarding site finally.
This Chuncheon Mullegil was some extraordinary experience that when it cleaves through the water you can feel cool breeze that no air conditioner could make even if means you're going to bear the pain on your arms from paddling and a little bit of sun burn in hot weather.
After we had a talk about the canoeing experience and calmed down, we heard a gigantic sound of engine behind the building.
Cart experience center on a big asphalt ground. Flat carts were running along the lanes on that ground. This is another sport that Songam Sports Town is famous for.
We turned around to the parking lot, went closer to the place where they get on carts and I saw there are two types, for one person and for two people which cost respectively 18,000 won and 23,000 won.
A cart for person is red which looks pretty but the two-people cart looks like a skeleton.
But the speed of both carts looked similar. Service lasts for 10 minutes, very short, and there's a height limitation for each cart type.
For one-person cart, a person should be over 150cm high and older than 6th elementary school grade, and for 2-people cart, the driver should be an adult and two of them shouldn't be over 100kg altogether so two adults are not allowed.
We already had a cool experience with Mullegil so we had to pass that because we didn't want to get all sweat again on asphalt road under the strong sunlight. In case someone is interested, you could get 3,000 won discount if you join the Chuncheon-si Leports Business Team Website(http://www.csa2012.co.kr).
Address : 644-23, Songam-dong, Chuncheon-si (강원도 춘천시 송암동 644-23)
Telephone : 070-4150-9463
Operating Hours : 7:30 (only on weekends) / 9:00 / 10:30 / 12:00 /13:30 / 15:00 / 16:30 / 17:00(only on weekends)
Website : http://www.mullegil.org/
Songamgol PyeongchangSongeo 송암골 평창송어
The end of Songam Sports Town. There's a small food court between Uiam Ice Rink and Volleyball Court.
It's not a court where dozens of restaurants are lining up but there are some quite famous ones and the one we were looking for as well, 「Songamgol PyeongchangSongeo」.
Entrance to food court. First restaurant in the food court was Songamdong PyeongchangSongeo and as you can assume by the name, it serves trout(Songeo) caught and delivered from Pyeongchang in Gangwon-do where is famous for trout that lives only in fresh water.
You would be surprised how old the restaurant looks. Well, a restaurant should do a little bit better than this vinyl house since it has to consider cleanness as a priority…
We were in doubt but so many people suggested this restaurant so we went closer and took a look around the restaurant.
We checked the aquarium in front of the restaurant and I saw trouts were in good condition and the water was clean.
Well, okay~! We entered the restaurant and surprised again because it was clean, cosy and not fishy smelly at all.
There were no customers yet but the employees were busy in the kitchen probably preparing something. As we sat down, they brought us water and cold towels and kindly asked us a favour that the food might be served late because it opens at noon.
Oh, we probably were the first customers because we came too early. Well, we were sorry as well so we said it would be okay and checked the menu on the wall. 'Refill as much as you want!"
I really would like to eat trout as much as I wanted but I was alone with her who's afraid of raw fish so I had to order 'Songeohow Sojja(small sized raw trout)' for two people.
I tried to convince her by showing the effects of raw trout hung on the wall but didn't seem to work.
The owner was still preparing food for upcoming customers so I was ready to wait for a while but the common dishes were served very soon. Well, a few vegetables, garlic and peppers were all but there's nothing more needed to eat raw trout.
Among them, soft and piquant potato salad. Well, I was thinking this might stimulate appetite for raw trout so I gave it all to her.
“It's all mine anyway." I picked a row of pieces at once, put them in my mouth and chew them, then my mouth could feel the soft texture of raw trout.
I have been eating raw trout since I was born in an inland area so I know the taste and I must say this is one of the best ones I've ever tasted because it tastes neat and does not have the least smell of dust.
This time, I tried wrapping them in vegetables. Just as I expected… Since raw trout tastes better with vegetables, it didn't let me down either.
Now that we're done with brief(?) tasting, it's time to get started. I put as much as vegetables in the udon bowl served earlier.
Put raw trout on vegetables, spray red chili-pepper paste with vinegar and decorate it with nutty bean flour on top. Then mix everything together with chopsticks.
I thought I needed some more pieces of raw fish. So I added some more, mixed them again and put them in my mouth fully. Sweet and sour red chili-pepper paste with vinegar along with raw trout in vegetables tasted amazing.
One side of the wall had a banner that says the restaurant sells cold raw trout soup but I already finished four bowls of this so I couldn't eat it more. Maybe next time…
So after I finished almost one raw trout myself, I came out with a cup of coffee in my hand and I was thinking my frustration that I had from the shabby look outside when I first got there was gone, probably I gave it all to the dog in the garden. Songamgol PyeongchangSongeojib provides clean raw trout, freshwater fish that might disgust you if not fresh enough, very neat and fresh and they also serve a few kinds of raw fish that you could eat as much as you want once you order one dish. Well, there was a reason it is loved and visited by so many people. If you haven't tried raw trout, you might find it easy to eat once you get to try it here in this Songamgol PyeongchangSongeojib in Chuncheon. If you have a chance, please give it a try.
Address : 248-2, Songam-dong, Chuncheon-si (강원도 춘천시 송암동 248-2)
Telephone : 033-261-0407
Operating Hours : 12:00 - 21:00
