Holiday Journal

• Start
•  
• Soyang River
•  
• Cheongpyeongsa
•  
• Flower Garden
•  
• Ethiopia
•  
• Pension
•  
• Park
•  
• Uiamho
•  
• Kim Yu-jeong Station
•  
• Jade Garden
•  
• Finish

Saint Lawrence Pension 세인트로렌스 펜션

If you walk along the Bukhangang street leaving Chuncheon Downtown behind, you'll see other tourist attractions like Gangchon and Nami Island.

Gangchon and Nami Island areas look the best in fall when they the leaves turn into yellow and red so we had to exclude them in this trip but we couldn't give up the cool breeze from Bukhan Riverside so we decided to stay here.

There are a few hotels and resorts in Chuncheon of course but I didn't like their facilities let alone the accessibility then I found out most of pensions in Chuncheon were located in this Namsan-myeon area.

I booked a hotel in downtown at first but 「Saint Lawrence Pension」 seemed like a better choice since it has a whirlpool bathtub that we could take a rest from exhausting journey, wide space and cool views.

'Saint Lawrence Pension' we chose after giving a lot of thought is located on a small hill around Bukhan Riverside, 3 minutes away from Gulbongsan Station of Gyeongchun Line by car.

Thankfully, I had asked the pick-up service earlier so we met the owner at Gulbongsan Station and he drove us to the pension. In front of the information room on the first floor, I received the key and instructions on how to use pension facilities.

Inside the information office, there are small ornaments, cold and hot water dispenser, bags of instant coffee and tea, and

dozens of DVDs on one side of the walls so you could borrow them as many as you want while you stay.

Plus, you could stay in and play some games because they lend you various games for board games, cards even hwatu(card game originated in Japanese).

The information office also has different sauce bottles that you usually pack on trips then you'd probably dump, and here you don't need to buy.

The book we booked was 'Ontario'. It was right next to the information office with a wooden door, which would've been on the Western age, between two rooms.

As I opened the door, I saw a white room with marble floor. Ontario is the highest quality room in Saint Lawrence Pension, the only room that is equipped with wooden table in front of the room for barbecue party on a separate veranda.

The living room had a long sofa for relax, basic stuff like TV, refrigerator, air-conditioner, microwave, tea kettle, electric rice cooker and basic kitchen utensils, and strangely it had gas stove, not electricity ducts.

One thing that's worth mentioning was that the computer was connected to TV unlike regular pensions and a big whirlpool bathtub on veranda that had a jet spa function that you could use it while you watch Bukhan Riverside.

Walk along the path inside the living room, there's a small room with a bed. It's separated from the living room so you won't be disturbed even if you had companies.

Inside the bedroom, there was a bathroom/toilet but wifi connection was bad in this bathroom.

Among many facilities, my favorite one was of course jet spa. While unpacking and organising things and moving around, it became completely dark night.

As I was getting massage from strong waterflow in the big whirlpool bathtub and watching Bukhan River in the dark, I felt like I relieved all the fatigue from the trip.

I still had a lot of things to do, net surfing, DVD and boarding game but after the jet spa, my eyes were so heavy that I had to lie down on the bed and closed my eyes for a nap.

Then I opened my eyes…in the morning. I don't remember anything but I had a nice deep sleep so my body recovered fully. It was time to leave the pension that allowed us to spend the very comfy night in Chuncheon.

We packed everything and the generous owner took us to our next destination just like when we checked in which helped us to keep our bodies in perfect condition for our next journey.

Pension lends bicycles for free and there's a bicycle lane along the river starting from the pension so it's good to ride it in the morning and evening. I couldn't use all the services they offered but Saint Lawrence Pension was very satisfying for us. Everyone should choose where to stay depending on their preferences or destinations on trip but if you have to choose one of pensions with various options on Bukhan Riverside and hotels in Chuncheon downtown with better accessibility, I would say go with a pension with more options.

Address : 20-11, Seocheon-ri, Namsan-myeon, Chucheon-si, Gangwon-do (강원도 춘천시 남산면 서천리 20-11)

Telephone : 010-5301-9734

Chuncheon Pungmul(institutions and customs) Market & Gangwon Drama 춘천풍물시장

After we left the pension we stayed, we took a subway to get to Namchuncheon Station to get to our first destination that day.

As we took enough rest, we felt so great just like the weather with blue sky unlike the gloomy sky the day before.

Stores didn't open because it was still early but you would find big markets like E-mart and Lotte Mart near the terminal.

But where we were going to go that day was not well-decorated big mart but Chuncheon's traditional market, Chunchon Pungmul Market.

Chuncheon Pungmul Market is a traditional market behind Lotte Mart in Onui-dong that opens once in five days.

So they open on dates that end with 2 and 7 so there were not many people when we visited but they were still decorated like houses in fairy tales unlike other traditional markets.

Traditional markets are supposed to have a lot to eat and see but when they don't open, it must be this quiet and it made me frustrated.

As we walked through the market street, all we could see were around 10 people like us. I heard there's even a hotteok(sugar-filled Korean pancake) store you would have to get in line to get one but the whole market didn't open so it didn't seem busy.

Well, we didn't plan on touring market and we just made sure about the location this time so we could probably visit next time when it opens. When your plan doesn't work, you'd better get over and move to next destination as quickly as possible~!!

Address : 29-3, Onui-dong, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do (강원도 춘천시 온의동 29-3)

Telephone : 033-253-5814

Website : Every five days (-2nd, -7th)

Gangwon Drama Gallery 강원 드라마갤러리

If you walk about 500m towards KBS building from Onuidong Pungmul Market, you'll see 「 Gangwon Drama Gallery」 building made with red bricks.

Gangwon Drama Gallery has information on dramas filmed in different places in Gangwon-do, not just Chuncheon, and shows them.

On the basement ground you will see THE famous 'Gombaeryeong' restaurant that specializes in folksy Korean traditional meals whereas Gangwondo Tourism Association office is on the second floor and the drama gallery where you could actually see something useful is very small and located on the first floor.

Guide desk at the entrance provides numerous booklets for tour in different cities in Gangwon-do including Chuncheon and the northern city, Goseong.

As indicated, you head to the right and you will see computers to search information and a drama map that shows the locations of places that were filmed for dramas in Gangwon-do but it wasn't helpful.

Behind the drama map, it shows scenes filmed in Gangwon-do that actually used in drama and the extra monitor showed the scenes from drama.

After checking the filming sites in each region, you could watch the drama with sound in a booth but there's no chair so you're going to have to watch it while standing.

The middle part of the building was higher than the rest and I could see the posters and good scenes aired on drama. Photos were enough to remind me of dramas that I watched on TV.

There were so many dramas filmed in Gangwon-do but the most related one is 'Winter Sonata' which lead the culture of Korean wave.

The handprints and signatures of Bae Yong-jun and Choi Ji-woo who were main characters of the drama were framed and displayed.

A scene of Jun-sang(Bae Yong-jun) and Yu-jin(Choi Ji-woo) in drama was reenacted inside and if you take a closer look it looks kinda scary.

It's already passed more than 10 years but at the time, its tremendous popularity lasted for a long time in Korea, China, Japan and other countries such that it even affects on the way people wear a scarf.

Get inside further and you'll see Jun-sang's house from the drama reappeared here but it's not real. I wished there were more items than those sets.

There was a camera and a computer for us to take a picture using chroma key screen but something didn't work so I couldn't even see which one was taken.

We had a brief tour in Gangwon Drama Gallery but compared to its size, the content was not satisfying. If you are in a hurry, you could take a look around in 5 minutes I guess. Maybe that's why less and less people are coming here and the building itself is about to disappear so unless you're a big fan of Korean drama, you shouldn't expect much.

Address : 770-3, Toegye-dong, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do (강원 춘천시 퇴계동 770-3)

Telephone : 033-244-0088

Coffeenie 커피니

We left the pension in good condition that day but two places we'd been to were a bit unsatisfactory. Well, it would've been nice to take a break and start again… so we decided to get inside the cafe behind Namchuncheon Station. We wanted to change the mood with a cup of coffee at Coffeenie.

Coffeenie Namchuncheon Station branch is accessible since it's in the corner of the convenience store before the steps leading to station building and it is not small but not visible because of high station building.

However, I am sure it is a great place for tourists to take a break from exhausting trip due to cheaper coffee than other major coffee shops and clean interior.

Especially, it prepared many seats on the first and second floors, the whole walls were made of glasses and the ceiling was high such that it made us feel cool by just sitting there.

It was quite early but the second floor was full of customers that seemed like tourists. We had no choice but to go back to the first floor and sat on a cosy sofa by the window.

I checked the menu and saw different types of coffee and colorful drinks for 3-4,000 won.

We ordered one of my usual drinks for hot weather, ice americano, and one strawberry smoothie. Unlike weak strawberry smoothie, coffee tasted not so bad.

After I finished the whole glass even before the ice melted, we headed to our next destination to continue our tour when it still had cool atmosphere in the morning.

Address : 1192-3, Toegye-dong, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do (강원도 춘천시 퇴계동 1192-3)
Telephone : 033-255-1141
Website : www.coffeenie.co.kr