5.29.2010

Andong's Folklore Park.

Crossing the 387 meter stretch of the Moonlight Bridge led us to a folklore park. It's partly obscured by lush maple trees so we were surprised to find out that such place exists. This folklore park is actually an old village where people lived since the Joseon Dynasty. The old village is located at the far side of the river, and they called their place "Eumdalgol" or Moon Shade Village.







These houses are real and people lived here a long time ago. Weird cause I like this place better than Hahoe - that place is too commercialized anyway. Here, nothing hinders you from exploring the entirety of the house. You could go inside the rooms and sit there provided you're cool with dust and cobwebs. You could still see traces that people did live here like broken pots and pieces of wood they used to heat the floor during winter. The only place I didn't dare to explore was the toilet and we all know why I stayed away from that.



At the front, you could see a sign that says something about the history of the house and the family who lived there. This goes with all the other houses there.



It's really nice when you get to really feel how the ancient Korean people lived, and not just lust for it from afar like in the case of Hahoe. All I got there was a sore neck from looking at their roofs and peeping through their closed gates. And to think they have the audacity to charge entrance fees and parking tickets for that! Here it's totally free, like how it should be.



Our trip to Andong had quite a few disappointments, but there were some cool surprises too. Nevertheless, it gave me a culture fix I couldn't get elsewhere. And to cap our journey, we had a very delicious dinner called "Andong Jjim Dalk". You know what, I can totally live with the few disappointments I had cause this food right here is already worth the visit!




P.S. If you wanna taste the best Andong Jjim Dalk, go visit the old traditional market downtown. Don't let the crabby market place deceive you, cause the restaurants there serve the best dish in town! A plate so huge it could feed 4 hungry people costs 22,000 won. Not bad right?! But for two, it's a hell of a feat trying to finish even half it.

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