Youngae and Imy - 06.2008

Youngae and Imy - 06/2008

Two day visit from Seoul

After a long drought we finally received visitors again. Our Korean friends from Malmö, Sweden - Youngae and Imy, flew down from Seoul to be with us for two days. Imy works for Ericsson in Lund, Sweden, but is now on a short term assignment in Seoul for the company. We have been threatening to go visit them for a while now, but now they beat us to it.

We picked them up from the airport from an early 8 o'clock flight on Memorial day, June 6th. The poor things were more dead than alive after having a very early start from Seoul. On top of this Imy had a sore throat, so we quickly got them back to the apartment and pampered them with some tea and honey ! After breakfast we went for a little walk in the neighborhood. It is amazing how much you miss by not knowing the language. We showed them the streets and they showed us what was on the streets ... here's a dog restaurant and there's a shaman (natural healer). Over there they make natural medicine - good for the stamina. It was also funy to be the guides for Koreans in their own country. It is sort of turned around a bit, because instead of a lot of explaining, we had a lot of questions. We went down to the fish market in the harbour where our shipyard is. At this point I am not sure that Imy understood me when I said that I would never by a fish from there. Later, after haven been for a tour of the ship yard, he understood very well what I was on about ! The harbour is filthy !!!

After a well deserved nap, I took Youngae and Imy for a tour of our ship. Just getting to the ship was a challenge for Youngae. There are many ladders and bridges to be crossed, and as the yard was still working, they found out just how dirty and dangerous it is to walk around the ship. Still, they seemed to enjoy the tour. For somebody who makes mobile phones it must be interesting to see a large thing like a ship being built !

In the evening we met up with Stephanie and Jerome at the Korean BBQ restaurant on Ilsan Beach. Imy had told us that he craved for seafood, so we took him to the best place we knew. He weas in heaven ! After the meal we went and hit a few baseballs at the "amusement corner" - Ilsan is a popular night meeting place and loads of people stroll the beach or go to the karaoke bars there. We finished the evening off with a drink at our place - watching the ships go by ...

Saturday morning I had to go to work for a short while, after which we went up to the Brazilian training ground. Unfortunately I was called back to work, so we only had time for a short tour of Ulsan College before I dropped Paula and the visitors off at Ilsan Beach. I then went back to the yard while they headed up to Ulgi Lighthouse. They didn't get far though ! Imy saw the seafood restaurants at the entrance to the Pine Forest Park and his mouth started watering ! So they sat down for another seafood feast.

By the time I finished up at the yard, they had reached the rocks below the lighthouse, so I joined them there. This is where the old female divers run their restaurants from, so we had another chance to fill Imy up with seafood. We got a few dishes and a bottle of soyu and shortly thereafter I think Imy entered the second heaven ! I must say that the food was nice though. And it doesn't come fresher than this. All raw but good. Some chewier than other ...

One bottle of soyu later ...

Full and satisfied we headed for the black pebble beach for a short stroll before bringing Youngae and Imy back to the airport. We had a really good time together with them and hope to see them back here again ... for more seafood. That way we will also learn more about the world surrounding us !!