PyeongChang 2018 - Day 9 (February 18th) Gangneung to Cupertino

This blog brings us to the end of the story for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. We have really enjoyed our time in Korea and will miss not being here for the end of the Games. I'll especially miss the pin trading now that it finally seems to be going strong. But we've been going full blast for the last 10 days and we are worn out. It is time to go home.

We spend the morning trying to get everything back into the places into our suitcases while simultaneously trying to cram in the new things that we've picked up while we've been here. Fortunately, we had the foresight to bring a couple extra duffel-type bags. The bad news is that we still have to figure out a way to carry all of this stuff.

Sunny has agreed to take us to the train station in time to catch our 3:15 PM train to Inchon International Airport, but before that, she has volunteered to prepare a brunch for us. While we are eating an assortment of leftover New Years items and a few new things, Sunny asks if she can ask us a question. We say sure. She says, "The two of you seem so harmonious. How do you do it?"Hmm, not a question we were expecting, but we tried to take a whack at answering it. We tell her that there are a lot of things that go into it. We were a couple for almost 6 years before we got married so we had a pretty good idea that we were compatible. When you've been married for 35 years (Yikes!), you pretty much know what things you like about your spouse, you also know what things that you don't like, but that aren't going to change and you know that you can live with those things you don't like. In my case, my parents and grandparents all married for life, so that was the model that I expected as well. We also thought that it was important that we've grown along parallel paths as we've aged. It isn't so important that we share all of the same interests, but it is important that we give each other the space to pursue our interests. I get the feeling from Sunny's questions that she and her husband do not have as much harmony in their marriage. I hope that our answers help, but I'm not sure that what works for one couple will always work for another.

Finally, it is time to haul all of our stuff down to Sunny's car and head back to the train station. Sunny pulls into a loading zone and helps us get our stuff out of the car and into the station. This is the last day of the New Year's holiday and the station is packed with people returning home in addition to the usual Olympic comings and goings. There are no available seats, but we find a place to put our bags and find someone to take a picture with Sunny:

We tell Sunny what a great time we've had in Korea and thank her for opening up her home to us. This has really made this trip special. We tell her that we hope that she and her family will be able to visit us in California some day. Then she hurries off to get her car before it is ticketed.

We know that it will take us a little more time to get our bags down to the train than usual, so we head for the security lines a few minutes before the train departure is announced. Unfortunately, the security team is still processing the passengers for another train so they place us in a line to wait for the security station to open us for our train. When the line finally starts moving, it is clear that security expects us to haul our stuff down the escalator. This is definitely not happening. We point to the nearby elevator. Finally, one of the officers comes over and lets us call for and board the elevator.  We walk down to our car and manage to get our stuff up into the train. As we expected, the baggage storage on our train is already full. But we knew from our trip to Gangneung that it was okay to shove our suitcases behind the last row of seats and pile our other bags up on top of them. We stow them and head to our seats. 

While we were still in Cupertino, we knew that travel on the 18th was going to be a problem when we were not able to buy train tickets for the 4-day New Year period from the US. So, we asked Sunny try to buy them for us. This is first-come, first-served and Sunny got up early on the first day of sale to try to get us tickets. I told her that it was okay to buy first-class tickets if that made it easier. This turned out to be a winning strategy and now we are sitting in the first row of a first class car. There is a tray that pulls out from the wall so that I can work on this blog. The seats reclines and has power and wifi, there are footrests and we get free snacks and water from the cabin attendant. There is even a bathroom right on the other side of the door to our car. Nice! The funny thing is that no one checks our tickets. This is true of all of the other trains we've ridden as well. Sometimes a conductor would walk down the aisle, but I never saw him ask to see anyone's tickets. It appears to be entirely on the honor system. Anyway, we settle in for the 2 hr trip to the airport, which goes by in what seems like no time.

The train pulls directly into Terminal 2 of Inchon International Airport, so all we have to do is follow the signs to check-in. Usually, I'd be able to trade pins with other travelers who are also heading home, but the Olympics still have another week to go so only a handful of passengers appear to have come from the Olympics. We head up an escalator and down a long hallway toward check-in. While we are walking, I'm noticing that my left foot is really getting sore. I'd had problems with this foot earlier in the trip, but this is different. I find out once we get home that I'm experiencing symptoms of gout (crystallization of uric acid in your joints) caused by eating too much fatty meat and not drinking enough water. There is nothing much I can do here except limp along.

We check our suitcases and most of our bags, but we've still got about 3 hrs before boarding. Our first task is to find something to eat. The restaurants at Inchon are up one level from the main departure lounge. All of the restaurants have pictures of some of their dishes outside and it takes us a while and a lot of painful walking before we find one that looks like it might have dishes that weren't flaming hot. Beth has a noodle dish and I have the Korean equivalent of a Japanese bento box with small bites of a bunch of different items. Good choice.

Now it is time for our other important task before boarding - finding a way to spend our Korean cash rather than being ripped off by the exchange rate. This time will be a little more difficult than usual because we've spent much less, especially on food, than we expected and have a lot more cash to spend. One of the rules of this game is to find something that is culturally relevant - no t-shirts allowed! It takes some time, but here is our first selection:

These are called Hahoetal masks. They are traditionally made from the alder tree and are two of the twelve characters needed to perform the Hahoe Pyolshin-gut t'al nori ceremony. This is a ritual dance drama from the 12th century that originated in the city of Andong in Gyeongbuk county about 50 miles southeast of PyeongChang. The mask on the left is Punae described as a "flirtatious young woman" who plays a concubine. The guy on the right is Yangan the arrogant aristocrat. He is the character in the play with the most power so he is continuously mocked. In one scene, he and a scholar are trying to prove that they are most deserving to possess Punae.

Our second purchase is an item to remind us of Sunny's amazing lacquerware closets:

We are told that this is a traditional Korean folding box design with small drawers that are hidden when the two sides are latched together. The inlaying of mother-of-pearl into lacquerware is called najeon chilgi and has been practiced in Korea since the bronze age. It differs from similar Chinese or Japanese arts in that the Koreans only use the interior lining of the abalone cut very thin to extract the brilliance of the iridescence.

Purchasing complete, we sit around until it is time to board the plane. As on the trip east, Asiana gives us a choice of Korean or non-Korean dinner. We both go for the Korean barbecue with various items rolled in lettuce. It seems like a perfect end to a perfect trip. We are glad to be back in California, but this has been an awesome trip that we will remember for a very long time.

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog. We are only through about 5 days of our stored Olympic coverage. I might write another entry about my favorite Olympic moments when we get finished watching all of the recordings. But if not, I hope that you will tune in again in August 2020 when we go to Tokyo for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad.

Steps for the day: 4,951

Steps for the trip: 165,544 (roughly 66 miles)

PyeongChang 2018 - Day -2 (February 7th) Seoul to Gangneung

It is now April 28th and the Olympics have been over for 2 months. After this blog from our last day in Seoul, I have one more to go! Thanks again for your patience and I hope that you enjoy this episode.

Today is moving day - we are off to Gangneung for the Olympics! Sunny, our Airbnb host asked that we arrive in Gangneung after 6 PM so that she could pick us up at the train station. This gives us another partial day to explore Seoul. But first we have an errand to do. For our trip to Korea, we had brought rail passes which allowed us to get on any train that had empty seats. However, we could not pick up the passes until the first day of use (today). That is okay with us, as it gives us a chance to scout out the route to the train station so it won't be a hassle when we have to do it during the afternoon rush.

After breakfast, we headed out through the underground passages leading to Seoul Station. We knew that the train station was positioned directly over the subway and we had a general idea of where the escalators up to the train station were located, but getting there involved a maze of walkways to avoid going down into one of the subway entrances. After at least one U-turn, we find the right escalator and go up to the train station. But where is the customer service center where we are supposed to get the passes? We ask a rail employee who does know about the passes that we are talking about, but points us toward the information desk. The woman staffing the information desk speaks just about enough English to tell us that we have to go to the train station office and points out the entrance to us.

We get to a solid door with no signage of any kind. In fact, it looks like the sort of door a janitor would unobtrusively appear from to empty the trash cans. Behind the door was a hallway with doors to a bunch of rooms, most with no signs. But the door at the end of the hall is glass and we can see people inside so in we go. No one speaks good enough English to figure out what I am talking about, but fortunately, I'd printed out the confirmations when I bought the passes. When I show them to the woman behind the desk, she nods her head, takes my confirmations, finds our names on a long list and checks off our names. We sign our names on each line and then she hands us our passes. We head back to the hotel and check out. The women at the front desk help us move our stuff into a storage room so that we can go sightseeing. We will come back here to get the bags and then head over to the train station.

For a long time, Korea was like a miniature version of China. The educated people spoke and wrote Chinese. Gyeongbokgung palace was built like a miniature version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. They even had a small version of the Great Wall surrounding Seoul. Today, we are off to Heunginjimun - Gate of Rising Benevolence - one of the few surviving parts of Hanyangdoseong - the Seoul City wall that once encircled the entire city. Very close to Heunginjimun is Dongdaemun Market, the largest market in Seoul and a place where we hope we can get lunch. Here is a view of the gate from the back:

That is the Seoul Marriott hotel in the background. The two story building on top of the gate is where the commanding officer of the gate lived. It doesn't look like much from this view, but here is the view that an attacker would have:

If you were unlucky, you would be holding a ladder to get your comrades to the top of the wall while archers shooting through those small openings at the top of the wall tried to turn you into a pin cushion. There would also be soldiers catapulting boiling oil down on you, shooting small cannons at you or waiting until your forces had weakened to pour out through the gate and put an end to you. Attacking Seoul was no simple matter.

Here is a view from the front:

Hanyangdoseong was started in 1396 and was rebuilt a number of times. This version of Heunginjimun was finished in 1869. There were originally four gates in the compass directions (Heunginjimun is the Eastern Gate). Only one other gate still exists. Likewise, very little of the original wall is left, but we see a section of it across the street from Heunginjimun:

In other parts of the city, you can see these markers on the sidewalks to see where the wall once stood:

We are getting hungry so we head over to the outdoor part of Dongdaemun Market. Like the markets we've seen in Beijing, there are a lot of vendors side by side, each hawking their food to anyone who even looks sideways at their booth. But most of the stalls are only selling a small number of items so you'd have to visit several to get a complete meal. We wander around through a maze of little stalls. At one point, we narrowly avoid walking down a street where it appears that you can buy dog meat soup or dog parts to make soup - gross!

We finally decide to go into one of the garment markets and have lunch in their food court at the top of the building. The place is a zoo! It takes us some time to figure out that the food items are listed on the wall close to the entrance along with a number that tells you which of the many stalls will sell you that item. There does not appear to be anyone who speaks English, but Beth has the great idea of telling me to photograph the sign with the items that we want (which include some English) and then show the picture to the vendor. This works amazingly well and soon, I have a piece of paper with a pickup number. Then we sit down to wait:

Most people sitting around us were eating various forms of bright orange foods we'd come to associate with blazing hot. I'd tried to avoid this by taking something called mixed mushroom topping rice. This sounded reasonably benign and I was happy to find when our number was finally called that it was not orange!

After lunch, we hustled back to the subway and back to our hotel to pick up our bags. We decided to head to the train earlier than we need to so the walk back to Seoul Station with all of our stuff was not too bad. This was partly because we had found the elevator up to the train level and avoided having to drag our bags up the escalator. The first thing that we saw when walking into the station was a brand-new Olympic store that was just in the process of setting up. There weren't many available seats so we just hung out near the store until they were ready. Beth bought these plushies for Sean's collection:

These are the Olympic mascot Soohorang, a white tiger and the Paralympic mascot Bandabi, an Asiatic black bear. Sooho means protection in Korean and symbolizes the Olympic goal of world peace. Rang comes from ho-rang-i which is tiger in Korean. Banda means half-moon and bi means to celebrate the competition. We will be seeing a lot of these two in the next 12 days! I bought about a dozen Olympic mascots sports pins knowing that these will be very popular with anyone who is interested in trading.

Further along in the station we see this:

It looks stationary in the picture, but in fact, everything is moving in this display - skiers going downhill, bobsleds going down a track, etc. It certainly caught the eye of nearly every kid who walked by. After walking around Seoul for three days and hardly seeing anything indicating that the Olympics were soon taking place nearby, it is good to see some signs encouraging people to pay attention.

After what seemed like forever, the public address announces the arrival of our train and we head outside. I'd thought that the tracks were at the same level as the station, but they are actually down one floor. It takes us a while to find an elevator down, but we finally manage and come out to see this:

Every Olympic city or country, depending on size, wants to get something out of hosting the Olympics. This is what the Koreans, especially those in Gangwon province, got: a brand new high speed rail line connecting Seoul with the ski areas near Pyeongchang and the seaside resorts in Gangneung. The old train used to take 5 hours to make the trip that we are going to make in about 1 hr 50 min. Korail is actually using part of an existing KTX line from Seoul to Wonju in the middle of the country and then makes a jog to the northeast to Gangneung.  Cost of the line is estimated at $3.5 B.

The amazing thing to me coming from California is that they built this 120 km extension and built six new stations in less than 4 years. So far, we have been working for 3+ years on a 191 km section of high speed rail (the first such project in the US) along highway 99 in the Central Valley (as part of an eventual system running from Los Angeles to San Francisco). So far, we have no continuous track or working trains at a projected cost of $10.6 B. To be fair, most of the rise in costs has been a pile of lawsuits by opponents designed to slow down progress and increase costs until they are so high that everyone will give up. Having ridden on these types of train in Italy and Japan, I hope we will persevere. 

The KTX train cars are quite similar to airplanes. Here is a picture of the passing scenery:

The country appears quite mountainous, but I don't see much snow. I wonder if this is going to be a problem. Anyway, the ride is quite smooth even at 250 km/hr (155 mph) and the trip goes by in no time. I watch for signs of the Olympics as we pass the stations of Pyeongchang, where the Opening Ceremonies will take place, and Jinbu, where many of the sliding and Nordic events will take place, but don't see anything.

Finally, we get to Gangneung. Like Seoul Station, the tracks are below the station. We can't find an elevator so cram everything onto the escalator. This doesn't inconvenience anyone too much as there are a lot of Olympic team members and support staff on our train and they are all doing the same thing. Once upstairs, we look around, but don't see anyone who looks like Sunny (we had exchanged pictures previously so we each knew who we were looking for). We had just started walking toward an exit when I see Sunny coming toward us.

While we are walking toward her car, she tells us that she used to teach college Biochemistry, but got tired of classes full of kids who were tired all the time and were having no fun. She resigned and went to work teaching kids English.

We somehow get all of our stuff crammed into her car - it is about the size of one of the larger Mini-Coopers. I am trying to keep track of all of the turns that Sunny makes because I know that we will end up having to walk the same route as time goes on. It is a little farther than I thought, but fairly straightforward - come out of the train station. Go in the direction of the traffic circle, go straight until you come to a T, turn left, take the first right and then the first left. After that, we find ourselves next to about a dozen 15 story apartment buildings. Sunny brings the car into the parking garage so that we can put all of our stuff into the elevator. Each building is divided into two with separate entrances and elevators and there are two apartments that share half of each floor. Sunny's apartment is on the 12th floor and has drawings of cats on the wall outside - this will make it easy to find!

Her apartment consists of a central hallway with three doors on the right (two bedrooms and a master suite) and two doors on the left (a 3rd bedroom and a bathroom). At the end of the hallway is a living area and around the corner to the left is a small kitchen. There is also a covered deck that is accessed through the living room. Sunny directs us to the second door on the right. Inside, this takes our breath away:

Along one wall are a series of lacquerware closets inlaid with mother-of-pearl and abalone. Sunny explains that her father used to collect this stuff. It is so beautiful, we're afraid to put our stuff in it. Next to the closet is a queen sized bed. There is no room for anything else and there is no space on the other side of the bed so we both have to load from the left - tight, but manageable. 

Once we get our stuff packed up, Sunny asks if we have had dinner and whether we'd like to join her family. This is also when we meet most of her family. Her husband is Jaeyoung. He is a lecturer in anatomy at the local medical college. Sunny explains that he understands English, but doesn't like to speak it. We also meet her daughter Minji who is studying Marine Biology. Sunny explains that her younger daughter Minju, who is about Sean's age, is attending a special high school in Seoul to study traditional Korean performing arts. She says that we will meet her when she comes home for New Years.

I had thought that we were going to have dinner at home, but Sunny has different ideas. She explains that we are going to walk to a restaurant that is very close to the apartment complex. So off we go. The restaurant really is close by and judging by the neighborhood, must get most of its business from people in the apartment complex. When we walk in the door, the greeting by the young woman manager makes it clear that Sunny has been here a lot. There is initially no space for us so we have to wait a few minutes. I notice that all of the tables have a cooking surface similar to what we have seen at Korean barbecue restaurants at home. After a short wait, we are seated. The waiter turns on the heat and brings a plate of lettuce. Sunny asks what we'd like to each and I think that we win some points by answering that we'd like to eat what you typically eat. I'm not sure of what all we eat. I recognize mushrooms and onions and several types of pork including pork bellies. There are also a bunch of dipping sauces including the dreaded orange stuff we learn is called gochujang. Sunny shows us that the way to do this is to take a lettuce leaf, add a piece of pork, a little of one of the sauces, a few more condiments and then wrap up the lettuce and eat it in one bite. Just as with tacos, I really have problems figuring out the right amount of stuffings and my single bites keep threatening to blow up all over me. But eventually, I get the hang of it. While we are eating, Sunny asks if we'd like to try a typical Korean rice drink which she says is weakly fermented. We say sure and the waiter brings us a couple of glasses filled with a kind of white, watery liquid with bits of what look like bits of rice floating in it.  This is sikhye. I think I understand correctly from Sunny that this drink is made by fermenting barley and rice together which gives it an interesting flavor sort of the like a sweet beer. Not bad! It appears that the waiters will keep bringing food as long as we are eating. Beth and I are both stuffed and insist that we cannot eat another bite.

Feeling warm and happy, it was a shock to go back outside for the walk home. But it didn't take too long. I get the feeling that Sunny would like to spend more time talking, but we are pretty tired at this point and need some sleep. Sunny says okay, but would like to take us to see the store where she is working during the Olympics in the morning. This is fine with us as we don't have an event until tomorrow evening. We say goodnight and hit the bed thinking that this is going to be a great Olympics.

Steps for the day: 13,396

PyeongChang 2018 - Day -3 (February 6th) Seoul

Today is April 21st - yikes, time flies when you are overworked! I apologize for the long delay, but hope that anyone who is still reading these enjoys it. Today's blog is about our 3rd day in Seoul prior to heading to Gangneung for the Olympics.

One of the ways we use to learn about a new country is to visit their museums to see what is important to them. So today, we are off to the Korean National Museum. We're glad that our walk to Seoul Station is almost completely underground because it is bitterly cold - perhaps -15 C (5 F) outside this morning.

On the subway, I noticed how completely absorbed Korean people are with their cell phones. Here is a picture.

I could probably run naked through the car and no one would notice because the 1-2 people on each car who are not on their phones are usually asleep.

The National Museum is a massive building - over 3 million square feet of space that opened in 2005 on what used to be the golf course for the US military's central command. It's a rectangular prism that is perhaps 300 m long and five stories high. In the middle is a 30 or 40 m wide arch about 3 or 4 stories high so the museum is more like two smaller rectangular prisms connected by the top floor. On the left side is a special exhibition of European painters that is part of the Cultural Olympiad. It seemed kind of strange to us to fly to Korea in order to learn more about European painters so we concentrate on the right side where all of the national treasures are exhibited.

There are three main exhibit floors. We start on the top floor where there are sculptures and crafts. There is also a section comparing the artwork from nations along the Silk Road. The second floor is for calligraphy and paintings, but these areas are closed today for some reason. However, this is also where they store donations of important individual collections to the museum. I think of how small my Olympic collection is when I see some of these massive collections. Several of the collections were typical ones like coins or pottery from a particular time period, but there are a couple strange ones. One is a collection of a particular type of furniture. Another is a collection of ceramic roof tiles. I wonder what they were thinking when they decided to collect these? The first floor houses artifacts starting with prehistory and proceeding through the present day.

Today must be "take your high school to the museum" day because the place is packed with school kids who are alternating between rushing around trying to find the particular artifact mentioned in their homework and sitting around texting their friends. 

Here are a couple of my favorite items:

But the piece that blew me away was this one:

This is the Seogamni Gold Buckle of Pyeongyang. It was discovered in a tomb near Pyeongyang (currently the capital of North Korea) and is from the period of the Nangnang Commandery (108 BC-313 AD). During this time, the Han people of China established 3 military commands on the Korean peninsula to keep the peace. Nangnang was the most northern of them. Made of 53.6 g of solid gold, the piece has one large dragon in the middle with six smaller ones around it. The piece originally had 41 blue jewels, but only 7 still exist. To think that the Koreans were producing things with this type of technical excellence nearly 2,000 years ago is amazing! My ancestors were still living in caves!

One of the other things that I saw that fascinated me had to do with the invention of hangul - the Korean phonetic form of writing. Up until 1400 AD or so, Koreans, like everyone else in mainland Asia at that time, learned Chinese pictograms. But the large number of characters to be memorized limited literacy. Then along came Sejong the Great (1397-1450):

                                   

Sejong was the 4th member of the Joseon Dynasty and ascended to the throne in 1418. He wanted universal literacy and also something that would create a Korean cultural identity apart from China. He came up with a 28 character alphabet (later expanded to 40 characters). Each consonant was a simplified diagram of the mouth, tongue and teeth while making that sound. So, for example, ㅁrepresents lips together to make the letter M (try making an m sound without putting your lips together!) and ㄹrepresents putting your tongue against the roof of your mouth to make an L sound. Vowels are made with a combination of 1) a horizontal line representing flat earth (yin), 2) a point for the sun in the heavens (yang - has evolved into a short line) and 3) a vertical line representing an upright human. So, for example, ㅗ is O, ㅜ is U and ㅏis A. These characters were originally written top to bottom, right to left like Chinese, but has been "modernized" to go left to right with spaces between words and with Western style punctuation. One thing that did not change was grouping up to three characters together into syllables. So, for example, PyeongChang Olympics is translated as: ㅍ(p)ㅕ(yeo)ㅇ(ng)ㅊ(ch)ㅏ(a)ㅇ(ng) ㅗ(o)ㄹ(r)ㄹ(r)ㅣ(i)ㅁ(m)ㅍ(p)ㅣ(i)ㄱ(k) then put into syllables like this: 평창 올림픽. Pretty ingenious, don't you think?! Anyway, this new way of writing took off like a rocket. It was so good that it was temporarily banned in 1504 because the ruling elites did not like what the lower classes were saying about them.

Sometime during our stay, I managed to drop one of my gloves. We backtracked through a bunch of galleries looking for it, but no luck. We were finally able to find a museum employee who spoke English that pointed us toward the Lost and Found. I was not clear that the employee who was at Lost and Found spoke English so I held up one gloved hand and one bare hand. The man smiled and I could see a black glove on his desk which looked suspiciously like mine. He motioned to a woman co-worker who asked us in halting English to fill out a form which asked who I was, what was lost, where was it lost, etc.. Hmm, if I knew where I lost it, I wouldn't have lost it. But I filled it in as well as I could. Then she asked for my passport. I gave that to her. Then she asked for my drivers license and I started thinking she was going to ask for my shoe size next. Just how many people are looking for black ski gloves at this exact moment? But finally, her form was completely filled out, she handed me my glove and we went on our way.

It was only about 2 pm so we decided to visit Changdeokgung also known as the Eastern Palace. We were about to take the subway back to Seoul Station and then out to the palace when I noticed that there was another combination which would get us to the palace in fewer stops. So off we went. We got on a train quite quickly and got off at the transfer station. Unfortunately, the line where we needed to go was above ground. Even worse, the train we needed to get on did not show up for about 30 minutes. We were thoroughly frozen by the time it finally got there. So much for my brilliant map reading. :=( Fortunately, the train was quite warm so we had started to thaw out about about the time we arrived at our destination.

We came out of the subway at a strange 4-way intersection (angles between adjacent streets something like 30 and 150 degrees). Signs to Changdeokgung were nowhere to be found. We stopped in a 7/11 and Beth pointed to a picture of the palace in her guide book. The store clerk pointed back toward the intersection and then off to the left. Beth, who normally has problems with her ankles, was starting to have difficulty walking after all of the steps we'd put in today. In addition, it was now around 4 pm and the temperature was starting to go down. Stubborn fools that we are, we decided to forge ahead. The walk to the palace took about 20 minutes mostly uphill. Along the way, we passed a number of places renting hanbok. When we got to the palace, we saw why. There were dozens of teenagers in fancy ancient clothing getting their pictures taken. I wondered whether there was something special about getting their pictures taken while freezing their butts off or whether it is like this all year round. Anyway, here are some of the pictures that I took of the palace:

Construction of Changdeokgung was begun in 1405 by King Taejong (father of Sejong the Great) and finished in 1412. It was burnt to the ground during the Japanese invasion in 1592 and was rebuilt in 1609. It was burnt down again in 1623 and rebuilt. Each time it was rebuilt, they remained faithful to the original design. It remained the seat of government until 1868 when Gyeongbukgung palace was rebuilt and was the home of the last emperor until his death in 1923.

In 1997, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list  (another "cha ching" for our life list!) for "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design". We agree. This palace has a much more homey feeling than Gyeongbukgung and was purposely build to harmonize with the surrounding area rather than imposing on it. We understood that the garden was really spectacular, but it was getting too late to see it.

It was a little easier going downhill to get to the subway station and the ride back to Seoul Station was uneventful. When we got back to the hotel, we noticed that the mystery restaurant in the basement was open. With absolutely no clues to tell us what kind of food they served, we decided to go for it. They brought us an English menu and we learned that the name of the restaurant was Taste of Japan. Jackpot! I don't remember what we ate, but I know that we enjoyed the hot sake after a long day out in the cold.

Steps: 14,085

PyeongChang 2018 - Day 8 (February 17th) Gangneung & Alpensia

February 17th - our last full day at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics! Today we are going to the final two runs of women's skeleton at Alpensia Sliding Center. As with most of the sliding events, this one takes place in the evening so we have some time to kill.

First item of business - load up my pin vest. Every day, I've been adding a few pins - think of it as a sort of weight training. Today, my vest is covered with pins from top to bottom. Loading up the vest is a time consuming project because I have to add pins for the sport that we are seeing and remove the sports pins from the previous day. I also have to top off my pocket of giveaway pins. My goal before we left for Korea was to give away 200 pins so that after nearly 40 years, my total number of pins would begin to decrease. These are all pins that I've acquired at past Olympics, although they are not all Olympic pins. But I am running far behind schedule and probably have something like 100 pins left. I can fit about 50 into my vest pocket so that will have to do. I also add another row of pins to my hat.

After pinning and unpinning, I go to work on the blog. Sunny has a small TV bolted to the underside of one of her kitchen cabinets that we've figure how to turn on through trial and error. Fortunately, Sunny was watching the Olympics the last time that she had the TV on so Olympics is what we get - today is the men's singles figure skating free skate (aka the long program). The leading American skater, 18 year old jumping machine Nathan Chen, had a disastrous short program and finds himself in 17th place going into the free skate. This puts him 9th to skate out of the 24 men. Maybe it is the total lack of pressure, but Nathan puts on a phenomenal performance. Nathan lands 6 quadruple rotation jumps (5 of them cleanly) in addition to 4 more triple jumps. His 215.08 score in the long program beats his all-time best of 212.08 set at the 2017 US Championships. They have a booth where the current leader has to sit while waiting to see if anyone passes him - Nathan is sitting in that booth for a long time. In fact, it was 11 skaters before Jin Boyang from China passes Chen's combined score of 297.35 by less than half a point. Eventually, three more skaters pass Chen, but none of them come anywhere near Chen's free skate score. Watch out for him in Beijing!

Around noon, we decide to go down to the convenience store to find some instant meal to eat. While we are trying to divine the contents, a guy comes into the store that could be Santa Claus' double complete with white hair, white beard, wire rim glasses and "a bowl full of jelly". I recognized him as one of the group of people who took 3 taxis to fit in all of their stuff. He says that he is from Atlanta and is staying with 10 guys from Norway in a flat in the same building we are in. He also belongs to the same pin club that I belong to and as we are leaving, he hands me a pin. I would have done the same, but I was trying to save my feet (which have been bothering me for most of this trip) for tonight's event by leaving my vest in the apartment. The pin is a sponsor pin from the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta so into my giveaway pocket it goes when we get back to the apartment.

Sunny arrives just as we finish lunch and I'm going back to work on the blog. We normally try to buy some sort of indigenous art when we visit a country for the first time. So I ask Sunny what art forms are traditional in this part of Korea. She mentions that embroidery is well known here and that one of her friend's husband owns a private embroidery museum. She asks whether we'd be interested in visiting it. Sure! We hop in her car and travel north, more or less in the direction of our ill-fated bus ride of several days ago.

When we pull into the parking area of the museum, she points to a old-style house off in the distance. The is the Ojukheon which means something like "place where black bamboo grows" and is one of the oldest houses in Korea. It was the home of a high-ranking family during the Joseon dynasty. In fact, two of the family members adorn the 5,000 and 50,000 won bills - Shin Saimdang (1504-1551) is on the 50,000 won bill and her son Yi I (1536-1584), a prominent Confucian scholar and politician, is on the 5,000 won bill. We don't have time to visit, but it is interesting that a family far from the larger cities could attain such prominence.

Inside the museum, we find a art class for school children going on and meet Sunny's friend. When we enter the exhibit area, we are joined by an older man who turns out to be the owner. He is also a professor at a local university. It turns out that this is his collection. He speaks good enough English that we can follow along with most of what he is saying. One side of the building is Korean embroidery. We see what look like coin purses and a collection of dolls with elaborate clothing which he says that were produced by Koreans around the time of the Korean war in the 1950's and taken back to the US by servicemen. He has been buying them back on eBay ever since. The most impressive were a couple of large embroidery landscapes that were made for one of the Joseon kings. The level of shading that could be attained was amazing. There is also a section of embroidered pillows. Asian pillows are sort of cylindrical and young girls would embroider the ends of the pillows to show off their skills for future husbands - the same sort of idea that we in the US would call samplers.

We come to a section of small pouches. The owner explains that one of the things that women would often do during the winter was to create embroidered tobacco pouches to surprise their husbands with on a birthday or other auspicious day. Next to the exhibit is a case with a large set of Olympic rings. The owner explains that he worked with a pair of local artists to produce the the eight art posters produced for the PyeongChang Olympic Games. Here is one:

It is called Winter Stitch: Love & Wish by Hong Hyun-Jung and Hwang Su-Hong. The motif is the same as the needlework used on the tobacco pouches. The owner explains that Thomas Bach, IOC president, and his wife Claudia visited the museum. Apparently, Claudia is very keen on the arts and had a great time visiting. Some time later, a package arrived at the museum for the owner containing the silver Olympic rings.

The other wing of the museum houses the Japanese and Chinese parts of the collection. We saw beautiful embroidered kimonos and a wide variety of "paintings" made with thread instead of paint.

We're getting a little short on time so we thank the owner for the private tour and go downstairs to the gift shop. Most of the items were cheaply made, but there was one piece that we really liked:

We ask the owner's wife if it is for sale. She says yes, thinks for a bit and says it will cost 120,000 won (around $120). Apparently, almost every price in Korea can be haggled, but this price seems so reasonable, we agree to buy it. When the owner's wife takes the piece off the wall and looks at the back, she makes a strange look and exchanges a few very fast words with Sunny then goes off to work on packing it up. Sunny explained that when the owner's wife took the piece off the wall, she realized that she had priced it at more than double the price she quoted. I debate whether to offer to pay the full price, but decide that this may result in what the Japanese would call loss of face. We thank her very much for her generosity and head back to Sunny's car.

By the time we get back to Sunny's apartment, it is time to leave for the train station. Sunny offers to drop us off which keeps us from being late. There are still a lot of people coming into Gangneung so the security people don't open access to the platforms until 15 minutes before departure. That gives us just enough time to hit the restrooms. I don't think I've mentioned them so far, but they are worthy of mention. Korea is one of the most technologically based countries on Earth so I guess that it is no surprise that the toilets have more buttons on them that seem possible. But did you know that they have a sort of air traffic control board in the front of the restroom? A video monitor shows you which stalls are open and whether each stall has a western style toilet or a traditional "squat" toilet. I can't speak for the women, but I notice that the men don't pay any attention to the video board and will often stand waiting at a closed door when the board says that there are clearly open stalls. The other interesting thing is that the women who clean the restrooms don't give you any advanced warning when they go in to clean, they just barge in.

The train departs right on time and we are in Jinbu in no time. We knew that we would be too early to go to the venue, but planned on getting something to eat and wait in the Jinbu train station until it was time to get on the bus to the venue. On previous visits, we had noticed at couple of food trucks at the end of the parking lot so we head over there. I get barbecued steak with rice and salad from the curiously named "Uncle Guam's". The guy on the truck certainly doesn't look Polynesian and I wish that I could ask him why he chose this name. Beth goes to a truck serving Vietnamese cuisine and orders a bowl of pho. Yum. Feeling much better, I give away a few pins before heading out to the bus.

We've already been to the sliding center once already so that you would figure that we wouldn't run into problems, but you would be wrong. We get off the bus in very cold, blowing conditions and follow the directions of the friendly volunteers armed with the same sort of glow sticks that people on the tarmac use to tell planes which way to go. This doesn't look like the way we were directed to go the last time we were here. Sure enough, we come to a dead-end and have to U-turn.

The short wait at the Security checkpoint gives me time to give away pins to a large group of volunteers who don't appear to be doing anything - 15 giveaways down, 35 to go! When we get to the entrance to the sliding center, we know that if we go left, we'll end up at curve 16, the same place we were for Luge. I'm looking for smaller crowds so we turn right along the Olympic curve 15 and head uphill. We are making good progress until our path is blocked by what looks like a first aid center and a spectator warming hut. We backtrack until we find a volunteer and ask how do we get to the Start. She doesn't speak English, but points off to the left. It looks like if we keep going this way, we'll end up right back on curve 16 having taken the shortcut across the infield and spectator seating in the 180 degree turn between curve 14 and 16. Then on our right, we see a tunnel with no signs indicating where it goes. We go through the tunnel and come out far below curve 13, but we can see that if we continue uphill, we'll eventually be able to stand close to the track. I had originally planned to hike all the way up to the Start house, but I'm wearing like 10 pounds of Olympic pins and we both have sore feet and so we stop at curve 7. This is a pretty good location because there is a 180 degree turn uphill from us so that we can see the sliders coming. It is also sufficiently uphill that very few spectators come up this far. We also know from Luge, that this section of the course from curve 7 to curve 10 is the most difficult part of the track.

The single volunteer who is tasked with keeping an eye on this part of the track takes one look at my pins and says "Wow!" I give her a pin and she asks, in quite good English, where we are from.  We tell her that we are from California where it is MUCH warmer than it is here. She smiles and indicates that it feels cold to her also. For the next 30 minutes or so, she was asked by 3 or 4 people if she would take a picture of them with the pin guy. At least it gave us all something to do. Then a "squad" of volunteers came down from above and replaced "our" volunteer with another young woman and we repeated the whole process again.

We've been there for about an hour (30 more minutes to go) when a guy wearing E credentials and carrying a Canon 400 mm f2.8 zoom lens that looks like a small telescope comes by. Yes, a E credential is for still photographers. He also goes "Wow!" and in very good English wants to know where we come from and what it is the deal with all of the pins. I tell him that Olympic pins is the sport of the spectator and hand him one with the wolf mascot of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo called Vučko. He thanks me warmly and then continues uphill to the Start house.

About 10 minutes later, the same photographer comes back and asks me if I will do him a favor. He explains that for the last year, he's been taking a picture of one person each day. It sounds like one of those "Day in the Life" projects where a bunch of photographers take photographs on a particular day in a specific place. While most of the people he photographed are from his homeland of Armenia, he says that he also went to Cannes for the film festival last summer and photographed people there as well. He says that he arranged the project so that the final week would be during the Olympics. There are six Armenian athletes that he plans to photograph, and he would like me to be the 7th person. He takes a bunch of pictures, some with me looking along the track, some with me looking at the photographer. At the end, he takes out an iPhone and asks to record some answers to questions which will help him figure out the caption for my photo. Most are things like : "Where are you from?", " What do you do?", and "What university did you attend?"  His last question is "What would you like your ideal future to look like?"  I tell him that I think that the Olympic ideal of creating a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind sounds like a pretty good way to start. He thanks me and tells me his name is Asuras.  If I had been thinking, I would have taken a picture of his credentials so that I would know how to contact him. But I wasn't thinking, so now I hope that he will send me a link to his project when he finishes it.

Going into the 3rd run of Skeleton, 23 year old Jacqueline Loelling, the #1 ranked skeleton racer in the world is in the lead. But Janine Flock from Austria, defending gold medalist, Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas both from Great Britain and Anna Fernstaedt from Germany are all within 0.30 seconds of the lead. In this run, the sliders go in the order of first to last. We can't see a scoreboard so we don't know how people are doing, but I can sort of tell from the pictures. In this picture:

Germany's Tina Hermann is right where you want to be. Anna Fernstaedt:

and Lizzy Yarnold:

are both looking good as well. Laura Deas is a little low:

Oguchi Takako is way high:

Notice also that Oguchi's head is higher up. Skeleton athletes talk about holding their heads almost low enough that their helmets scrape on the ice. This is while going nearly 130 kph (80 mph).  Yikes! But even at these speeds, all of these sliders are reasonably relaxed and just letting their sleds slide. On the other hand, Loelling is in all kinds of trouble.

She is a little high. But notice how she is bent at the waist? Pushing your shoulders into the sled and twisting is how sliders steer. But steering slows you down and Loelling records only the 7th fastest time in the 3rd run. Hermann records the fastest time followed closely by Yarnold, Fernstaedt and Flock. This moves Flock into the lead, with Yarnold 0.02 seconds behind, Loelling in 3rd 0.10 seconds behind, Deas 0.19 seconds behind and Fernstaedt in 5th 0.24 seconds behind. Hermann cut her deficit by 0.11 seconds, but stays in 6th, 0.32 seconds behind. Katie Uhlaender:

despite having a cool American eagle helmet, is in 13th place, 1.26 seconds behind.

The sliders go in reverse order for the 4th run so the top sliders will be last. Based on our experience at Luge where leaving during the final run results in a much shorter commute time, we start heading lower, giving away the last of my giveaway pins on the way. Here is Jackie Narracott from Australia going through curve 9:

and Jeong Sophia:

from Korea in the straightaway leading to curve 10. Notice that her head is up and she is trying to turn left to set up the next curve.

Our path out of the venue takes us down through the finish curve 16 where we were for Luge. There, we encountered the support team, who were also members of the Nigerian bobsled team, for the Nigerian slider Simidele Adeagbo. They were handing out cards providing information about the Nigerian sliding program. How they ended up in PyeongChang is quite a story. It all starts with a Nigerian-American named Seun Adigun. Adigun grew up in Chicago. Growing up, she played basketball and tennis, but really excelled at track and field. She eventually made All-American at the University of Houston. She went on to represent Nigeria in hurdles and sprints as a professional, culminating in her making the Olympics in 2012. On retiring from track, she was one of many track athletes recruited by the US Bobsled team and made the team as a brakeman for Brittney Reinbolt during the 2015/2016 season.

After the 2016 season, Seun decided to help a Nigerian bobsled team qualify for PyeongChang and recruited two more Nigerian-American track athletes, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga to be her brakemen. Seun also raised funds on the GoFundMe website to make her dream financially possible. The three women started by pushing a weighted wooden sled around. It was at this point that publicity for the team started to appear. And that is where Simidele comes in. She had almost made the US Olympic team in 2008 in the triple jump, but then moved to South Africa and had gotten out of athletics. She had heard online about the successes of women from other sports in Skeleton (in this competition - Lizzy Yarnold was a heptathlete and bobsled brakeman before moving to Skeleton and her countrywoman Laura Deas competed in eventing - a sort of pentathlon for equestrian athletes). Then she heard about the Nigerian bobsled team and thought why not be the first Nigerian skeleton athlete? She went to a tryout in Houston and did well enough to be invited to a training camp in Calgary, Canada in September 2017. Four months later, she became the first person from any African nation to finish on the podium in a sanctioned IBSF (International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation) race when she finished 3rd in the North American Cup race on the difficult Lake Placid track. This qualified her for PyeongChang. Here is Simidele during run 3:

Simidele is now 36 years old so it is hard to see her qualifying for Beijing, but that does not seem to be her goal. She said "I saw it (skeleton) as a way to make history and create a path for future athletes." It certainly looks like she has accomplished her goal. After the Olympics, the Nigerian Olympic Committee is quoted as saying "you will see a lot more (sliding) from African nations in the future".

As we are waiting in the line for buses back to Jinbu, I see on my phone that Yarnold set a track record in the 4th run and wins the gold medal. Loelling recovers from her 3rd run and takes the silver medal. Flock has a disastrous 4th run falling from 1st to 4th, which allows Deas to win the bronze medal.

The trip to Jinbu was uneventful and once there, we are able to get on an earlier train back to Gangneung. On the way home, I notice that Sunny has sent us several text messages asking when we would be home. I answer that we are on our way, but it will be about 11:30 PM before we get there. Apparently, they have some kind of surprise for us. When we get to the train station, we discover that the taxi line is as long as usual. Here is a picture:

This is actually quite civilized compared to the chaos of the past week. Unlike earlier, the taxis are actually picking up people at the front of the line. This guy in the yellow coat is helping a driver figure out where his passengers want to go. The taxis must know when each train arrives because there are plenty of taxis and it only takes about 20 minutes for us to get a ride back to Sunny's apartment.

Once there, we discover that the whole family has waited up for us and are having what we are starting to realize is a Korean obsession, fried chicken and beer. Apparently, American fried chicken like Kentucky Fried Chicken and imported beer both arrived in Korea in the 1970's so they are somehow linked in the minds of Koreans. We are pretty tired, but we share the meal with Sunny and her family while they watch highlights from the day's Olympic action. The main highlight is another win in curling for the Korean team that has come to be known as the Garlic Girls. I'll talk more about this in a later post. For now, it is time to get to bed - tomorrow is going to be a really, really long day.

Steps for the day: 9,449 (but the equivalent of 19 floors of stairs)