보고싶다, 동해 (I miss you, Donghae)

Donghae is on the east coast of South Korea and is one of the medium-sized cities in the Gangwon province. It’s not too rural, but not as big as cities like Wonju and Chuncheon. A super cool detail about my city is I was a 10-minute walk away from the beach! Did I fully take advantage of said beach? No! But it was close! At the end of my time there, I began to take more walks in that area because there were so many walking trails! Donghae is called the “East Sea” in English and its flag has a picture of the sun rising. For my first New Years there (2020), my friends and I got to the beach at like 5:00AM to watch the sun rise on the new year, along with many other locals. 

Gangwon-do is known for its mountains and natural resources. Donghae, specifically, has many hiking areas and outdoor places to explore. I lived just up the road from the Cheonggok Cave, which I did go to during the first couple months of living there. They gave you helmets to wear because some spots on the cave walk required you to bend down or duck to avoid hitting your head on the rocks. I was glad for the helmet because I did hit my head a couple times against the cave walls heh.

For privacy reasons, I won’t name my schools, but I taught at 3 over the course of my two years there. My main school was about a 15-minute bus ride from where I lived in the downtown area of Donghae. My first travel school, which I taught at from September 2019 to December 2020 was a 35-minute bus ride southwest of me. My second travel school which I only taught at for one semester, was a 10-minute bus ride from me and a 20-minute walk from my main school! I taught at my travel school on Fridays, and once I was switched to that second travel school, I realized I could just walk to my main school and save a little on the bus fare (super cheap btw). After my travel school classes, I was technically student-free, so I began to walk from my travel school to main school. I would stop by the cafe right next to my school for a drink. I could see the cafe from my classroom window even! I would always get an iced americano with some sweetener and then add my soy milk in that I kept in my classroom. The baristas soon began to recognize me and knew my order by heart. They even gave me some free treats every now and then, so sweet! Unfortunately my Korean was very limited so I could never really have proper conversations with them, but they were always so nice and welcoming. 

That is one big thing I regret, is not learning the language better. Once I was getting ready to leave, my city finally offered an online Korean language course for our area, but by then it was too late 😦 I tried my best to self-study, but when you’re not allowed to use it in the classroom and the only person who would talk to me would speak in English, it was hard to motivate myself to learn. I knew enough to get by, but I still wish I had learned more.

I gotta say, Korean food is one of my favorite things of all time. After a while it did get a little boring to only have one type of cuisine around me, but after being in the US for over a year now, I sure do miss authentic Korean food! Some of my favorite restaurants in Donghae were: Pianos, Dukki, Kimbap Nara, Cafe Mellow, and Hometown. 

• Piano was one of the few non-Korean cuisine in my city. It was Italian food, with a super nice view to boot! Pianos was located in the Mangling area, right along the beach. It was a somewhat classy place and I enjoyed every time I went with friends!
• Dukki is an all-you-can eat Korean place located downtown in my city. In the middle of each table is a grill/heater that you can put your choice of broth, noodles/rice, veggies, dumplings, rice cakes, and more! There was also plenty of fried foods to munch on too. Whenever we went there, you’d bet we’d be plenty full by the time we left!
• Kimbap Nara is a more street-food style place. They made some of the best ramen hehe.  Also the son of the owners spoke English and was super kind to us! It was sad when he left to do his required military duty.
• Cafe Mellow was by-far my favorite cafe located just down the street from my apartment. The owner was super sweet and made delicious caramel macchiatos! I dream of having a nice cafe/bakery/bookstore on the corner of a quiet street.
• Hometown I think was honestly my favorite food place in Donghae. It was a brunch place, the food was scrumptious, the owner super nice & learned English from one of our Korean friends (also super nice), and the aesthetic was too die for! At one point, the owner was even offering delivery! When I was doing my dreaded desk warming near the end of my time in Korea, I ordered from there a couple times and it was just as good!

There was also a McDonald’s and a Starbucks just right down the road from my apartment. I admit I did eat an unhealthy amount of McDonald’s while in Korea, but it just tasted better! (And I might have also missed Western food). But what’s funny is since being back, I have not touched McDonald’s once except for a single ice cream cone with my folks. 

Donghae was a home away from home. While it wasn’t the biggest city, I found comfort in it after coming back from a big city like Seoul. However, once the pandemic hit and we were forced to stay indoors and not travel outside our city, Donghae did become a little heavy on me. But alas, I still miss that place. If you’re not an outdoorsy person, you might have a hard time finding things to do in Donghae, besides shopping and eating. One of the greatest things about my city was the endless walking/hiking trails in the area. In the city, I could walk down the street for about ten minutes or so and come upon a fork in the road for either the beach, or a trail that dipped in and out of beach territory. In the last 4-5 months before leaving, I found myself taking those nearby trails more often for some exercise. It was also really nice to just walk around and enjoy the quieter parts of the city. On a few occasions, I would walk to this cafe called Holly’s along that stretch of beach trail and stop for a coffee before heading back. I was usually pretty sweaty and wary of being around people for too long, so I would take my coffee outside and sit down for a while. I even got to video chat with my family on some of those walks and show them parts of Korea.

A 40-minute bus ride would take you to a place called Mureung Valley up in the western part of Donghae. I actually taught out at the elementary school closest to there. To get to Mureung, I believe there was only one bus route that would take you there and it didn’t come as often, so if you wanted to go, you had to plan ahead! But once you get to Mureung, they have a small line of shops, cafes, and eateries to enjoy after your hike. To get into the hiking/walking area, you had to either prove you lived in Donghae, or pay a small fee of $2. The first time my friends and I went to Mureung was in the first week or so of arriving in Donghae. I went there at least 5-6 more times (thanks pandemic) and each time I was amazed by the scenery. There were a couple trails to choose from, one was less intense and took only an hour or so to complete. The other was more intense, involved a LOT of stairs, but ultimately ended in an incredible view of the surrounding mountains and a fabulous photo spot. Seriously, I got elbowed once by this guy that was trying to take a picture of his wife even after she cut in line! Before the actual trail, there was a temple area that I think you could actually go into (but at some point they began construction, so that never happened).

Hanseom beach in Donghae was another nice place to go. There was also a trail you could take along the beach and rocks! Over the course of my time in Donghae, they added some nice amenities to the beach area. For one, a super nice bathroom area. Two, a really cool board walkway that split out into a large sitting area. Three, two nice swings with shade. And four, this sculpture that lit up different colors at night for another cool photo spot. One interesting about the beach is that no matter the weather, you’d always find at least three older Korean men trying to catch fish. They’d stick their fishing poles into this sturdy rod in the ground, and just wait for something to bite. I don’t think anyone ever caught anything though haha. In my last few months there, I started taking advantage of the beach with my friends. We had a couple picnics, dug some holes in the sand, went on a hike, (tried to) watch the Pink Moon at night, and just had fun hanging out together. 

One thing about Korea is that they love coffee and they love cafes. On almost every corner, you’d find at least one caffeine-addiction place! I didn’t get to try all the cafes in my city by the time I left (again, thanks pandemic) but I did knock several out. There was a lot of cake involved too, despite it not being high on my list of sweets. My favorite was of course, Cafe Mellow. The girl working the store was always so kind and had the cutest aesthetic inside. I also tried this cafe called Angry Bear. One called Foresta Cafe. That last one turned out to be an embarrassing moment for me, but looking back, it was funny. I would pass by the cafe on the way to and from school and one day I decided to get off the bus stop before it and try it out. Well, there was one door that looked to be closed, so I tried the other. The other led to a curtain store? That was confusing and the gentleman manning the store tried so hard to sell me some curtains. We went back and forth on the translation app Papago for a good ten minutes trying to figure out how I could get into the cafe next door. After centuries of embarrassment, I finally typed the right thing onto the app and he took me next door, made me a coffee, I paid, and soon left because there were weird old men watching me and I was dying from embarrassment. The curtain man was extremely kind and patient (and probably incredibly confused by me). I vowed to never go there again. But it did make for a good story!

Another outdoors activity was at the Sports Center up the hill from my apartment. There was a large track that went around the center and it was open to the public all day long. My friends and I would meet up and just walk around the track and chat. One of my friends tried to roller-skate but unfortunately that didn’t work out very well for her. It was nice to just have that time talking with them and not being stuck inside. I was always surprised to see so many people just hanging out in the area, either playing basketball, roller-skating, walking, or going to classes inside.

There’s so much more I can say about Donghae and Korea in general, so please look forward to more posts of just that. Til next time!