One last breakfast at the Dabichi Condo, and we were off to Gwangju (광주). Gwangju is the capital of Jeolla-nam province, but more recently famous for their democratic movements and protests in the 80s. Our first stop was the 5.18 Cemetery, a memorial for those lost on May 18, 1980 over the protests against then president Chun Doo-hwan (전두환) who disbanded the National Assembly and enacting martial law over the country. Telling the army and the rest of the country that Gwangju had be overrun by communists, the atrocities left more than 200 civilians dead and over 1000 injured.
When we got to our hotel in Namwon (남원), I was too tired to go out so I just spent the whole evening in my room.Friday
We went to Gwanghallu (광한루), which is famous for Korea's version of the Romeo and Juliet tale, ChunHyang (춘향). She was a daughter of a courtesan and he was the son of an official. Gwanghallu is very beautiful. So was the rest of Namwon, which we got to see after we left the grounds of Gwanghallu, which the downtown of Namwon surrounds.
For dinner, we went to Tofu Town (두부마을), the best restaurant of the trip yet. The food was totally delicious. Various tofu and vegetable dishes, I swear I could go there every single night for dishes. I should open up a Tofu Town in Philly!After dinner, we watched a traditional Korean instrument and dance performance. Those people had so much stamina to keep up playing and moving as much as they did for a whole hour.
Saturday
Our last stop was Jeonju (전주) before we came back home. We had some famous Jeonju Bibimbap (비빔밥) for lunch, then went with my class for some tea at a famous tea shop. After that, I walked around town a bit, then returned to the bus.
We got back to Suwon at 5:30pm. Everyone agreed that even though we had a great trip, it was great to be back "home".
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