Return to the Dam (Partner to My Previous Post)

Scott and I went back to the Andong Dam this weekend before the cherry blossoms lost their bloom (which sadly, is now happening at great speed). I wasn't able to take pictures on my previous visit, because my camera was at home.

We took a taxi to the top so we wouldn't have to climb it all, but he turned and crossed a bridge halfway there and brought us to the wrong side of the dam (which we didn't know is closed off to pedestrians). Therefore, we walked back down the steep hill, across a bridge, and back up. The road snakes up the hill a ways before making it to a lookout house on that side of the dam, and the heat was about 85 degrees by this point, so we decided instead we would save some time by scaling the 70 degree mountain up to the lookout...

...on a soft sandy terrain covered in shrubs, dead grasses, and needles.

The view was worth it though. We didn't make it quite to the top, because the climb grew steeper and we could hear a group of people above us at the lookout house. The last thing I wanted to do was grab a tree and hoist myself up into a group of Koreans looking like a heathen shrub. Instead, we made it to a level ground with benches, which had a path that lead us to a park at the base of the mountain. Oh yes, there was a path about 10 feet from where we decided to be mountaineers.


I'm going to miss the cherry blossoms. They are stunning.


We stumbled back down in the blazing heat, and walked down the road to where the exhibition buildings are, just next to the Moonlight Bridge. Along the street were several other small seafood restaurants, with large tanks out front housing the fish you can select to eat. Just as we were about to pass out under the extreme heat I hear "Sara Long!" (well, more like "Sah-Rah Rong!") and out pops my principal from one of the restaurants. When he's not in school, I'm pretty sure he would spend every waking minute basking in the cultural hot spots of Korea- he is very much in love with his country, which is really cool to see. He supplied us with some water and introduced us to his wife. He asked us if we wanted food, but we declined because they had already finished their own.


Before heading home, we walked across the Weolyeongyo "Moonlight Bridge"- that structure is in the center. I like it, because it's not a typical straight bridge. We need to go back again, not only to see the moon from it, but because there are also fountains of water that shoot up from either side of it during the evening.