We had a focus family weekend over the Columbus holiday. Bryan spent two days with Zoe while I took time with Avi, and then we switched.
Avi loves trains so I chose to take him on the Korean tourist O-train. It’s a loop route through the scenic and rural central mountians. We had to get up pretty early to take the subway down to Cheonan and get on our O-train spur line at 8:15. So, it was a bit tiring, but the train was really fancy which Avi digged on a lot. He liked exploring the different cars – the snack café car, the lounge car, the car with seats and tables, and the play area section on the 3rd car. By the time we got to the true beginning of the scenic loop – in a town called Jecheon – we had been travelling for about 2 hours.
The train was not very crowded, but after Jecheon there were a lot more people and more folks getting on and off. The loop was just under 4 hours and the scenery was really pretty! Lots of fun tunnels and valleys and views of the just-starting-to-turn fall colors. Avi enjoyed himself, and was especially interested in taking pictures. But, the trip was looooong – about halfway around the loop he was ready to go and I considered getting off but he feel asleep for a nap. So, I found a lounge area and we both napped the rest of the ride; which I enjoyed.
We got off back in Jecheon and wandered around. There is really nothing of interest right in town, and without a car we were sorta stuck. The local market was still open and Avi liked seeing the kitty’s. We needed to stay overnight in Jecheon because the only trains back home go in the morning or late at night. After a whole day on trains I didn’t think I could handle another 2 hours to get in around midnight. I wished I could have stopped halfway for an overnight, but that would mean waiting for the O-train to return the next day and again be stuck taking the late night train. Avi didn’t seem to notice or care that we just walked around town. He had fun looking at stuff and hailing a cab to E-mart where he played with the trains at the playland.
I found us a cheapie clean motel for the night and we watched cartoons late until he was tired. At this point he did want to go home to see Daddy and Zoe (me too, really), but it just couldn’t happen, so we read a bit and played shadow puppets and watched TV. He was fine and fell asleep. I was so exhausted, too! In the morning we had renewed energy and ran around the courtyard of the train station for a while before catching our direct Mungungwha (fast-er than the Sameaul) to Pyeongtaek. Pyeongtaek is the local city that our town is incorporated into, so it was close to home. We got some food, Avi played in the playland that had a cool train to ride, and then we took the subway 10 minutes up to our place. It was a gorgeous day out, so the walk home felt super nice.
