Scooter trip along the coast!

Christine had a "girls night out" planned for the weekend and I had no plans. Then I received a call for a random expedition outside of the city. I accepted. So my new friend Blake and I planned to go for a trip to a place called Gwanju, but it we ended up missing the early bus. The next bus wasn't going to leave until 11am and would bring us to Gwanju by 3:30pm. Yes (you calculated properly), it was going to be a 4.5 hour trip and wouldn't be worth it unless we could leave earlier. So, we were left with a decision: stay in Ulsan and go to Gwanju another time, or randomly go somewhere else. So after deliberating for a few moments we decided that since we both have autobikes and nothing to do, we should cruise down to the east coast of Ulsan and ride up the coast to Gyeongju. So we grabbed our bikes and went on our way.
I didn't realize how big Ulsan City is. I've been told that it is the largest city in South Korea in terms of its land mass and area. I didn't believe it until we biked for 45-55 minutes just to get to the southeastern coastline. It's really quite big! It's beautiful too! I think Ulsan has a lot more sights than I had originally thought.
When we got to the furthest southeastern point we could go, we were in Bangweojin. There was a beautiful park there and a bunch of rock formations just on the shoreline. I was really cool! People were fishing off the rocks all over the place.
I took some time to climb over the rocks myself and take a few scenic pictures of the rock formations and the ocean. There was a bridge running across from the shore to a large rock formation and a pathway built to the top of it. It was really quite refreshing to be there. There was a lighthouse in the background up on a hill as well. I think the park was called Daewangjin Park.
Along the way we saw some fishing boats, squid boats, and other sea creature catching boats and ships. It was pretty cool to see these boats up close. In the distance we could see the Hyundai cranes, which are apparently the largest cranes in the world I've been told. They are used to move large pieces of ships when they are building. Quite cool!
We were getting hungry so we stopped by a vendor and grabbed a couple "chicken-on-a-sticks" and some "fish-on-a-stick". I don't remember the Korean names for them, but they are good. While we were there we met some new friends, some squid. I hadn't seen live squid upclose before so it was quite interesting. They are funny looking things. Blake decided to see what they felt like and proceeded to grab one by the nose. It freaked out! It jumped out of the tank squirting water out of its snout (I think) and slapped itself on the pavement. It basically just lay there to die. It was pretty helpless out of water. Blake picked it up and threw it back in. We played with the squid for a while.
After that we jumped on our bikes and headed up the coast. It was a cold ride, but a beautiful one. The coast is a really nice ride! Of course, it is probably better in the spring or summer when you aren't bundled up so tightly to stay warm. My fingers froze, but it was worth it.
We ran into a road washout, probably from the typhoon in September. We took a few fun pictures and found our way around it by going through some sideroads in a village.
About halfway toward Gyeongju, the coastal road was washed out. It wasn't a large washout but it was enough to send some vehicles another direction. We didn't have a problem though. We just detoured through a village area and made our way back to the road.
Somewhere down the line our highway got kinda windy and curvy. I came around a corner that was quite sharp and bumpy, and I wasn't prepared. The pavement was lumpy and there were piles of tires along the side of the road (I guess they were expecting people to wipe out there??). I knew I had to take the corner as widely as I could to avoid turning to sharp and losing control. I managed to make it through the bumps and by the tires by a few inches. Blake wasn't so lucky. After another minute or so, I looked in my mirrors and Blake wasn't behind me anymore. I was a little concerned and I thought of that corner right away. I turned around and headed back there, just as Blake was coming down the road. So we stopped at the next turnoff just up the road. Blake didn't quite make the bumpy turn and fell on his side with the bike and slid into the tires. He managed to come out of it without any cuts, but his jeans took a beating. He ripped a couple holes in his jeans. That was a close one!
We arrived in Gyeongju around 3:30pm. We had planned to return that same day, but we weren't feeling up to biking home in the cold and rushing home, so we decided to bunk out in Gyeongju. First we needed some food, so we went to the Tourist Info booth at the train station to ask the helpful ladies how to find a "Pijja Etang" (or "Pizza Etang). We were craving pizza. It took some time to find it but we eventually did. It was very tasty. We hung out at the store and ate our pizza with some friendly pizza boys who really thought foreigners on autobikes were cool! It was great!
Then we hit up the museum. This was a fun experience. When we went to throw some stuff in a locker, I noticed some wheelchairs. "Hmmmm..." I thought. "Should we give these a whirl?" Why not eh? So we jumped in the wheelchairs and proceeded into the museum grounds. I was thinking that our wheelchairs would be confiscated immediately, but the museum guys didn't seem to care. Blake fell backwards a few times in his attempts to pop a wheelie. It was a riot!
The best part was when we entered the museum complexes in our wheelchairs. We used the wheelchair elevators and everything. It was a bit childish but definitely entertaining. People were very kind and opened doors for us. Blake even received a hand on his way up a ramp. I've come to realize how difficult it would be to be in a wheelchair. There was good access to most of the places, but one place had a broken elevator so we were unable to see upstairs. But most of the museum was full of ancient pottery and arrowheads, things like that. So I don't think we missed all that much. It was interesting though.
After the museum we went motel shopping. Blake lost his keys because he accidentally put them in the pocket that was destroyed in the highway accident. So we looked for his keys for about an hour and some. Sadly, I didn't think of praying until about a half hour in. Shortly after, when we thought all of our options were exhausted, I remembered that we hadn't checked one of the motels we looked at briefly. So we walked up the alley and found his keys sitting on the steps. Praise God for that! It would have been horrible to get a new lock and key installed.
We ended up finding a Korean style room with a heated floor. It was a good warm sleep. We watched part of the "Street fighter" movie. It's a movie about the characters from the video game "Street Fighter II". I say we watched part of it because we both fell asleep during it.
In the morning we headed back to Ulsan in time for church at noon. It only took us an hour to get back as opposed to the few hours we took getting there from the coast. It was much colder in the morning and my hands were frozen! But it was a good time and a fun trip! I'm looking forward to doing some more scooter touring in the spring!