In between staying put in Yeongcheon

     Ok!  Ok!  So this is not in Yeongcheon.

I took a day trip to Palgongsan and rode a cable car.

The cherry blossoms were pretty.

     Pop Bing Su (that's roughly how it is pronouced) is pictured above.  All that topping covers shaved ice.  Different places put different toppings on it, and their popular during on hot days.

     Pictured above is my own mess in a pot.

     Across the street... a hotdog stand a Korean porridge restaurant near my apartment.

     Where I bought most of my bread.

Having only a one burner stove and a portable convection oven didn't stop me from cooking up a storm on some days.

Yeongcheon has an Herb Museum.  It's small...takes only a few minutes to walk through it.

Gwangju

      A viewer of my Youtube channel is from Yeongcheon, but he was attending college in Gwangju at the time.  He contacted me and ended up inviting me to visit and attend church with him and his girl friend.  I didn't see much of Gwangju, but I enjoyed the trip and the going to church nonetheless.

   Some people call them Korean Pancakes.  I know them as Hoddeok.  Basically, their unkneaded yeast cakes stuffed with brown sugar before placed and flattened on the grill.  I think they smell especially delicious on a cold day, and they go very well with coffee.

      Bu dae Jigae is pictured above.  I have called it a hobo stew made of canned meat, kimchi, vegetables and ramyeon noodles.  "Bu dae" refers to "military."  "Jigae" refers to stew.  This stew has it origins on military bases where soldier brought canned meats and whatever to add to the pot.  Delicious! and very popular.

      After church, we were invited to stay for lunch at the church.

     The eleven o'clock service was all in Korea, but later (after lunch) there was an English church time.  Only a small group met, but after the meeting we all enjoyed the dinner pictured below.

Prayer Mountain

     A few days after my first visit to Yoido Full Gospel Church, I decided to return and catch one of their buses to their Prayer Mountain, which is located in Paju.  It is equipped with motels and cafeterias, and makes a perfect, serene, get-away-from-it-all place of solitude (my kind of place from time to time.).

     I had some time to spare before the next bus, so I walked through a nearby park.

The bus ride was comfortable.

  
 After arriving, I check into one of Prayer Mountain's Motels.  The cost was about 20,000 wons.

Pictured below are prayer chambers.  They were well attended while I was there.  Campus security keeps them monitored for safety. 

     
There are several chapels on the campus.  Crosses like this one can be seen all over South Korea.

 Prayer meetings ... every two hours from early morning until late at night.

      The lady who wrote this book founded "Prayer Mountain."  She and her son in law, the Reverend David Cho, founded Yoido Full Gospel Church.  She was one of the many who fled North Korea back in the day....