Finally I managed to sleep under the stars, after longing for it so long. The nights spent in the tent in the Iwanuma park just don't count.
In the late afternoon I was walking through a small village and was stopped by the elders of the village, three of them, a woman and two men. They were sitting on the ground near the road and they waved me to stop. Even after finding out that I don't speak nor understand Korean, I had to sit with them for a while and engage in twenty or so minutes conversation, of which I just have no clue what was it about. But it was fun. The only fact of which I'm sure is their age because they wrote it on my palm with their fingers. The oldest is 98, the lady 88 and the youngster is 72. As it is they were first attracted y my beard. Of course they had to touch it. The next amazing thing were my hairy hands and the next moment they wanted to check my chest. Funny guys. I left them and they were bye-byeing me for almost a kilometer, every few steps I turned just to see them still waving their hands so I waved back and so it went for a time. Almost until I disappeared in the woods. And found myself a nice graveyard on a hill and started coking my dinner. Since I'm almost pennyless I was ready for a sort of ascetic trip to the south, but this country surprised me again. With prices. Yes, I do know how Seoul is expensive, compared to the countryside. But this much? In Seoul an onion is some 1000 won average. Yesterday I saw it for 300 won. The cheapest ramyon? 370 won. Batteries? Four AA pieces for 900 won, I just had to buy them. A small pot for cooking ramyon? 1700 won. Ridiculous. So I also bought kimchi, seaweed, fresh hot peppers and some other stuff for almost no money and had a Gargantuan dinner (same goes for the breakfast).
Oh yes, and a bottle of soju. It's a must if you sleep on a graveyard, I always live small offerings of soju to the dead. And I lied down on the sleeping bag, just breathing and just looking up in the darkening sky. Very shy, the first star became visible, the others followed in their millenary performance, just like every night, careless about me, about you and about just everything. That's why I love them, they are there just to shine, to be admired. Then... the first falling star. And another. And two more. Frogs in the valley, a soft wind through the branches of pines. Then the mosquitos came. Also ants. It became pretty cold and dew wetted my sleeping bag. At six in the morning I woke up and felt like a truck ran over me and the truck driver burried my corpse in the ice to hide it. But you should see the smile on my face. Again a small fire, breakfast, coffee, backpack packed, sun is shining and I'm sweating and let's hit the road, that's what it's all about!
Korea, the hitchikers paradise! Just don't dare to come here, once they will start see hichikers at every corner it will probably become a hell like England. In few hours I came to Gwangju and I really had to refuse to have the third lunch with the third driver. How rude of me, I know, but I was just about to explode from food!
Luckily from Gwangju I called my friend to tell him I'm arriving in the evening - he was not at home but in Gwangju! Yeah, let's go around, visit here and there and so evening came and the beers also. Go to drink another one on the porch. The stars are again on.
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