It took about two hours to drive to the Cheongnamandae Presidential Villa but it was worth the drive. This place is basically the Korean Camp David, but they stopped using it in 2003 and opened it up for the public to see. Before actually entering the house you take a tour through a kind of information building where they show pictures of all the Korean Presidents, dating back to the first one in 1948. Interestingly, the President now is the daughter of the Third Korean President. While the fact that Hilary Clinton is running for President here in America seems to be the biggest deal of all time, South Korea already has a woman president. What's more, when I asked Master Song about it, he just said, "Yeah!" like it was no big deal. They also show you some of the gifts that the Presidents have received from other nations over the years and the many different leisure time activities that used to be available there. And like pretty much everywhere else you go in Korea, they also have a snack shop attached to their gift shop.
The house itself is big but not as big as I'd anticipated it being. We had to take off our shoes and put on these little slipper before entering the house. In pretty much every room there was a TV. The Guest rooms look like they belong in a hotel. All of the decorations were really ornate. The sitting chairs and couches in the living and sitting rooms were also really nice. I told Kiriko San that we should vacation there! They wouldn't allow pictures to be taken inside the house but everywhere else was fine.
Probably my favorite part about the house was the grounds. There were fountains, a pond with fish, places to hike, and a gazebo to look over the view of the lake and mountains. The scenery surrounding the house is very picturesque, with the lake and mountains that are covered in green trees. I can definitely understand why they chose to vacation there. During the winter the pond freezes over and people could go ice skating. There was even a little outdoor stage area where people were doing performances in honor of one of the Korean festivals.
View from the Pond
View of the Presidential Vacation House
After we left the villa we went into one of the little towns nearby to have dinner before heading back to Daegu. We ended up splitting up because my dad and I wanted to eat pizza at this little place while Master Song and Kiriko San wanted actual Korean food. Although, if you ask me, eating pizza in Korea is it's own unique experience. I think I've mentioned that they put honey on their pizza here, but there's also a lot of other interesting ingredients that Koreans like on their pizza that I never would have thought of. Like potatoes and corn. My dad and I thought we'd play it safe by just ordering a Pepperoni Bite pizza (the picture made it look like your average stuffed crust pepperoni pizza) but playing it safe with Korean cuisine isn't really playing it safe. The crust was stuffed with sweet potatoes - which I didn't mind but it still doesn't really scream pizza, you know - but after the first bite we realized that this wasn't what we wanted. Beneath the cheese was about two layers of onions. Why they felt the need to hide the onions from us I'll never know, but since neither my dad nor I eat onions it made for an interesting experience. We had to try and pick all of them off, which was difficult, and ended up giving the pizza to Kiriko San to take home.
The whole trip was really fun and I enjoyed spending time with the friends that I have made here in South Korea. The Presidential Villa should definitely be on anyone's list of activities to do in South Korea.
Current President of South Korea
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