Day 22 bonus pics

I went out in search of lunch, snacks, and bottled water for tomorrow.  Didn't walk even thirty minutes total, according to my pedometer.  Lunch was kimchi-jjigae from a dead-looking restaurant down the street.  Obtaining lunch was a bit surreal.  Here's how that went down. 

It was 2 p.m.  I poked in, saw no one, and was walking out when an older lady from a different restaurant saw me, hobbled over, and asked what I wanted.  "Lunch," I said with Schwarzeneggerian terseness.  The lady said that the restaurant owner had told her she was on her way back, so I should hold on a few minutes.  I did so.  The owner finally appeared, asking, "어떻게 오셨어요?", which basically means, "Why have you come?"  A bit annoyed by such an obvious question, I tersely replied, "To eat."  I mean, why the fuck does anyone visit a restaurant?  To evaluate the wallpaper?  The lady was relentless in her obtuseness, though:  "To eat lunch?" she asked.  I was tempted to stare balefully at her in reply, but I simply said yes.

While she led me back into her establishment, she asked over her shoulder, "What would you like to order?"  I said I wanted the kimchi-jjigae.  "Are you sure you don't want the dwoenjang-jjigae?" she asked.  I said I was sure.  "Because the kimchi's kind of sour," she said.  I told her that that would be fine.

The restaurant was designed to host groups of people:  instead of being a single, huge space with lots of tables, the place was divided into small rooms with sliding doors.  The lady showed me to one such room; I took off my shoes and went inside.  As I suspected she would do, the lady asked me to pay first, so I gave her W8000 in cash.  She took my money, then went to the kitchen and set about making my lunch.  My room had a couple flies in it; I knew they'd be trouble once the food arrived.

The lady eventually reappeared with an impressive spread.  She briskly told me I could just eat and leave since I'd already paid.  I thanked her, and she basically left the restaurant.  I never saw her again.  Two ancient people shuffled into the empty restaurant while I was eating, calling out for someone; I had to tell them, awkwardly, that no one was here except me.  Aside from those intrusions, it was just me, my meal, and those damn flies. The food was good; the flies were annoying.  I managed to kill one, but not the other two.  I should have brought my little hairspray bottle with me.

After that weird, quiet, David Lynch-style lunch, I wandered over to the local bridge, took a photo or two, meowed randomly at a cat on the street, then went to an ancient mart in which sat the same ancient lady whom I'd seen last year and three years ago.  I bought my water bottles and snacks, telling the old lady thanks; she quietly chuckled and replied, "No, I thank you." 

So here are a few pics from today. 

I've done what I can to repair the new rip in my right cargo pocket.  For the past couple of days, I've simply not put any full water bottles in there, and that seems to have worked.  I can store four or five water bottles inside my backpack, and another two bottles in my left cargo pocket if necessary.  We'll see whether this holds for another week on the trail.  When I'm back in civilization, I might just order myself another pair of pants.  This pair is on its last legs, I think.