padyatri went out of the city to the outskirts over the weekend. It was a place he had visited before by bicycle, but this time he took a city bus. If you take a bus north, you will reach a village called Joya 조야 in a small valley..
Joya is the final stop of the bus route. It felt like the terminal and its surrounding area had changed a bit since he last visited. If you go further into the village alleys, a mountain trail appears soon, and if you keep going up, you reach the mountain ridge.
Following the ridge eastward, you eventually descend to another small village called Nogok 노곡. The Seoul–Busan Expressway runs in front of Nogok and Joya, which are densely packed within a small area, featuring residential housing, small-scale factories, restaurants, and shops.
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To the south of Nogok flows the Geumho 금호 River, and since River Island Park (Hajungdo 하중도 Park) opened a few years ago, this village has become somewhat crowded with visitors. In the past, the island, formed from layers of sediment deposited over many years, was covered with plastic greenhouses. After being newly developed into a park, it is now filled with flowers throughout the year—starting with rapeseed blossoms in spring and continuing in every season except winter. The photo on the right shows a view from the air of rapeseed flowers in full bloom in spring.
