OK, since I'm sure all four of my devoted readers are wondering, I figured I would finally post about the adventure to Penis Park.

Now, to those of you who somehow thought this was going to be an interactive experience (or God forbid, a RIDE), get your minds out of the gutter. Penis Park is actually a spiritual place. Seriously.

It seems important to point out at this juncture that I found Penis Park in the Lonely Planet Korea book, and have been wanting to go for ages. The same 12-year-old Penises-are-funny part of me that made us get off the highway in the States when I saw a sign that read "Big Bone Lick 1 mile" felt that Penis Park might be the best girlie road trip ever. And it WAS.

The legend behind the park says that a young girl was rowed out to an island by her fiance to gather seaweed. A storm picked up and he couldn't get back out to the island to get her and she drowned (there's now a statue on "the" island, and a diorama in the museum that has the poor girl popping in and out of the water). Now, the brochure we picked up made only the most tenuous of links between this story and the plethora of penii. Maybe it's because she died before marriage? Or maybe her fiance was....ummm...lacking? We're not sure, but we're glad they put up such exciting statuary.

But to the point. Seriously. I have never seen so many penii (penises?) in one place. Happy penii. Sad penii. Angry penii. Comedy and Tragedy penii. MOTORIZED, metal penii. A bench for women to sit on and experience what it might be like to have an improbably long, wooden penis. Penis-shaped roundels on top of fence posts. Penis-shaped benches. SO MANY PLACES to pose for inappropriate pictures...and did we ever. Korea is missing out on a serious marketing opportunity; it would be the BEST. PLACE. EVER. to hold a bachelorette party.

The only downside to the adventure (well, one of the two downsides; it took 6 hours to get home on the bus) was the lack of souvenirs. There was one shelf of tatty crap in a convenience store that wanted me to pay $40 for a penis-shaped salt shaker. I was not THAT interested.

To compensate (tee hee) for Kate and Trish's Phallic Adventure, we are going next week to Gyeonggju area, which is suitably historical and cultural. The plethora of temples, shrines and tombs is described as the "Museum Without Walls" in fact. I've taken pride in the fact that I like pseudo intellectual/cultural stuff, so I'm hoping this trip might compensate (tee hee again) for the Penis Park trip. But what if it can't measure up?

PS Yes, there are pictures. They're on Facebook, where hopefully our Grandmother will never find them.