Day 0. School. At lunch, Rex says "teacher, head please." I said "what?" Rex then grabbed my head and headbutted me. I had a bump. He had a bump. It was awesome. We left at 4. Walked up to the airport shuttle stop and hopped on a bus to the Gimpo Airport. We flew to Jeju-do and hopped on another airport shuttle. The Jeju airport is in Jeju city, which is on the north side of the island and our hotel was in Segwipo, which is on the south side of the island. The shuttle took about an hour. We didn't know how we were going to find the hotel when we got there. Luckily, when we got off the bus, I looked across the street and saw it. Hotel Sunbeach. AWESOME. We checked in and learned that we had been upgraded to a giant room. With a king size bed, two couches, three chairs, two tvs, a balcony, and two air-cons. Excellent. We dropped stuff off and started walking around. Found a rocky coast, climbed on some rocks and just enjoyed being on vacation!!
Day 1. We got up at nineish I think and grabbed a taxi to Jungmun beach. We had some fried chicken and beer for breakfast and camped out on the beach. The waves and currant and riptide were really bad so we weren't allowed in the water. We napped. When I woke up, it was ocean time. Awesome. Played in the water, played in the sand, had some beers and oranges, and met some new people. Well, Jason met some new people and we hung out. I was in the water and heard a whistle, so I turned and saw Jason waving me in. I ran in and find Jason and Sophia laughing. "Why are you laughing at me?" "Jason said want to see me get Katie out of the water? And then he whistled and you came right in!" Sophia informed me. I then replied, "Excellent. For the record, he did not train me. My father did." It was pretty funny. After they got me out of the water we went with our new friends to a sushi/seafood buffet on the beach. It was delicious. Our new friends had rented a car so they gave us a ride to E-mart where we bought sandwich materials and then to the hotel. Then we passed out. We thought that the bed was big enough for all three of us, but after an hour of being in the middle, I flipped out and slept on couch cushions on the floor. After that, we took turns on the floor.
Jungmun Beach. On a BEAUTIFUL day.
Sophia and Jason enjoying some amazing sashimi and crab legs on the water after a great day in the sun, sand, and salt.Day 2. We woke up at 8 because we were going to hike Hallasan, the tallest mountain in South Korea and you have to start by 10. So we figured out the bus schedule and started our hike at 9:55. It was about 3 km straight up. I think it took us around two and half to three hours. We got to the end of the trail and learned that access to the top was restricted. That was kind of a bummer, but we were pretty happy with what we had done. We ate some sandwiches and went back down. It took us about an hour and half. When we got to base camp, we decided to walk an additional 2.5 km to the bus stop. When we got off the bus, we realized that we were only 2 km from the waterfalls that Jeju-do is known for. So we went and checked those out. Went back to the hotel, showered, and sat. Then we wandered around looking for food. Found a delicious galbi spot, ate and passed out.
Going through the meadow at the end of the trail on Hallasan. San is Mountain in Korean, so this is Mt. Halla in English. Just a little tidbit for you.
This is Jason feeding me an orange on our lunch break at the top of Hallasan. Jeju-do is famous for oranges and orange products, like orange chocolate. These little guys that we bought were delicious.
The marker marking the end of the trail. I was very sweaty. I also got to carry the bag of water and snacks because my two co-workers were too badly sunburned. You may be thinking, "wait. Katie, you weren't fried?" Haha. NOPE! I did not get burned. Well, just a little on my legs. Speaking of my legs, the morning of the hike, I fell off the bus and had a huge bruise on the back of my leg for the rest of the time. It kind of hurt during the hike.
Day 3. Decided to sleep in without an alarm. Woke up at about 9:45. We had some beef soup for breakfast and then grabbed a bus up to JejuCity. There was a lava rock that looks like a dragon head that Sophia really wanted to see. Then we got another bus to a beach on the west coast. This one was calm and warm. Crowded, but since it was so calm, we could spread out more. We hung out there until about 5. Grabbed a bus back to Segwipo and ordered pizza and packed and went to sleep immediately.
Day 4. We woke up at 5:30 and while waiting for the first airport shuttle of the day were offered a taxi ride for the same price. So we took that and flew to Busan. Took another shuttle to Nampo-dong and found the hotel and SARABROWN. We went to Haeundae beach via an hour on the subway. It was crazy crowded. A city of umbrellas on the sand and a traffic jam of inner tubes in the water. Inner tubes that ran us over repeatedly. We dealt with it for a few hours and decided to call it a day. On our walk back to the subway, we saw a bar/restaurant with a sign that said tacos and nachos. So we stopped in for a snack. Turns out they also had a great deck and awesome margaritas. So we ended up meeting a new couple, drinking 21 margaritas, 6 soco and lime shots, 4 jaeger shots, 3 tequila shots, and 12 beers. Along with numerous orders of nachos and tacos. We then followed the new couple to the beach and then to TGI Fridays and then back to the beach. We got home at about 2 am.
The madness that was the Busan beach. Very overwhelming.
Day 5. Last night was explained to me. We got sneak attacked by Mexican food. It was awesome. This couple, Brad and Shenay. Let me talk about them for a second. He's from Canada and huge. She's from Korea and tiny. They have been married for 8 months and she is a Korean popstar of sorts who just sold a song for a lot of won. Pretty cool. We left the hotel at about 10 and went to the fish market. Saw lots of fish. Lots of mudfish, which kind of look like snakes. One of them hopped out of the tank behind me. I heard Sara and Sophia squeal and turned around just in time to see the fish man fling the fish at Jason who then screamed like a young child. I mean while almost fell over laughing at the scene. We walked through the whole market and then checked out the harbor. Back to the same beach with the intention of going to an art museum. We couldn't find that, so we did the Busan Aquarium instead. Then the beach for an hour. We then went back to the fish market for a raw fish dinner. Delicious. We were going to try the live octopus but that got to be too hard to communicate. Showers and then wandering around Nampo-dong. We went to a bar called Big-Sugar. A giant white room with towers of beer instead of pitchers. We hung out there for a couple hours and then went to bed.
Group shot on Busan Harbor. SaraBrown (from Wooster), Me, Jason (co-worker), and Sophia (co-worker). Some of the best traveling companions I could ask for.
This is me in the Busan Aquarium. It was pretty fun.
Day 6. Woke up, packed up, checked out, left our bags in the lobby and went to find some breakfast. Wandered around a market for a while and decided to try to walk to a new beach. It took us about an hour to find, but it was great. There were few people and no waves, so I just played in the water for over an hour. Then Jason and I went for a walk. Upon our return to camp, we found some unwelcome European men bugging Sara and Sophia, so we left the beach. We tried to find a galbi spot but could not so we took a taxi back to the hotel and continued the search. We gave up and went to Pizza Hut and Coldstone. Then we grabbed our bags and walk to Busan Station. It took us about an hour to get there. We checked in, got our tickets and sat outside for 30 minutes. Here we watched some of Busan's finest homeless people make a scene. It was surreal. Then we boarded the KTX speed train and pulled out at 6:45. We pulled into Seoul Station at 9:40 and ran to the bus. I think I walked in the door at 10:30 or so.
Day 7. Last day of vacation. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Luckily it's only two days til the weekend! I know this was a long one, but I wanted to be sure to have some documentation of the first time off we've had in SEVEN MONTHS. One thing we did like the most about the adventure is that we were not at work. I guess I like work well enough, but I LOVE not working. Finally gt my tan. I'm pretty sure that the past seven months I have spent more time inside than in my entire life combined. It's pretty crazy. I love outside. In Jeju, we saw a deer and two snakes. And in Busan, we saw jumping fish. That's the most wildlife I've seen in a long time. We also saw a purple dog.
See. Purple dog.
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