Anyways, on to Jeju-do!
Mindy proposed that we go to Jeju-do, an island off the southern tip of South Korea. So I put her in charge of figuring out how to get there and how to get around once we did. It ended up being super cheap: less than $60 for round-trip tickets to fly down and then we spent maybe $20 on the city bus. What an awesome day trip!
So we got up super early and headed to the airport to hop a short plane ride to Jeju and then it was a trick to find the right bus to get to the first stop for the City Bus Tour. We hopped on the bus and headed out on our adventure.
Aaaand I was really grumpy for, like, most of the day, and trying really hard not to be.
Unfortunately, we didn't have time to eat any breakfast before getting on the plane and we could not find any convenience stores or anything at the airport (which we figured out how to find when we returned, but that doesn't matter). We decided that since we were going to really touristy places, there were BOUND to be some convenience stores or vending machines (SOMETHING). There weren't. So I was a little hangry. Luckily there were plenty of places to buy drinks so I drank a lot of water. But we didn't get any food until after noon and it was REALLY hot and we were REALLY hungry.
BUT we did see some awesome things! We went to a great market, the Jeju stone park (which features a park with some of the famous volcanic stone sculptures and natural formations of volcanic rock), the Jeju Peace Park, and Dragon Head Rock.
Unfortunately, I was really horrible about taking pictures. I'm so sorry!
I did get some great photos of the Jeju Peace Park. When we first pulled up, we were a little worried it was closed because there was literally NO ONE THERE. And it was a little eerie with all this huge black crows flying around a big empty space. We didn't know much about it before going in, but we had heard it was a somber place. The museum pays tribute to the Jeju Island Incident and the war crimes that occurred during an uprising on the island. You can read a little bit more about it here on Wikipedia.
The museum had a neat interactive art installation where people could write on slips of paper and hang them up on this wall. Many notes were in Korea (of course), but some were in English and said things about never knowing this had happened or about hearing stories from their grandparents about the incident and feeling more connected with them after going through the museum.
Outside was a big fountain. Around the fountain were stones with hundreds of names carved on them of the men, women, and children who had died (most having not received a proper funeral).
After the Peace Park, we went to the Stone Park which would have been more fun if I hadn't been hangry and it hadn't been so very hot and humid. There were statues much like these guys (which the island is famous for).
We meant to go to two markets (the first of which was fun), but the second one was either closed for the day or we just went the wrong way. But we had about an hour until the next bus came. We ended up finding this tiny hole in the wall coffee shop and ordered the only thing on the menu that we could figure out which turned out delicious. Then there was a whole awkward bathroom incident which... we don't necessarily need to go into.
We got to the airport several hours early and then our flight was late. Poor Mindy wasn't feeling well at this point and we were both hot and tired. Long day *whew*
Next up: BUY ALL THE THINGS!!!!
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