The group departed and I slept in a bit. Conveniently Glenn has a motorcycle and picked me up at 11. The day at this point was gorgeous. We spent time riding along the coast along the ocean, checked out an abandoned building, drove through some of the small towns and ate ramen at a corner store. We were making our way down to the south part of the island to check out the waterfalls my group was going to see anyways. It was such a cool and freeing way to see the island. As I mentioned in my Philippines post - I love being on a bike!
Along the way to the waterfall we stopped off at an abandoned castle that Glenn had been to before. I had seen his pictures and was interested in seeing it for myself. So gorgeous! They used it to film a Korean drama and now it just sits empty. Before you could actually get inside, but they have it closed up quite good now, all of the doors are roped together so you can't open them. But it's amazing cause everything inside is in such good condition. As we checked it out, it started to downpour!! Such a drastic change from when we left that morning. Considering we arrived on a motorcycle, we decided to try and wait out the rain. And we waited. And waited. For two and a half hours and it wasn't letting up. Mind you sitting at a castle with good conversation was a fun way to spend the day. Here are the few pictures I took, which aren't that great cause I stayed undercover to stay dry.
We finally decided to head back to the pension and got suited up the best we could to stay as dry as we could.
That night, we went out for dinner with another girl I met at Korea Burn, Katie, who also lives on the island, and another one of their friends. Afterwards we played darts and had drinks with more of their friends. Overall a good night - except for the fact that somehow the LCD screen on my phone cracked despite being in my purse on a chair the entire night!!
The morning we left Jeju, we made a stop in the morning at Sunrise peak. This is a crater in the ocean. Unfortunately we climbed to the top and couldn't see anything because of the fog. This is what it is supposed to look like (images taken from google):
These are the pictures I got from climbing up:
Patrick and I stopping for a photo
I would like to check this out again on a clear day, maybe if I get a chance to go back in the summer. There was supposed to be an optional submarine tour that I opted out of (and didn't end up happening anyways) so we checked out Black Sand Beach before heading to the ferry terminal.
The ferry ride back was longer than going there as we took a longer route apparently, and we were going against the wind. The bus ride back to Seoul also felt super long but we finally made it back home. Overall the weekend was great, but the organization of it wasn't very good. For example, we did not stop for food on Sunday until about 5pm. How is that reasonable?! None of us at all day, aside from maybe a chocolate bar picked up at Sunrise Peak. Aside from that, Jeju is super gorgeous and I'd love to go back in the summer and just hang out on the beaches and swim in the blue blue water now that I've done the sightseeing.
As for the phone situation,when I got back I signed up a two year contract and got a new phone. I was quite proud of myself as I went to the cell phone store alone and managed to communicate effectively enough. They were super nice and helpful and they used their phones to translate everything for me. I also got a ton of free stuff - a towel, a baking dish, heat packs, wet tissues, a tissue dispenser. I also love that Korean phones come with two batteries, super helpful. Unfortunately, my friend Chris recently needed to get a new phone as well. I brought her there and they were just as awesome. Plus, they gave me two free phone cases and a four pack of paper towels as service (free stuff to keep customers happy and to get them to keep coming back) for bringing her to their store! Love it. It's very common for foreigners to sign up on a two year contract (you can't sign up one year) and then find someone to take over their contract when they leave. This is what we will both have to to next February, hopefully it won't be too much of a pain. Worry about that then though right? :)
I will leave you with two of Glenn's photos of the abandoned castle from when he went on a nice sunny day and was able to get inside. They do the castle way more justice than my photos!
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