거제도 Part III (외도)

We woke up around 6 in the morning to a phone call from 사장님 saying we needed to be ready to leave by 7. We all got up and began to get ready for the day. We made sandwiches once again to take with us. Around 7, we walked out our door and met up with my 선생님(teacher). We walked down stairs and packed into a car.

We rode to a harbor where we would take a ferry to our destination. Today, we would be seeing 외도(Oedo Island). This place is a private owned island with many flowers, trees, and statues. Needless to say, it was beautiful. But before we get to 외도, we have to talk about the ferry ride there.

We were all lined up to board a boat. As we boarded, we were each given a tag that is suppose to be able identify us for when we leave the island. All but 정길 got one. They told him children didn't need one. (He eventually got his right before we got to the island.) Anyway, we had our laughs and headed on our way. While we were on the ferry, a man was telling everyone about what we were doing. He also asked people to clap and if you clapped, you were suppose to live a good life. He made jokes the entire ride, none of which I could understand. My friends were laughing, so I take it he was funny. On the way to the island, we came across a rock formation in the middle of the sea. At one point our ferry went into a crack in this "mountain" and then backed out. I must say he was a good driver to get us in and out of there without hitting anything. We circled the rock and headed for 외도.

I am not sure how to really describe this place. All I can say is that it was really beautiful. At one point you get to this look-out cliff and can see the ocean with mountains in the background almost hidden in the fog. The only bad part of this trip was that we only had an hour to walk around the whole island. I do not think an hour is long enough to really experience 외도. We walked through the first part slow, taking our time to try and take it all in. Then, we realized what time it was and sort of rushed through the last part of it.

We boarded the ferry once again and headed for the port. We got off the boat and decided to climb a mountain nearby. I think if we knew how much walking we would have to do, we might have thought twice about it. On the way up 선생님, her friend, and I played 가위 바위 보 (rock, scissors, paper) to see how many steps you could take. The first one at the top, won. Well, I won. As we were walking up, a person told us there was nothing at the top and not worth it. We decided to continue up and got to the first look-out point. We asked if the next one was far and were told that is wasn't. They also said it was much better than where we were. So, we all decided to head up. We got there and it was quite the view. We were surrounded by the sea with mountains out in the distance. I think one of the things I like most about Korea is that almost everywhere you look, you will see mountains in the distance. We rested, took some photos and made our descent.

When we got to the bottom, 정길 and I decided to go climbing on the cliffs. On one side, I saw a man take a starfish out of the water. I am still curious what he wanted to do with the starfish. We climbed around and decided to eat our sandwiches on the side of one of the cliffs. We could feel the ocean breeze as the waves would crash next to the rocks. While we were sitting there, we noticed two girls who we thought were on the bus the day before. We asked them to take a photo of us and then asked if they were on the bus. They were. We saw our friends waiting for us and decided to go. When we got to our friends we told them who the girls were and they insisted we go talk to them more. So, we did. Apparently, the whole thing was quite funny to watch. 정길 thought they were from 서울(Seoul) but turned out to be from 부산(Busan). He was pretty shocked because people from there tend to have a different accent but these girls did not. After a few minutes, we said our goodbyes and left.

We decided to walk to another rock beach. This beach was extremely small. To be honest, I am not sure you could even call it a beach. Well, after walking up hills, we finally made it. We sat down on some rocks and decided to rest. The place was quite peaceful. You could hear the sound of the water rushing up against the rocks. After a little bit of sitting there, we decided to head back to our pension. When we got back, we realized we were pretty exhausted from the day. 정길 and I ended up falling asleep and waking up around 7 or so. We walked downstairs and cooked our dinner. We met up with my 선생님 and began eating. We took a few photos with 사장님 and then headed to our rooms.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to leave. We said our goodbyes to the owner and got into a taxi. We arrived at the bus station and headed back to 분당. This trip was a lot of fun. This experience has made me want to see more of Korea and work harder at learning the language. I look forward to seeing more places and writing about them as I do.

거제도 Part II (Journey to the Abandoned Park)

Before we went to sleep the night before, we all decided to wake up to see the sun rise. Well, around 5:30 in the morning, the alarm went off and was turned off just as quick. I simply rolled over and thought there was no way I was going to get out of bed. We were all pretty exhausted from the day before, so I decided to just sleep in. Good thing too. My friend Amy said she got up and went to watch the sun rise. Apparently it began to rain and was too foggy to see anything anyway. I guess you can say I was happy with my decision to not get up at 5:30 in the morning.

Around 8 am, I woke up and began to get ready for the day. Everyone else was still asleep until 9 or so when the TV turned itself on. 정길 and Amy woke up and began to get ready. We made sandwiches for lunch so we wouldn't have to spend money while we were out. We decided to head north along the coast. We got on a bus and began our 40 minute ride to a small flower garden with a few statues and what not. While we were there, my friend 정길 began talking to a family. They were telling us a few places we should go.

I, however already knew where I wanted to go. I wanted to visit the abandoned amusement park in 옥포 (Okpo). 정길 asked about this but they said it had been completely demolished. They were also very curious why we would want to visit an abandoned amusement park. Even 정길 was curious why. We decided to head to 옥포 and see if the park was still there.

After a short bus ride to 옥포 we had to climb this amazingly tall hill. We finally reached the top (and not knowing if we had just climbed for nothing) and saw the gate to the park. We moved back some of the barbed wire and made our way through it.

Side-note: The park was at one point owned by a corrupt business man. When 2 children died, the park was closed. The man ran off and never paid the family for any damages.

We walked around the park, climbed onto some of the coasters, and were able to take a few photos. It is kind of a shame the park ended the way it did. From the top, there was a nice view of the mountain leading into the sea. You could also see 옥포 shipyard. I think the park is going to be turned into an apartment building for the shipyard. While we were in the park 정길 looked at me and said he now understood why we wanted to visit that place. I tried to explain before we got there, but he along with so many other Koreans, just did not understand.

After the park, we went to another hill to sit on a pagoda, or at least that is what it reminded me of. We ate some food and just relaxed for a bit. We talked to another family with a really cute kid and headed back to the bus stop. We got on the bus and headed back to our pension. On the way there, we saw a beach and decided to get off. I am glad we did, because this was the only time we got to see the sunset. We stood on the beach and watched the sun go down behind some mountains. While we were standing there, 사장님 (means owner) called us to make sure we were okay. He then informed us there were no more buses coming our way but that he would be happy to come pick us up and take us home.

He arrived in somewhat of a small car and took us home. When we arrived to our room, we decided to make some 호떡 (hotteok) which is a kind of Korean pancake with a cinnamon filling. I think you can put whatever you would like in it. After they were done, we gave some to 사장님 and my Korean teacher who arrived while we were out. After the 호떡 we decided to go to bed, because we had to wake up around 6 the next morning.

More on that in the next chapter.

My Trip to 거제도 Part 1

This past weekend I went to an island off Korea called 거제도(Geoje Island). I am not even sure where to begin with this blog. The place was amazing.

Well, Friday night after work, I met with my friend 정길 and my new friend Amy. My co-worker Simon gave us a ride to Nambu Station where we would take a bus to 거제도. We thought the bus ride was going to be about 5 hours and ended up only being about 4 hours. So, we arrived at our destination a bit earlier than expected. When we got to the island, it was about 4:30 in the morning and we had some time to kill. We went to a PC room to check on a few things before we started to venture around the island. We tried to find a coffee shop to waste some time, but nothing was open. We decided to take our luggage to the pension and leave it with the owner. None of us wanted to carry around our heavy bags.

By the time we were able to check into the pension, we were all pretty beat. We bought some groceries for the weekend and headed to the pension, which was about a 40 minute cab ride. This cab ride only cost us 20,000 won. We checked into the pension, took a nap, and then cooked our dinner. I was able to introduce grilled chicken to the pension's owner. He liked it, so 정길 told him how I prepared it to be cooked. After dinner, we went back to our room and went to sleep for the night.

(In fear of making one really long post that people would get bored reading, I am going to post about my trip to 거제도 in separate parts. The next part will be posted soon. Hopefully along with photos in each post. Maybe a video too.)