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.
No comments:
Post a Comment