More visitors! Last week we had an awesome visit from two of my best canoe-base friends – Allison and Kate. They were able to match up their work schedules to travel together and spent a week with us on Jeju and in Seoul before exploring on their own on the mainland.
I was able to take most of their visit off of work to go hiking, eating, and exploring Jeju’s museum and sites.
They flew in Sunday night and Patrick and I picked them up at the airport and drove them to our place to stay. Monday morning we got up and the three girls headed out to hike an Olle trail.
Fields, beach, forest at the base of Mt. Sanbangsan – a view from the Olle trail.
We paid ~$2 to enter a protected coast area on the hike and got to see these amazing sandstone cliff formations carved by wind and water. Gorgeous.
Daffodils! It’s starting to look a bit like spring!
We stopped at a seaside restaurant along the way for lunch. We got fish and seafood strews, and interesting side dishes. The girls are taking pictures of tiny anchovies served dry and whole. Delish, if you’re into that…
Tuesday we started the day with a hike up an “Oreum” or failed volcano. This one was skirted by fields of green tea plants.
Success at the top of the oreum. We couldn’t see the tea fields anymore, but had lovely views of some towns and the coast.
On the way down we found a stand of bamboo and dove in to explore.
We spent the afternoon eating green tea ice cream and seeing the Glass Castle (see Jenn and Drew’s visit blog post for similar pictures). Our last stop was a black sand beach with some bakery treats in hand!
Allison enjoyed the black sand beach by making a sand-angel! Kate explored the tide pools and found some little sea anemones.
Every Tuesday night, we get together with some friends to watch episodes of Korean soap operas, “K-dramas”. We’re “learning” Korean and enjoy the silly insights into pop culture. This week Patrick’s birthday was coming on Thursday, so the group threw him a little surprise party with cheese cake, noise makers and a silly Korean headband!
The birthday boy walking in the door just as we yelled surprise and I stuck the birthday bow on his head.
Cheesecake and happy birthday candles.
Wednesday started at the Jimjilbang – a hot mineral bath. Clothing is optional inside, so here’s out “after” picture to prove we went. 🙂
On a scenic drive over the mountain we stopped to play in the snow. It was much snowier closer to the top, but this was our first sighting and deserved a snowball stop.
Wednesday night we met Patrick and visited the Museum of Sex and Health. This is the bathroom sign – all rhinestones.
Most of the museum is “no-photo”. It’s apparently tradition for newlyweds to come and learn, as sex ed isn’t big here. Here Kate and Allison are getting a bit of a “peep show.”
Thursday the girls drove east with a stop at the Trick Art museum, where art-work becomes interactive!
We also stopped again at the Manjangul lava tube caves. Allison and Kate were way into the rocks and learning how lava formed these tube-like tunnels. Super fun.
Girl time at our hotel Thursday night. We stayed over so we could hike Sunrise Peak at sunrise.
The peak just after sunrise. The hike was nice but REALLY windy. So windy, they canceled the ferry service across to Udo island – our next planned stop.
Since we couldn’t get to Udo, we checked out a couple more hot spots on the island. Here is the Jeju Stone Park, where we saw lots of lava rock carvings of gods, historic scenes, and funny “lawn ornament” type oddities.
These stone dudes are a Jeju specialty. Carved for centuries, they act as guardians and are called Dolharubang, or Grandfather Spirits.
Our final stop was dragonhead rock in Jeju city. Supposedly that odd lava rock formation looks like a rearing dragon’s head. I didn’t see it, but it’s still a cool rock!
We grabbed some take-away pizza to eat in the airport. We met Patrick there after his Friday workday and hopped the flight to Seoul.
Lots more stories from Seoul – check out our next post!
We really love having visitors. It’s a bit surreal, but helps make this place feel a bit more like home to show it to some friendly familiar faces.