After having a few free days in the Seoul area, Megan, Lindsay and I decided to go traveling around Korea. We all got 5-day Korail passes, which basically let us get on any train at any time for 5 days. We started our trip by going down to the southwest tip of the peninsula to an area called 목포 (Mokpo). We quickly found a motel by the harbor, and it actually wound up being a pretty nice motel. For $45 we got a double bed, and a mat, plus a big TV, aircon, and a computer. We started exploring right away. We went down to the harbor and quickly bought a ticket to go to Oedaldo, otherwise known as "Love Island". The boat ride took about 30 or 40 minutes, and we were a little worried because there were some ominous looking clouds on the horizon. By the time we got there we were all pretty hungry, so we figured we would find a restaurant and get some fish or seafood. Well, "Love Island" turned out to be a total bust. We couldn't find a restaurant for a long time, and when we finally find one they had about 4 menu items, none of which I wanted to eat. We ordered food just for Lindsay, and it took almost 30 minutes to make, and they wound up making food for all of us. I kind of felt obligated to eat it since there was so much food, we didn't want to waste it. We walked around for a little bit and there was really nothing to see besides a "flower garden" which was really just a shrub garden.

We waited down by the shore for the next boat, so that was nice dipping our feet in the water. On the way back on the boat, these two old Korean men (ajushis) came up and started talking to us in Korean. Of the three of us, I am the only one with any sort of Korean conversational ability. It' turned out to be quite funny trying to decipher what they were saying. Basically, they found out Megan was from New York, and Mr. Lee told us his son lived in New York, and that he wanted to travel with Megan to go visit him. Ha, then we though that he wanted Megan to date his son, but it turns out he has a wife. So we chatted for a little bit, telling them where we were from, what we did, that we were on vacation. The guys even paid for our boat ride which was really nice. At the end he gave us the coins in his pocket, and after he wrote down what he was saying, and we tried to decipher it on our phone dictionary, he understood that he was saying "Here are some commemorative coins" lol. It was really enjoyable. I gave Mr. Lee my phone number and he said next time he came up to Seoul he wanted to eat with us. Sadly, I have recieved no call yet :(

After that we decided to go to the "fun" part of Mokpo, but turns out there isn't one. We went to a few different restaurants and got food and beer, even some "dried accompaniment" as they refer to their dried sea food product. In the end, we decided to get the hell out of Mokpo before it sucked us into it's abyss of boredom.

From there we went to Busan, and honestly, didn't do much. We got a cheap motel where we slept on the floor, went to the beach every day, read some books, and ate good food. It was quite relaxing. I wound up getting RIDICULOUSLY sunburnt. I couldn't wear a bra for 2 days because it hurt, and lindsay had to put my hair up for me. Sleeping was absolutely terrible, I was hot and cold and hot and cold. Terrible. The beaches were literally lines with umbrellas and Korean. You could rent and umbrella and a chair for 10 dollars, which was nice. But really, you could hardly see the same because there were so many mats and umbrellas. Apparently on the last day we were there, there were over 1 million people on the beach.

The last day we were there Lindsay's friend Brett (WHO WAS THE OREGON DUCK MASCOT! To see him in action click here) came to hang out. I honestly don't think I've met a funnier person in my life. We had such a great time. We went and got grilled fish, which was delicious, and it came with fish head soup which was also really good. We had quiet a lot to drink, then got some coconuts filled with alcohol. I'll tell you what, I felt absolutely BAD-ASS walking on the beach drinking tequila out of a coconut. Then we all go these cheesey temporary tattoos that all the Korean men had on, we all got butterflies on our chests, and Brett was trying to get with the girl doing it, very funny. After that we went to a night club (which was my first one in Korea). night clubs are a little different in Korea, most people dance in a group or by themselves, and it's not nearly at inappropriate as American dancing. In fact, people don't really touch when dancing. When we got there no one was dancing, so we got our drinks and literally started the dance party. Soon everyone was dancing, and Brett was spitting out these moves that the Koreans were going crazy for.

All in all it was a fun relaxing trip. I like Busan, and I'm glad I had already been, so I didn't feel the need to do the touristy stuff and just relaxed with my skin cancer.

The link for my pictures on Facebook is here.