Korean Crossroads: Chuseok: Part II

Thursday

After cleaning up our pension (and trust me it needed to be cleaned) the sane part of the group tried to talk the crazy part of the group out of swimming to a nearby island I refered to as "Ryan's Island." Now Ryan had tried to convince us all the previous night during our bonfire on the beach that he could swim to it. We were convinced it was the worst idea in history and did our best to talk him out of it. Now, anyone that knows Ryan knows that once Ryan has an idea it is usually unlikely he can be talked out of it. They ended up successfully making the swim (miraculously enough) and emerged relatively unscathed.

Our beautiful coastline

Ryan's island. We estimated it to be about a mile from the beach.

Geoju Island. Our island for a few days.

Another view from our pension

Now after being on the island for a few days we had decided to go to Busan (the nearby city we caught the ferry from) and do some hiking and show around Ryan's friends. What we had not planned on was the fact that the ferry back to Busan would be inoperable due to choppy waves. Well, super. We're on an island with the most direct form of transportation taken out of the equation. We ended up taking a 3 hour bus ride back over a bridge that connects the island to Busan. Not ideal but it kept me off the ferry which clearly was fine by me.

A 3 hour bus ride, 1 hour on the subway and a delicious dinner later we were finally at our love motel. It was super late but we were in Busan (a great city) with 4 friends from America who had never seen it by night and would likely never see it again. We took them to a few local bars and ended up at a place called Fuzzy Navel where we met a Russian, Korean and Brazillian. Sounds like the start of a joke. The Brazillian was a gorilla of a man who kept roaring at everyone while ordering drinks. Entertaining but ridiculously scary. If I wouldn't have had Kelly I would be back in Brazil right now being forced to be his bride....even though he had a wife who was tattooed on his arm. Thankfully we evaded marriage and got to bed in the wee hours of the morning...both unaware of the hiking adventures that were in store for the following day. Ok, maybe slightly aware but in denial.

Corey with a statue in the heart of Busan's shopping district

Trevor with his guitar. It's rare to see him without it.

One of the best Korean shirts I have ever seen.
Can you say spell check?!

Yes, you are reading this correctly.
"Whip me. Eat me. Bite me. Verybrain."
Oh Korea.

One of the guys, Corey, happens to be from Massachusetts.

Friday

Now even though we got to bed at 6am we still had to be up at 930 to go hiking. Not the most enticing thing to do whilst being hung over but we made a promise so there we were with our bells on. We made it out of the hotel (sans Trevor due to excessive partying) and began to find our way to our hiking destination. We separated into groups and took cabs up the biggest hill in history (maybe an exaggeration but close enough to the truth). Next was the hiking part. Not the biggest fan of it after such a late night of awesome. I made it about halfway before I began to feel the overwhelming negative side effects. I took a break at an exercise point (yes there was a casual exercise area in the middle of a mountain) while the rest of the group kept soldiering on.

An amazing view from about halfway up the mountain

NOT enjoying the very mountainous climb

Group shot of us at the middle of the mountain

I proceeded to lay down on a bench, headphones in ears, eyes closed. I had no sooner fallen asleep before I was woken up by the tiny hands of two small Korean children who wanted to practice their English. To many Koreans, any foreigner is a teacher and has nothing better to do than teach English in the middle of a mountain in an ancient exercise yard. After being enticed by the promise of a picnic by their parents (which turned out to be well worth the lesson) I taught them a 20 minute lesson which consisted of the alphabet and different names for food. Only in Korea.

An ancient exercise yard complete with weights, slides
and workout equipment.

A Korean man getting ready to exercise upside down.

The picnic proved to be well worth my time and after thanking them repeatedly (and doing the bowing over and over again that you all know I love to do) I received a phone call from Gayle wondering where I was. During my nap and English lesson more than 2 hours had passed. Whoops. Time flies on mountains. Turns out they couldn't figure a way to get back to me again so they started the trek back down the mountain on the assumption that I would do the same. Wrong assumption. 20 minutes and repeated false falls later I was also at the bottom of the mountain, but without a clue where I was. After eventually finding a cab and conveying where I wanted to go (more hand gesturing and broken Korean) I got to Temple by the Sea to search for my friends. Thankfully Buddah was on my side and I found them. Now, what did I learn from my trip up the mountain? Two things. Don't drink heavily the night before an intense hike. Don't lose track of time when you are separated from your friends while on a mountain. Lessons learned.

The temple was absolutely gorgeous (my pictures don't do it justice) and was one I had never frequented before. After our temple visit we got cheesy rice (one of my favorite meals in Korea) and made our way back to Pohang.