Goeje Island
Wow! What a terrific weekend! With Monday being a national Korean holiday, I decided to make the most of my first three-day weekend in Korea by getting the heck out of Seoul. And what better way to spend my time away from Seoul than at the beach with a couple of my favorite people?!
Kelly and I had been planning for months to enjoy a bit of sand and surf, but we did not realize just how lucky we would get. Kelly's friend's aunt (got that?) lives on a little island just off the major city of Busan in southeastern Korea. Kelly mentioned that she would like to come for a visit, and Aunt Ida insisted that even though she would be out of town that weekend, we should come down and make ourselves at home in her condo. We jumped at the chance, and Saturday morning, Kelly, Seb, and I were on the early train south (I overslept and caused us to miss our first train, but let's not get into that right now...!).
Okpo Harbor.
We arrived in Busan around noon, just in time to hop aboard the ferry that would take us to our final destination: Okpo City in Goeje Island. Upon arriving, we met Aunt Ida's neighbor to retrieve the condo key and stuffed our bellies with Vietnamese Pho Soup before meeting our new home for the next three days. The apartment building was humbly titled "Beverly Hills II," and it was bursting at the seams with foreigners. As we soon discovered, Goeje Island is the home of a huge oil rig and shipbuilding yard where many foreign contractors work.
The view from atop "Beverly Hills II".
We made our way up to the rooftop pool, enjoying the scenery before finally deciding to get ready for dinner...and what an experience that was! We knew we wanted to try some fresh seafood, but we had no idea what was in store for us. Goeje is quite a small, family-oriented island, so it was difficult finding a restaurant that would serve us after 9:30. However, we finally got lucky, and inched our way through a mucky, bloody, fishy entrance into a brightly-lit room packed with awestruck Koreans and low-lying tables. We plopped down, checked out the food on the surrounding patrons' tables, whipped out a bit of pointing, grunting, and various Korean words, and, Voila!, we had ordered. The food that came out of the kitchen consisted of a delicious fish soup and assorted unknown side dishes. All in all, it was a most excellent meal!
Seb and I preparing for some dodgy Korean seafood.
After dinner, we ventured into a few local hangouts, played some pool, and eventually made our way back to the Bev Hills. We stayed up chatting and listening to music (I even went for a midnight swim on the roof!) before finally succumbing to our exhaustion and calling it a night.
Sunday morning we hopped in a taxi which took us to Gujora Beach. It was a lovely day, and the beach was nice, but it certainly was not the powdery white sand beaches from Florida...even Santa Monica Beach looked pristine compared to this. However, it was a beach, and I was not about to complain! We spent the afternoon soaking up rays and trying to understand why Koreans go to the beach fully clothed...Seb even had the guts to swim in the freezing waters for a bit. As the sun began to set, we headed back to Okpo.
From our spot on Gujora Beach.
We decided to play it safe and avoid the seafood for Sunday night's dinner. We opted for a meal of dakgalbi (barbequed chicken, cabbage, and rice cakes) and made our way back home for another relaxing night in the condo. Monday morning we awoke to the sad realization that our fantasy weekend was coming to an end. We squeezed in a few more tanning hours on the roof before catching our ferry back to Busan and our train for home.
I am so happy to have gotten the chance to really get away from the high rise and concrete madness of Seoul for the weekend! I wish every weekend was three days long!
Kelly and I had been planning for months to enjoy a bit of sand and surf, but we did not realize just how lucky we would get. Kelly's friend's aunt (got that?) lives on a little island just off the major city of Busan in southeastern Korea. Kelly mentioned that she would like to come for a visit, and Aunt Ida insisted that even though she would be out of town that weekend, we should come down and make ourselves at home in her condo. We jumped at the chance, and Saturday morning, Kelly, Seb, and I were on the early train south (I overslept and caused us to miss our first train, but let's not get into that right now...!).
Okpo Harbor.
We arrived in Busan around noon, just in time to hop aboard the ferry that would take us to our final destination: Okpo City in Goeje Island. Upon arriving, we met Aunt Ida's neighbor to retrieve the condo key and stuffed our bellies with Vietnamese Pho Soup before meeting our new home for the next three days. The apartment building was humbly titled "Beverly Hills II," and it was bursting at the seams with foreigners. As we soon discovered, Goeje Island is the home of a huge oil rig and shipbuilding yard where many foreign contractors work.
The view from atop "Beverly Hills II".
We made our way up to the rooftop pool, enjoying the scenery before finally deciding to get ready for dinner...and what an experience that was! We knew we wanted to try some fresh seafood, but we had no idea what was in store for us. Goeje is quite a small, family-oriented island, so it was difficult finding a restaurant that would serve us after 9:30. However, we finally got lucky, and inched our way through a mucky, bloody, fishy entrance into a brightly-lit room packed with awestruck Koreans and low-lying tables. We plopped down, checked out the food on the surrounding patrons' tables, whipped out a bit of pointing, grunting, and various Korean words, and, Voila!, we had ordered. The food that came out of the kitchen consisted of a delicious fish soup and assorted unknown side dishes. All in all, it was a most excellent meal!
Seb and I preparing for some dodgy Korean seafood.
After dinner, we ventured into a few local hangouts, played some pool, and eventually made our way back to the Bev Hills. We stayed up chatting and listening to music (I even went for a midnight swim on the roof!) before finally succumbing to our exhaustion and calling it a night.
Sunday morning we hopped in a taxi which took us to Gujora Beach. It was a lovely day, and the beach was nice, but it certainly was not the powdery white sand beaches from Florida...even Santa Monica Beach looked pristine compared to this. However, it was a beach, and I was not about to complain! We spent the afternoon soaking up rays and trying to understand why Koreans go to the beach fully clothed...Seb even had the guts to swim in the freezing waters for a bit. As the sun began to set, we headed back to Okpo.
From our spot on Gujora Beach.
We decided to play it safe and avoid the seafood for Sunday night's dinner. We opted for a meal of dakgalbi (barbequed chicken, cabbage, and rice cakes) and made our way back home for another relaxing night in the condo. Monday morning we awoke to the sad realization that our fantasy weekend was coming to an end. We squeezed in a few more tanning hours on the roof before catching our ferry back to Busan and our train for home.
I am so happy to have gotten the chance to really get away from the high rise and concrete madness of Seoul for the weekend! I wish every weekend was three days long!
posted by Tiffany Joiner @ 8:42 AM
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