Nami Island

We went to an island called Nami Island that is like two and a half hours NE of Seoul. The island is on a river, so we didn't make it to the east coast of Korea. We went with our Saturday Korean speaking class, and we left right after work Friday night (it was about 10:30 p.m. when they picked us up!).Needless to say, we slept a lot of the way, but it still felt like it took forever to get there. I woke up with about 20 minutes left, and pretty much instantly got car sick to the point where we had to pull over or it wasn't going to be pretty. Everyone decided to get out of the car as well, so we all just about froze to death! The place was amazing with its decor. We were told that these pensions are very popular places for couples to go for retreats/vacations, so the feel definitely was a "couple's" feel. Jeremy and I didn't sleep together as there were two other people that couldn't sleep together (a boy and a girl).
The next was such a gorgeous day to go the island. We still needed our jackets, but it wasn't freezing cold. The island is beautiful, and I am sure would be even more beautiful when all the plants are alive! :) The first picture is of a kimchi hut. They put the kimchi in the ground, then build this hut to help regulate the temperature. There like 15 or more in the area. Jeremy, of course, wanted us both to get in. Yeah right. :) The picture with the lines of trees is apparently the famous row of trees. Korean dramas are filmed on this island, and I am guessing these trees are in them?? Or maybe it's just a very popular tourist sight? The rock picture is spot of just tons of rocks that people were stacking. We found out that you stack the rocks then say a prayer for someone. Jeremy found an already made stack, then put a bigger rock on top and it stayed. Then he tried to do the same to other stacks and ended up knocking some over. We told him he killed some prayers. :) The next picture is the bathroom that is decorated with Soju (alcohol) bottles. They had quite a bit of Soju decorations. We say a tower made completely of what seemed like phone books or really thick magazines. It has been there since last summer. We also wanted to go zip lining, but the wait time was 3 hours and cost more than $35 each to go, so we passed :( There were two choices to get to Nami Island: by ferry ride for $7, or zip lining for $35. Jeremy also wanted to go bungee jumping, as well as the other foreigner, Jess, in our group. We decided to stop at it on our way out. The bungee place is the picture below that looks like a big construction crane. When we got there, we watched a handful of people jump. When Jeremy saw the first one go, he backed out. It looked really scary!! After a couple more jumpers, Jess decided she would do it. We waited a long time for her turn to jump. It was really nerve-racking watching her do it. She thought it was fun, but scary at the same time. She was happy she did it. That concluded our day on the island. It was a fantastic trip! After we had an awesome feast for dinner (a home cooked meal), we headed back home. I survived for the most part with not getting too carsick, but the person driving kept taking the wrong turn or missing the turn, so it actually took us about 3 hours to get home. :( We finally got home around 9 p.m. I think. It's a trip that we will hopefully be making again in a few months when the weather is fantastic and everything is in bloom. :) Enjoy the pictures!

Kimchi hut