Jeju Day 1

Very pretty peacock picture

WHAT?!!

Horse back riding

Another prayer rock build

Huge tea farm

Underground cafe

So many tea cups

Oregon is on Jeju Island!!

We went to Jeju Island over the weekend. Jeju is the southern island of Korea, and it's known as Korea's "Hawaii". It's a very popular island for honeymooners, especially at this time of year. Our trip started of a bit rocky. To begin,  Jeremy was sick on Thursday (like throwing up sick) and a little on Friday. The weather turned bad Friday as well. It was raining, then when night fell, it became a thunderstorm. We went to bed after 11 to wake up at 3:30 a.m. I had hoped the storm would pass overnight. It didn't. We didn't sleep well because of the thunder and hail. We woke up to still a bad storm, but we were determined to still make it to Gimpo early. We headed to the bus terminal around 4:15. It was just a downpour! The bus was going to take an hour and a half. We were afraid we might not make it on time because the roads were flooded; only one lane out of three was driveable. Turns out the bus ride only took an hour, so we were about an hour early to the airport. Woohoo! When it came time to check in for the flight, we had bad news. Our flight was delayed because the flight before us had been cancelled because of the weather. Long story short, we eventually got a flight that was only about 15 minutes delayed. Our flight was very scary for me. There was A LOT of turbulence!! I had flashbacks to Alaska. :( We eventually made it safe and sound, but the weather on Jeju was extremely windy. We headed to our first destination in a comfy tour bus. We went to an old crater, and the view was fantastic. It was very beautiful. After that we went "horseback riding" which cost an extra 7,000 won (~$6). We sat on the back of what seemed more like a pony than horse, and a man held the horses and walked us around a trail. The horses were so used to this that many would just start going once someone was on their back. The wind was so bad that sandy gravel was blowing in our eyes. It was defnitely not worth the money, and by far the low point of the trip. Next, we went to a green tea farm. It was fun because we got to into a small cave and got green tea icecream (not very tasty by the way), saw tons of green tea leaves, tasted some variations of green tea, and got to swing on a wooden porch-like swing. Where the tea sampling was, were also many, many tea cups from, I'm guessing, different eras of time and made from different materials. It was strange....I mean different. At this point the weather was getting colder and starting to sprinkle. Our final stop of the day was at Ecoland. If the weather had been better, I'm sure we could have enjoyed this more. You take a train to a stop, get off, walk on a walkway over the water, past a waterfall, then catch the train at the windmill to ride to the next stop. It was pretty to see all the plants and trees and greenery, but it was just raining way too much for anyone to want to get out. At the end of the ride we got off and went to the souvenier shop. There was nothing neat expcet some Jeju orange chocolate and a pretty coaster that had pressed flowers in it. Oh wait! We discovered something! What's this?? Oregon is on Jeju Island!! We're famous!! That was an awesome way to end a downer trip. :) We then headed to our hotel, which was only like a 5 minute walk to the ocean. Before dinner, Jeremy and I walked to the ocean to check it out. The entire coastline was made up of volcanic rock. It looked really cool. The sun had come out for our little adventure, with just a slight sprinkle. Dinner was a little more filling than lunch had been, which was nice. After that, we turned in for the night at about 9 p.m. We were very tired and didn't feel like "partying" with the others in the norebang (nor-ray-bong, like karaoke). With the weather aside, we had a pretty good day. A side note to make this even more special....turns out our flight was the ONLY flight to actually depart for Jeju that day!! Thank you God!