A Week in Jeju
The last place I went for my winter vacation was Jeju. I experienced a huge range of weather conditions while I was there. It reminded me so much of Ireland because it was so green and there were stone walls everywhere.
I arrived late in the afternoon so I booked a room in Jeju City for the night. Before I had to check out the next day, I woke up early to go to two places. The weather was fairly windy and sprinkling rain. I took a taxi the short distance to Iho Tewoo Beach where there are two horse lighthouses. It was pretty but the wind was so strong that I went to briefly look at them, and then left.
The second place I went was Kyul Hyanggi, where I was able to pick tangerines in the orchard. There was an outdoor area, but since the weather was so poor, they took me to the greenhouse area. The lady showed me the different citrus growing there, and then taught me how to pick them. I picked a basketfull, and then warmed up in the shop with some citrus tea and crackers with citrus jam.
I traveled about two hours to the next area where I would be staying for three nights. Since I got there early, I had some abalone soup at Guksu Bada. It was the perfect solution for the cold.
I still had time to kill, so I went to Saekdal Romance for some peach ade and a delicious dessert. The music here was perfect, and overall a calm atmosphere.
The next day, I had planned on going to O'Sulloc Tea Museum and a few other places. However, there were blizzard-like conditions the whole day, so I wasn't able to leave my hotel. I spent the day relaxing and catching up on some reading.
Tuesday, I took a taxi for fifty minutes up to Gwakji Beach. I didn't stay long because the wind was quite chilly.
Halfway to my next destination, I stopped at Cereal for some brunch. Their strawberry muesli and ade were delicious.
The cafe I had been planning to go to was closed, so I headed down to the southern part of the island and stopped at Cheonjeyeon Falls. It was absolutely breathtaking.
Lastly, I stopped at Jusangjeolli Cliffs. The views were amazing. It was the most crowded of all the places I'd been to in Jeju. It reminded me a lot of the cliffs in Ireland.
Wednesday, I took the day off and just traveled to the east coast to my last hotel. There, I visited Cafe Dongryuam for an amazing green tea coffee and a green tea cake. Later, I went and got dinner and then just relaxed around my hotel .
Thursday, I went to Seopjikoji Beach. It was absolutely amazing there. I
saw some people just having fun riding their horses, friends and couples taking photos, etc. I got lost when trying to head back to the bus, so I saw another part of the beach that was also really pretty.
I close to Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak to get a good view of it, but the sun was so bright that it wasn't very visible.
I took a long bus ride, and then a taxi to Manjanggul Cave. It was pretty dark inside, but really cool to see how the lava had formed the cave.
My last full day in Jeju, I spent the day at Udo Island. I took the ferry across the water; the ride was only about 15 minutes. Once there, I rented a bike (they hold onto your ID) and biked around the entire island. Some of the places I biked were Biyangdo, Udobong, and Seobinbaeksa Beach. I stopped briefly at a cafe for some of Jeju's specialty peanut ice cream and hallabong smoothie. For lunch, I had some seafood kalguksu that tasted amazing. I almost decided to go horse riding, but in the end was too tired from biking for two plus hours.
The next day, I packed up and took the two hour bus to the airport. My flight was from Jeju to Seoul. I was so happy and rejuvenated from my trip, but also so happy to be back home. Glad to finally be able to wash all my laundry! :)