03.05.14

Leslie and I found the beach today! We buried our toes in the sand and chucked the frisbee to each other. We sat and stared out at the turquoise water and watched a little boy play in the sand with his dad. It didn't feel like I was in Korea at all. I was totally fine with that.

We dragged ourselves away in search of a place to stay. Finally, after about 10 rejections and much walking, we found a place.

We had worked up an appetite so we walked along the harbour-front and saw that our options were weird seafood only. All the restaurants seemed to offer the same dishes, so we allowed ourselves to be drawn in to one by a humorously aggressive ahjumma with missing teeth. She promised us kimbap and kimchi chiggae, however after a while she told us we'd be getting doenjung chiggae and rice. Well, ok then.

We were joined by Lucy, Kirsten, and her mum who ordered a very strange kind of seafood bibimbap which was meant to be a delicacy but ended up not so good. Not the best first impression of Geoje for her!

We then went into our pension (basically a big room with futons, pillows, and blankets for you to lay out on the floor) and got ready for a wonderful afternoon trip to Windy Hill and Pebble Bay.

We wandered up the hill, full of anticipation, trying to spot a bus stop or taxi. We waited for about half an hour for the bus before we gave in and started walking back. On the way a taxi passed and agreed to take 5 of us. Crammed in, with Leslie sprawled across us in the back, we congratulated ourselves. The taxi driver was awesome and we had a blast singing and dancing in our seats to pop legends such as Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Then we hit traffic. After 20mins of stop/starting we had made it about 20 meters. We decided it wasn't worth it so we did a U-turn and promised him we'd be calling him in the morning for attempt number 2.

Back to the beach we went, and I had a swim! It was pretty nippy but I did it! I was determined to get my togs wet. Oh it felt incredible!

After that we took a walk around the rocks and basked in the sun on some big ones before heading back to try arrange dinner.

We walked a fair way before finding a taxi who would take us to a mart to buy some things. On the way we bargained to get some super juicy mangoes and ate them on the side of the road. Thank goodness we had a mum with us because we managed to get juice everywhere and needed wet wipes. It felt like a childhood pleasure and something very appropriate for an island holiday.