Korean road trip!

Buddhas on our road trip.

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to have a 4 day weekend here in Korea as the Monday was Childrens day and the Tuesday was Buddhas birthday. Also the Thursday before was a day off too because it was Labour day. That Thursday myself, Jason and our friend Ian went in to Busan to make a Costco trip. Costco is this amazing American wholesale store that sells many foreign products that you can't find anywhere else in Korea. We stocked up for the road trip that we'd be taking for the long weekend.

We didn't really have any plan as to where to go, all we knew was that we would drive up along the East coast, find a nice beach and set up camp. We had decided to wait until Sunday because no doubt the roads would be crazy busy on the Saturday. We were right, they were crazy busy, but they weren't much better on Sunday either. We ended up in a huge traffic jam all the way up to Ulsan. From Ulsan we decided to take the coastal route and look out for some nice beaches. I have to admit that we were a bit disappointed at the beginning. Every beach that we saw was littered and if they weren't littered then there were a ton of people already camping there...not our idea of fun camping!

Myself and Willy in the car. (Willy's not a fan of selfies)

We had been driving for about three hours when we finally came across a beach that looked quite nice. We got out for a closer look and found that it didn't have too much litter on it and there were only about 6 or 7 other tents pitched on it.

The beach that we chose.

We unloaded our stuff and set our tent up away from the other campers. Also I must add that Willy was with us too. This was only his second time on a beach and would be his first time camping! After we were all set up we decided to take a walk along the beach.

Jason preparing the campsite.

All done! (Willy's chilling in the background)

Taking a walk.

The beach. (maybe Najeong beach…near Gampo anyway)

Jason skimming stones, Willy scavenging for food.

Once we got back we cooked some dinner and were having a nice relaxing time when all of a sudden a huge family comes along and props their tent up right next to us! We were quite pissed about this as they were really loud, so made the decision to pick up and move everything to a spot further down the beach away from everyone else...best decision ever! We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and drinking some beer (Jason) and cider (me).

Jason cooking burgers.

There were a few patrols along the beach while we were there.

Getting settled in.

Later in the night it started getting windy so we decided to get in to the tent. Willy was a little scared at this point as the wind was blowing our tent and there were people up along the beach setting off fireworks but he managed to get in to my sleeping bag and cuddle up with my feet and was content staying there for the night.

Willy and Jason in the tent, Willy was a little scared at this point.

Before he found the loveliness of the inside of my sleeping bag.

After a restless sleep we woke up at about 6am. I opened the tent to let Willy out to do his business. It was so nice being able to trust him off leash. A year ago we could never have done that but now he knows to never go too far from us.

Willy on the beach bright and early.

Unfortunately that morning the wind was still pretty bad and started blowing our tent down completely, and broke one of the rods in the process. We were tired and frustrated at this point so we packed everything up and put it back in the car, then bought some snacks and enjoyed some alcoholic beverages on the beach at about 9am.

We then decided to make the trip back home stopping for some delicious duck and some photos at a beautiful temple along the way.

The beautiful temple near the beach that we stayed at.

It also had this huge gold Buddha statue.

It was an amazing weekend and definitely one to remember! We are already planning our next camping trip :)

A quick hop to Fukuoka, Japan

After coming back from our travels I spent a month in Korea staying at a new friends apartment while Jason was in America. It was such a great time to reconnect with my little pup and we just spent our days relaxing, walking and playing.

After about a month Jason came to collect me and we moved in to our new apartment. We were pretty excited about this move as most teachers in Korea live in tiny studio apartments but we were moving in to a big 2 bedroom apartment. This was also going to be our first time living together. The move was very easy as because of our nomadic lifestyle we didn't have much stuff. The only bad thing was that it was the height of summer (August) and it was one of the hottest summers on record (40 degrees during the day!) and we had no air con!

We spent a lot of time in coffee shops and friends apartments trying to get cool and averaged at about 2 cold baths a day! haha After a couple of weeks it was time to do a visa run over to Japan to get our new visas. We had been to Japan once before and visited Osaka and Kyoto. This time would be a bit different as we were only going for one night and had a very limited amount of money to spend while there (our funds were seriously low)

I had to get a new passport when I got back to Korea…so this trip
was the first stamp in my new one!

We had prebooked in to a hostel and found some flights with Air Busan. The great thing about Fukuoka is that it's not even an hour flight from Busan. Once we arrived we had to go straight to the Korean embassy as they don't take visa applications after 11 a.m I think it was about 10 a.m once we arrived.

Luckily we had some good directions and were all finished up by lunchtime. We had to stay in Fukuoka until after 12 the next day to collect our passports. This left the rest of the day for us to explore the city. Something that we both noticed is that Fukuoka is a really clean city and has some really great shopping too.

But first things first, and that was finding a good lunch! We decided to just get lost in the city and see where we ended up and we ended up walking down a small street with some beautiful tiny restaurants. We had both fallen in love with Japanese ramyeon on our last trip so we really wanted to have it again. We found a tiny little place and thought that it looked really cool so decided to give it a try. I love those tiny little hole in the wall places. There were about 3 other people inside and probably enough room for about 10. There were bottles of Saki everywhere and it was quite dark inside. We had planned on just asking for ramyeon and seeing what would happen...but unfortunately we were in Japan. We realised that the only way to order your food was from a machine. Since absolutely everything was in Japanese we had to just order blindly...we've done this quite a few times in China, Korea, Cambodia and beyond and it has never let us down. This time was no different! We got some really great pork noodles and some great spices and sauces to add if we choose. It was a great little place and the noodles were delicious!

The entrance to the restaurant.

This is how you order.

The delicious noodles!

Jason was definitely happy with lunch :)

After lunch we decided to take a little walk around the area and try to find Kashii-gu, which is a Shinto shrine. it was very peaceful inside and we enjoyed walking around and seeing the different shrines and temples in the area. It's also fun to visit the temples in different countries and see the differences among them.

Jason at the shrine.

Peoples wishes.

After leaving the shrine we were just walking along when we randomly found a beautiful traditional entry way. After snooping a bit more we found that it was a Japanese garden. We were both pretty excited to go in and found a beautiful peaceful little garden in the middle of the city! We sat there for about an hour just enjoying the peacefulness.

The entrance to the gardens.

Inside the Japanese gardens.

It was so quiet and peaceful.

Some koi swimming in the pond.

We then decided to go to the big shopping centre in the middle of the city. It's pretty huge and is called Canal City because, well…there's a canal that goes all around it. We took a stroll inside (loving the air-con) and then got some coffee and relaxed for a bit. It was so Americanised that we almost forgot that we were in Asia for a while. After walking around a bit more we saw a Japanese photo booth shop. I had done this before in Korea with a couple of friends and it was crazy so myself and Jason decided to give it a go.

What is a japanese photo booth you ask? and how is it different from regular photo booths?

Well firstly, these shops are in nearly every shopping centre in Japan and are hugely popular amount Japanese (and Korean) teens. Each shop has about 20 or more different booths all with their own unique photo style. Some shops have a corner where you can rent fancy dress for your photos. When inside the booth you get some photos taken and choose your favorites. You then get some time to design your photos with stamps, hearts, faces, writing, make-up and hundreds of other things! The end result is a really creepy photo of you with super white skin, lighter hair and huge eyes. You are also photoshopped like never before. They are so fun to see and when you get the hang of them it's fun to do some crazy poses. We had so much fun in the booth that we decided to do it another time. It's so weird to see how much they change you!

One of the creepy photos on the side of the booth.

Inside the photo booth shops.

The end result!

…and again.

After our time in the photo booth we decided to go to the cinema. We love going to the cinema in a new country just to see the differences and relax a little. We ordered some strawberry popcorn and enjoyed the film.

Cinema time :)

That evening we got completely lost trying to find our hostel, ended up walking around for an hour when we finally found it. It was a really nice, clean hostel and even though we ordered a dorm room we ended up with a room to ourselves which was nice.

The next morning we had to make our way back to the Korean embassy and collect our passports. We had a bit of time before our flight was leaving and we didn't have much money left so we decided to go to the shopping centre across from the embassy and have lunch there. We found a small noodle place and had our final meal. Then while walking around we found another photo booth place. I have to say, we were a little obsessed. We had enough money to take a couple of photos but it would mean having no money whatsoever after getting the subway to the airport. We decided to get some more photos (although I was regretting that decision when I was really thirsty at the airport and couldn't afford some water) But it was a lot of fun!

After that it was time to say goodbye to Fukuoka and head to the airport to catch our flight back home to Gimhae.

Fukuoka was a lot of fun and both myself and Jason agreed that we would have loved to live there. It's a big enough city but not too big. It seemed quite environmentally friendly and there seems to be so much to do there! Unfortunately we didn't get to spend enough time there to get to see and do most things, but as well as the shrine and gardens, Fukuoka is on the sea which means there are beaches there and there's also a carnival near the beach. I would definitely like to go back and see more of Fukuoka again!

Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival

Something that makes me fall in love with Korea all over again after a terrible winter is the spring festivals, and Korea has no shortage of them! The first festival that we went to this year was the beautiful Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival back in March. Every March for a couple of weeks the cherry blossoms bloom into magnificent pink snow all over Korea. During that time the weather is starting to heat up and you can feel the excitement as winter is finally over. Korea is one of the best places to be to see the blossoms, they are absolutely EVERYWHERE! My morning commute to work was so mesmerizing, I'd just stare out the window in awe at these beautiful flowers.

When they are at their height there are many festivals around Korea that showcase them but the biggest and most famous of them all is the Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival. Luckily for us Jinhae is right next to us so we decided to go to the festival after work one day. We decided to go on a weekday evening because these festivals can get crazy busy on weekends, since people come from all over Korea to visit them. We both hate the huge crowds so a Wednesday evening suited us perfectly.

Since we had gotten a car a couple of weeks earlier we could just drive there and not have to worry about bus schedules. Once we were nearing Jinhae we could see Cherry Blossom trees everywhere! After parking the car we set off. The main thing that I had wanted to see was the train station as, from the photos that I've seen, it looks so beautiful with cherry blossoms completely smothering it. This was actually our first time in Jinhae and we both liked the feel of the city. It's a small city, in Korean standards but it still seemed quite big, probably as big as Gimhae.

A cherry blossom on the way in to Jinhae

Most festivals in Korea are similar in that they have tents that gather all along the roads that sell food, drinks, plants, medicinal supplies and a ton of other things. There were also some festival game tents. But first things first and that was to get a Turkish kebab and some Turkish ice-cream to go with it. It was delicious!

The main festival area and the steps that we should have climbed!

After that we set off to find the train station before it got too dark. There was a big hill with a huge love heart on it halfway up. There were so many people going up and I presumed that that wouldn't be where it was so we went in the opposite direction (big mistake, I think it was up there after all) So we ended up walking around the city for about an hour and ended up having to give up finding the train station. I couldn't believe that we never found it but we still had fun walking around and the city had Cherry Blossoms everywhere so there were plenty of photo opportunities.

Sunset in Jinhae

Cherry blossoms everywhere!

Eating my kebab while posing :)

Horse drawn carriages…Korean style!

After the disappointment of getting lost we went back to the festival area where all of the tents were. Jason won some prizes for shooting at a target and throwing a baseball (such an American!) We then settled in to a food tent and ordered some pig on a spit...it was sooooo good!

Jason attracting quite the crowd

The delicious pig on the spit

So much pork!

It was so good!

I got a giant candy floss as well as we were leaving…it was bigger than my head!

By that point it had gotten dark and our pup had been at home alone for quite some time so it was time to go back. I was a bit sad as that was going to be my last chance to see the Cherry Blossom festival but we have since decided to extend our contracts until next August so I'll always have a chance to find that train station next year!