Goje Island

On Saturday, Amy, Dorrial, Kayse and I packed up our things and made our way to the bus terminal. Our destination this weekend was Goje Island. The nice thing about this trip is that there was a newly made tunnel that connects the island so you no longer have to use a ferry to get there. This has shortened the travel time by several hours, so it only took us about 2 hours to arrive.

Once we got to Goje, we were all famished so our first order of business was to drop our things off and find food. The unfortunate thing about this weekend was that it was fairly rainy, but luckily it was only a drizzle so it didn’t affect us much.

We went out for a delicious Korean meal with assorted stews and rice. After we were sufficiently full it was time for ice cream and girl talk on the beach. This was a great way to spend some time, just chilling leisurely on a 7-11 patio overlooking the beach… pleasant!

Afterwards we headed back to our room, unpacked and then went out to find a Noribang. Of course, all good nights included time singing Karaoke in a noribang. After much silliness and very impressive vocal contributions, we decided to take a small stroll before bed.

The next morning I got up around 6:20am to watch the sunrise. I was very excited for this because I had heard that the sunrises were supposed to be amazing on the island. Unfortunately because of the rainy, groggy weather, you couldn’t even see the sun, so around 7, I was defeated and went back to bed.

We started the day with some very healthy breakfast from 7-11 and then decided to hike to our next destination, mainly because there weren’t any cabs in the area. We were told that it was about a 7km hike, but later found out that it was more like 12. Luckily, the rain eventually went away and we had sunny blue skies for a little bit. Apart from the fact that we were walking along the side of a highway and people drive like idiots, it was a really scenic hike.

Once we arrived to our destination of “Windy Hill” we spent some time wandering around the little town and enjoyed being tourists. We met a family who began talking to us. The mother asked which of us had boyfriends and when she learned that only one of us did, she decided that it was because that one was prettier than the rest and felt obliged to tell us so…. So nice!

Along our walk, we stopped in at yet another 7-11 to grab some ramen (yes, 7-11 has become a staple for me when I travel). Sitting outside and eating, we were approached by an older man and woman in white uniforms. The woman began talking to us and telling us about the ancient asian medicine that they practice. The man then began ‘curing’ us by pushing various pressure points with his car key. Apart from being very random, it was also hilarious! They were very serious about their art and spoke very passionately about being able to ‘cure’ all of our ailments.

Following our medical adventure, we took a walk by the windmill which is a huge tourist spot. It was very scenic to look out at the ocean in such a natural setting. Being outside of the busy Busan life always makes me feel refreshed.

We had to have our friend at 7-11 call a cab for us because we were literally in the middle of nowhere. The cab took almost an hour to arrive but it brought us back to the bus station and we eventually made it home.

When I got home after the trip I was beginning to become irritated by all of the little bug bites that I had gotten during the night. They were literally ALL over my body (I counted over 40) and I was quite annoyed. I began searching Google for ideas on what they might be from and this is when I got the idea of …… BEDBUGS!!!!

Reading more and more about how horrible these bugs are and how impossible it is to get rid of them, I was certain that I would be forever cursed with them. I was quite frantic and called home in a panic. My poor mother tried to calm me down but I was at the point of thinking that I’d be spending my next 3 months being feasted on by a pest infestation.

Ultimately I put all of my clothes in the freezer and washed everything thoroughly. In a few days, after I had gotten cream for all of the bites, I finally realized that I luckily didn’t bring any of the pests back with me. It was my first experience with bed bugs and I hope it will be my last.

I guess this is one of the fun parts of traveling.